The one thing I'm sure all bee keepers know is the costs that are involved with keeping bees. So, I'm always looking for anything that can help. We all know bees will swarm and the simplest way to manage this is to split the hive. Or, if you are looking to increase your numbers then what you need are Nucs. With the cost of poly nucs for me (commercial) being just under 100GBP and wooden around 50GBP, I started to think outside the box.
With the small amount of knowledge that I possess, I did my research with the main question being 'why cant I just put the split straight into a brood box?'. The answer is you sort of can. There are, however, many risks involved, I suppose if there weren't we wouldn't have nucs. I have 2 wooden and 2 poly nucs and they serve their purpose. There is no way I would say keep bees without a nuc on hand, but with planned growth, my goal is to keep the costs down.
The main reasons for not placing splits straight into a full size brood box is to aid the speed that the new colony will build up. The bees have less space to maintain at the correct temperature, this being key to wax production and drawing out the new frames. The second reason being that the bees have a smaller area to defend. I found wasps and robbing to be an issue, especially with later season splits. With the goal of getting your bees as strong as you can to go into winter, getting them to size in the nuc first is a huge boost.
With all this in mind I set to the task of working out a way to achieve all the benefits of a nuc without actually having to pay for one!! The idea came to me one Saturday afternoon while insulating the loft, as I picked up an of cut of 100mm thick celotex. This was also a perfect excuse to get out of the loft and avoid yet another house related job. As with all things bee related, the person I needed to run this by was my mentor. With a green light from him we would give it a go. Later that season I would find him using this idea.
This was my creation, simply 2 rectangles of 100mm celetex cut to size to fit in each side of the brood box. This has added insulation to each side, the entrance is reduced and I can use my normal feeders on the crown board. One benefit of this system is that as the colony grows you can remove one side and slowly add the frames. You don't have to go from 6 frames to 11 in one jump. One other tip was to lay an offcut of webbing strap around the block of celotex, then when you wanted to get it out you have something to pull on....the bees can glue things in place tight!!
Celotex comes in many thicknesses and having rebuilt the house I had all sorts of off cuts. I used the same system but one side we had 100mm thick and on the other 2 x 50mm, this allowed an even better result in speed of build. With disease control in mind I have been looking at cladding the the celotex in 5 mm ply wood so it can be scraped and scorched after use. As yet I have not scrubbed a piece of the celotex in caustic soda to see how it fairs. If this will work then it would be great. With the cost of a 2.4m x 1.2m x 100mm sheet being 65GBP I can make enough for 10 hives. 10 nucs would cost me??? It maybe that you know a builder, just ask him for an offcut if he ever has some.
B &Q sell a 1.2m x 45 cm x 50mm thick sheet for under 10GBP. Like I have said before this does not mean you don't need nucs, but if you have a couple of these in the shed it may just get you out of a muddle!!
Great idea, I can't see if you have or not but If you paint the Celotex with yatch varnish or gloss oil paint they shouldn't get chewed as much. I've made up cheap/ light well insulted lids and floors, double screen boards, escape boards out of celotex, gorilla tape/glue on the edges, coated in thick paint and varnish. Works well.