# Shingles and Nucs



## Crabo (Jan 17, 2012)

I know this is strange, but I was thinking about putting our nuc boxes on top off a roofing shingle to keep the entrances free of grass. We are going to start about 100 nucs in the spring, and they are a two hour drive from the house.(which limits access and time spent in the beeyard) The grass gets pretty tall pretty quickly in the spring.

I am worried about odors or chemicals coming of the shingles and bother the bees.

Anyone have any ideas about this or other solutions?


----------



## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

I live near a salvage yard, we use cut up truck bed mats. My neighbor use old carpet.


----------



## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

deleted


----------



## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

I've used on conveyor belts to set a row of hives on it.. It's 3/4 thick and 4ft wide or there about. It works very well as a glorified weed mat. I haven't noticed any off gassing problems, but I'm not sure that I would...

I thought that the bees would have been hotter on top of the black rubber, but they seemed to manage just fine. ((They were raised up on 4x4 posts and cinder blocks...)


----------



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

I've used roll roofing under mine, seems to work fine for me.


----------



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

What you put down you will have to pick up... eventually. I personally wouldn't want to pick up 100 shingles that have been down in the grass for a few years. They'd be a bugger to yank free and dispose of. Makes my back hurt just writing about it.


----------



## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

My hives are on concrete slab so i wouldn't know but here are some ideas black yard cloth, weed barrier, plywood, crushed stone, mulch. Roundup the ground around the hive, use a trimer.... 

I wouldn't put the nucs directly on the ground...use somekind of wood bench, or use blocks. 

The grass shouldn't be much of a problem for the bees more or less for the beekeeper


----------



## DPBsbees (Apr 14, 2011)

The hives that I have that are not close by, I used roundup with surflan mixed in and sprayed the ground about a week before placing the hives. The roundup kills the vegetation, and the surflan keeps things from germinating for up to six months. This can be reapplied when the bees are not flying in the future as required.


----------



## Crabo (Jan 17, 2012)

Thanks for the answers so far. The property does not belong to us. A gracious farmer lets us use it. So yes, everything we put down has to come up.


----------

