# Will a nuc fit in my hive?



## johnbeejohn (Jun 30, 2013)

welcome most nucs are made using deep frames it should fit right in your 10 frame deep


----------



## tech.35058 (Jul 29, 2013)

I am not familiar with "big r".
"10 frame" is a pretty standard hive width, and _most_ hives are a standard length. So, if you have "deep"( 9 inch & a fraction) hive bodies (boxes) and get a "deep" nuc, yes they will fit.
There is a trend among some folk to standardize on "medium"( 6 inch & a fraction) hive bodies, so it is possible that your nuc may not match your hive bodies.
it can be made to work, but it is easier if it all fits to start with. Good Luck with your bees. ... CE


----------



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Welcome to BeeSource, _tsnyder88_!


Big R is a regional Farm/Feed store chain similar to Tractor Supply. The hive kits they sell are Little Giant brand and are 9.5" deeps, for instance:
http://www.bigr.com/farm-and-livest...er-little-giant-10-frame-complete-beehive.htm

As noted above, most nucs available are also deeps, and should fit that equipment just fine.


----------



## frustrateddrone (Jan 31, 2015)

A standard Nuc Box will fit half a bee hive of foundations in it. So a standard bee hive being a 10 frame Langstroth bee hive, half of that is 5 frames of foundation. A standard nuc box is going to be a depth that fits supers. Supers is reference to the depth of the frames. Frames come in standard lengh, but your depth of the frames come in different sizes. Supers are typically for brood chambers and anything less then supers are typically for foundations that are for honey production by your bees. 

Supers for brood (Baby bees) 

So you understand why people prefer different depths of bee boxes I will simplify it. I am 44 yrs of age. I am no spring chicken, so if I put supers on my bees for them to make honey in the foundations and try and lift that box off with all the foundations in, I will not be able to or be sitting in bed with my back thrown out for a few weeks. I prefer not to lift 80 or so pounds off the bee hive. To manage something more that I can handle I can put a medium box on and put medium frames in it and get 40 or 50 pounds of honey in the box. When I am 60 yrs old I won't want to manage that much weight, so I will go put shallows on and that's less weight for honey production.


----------



## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

Commercially built hive boxes are 19+ inches long. A standard deep box is approx 9 inches deep. Medium is approx 6+ inches. Shallow is 5-ish inches deep. Standard deeps are usually brood chambers, while mediums can be used for either brood or honey, and shallows are generally for honey. 

Personally, since I am a hobbyist and try to keep all my equipment interchangeable, I use all deeps. All mediums will work as well, but you need more of them to make a hive of sufficient size to overwinter in zone 5. I'm 70, btw, and handle the greater weight of standard equipment by moving frames rather than entire boxes. My back is fine. Bees seem to prefer deeps but do accept mediums quite easily. Shallows, on the other hand, seem to be too shallow for brood rearing. The bees WILL use them but need so many more boxes to equal a deep, that the additional equipment in itself becomes a hassle to deal with.

A nuc is a half hive and generally comes with 5 frames. Most nuc producers use deep equipment, so a purchased nuc will more easily fit a standard deep hive body. If you opt for all mediums, the adjustment of the frames into those first 2 boxes will be a bit more difficult--but not impossibly so.

When I kept bees in Colorado I used double deeps as my brood chamber and they overwintered well. In Florida I did the same with the same results. Now that I am in Alabama, I am still using the double deep configuration, but I have successfully overwintered single deeps with equally good results.

HTH

Rusty


----------



## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Standard depths are 9 5/8" for deeps and 6 5/8" for mediums. Any difference might give you "beespace" issues and result in excessive propolis (for less than standard) or comb (for more than standard) build up.
Welcome to BeeSource!


----------



## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

I don't know about any place else. but the deep hives sold at the Big R in Fort Lupton will hold most standard frames with no problem


----------



## warrior (Nov 21, 2005)

As long as your buying "standard" equipment then yes it should fit as it was designed to do so.

By standard I mean the Langstroth hive that has become the North American standard. 

A quick 101 on bee hives.

Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth (1810-1895) hit on and formalized the concept of "bee space" within a hive, a nominal 5/16th of an inch give or take a sixteenth. This is the space bees use for a passageway between comb structures within the hive. Any space larger than this can and will be utilized by the bees for storage and they will construct combs. Less than the ideal of 5/16th and the bees will attempt to plug or seal unusable space with propolis (bee glue/caulk). Either of these will render the parts immovable.
This "discovery" actually culminated centuries of experiment in the most effective method of keeping bees in man made structures (hives) that would allow the keeper free and unlimited access to all areas of the hive.
With this fundamental fact of hive construction it was determined that a man made hive could be of any dimension as long as all internal components maintained 5/16th equidistance. So in 1852 Langstroth patented his first hive based upon bee space and had a hundred hives built and set out to sell his new invention.

Now how does this create our modern "Langstroth Standard"?

Remember up until this time and for a long period after, there was were as many different ways to house bees as there were keepers. Particularly since bee keeping is a highly individual art.
However since each keeper kept bees to his or her own design there was no means of exchange between keepers that allowed for compatibility in hive equipment.
Also consider the time frame of the advent of the Langstroth Hive. A time of rapid expansion of industrial means to produce hives, rapid expansion of communication of new discovery and ultimately rapid expansion of the ability to move whole hives of bee colonies to other parts of the continent.
This resulted in the need for standardization and after a decade or so of competing designs the North American Standard eventually settled upon Langstroth's basic design, with some modifications and adoption of complimenting components.

What this means today is that a bee keeper anywhere can purchase from a supplier anywhere and expect complete parts interchangeability. The only main caveat is the depth and width of the boxes in relation to which frames fit which box and how various boxes stack upon each other.

The following are the box depths in common use.

9 5/8
Commonly called a deep or brood box. This depth is used by the vast majority of beeks to house the core of the colony or the brood chamber. As such it is the by far predominate size used to house nucleus colonies. The only real difference between a deep and a nuc box is the width which determines the number of frames they can hold. This allows for a simple transfer of frames from one to the other for populating new hive or splitting colonies to create nucs.

6 5/8
Medium or Illinois supers, actually a creation of Langstroth's primary competitor Charles Dadant for his Dadant hive. Originally a half depth super for the taller (11 5/8) Dadant box. It has come to us in modified form (Dadant's hive was wider and used 12 frames instead of ten) and become Langstroth standard. Usually used as a honey super for extracted honey but has the benefit of depth that can be used to add space to expand the brood chamber (deep and a half) or used in place of the deep to create a lighter to lift brood chamber (two mediums equal one deep in effective comb). Hence you will occasionally find nucleus colonies offered in medium depth boxes.

5 11/16
Shallow super, the half depth box for the Langstroth deep. Most commonly used for honey storage either for extracted or cut comb production. Rarely if ever used for brood nest use though many do leave a shallow (or medium if that's what the keeper uses) directly above the brood nest for the exclusive use of the colony for stores.

Each of these box sizes has a dedicated frame size (subtract 3/8" or one bee space) and should be used with the proper matching frames. While a deep can take the smaller two sizes and a medium the shallow their use will cause problems as the bees will fill the extra space below the frames to construct comb of their own design.

The only other major differences within the Langstroth standard is the width of boxes, mainly 10 frame, 8 frame or nucleus. 
10 frame boxes are 16 1/4 inch wide.
8 frame boxes are narrower by two frames nominally 13 3/4 but many are 14. 
Nuc boxes are essentially half width boxes to hold starter, or half strength if you will, colonies. Sized to hold five or fewer frames, though some adjust measurements to hold more.

Since 10 frames is the industry norm especially among commercial or large scale keepers 16 1/4 is pretty much across the board what is found. Though manufacturers who use non standard thickness lumber (3/4) will have to adjust the external dimensions accordingly (internal dimensions have to remain the same to retain interchangeability). For non standard materiel such as polystyrene or plastic the external dimensions may prevent mixing of standard woodenware and the nonstandard though all internal parts (frames) should be completely compatible. 
As 8 frame hives are less common and of more use to the hobbiest the compatibility issues are not as critical so external dimensions are more variable within the industry. Again all internal dimensions are held to the same standards some complete internal compatibility is retained.
Nucs being a specialty use box are far more variable depending upon use. Again internal dimensions are normally retained save for unique uses like mini mating nucs which should be considered a completely different style of hive.
Since most nucs are constructed for the sale of starter colonies to other bee keepers these will almost always be true half colonies of five frames.

The only concern in the different width boxes would be compatibility in stacking. It is always recommended that one use common equipment to ensure interchangeability of parts. So stack 10 frame on 10 frame and 8 on 8. There are work arounds and ways to adapt but really creates extra work and trouble.
A new Beek should pick one or the other width and only purchase one width equipment. Since 10 frame out numbers 8 frame 100 to 1 the choice should be obvious. 

Also whatever size box is chosen they should also be filled with all the intended frames. Remember the bee space rule, if you leave out a frame you leave extra space and the bees will fill it. Not always to your liking.

Long answer to a simple question, I know. I just wanted to get across the ideas behind why our hives work and why you can easily move a five frame nuc into a larger box.

Good luck with your bees.


----------



## tsnyder88 (Jan 15, 2016)

Thanks you everyone for all of the Grate information. I ordered bees and can't wait to get and get started. Thank you again for all the help.


----------

