# Overwintering Nucs inside?



## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Stockwell45 said:


> Hello,
> 
> In developing my goals/plans for this year, I want to build 5-10 double Nuc hives to take into winter. I have a small shed next to my apiary, and the only use I currently have for it is powering my fence. Would there be any downsides to moving my nucs inside the shed to overwinter? My initial thought is to move them in around christmas, and bring them back out mid march or so.
> 
> I am located in SW Pennsylvania.


Can you keep their surroundings absolutely dark? Have a search on this fellows youtube. I have driven through his yard but have not seen the setup from the inside. He had some problems last winter perhaps because furnace in garage pulled negative air pressure and sucked cold outside air in through the nucs. Pretty impressive. His whole site is worth a look.
Scot Hendriks


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## Steve in PA (Jan 26, 2015)

That is way more work than necessary. I winter single nucs outside. I'm near Williamsport in the north central part of the state. Single nuc, feeder shim, and top insulation are all you need.

I did build a long Lang and divide it into 5 5-frame compartments to experiment with this winter. I'm liking that and will probably build more for next year. It was good for starting colonies as well.

I am on the bubble of ditching full sized boxes anyway. 3 5's or 6's grouped together under excluder is where I think I'm headed.


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## Stockwell45 (Jan 26, 2021)

Thanks. So far this year all my hives are good and we left them outside. When I was down last weekend I realized I had a shed that doesn’t really have a purpose and realized I could use it for overwintering, but didn’t know if the juice is worth the squeeze.


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## PA Beekeeper (Jun 29, 2019)

Steve in PA said:


> That is way more work than necessary. I winter single nucs outside. I'm near Williamsport in the north central part of the state. Single nuc, feeder shim, and top insulation are all you need.
> 
> I did build a long Lang and divide it into 5 5-frame compartments to experiment with this winter. I'm liking that and will probably build more for next year. It was good for starting colonies as well.
> 
> I am on the bubble of ditching full sized boxes anyway. 3 5's or 6's grouped together under excluder is where I think I'm headed.


Just south of you. Wintering double mediums 4x4 and 4x4x4. 6 doubles went in looks like 1/2 of one hasn't made it so far.


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## Steve in PA (Jan 26, 2015)

PA Beekeeper said:


> Just south of you. Wintering double mediums 4x4 and 4x4x4. 6 doubles went in looks like 1/2 of one hasn't made it so far.


I think a 4x4 medium would have near the same volume as a 5 frame deep. I have much better results wintering nucs. This year was the 1st nuc I lost that surprised me. In the past I had put some dinks in before winter and lost a couple of those but would have lost all of them anyway.

I think that the small volume + the cluster always being in contact with food under the shim makes a very big difference.


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## Jack Grimshaw (Feb 10, 2001)

This may or may not apply to you


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## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Stockwell45 said:


> Hello,
> 
> In developing my goals/plans for this year, I want to build 5-10 double Nuc hives to take into winter. I have a small shed next to my apiary, and the only use I currently have for it is powering my fence. Would there be any downsides to moving my nucs inside the shed to overwinter? My initial thought is to move them in around christmas, and bring them back out mid march or so.
> 
> I am located in SW Pennsylvania.


Why? Double nucs do great overwintering outside. Im in western Catskill Mtns. And M Palmer does his that way too.


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## HaplozygousNut (Dec 30, 2015)

I have overwintered hives through winter in our wood shop. I used a wooden board with holes cut out as a baffle to send the PVC pipes outside the window. Sorry, I don't have a photo handy to make better sense what I am trying to explain. The PVC pipe you cut to fit the bottom board of the hive and you put a screw in to hold the plastic pipe to the bee hive. You stuff what cracks are left with socks and tape (I used blue masking tap) if needed, so that the bees don't escape into the building. Make sure the pipe is large enough to allow the bees to ventilate.

Overwintering hives indoors I don't think is too helpful though. I read of people in central Alaska (somewhere around the area of Fairbanks what I remember) overwintering nucs outside fine, so they should do okay through winters even though they are not a full size colony, as long as there is enough honey.


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## Stockwell45 (Jan 26, 2021)

Cloverdale said:


> Why? Double nucs do great overwintering outside. Im in western Catskill Mtns. And M Palmer does his that way too.


The why is what I was trying to figure out. I have the unused space to do it, but wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort. I tried searching around the interwebs but wasn't able to find any numbers on survival rates outside vs inside. Wasn't sure if a notable difference in overwintering rates existed between hives outside/inside.


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## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Stockwell45 said:


> The why is what I was trying to figure out. I have the unused space to do it, but wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort. I tried searching around the interwebs but wasn't able to find any numbers on survival rates outside vs inside. Wasn't sure if a notable difference in overwintering rates existed between hives outside/inside.


I guess you near WV/Ohio...your climate is good; lots of good info in the responses.


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