What is this?

[shinjak]

I was fortunate enough to get some used equipment from the son of  a deceased beekeeper. He said he would rather see it put to use than watching it rot. So I scored several boxes and frames. Moth damage was bad, and I'm aware of the caution to use with used equipment. Boxes have been torched and the bleach is on standby. So that debate is not the point of this post.

Among the boxes was this box:


What is it? It contains five homemade frames that are the width of around three regular frames. The previous owner had numerous hives (his son said > 300 at one time) but had dwindled down to around 50. I'm thinking it has something to do with raising queens, but I'm no expert.  Oddly enough. a standard frame won't fit in the box.

Here is a picture of the rest of what was salvageable:


Thanks for your help.

[apisbees]

The frames are made so they fit cross ways in a Langstroth size super and the nuc boxes are designed in length to except the frames.
What this dose is allows the frames from multiple mating nucs to be combined in one standard size super after the need for queens to supply your customers have been met. then the supers of short frames that are running the 16 1/2" way across the super can be left with one queen and 3 supers. you can stack 3 of these supers together and place a queen excluder on top and use the colony for honey production. these colonies can be over wintered and in the spring when it is time to raise more queens you can pull the colony apart and it is easy to stock the nucs again by dividing up the colony.
Just one question of clarification Did you torch in box insides or were the torched before you got them?
Some of the supers look in rough shape, some look like they might be best put to use as smoker fuel or boxes over your feeder.

[shinjak]

Some are definitely smoker fuel, too many holes to patch. At least one of the deep boxes I'm using just to copy the pattern and then it's termite food or ashes. I torched the inside of the boxes after I got them. The supers are actually in the best shape (except for needing fresh paint).

I understand the process you explained, I'm just not sure how the wide frames are involved?

[blueblood]

Good deal.  I received some equipment in that condition last year.  I used the frames to band comb in and mainly use them for swarm traps.

[shinjak]

FWIW, the box reminds me more of this: http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/downloads/beekeeping/Bushkill4WayMatingNuc.pdf

In fact, all it needs is some dividing boards and I will have the same thing. Maybe that is what you were explaining apis, but my newbie mind didn't quite comprehend it.