# Divider boards for deep supers for nucs



## Crabo (Jan 17, 2012)

Has anyone ever made a divider board to cut a full size deep super in half to start a nuc with? We are thinking about starting a bunch more nucs and didn't want to buy a bunch of nuc boxes.

If so, how did you do it and how did it work out?

Thanks


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I route a groove dead center 5/16" wide and as deep as the frame rest. Then I cut dividers out of tempered Masonite or luan plywood I use divided bottom boards with the entrance at opposite ends. I stole the design from the folks at frenchbeefarm.com do not panic if you don't parlez voux! Go to the "articles section for English on this. I use them for twin nucs or some boxes I divide three ways with a double screen bottom where I start three nucs using a full size colony to heat them in spring. Only problem is that if you super the double nucs, you need another size divider.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

I do pretty much the same thing, I Make the division board 10 1/4 deep so when placed on a bottom board the division board goes all the way to the bottom board. This divides to 2 five frames nucs. I use an entrance reducer with a 3/4 inch entrance on the right side. On the right side of the back of the bottom board, (which will be the left if you are in front of the hive) I drill a 5/8 hole for the entrance. should I convert the double back to a 10 frame deep I simply plug the hole. it works well when you wish to hive the bees in the double nucs simply move one side to a hive, and pull the division board from the hive body, center the frames and add 5 more. Sometines It can be a bit of a chore to get the division board out though. 

Oh, and by the way a super is for honey, a brood chamber is just that or a hive body. although some do use deeps, most supers are medium or shallow.


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## stan.vick (Dec 19, 2010)

Great minds work alike, I also route a 5/16 groove and use the same box as a double nuc or as a brood box, multitasking my equipment is one of my top priorities.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Vance G said:


> I route a groove dead center 5/16" wide and as deep as the frame rest.


Pretty much as I do it, except that I use a special 1/4" thick kerf saw blade on my table saw.


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

Does the groove go through the handhold??


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

It does indeed. When the divider is not in, the bees use it for an entrance, if I don't duct tape over them.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

I make my own boxes, so when I do my handholds I only cut them 1/2" deep on the boxes that I will be using for divided nucs. That leaves 1/4" of wood so that when I cut the groove on the inside of the box for the divider to slide into, I only go about 3/16" deep which leaves me 1/16" of uncut wood in the handhold. This box making is precision work.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

RAK said:


> Does the groove go through the handhold??


If you order in bulk, you may be able to get boxes without front/rear handholds.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

AstroBee said:


> If you order in bulk, you may be able to get boxes without front/rear handholds.


You can through the big guys and get em special ordered through the smaller ones.....


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Put the duct tape on the inside of the box and you won't even know you have a slit in the handhold! Just not a problem.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Vance G said:


> Put the duct tape on the inside of the box and you won't even know you have a slit in the handhold!


That's too much like right! Need to special order boxes (and pay extra) so that the short side does not have the handholds that way when you cut the groove....! :applause:


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## Sadler91 (Nov 6, 2011)

If you make splits in the divided box and use queen cells what is the percentage of acceptance and mating?


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## Crabo (Jan 17, 2012)

Do you guys run the divider below the box and touching the pallet?


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

It has to be bee tight at the bottom so you have two colonies. One entrance to share on pallets might be tough.


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## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm an ol' S'uth'n boy, and I do love my duct tape! There isn't much I can't do with it! 

I also run all 10-frame deeps for everything, including nucs. I don't cut anything into my boxes, tho. Instead I make up a bunch of follower boards that are 19" x 10 1/2". Then I measure down 3/4" on the top corners and cut out a 3/8" notch all the rest of the way down the 10 1/2" sides to form my T-shaped boards. I attach them to the box with the duct tape and add frames. I use the single box as a pair of nuc boxes with an entrance at each end. I sit them on solid bottom boards with side rails and no back/front rail. Instead I use an entrance reducer on each end so the openings are on opposite sides.

I'm not in love with nucs, so I don't see the point in wasting a lot of lumber building them when this arrangement works just as well. IMO way too many people use nucs when they should be using full sized hives. Nucs just don't provide the colony with enough resources to grow and prosper long term, or deal with tough stretches the way a full-sized hive does. But then, I'm old fashioned.

Rusty


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

I see your point Rusty H F , I was trying to decide if I should just use regular boxes and forget nuc boxes , it's just something else I have to build and store , I think the more efficient everyone can keep bees the better and the less stuff we need to keep bees the better it would be.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

If I was to do it all over again, I would just use all divided deeps for nucs. When I started out making nucs, I built all separate 4 and 5 framers, now I got a huge stack of them and don't really use them because I started making the divided boxes last year or so, and much prefer them. It is nice to have a few of the smaller nuc boxes around in case you need to go get a small swarm or need to move just one nuc to another bee yard for something.


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## Matt Beekman (Dec 15, 2007)

Any chance we could see a picture...great idea


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## Hoot Owl Lane Bees (Feb 24, 2012)

Has anyone used Plexiglass as the division board?
I am going to be making around 50 deeps the first week of February and I have several pieces of Plexi that might work.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

I cut T-shaped follower boards out of some old boards I had to narrow-up two of my deeps that had an undersized colony it, which I was advised to transfer to a stacked double nuc box for the winter. It was late in the my first summer and I was sort of sick of buying new stuff for the bees by then.

I have two follower boards in each brood box, and after I had lightly re-arranged the frames so I had a matching vertical column in both the boxes, I moved the follower boards inward until they were a side-of-hive-space away from the edge of the frames and made sure they matched in both boxes. Then I filled the cavities outside the follower boards with T-shaped pieces of foam insulation to snugly fill up the vacant space between the follower boards and the hive's sides. The follower boards and the foam pieces rest on the rebate that normally supports the frames and they also stick up to be flush with the top edge of the boxes.

(I have since read that bees may chew on foam insulation, but I haven't seen that so far. I am watching for it very carefuly and if I use this in other years I will take steps ahead of time to cover the foam so the bees can't get at it.)

Anyway, the key point is to make sure your follower boards, and any space-occupying insulation panels( if that's what you're about) are exactly the depth of the box so a stack of them forms one continuous vertical wall from top to bottom, with no horizontal bee-access under them like there is for frames. For the connection to the bottom board if you were running two colonies within the same box, I think I might add a bracket to hold a piece cut to rise up from the base and meet the follower board to securely separate the colonies from top to bottom. That's not an issue for me as only one colony lives in well-insulated comfort in the middle of my temporary double-nuc set-up.

In the sping I know I'll have to look lively and make sure to expand the space for the bees to avoid them swarming, but I expect it's the same with nucs, right? And in my case it can be a gradual, not an all or nothing, thing as I can extract some, but not all of the insulation to add enough space to put in one or two additional frames as needed. I'll just need to make sure both stories get expanded horzontally at the same rate, or I will lose the advantage of wood followers touching each other in the middle.

Bear in mind that this is my first attempt at this, and my bees, though alive today ,are not through their first winter. But so far, at least, I am happy with my idea, partiicularly since it uses all my other on-hand equipment: bases, quilt box, shims, feeders, etc. As much pleasure as it is to buy or make new woodenware, eventually ones just feels, enough!

Enj.


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