# What to expect when adding (nadiring) my first box



## Garinder0 (May 2, 2016)

Why not just lift the boxes off one at a time then stack them back instead of trying to lift 2 at once?


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## lostboy (Feb 20, 2016)

I just did the same thing this past Sun. It wasn't very heavy, first I put a empty hive box next to the hive, then took off the roof leaving the quilt on, put the roof on the ground, then lifted both top boxes and quilt and put them on the empty hive box. I set them down rotating them so they were offset, corners facing the front and back, making it easier to pick up. Then cleaned the bottom board and put down new box then reassembled, I was surprised how smooth it went and actually not heavy at all.


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## Garinder0 (May 2, 2016)

I couldn't comment on weight because I currently only know how much a ten frame deep weighs, and I didn't know the size comparison.


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## grantsbees (May 9, 2016)

Thanks lostboy! That sounds like a good plan!


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## lostboy (Feb 20, 2016)

I'll have to send you a pm with my contact info, Worcester is about 45mins from me and sometimes I'm out there to visit my daughter, she lives in Sterling. I also have contact with another warre hive owner that the state bee inspector put me in contact with and she also lives in central Ma. Let me know how the addition goes.


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## tmwilson (Apr 5, 2015)

I do it like lostboy 'til there are 4 boxes and you're nadiring the 5th box. You could lift 4 full boxes, but it's going to be difficult unless you're a superhero, which I am not. A hive lift or a helper would be almost indispensable.


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## grantsbees (May 9, 2016)

Any recommendations as to what is the best time of day to do this? I saw a similar post somewhere else but no one really gave an answer. There are only 2 boxes right now and they seem to be getting really snug. So much that many of them hang out on the landing board and face of the hive during the afternoon.

Is it best to do it during the hotter afternoon when they are out foraging?


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## lostboy (Feb 20, 2016)

I didn't give the time a lot of thought but did it sometime between 11 & noon, it only took a minute once I had everything in place, maybe less. The bees didn't even get agitated, I was surprised it was so easy and you will be too.


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## grantsbees (May 9, 2016)

Well I did it. I squished a few bees in the process... But I guess that's inevitable with a big population and 2 heavy boxes!

Funny thing though. They sealed the lower box to the bottom board so I had to pull out the handy dandy hive tool... It's never as simple.


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## lostboy (Feb 20, 2016)

Sounds like a success, I always seem to crush a few bees when I take the boxes apart, there's so many bees crawling around it's hard not to. Mine seem to glue the boxes together and the top bars together, but so far not to the floor. My two warre's are humming right along lots of bees coming and going, but my lang nuc has me worried, the queen left with some of the workers, but there were queen cells present two weeks ago. Hopefully a new queen has hatched and is getting back to laying. The guy I got the nuc from told me to swap positions with one of my warre hives once the queen gets going, but I'm afraid to disrupt a hive that's doing well even though I understand the reasoning.


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## asd (Jun 10, 2015)

Bees like to built in the upper box. I added one above and one bellow moving a frame in the middle for each box. The bees built the upper box and nothing bellow.


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## grantsbees (May 9, 2016)

asd said:


> Bees like to built in the upper box. I added one above and one bellow moving a frame in the middle for each box. The bees built the upper box and nothing bellow.


That's because they naturally build from top to bottom. If you give them extra space on top, they are going to fill that space before moving down. With the Warre hive, the principle is top-to-bottom following the bees' natural instinct.


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