jester ez nuc follow up

[rober]

as a follow up on jester ez nuc boxes i want to add a warning. on the older boxes the entrance is just a flap & it can be a problem keeping it open or closed. i started a nuc in one & 4 days later found that the bees knocked a small stick out that i propped the flap open with. being trapped about 1/3 of the bees perished. so if you ever use one be aware. here's the entrance.

the new entrances are much improved.

[tecumseh]

I never had a problem with the older ones entrance??? < ie is this picture the older or newer version rbber? I bought a pallet of these a couple of years ago and am slowly working thru the stack... using a good number and selling a few each year.  The jester box are a large improvement over the 2 piece boxes which imho had a number of major issues... Assembling them properly and quickly was a learning experience but after a short exploratory time on the learning curve you I can now assemble about 20 / hour and still have a coffee break sometime in between.

[Wandering Man]

Wow! That’s what the entrance used to look like. Yes, the new one are much better. I’m using one noe for a Nuc I’m growing.

I’d cut a plastic queen excluder and taped it to the inside to hold the queen inside for a week after I’d moved the swarm a swarm into the Nuc last week (different swarm). Did you know that if you leave the queen on the wrong side of the queen excluder all the bees leave and go somewhere else?

[rober]

I am not knocking these boxes. just pointing out the risks when using the older version.
I use these all the time. during swarm season I carry 2 of the boxes with frames of drawn comb & foundation & 1 empty when checking my outyards. if I find swarm cells I have the frames with me to trade out & use the empty to haul the swarm frames. no need for a return trip. I also use these to transport captured swarms & cut-outs. they are handy to have around.

[Wandering Man]

I am not knocking these boxes. just pointing out the risks when using the older version.
I use these all the time. during swarm season I carry 2 of the boxes with frames of drawn comb & foundation & 1 empty when checking my outyards. if I find swarm cells I have the frames with me to trade out & use the empty to haul the swarm frames. no need for a return trip. I also use these to transport captured swarms & cut-outs. they are handy to have around.

That sounds like a good preparedness plan.

[Bakersdozen]

I am not knocking these boxes. just pointing out the risks when using the older version.
I use these all the time. during swarm season I carry 2 of the boxes with frames of drawn comb & foundation & 1 empty when checking my outyards. if I find swarm cells I have the frames with me to trade out & use the empty to haul the swarm frames. no need for a return trip. I also use these to transport captured swarms & cut-outs. they are handy to have around.

rober, do you put the queen cells in the nuc box and move them?  Do you worry about damaging the queen in the cell?

[rober]

I remove the whole frame. if in a swarming mode they normally build multiple cells. I put a stick or strip of wood under the ends of the frames to elevate them. the space at the bottom is tight compare to a hive & since swarm cells are often on the bottom of the frame I found that those lower cells were being damaged by hitting the bottom of the box. raising the frames by 1/2" & up to 3/4" with a strip of wood cured that issue.

[Mikey N.C.]

Rober.
Good eye on seeing that. I've built the Coates 5 frames
And wondering same thing.

[Mikey N.C.]

Do ya use a shim on 5 on 5 to accommodate,for upper 5 frame clearance for cell's ?

[tecumseh]

so the picture is what the old entrances use to look like... mine evidently are the newer version.  yes they are handy and light and bee tight.   you do have to be careful in how you carry them in the back of a pickup truck since they are so light they will fly out < beyond using a cargo net when I haul a lot of these they seem to not blow away so much if I turn them upside down.. ie with the lid facing the bed of the truck.
 

[rober]

once while transporting a frame with multiple swarm cells hanging from the bottom when I arrived at the outyard where I wanted to add the frame to a queenless hive I found most of the cells had been mashed against the bottom of the box. the next time I found swarm cells I cut a branch off of a tree
( I always carry pruners during swarm season) & put pieces on the frame rests. those sort of worked but can shift & allow the frame to drop & crush the cells so I made a dedicated swarm cell transport box by gluing a strip of 3/4" wood on each end & across the width of the box.
 being a wood butcher i always have scraps of wood around & throw a block o 2x4/6/8" into empty boxes to keep them from being blown out of the bed. i used stretch wrap to keep lids closed when transporting bees.

[CBT]

Love the stretch wrap. We use it on nucs and hives if the customer does not have ratchet straps. Dadant has a plastic nuc box out called Pro Nuc. Check it out.

[iddee]

Mann Lake also has the pro nuc. We sell them at Beez Needz, too.

[Bakersdozen]

Love the stretch wrap. We use it on nucs and hives if the customer does not have ratchet straps. Dadant has a plastic nuc box out called Pro Nuc. Check it out.

That looks pretty cool!  I like the locking lid feature because I hate fooling with ratchet straps.  Same price at Dadant and Mann Lake.  $15.95

[tecumseh]

I just had a young beekeeper (with lots of energy and ambition) give me one of the pro nuc boxes to try.  They look pretty slick and we shall see how it works.

As to the toss away boxes (mentioned above) and not trying to dis one box or the other but simply describe some of their + pr - qualities. I typically move and then place grafted cells into these so there is no issue for me with swarm cells along the bottom bars.

1) the jester boxes have a bit more space between the bottom bars and the bottom of the box.  I trim any excess wax on the bottom bars when I make up nucs since this seems to be a place where lack of space will encourage SHB to multiply.  Same with the outside of the box so I typically only have a max of 4 frames to the box.  There is space above the top bars so a quart size baggie feeder (half full) does a good job if the nuc needs a bit of feed.  There is plenty of room for 2 if that nuc is short of provisions.

2) The two piece boxes require a special stapler to put them together.  For me the tops seem to blow away in transport which effectively made the box worthless except for stowing stuff.  The largest drawback is they had almost no room between the bottom bars and the bottom of the box and this aspect is why I tossed the lot of them... < I had a customer come by to pick up a nuc, we went thru it to look at the queen (which at the time I painted with a pink marker) and when he arrived to his house (about 3 hours away) the nuc was fine but there was a dead queen (marked with a bright pink spot) on the bottom of the box.  Evidently she had crawled down to the bottom of the frame when we inserted the frame back in the box and had been crushed.

3) both style boxes seem to work better with 4 frames than 5 but this is largely due to the fact that I run 9 frames in a 10 frame box and therefore my comb is a bit plump.  Neither worked so well with 4 frame plus a feeder which would push out the sides of the box and make them less than bee tight. No matter how many frames I put into them once I set them down I do have to check to be certain that the frames have clearance between themselves and the sides of the box since any place the bees cannot attend to can become SHB factories.

Gene in Central Texas...

[rober]

when i'm starting a nuc in a jester box I use 4 frames & a frame feeder. i add bees & a caged queen or a queen cell. I too run 9 frame deeps. I had one of the 2 pc. nuc boxes that came with a nuc i bought & wasn't impressed with anything about it.