Bushkill 4-way Mating Nuc

[VolunteerK9]

Hey Robo...havent seen you on here much, so I hope all is well. Just wanted to let you know that I just built the 4-way mating nuc and that all went together like a breeze. Thanks for the plans..So easy to follow that even I could do it.

[specialkayme]

Quick question on the materials. The plans you have on the site show how to make four of them out of one sheet of plywood. Those plans are VERY helpful by the way, thanks so much.

I must say that I don't know my plywood very well. I went to the store today to take a look, and I don't really know what the differences are. Can you tell me what materials would be better? I've read that OSB doesn't really hold up to weather very well, and plywood is a generic term. Any help?

[Michael Bush]

Plywood has designations for the quality of the surface (A, B, C and D) and the kind of glue (X is exterior).  So 3/4" CDX is one C surface, one D surface and exterior glue.  Unless you can find some Marine plywood, I'd use the CDX as it is commonly available for a decent price.

[Solomon Parker]

Thanks for this Robo.  I made ten 3x3's of very similar design.  They are currently deeps, but they are meant to be cut down to mediums eventually as I am switching over.

[Keeperwannabe]

Made some three by three's out of 1/2 inch cdx I had left over from a jobsite, no problems, it has so much internal parts that it withstood the weight well.

[samsungpizza]

What two frames go into each nuc? Both brood, open or capped, one brood and one honey? I'm new, so please tolerate my ignorance.
Thank you!

[backyard warrior]

one frame of brood one honey one pollen and if you wish more brood up to you but you dont want to crowd a nuc they will swarm.  Chris

[samsungpizza]

Room for only two frames. Capped brood or open? Thanks again.

[Robo]

Capped,  you want space to free up for the newly mated queen to lay.

[slacker361]

Dos anyone have the plans for these. I know that link has them but when ever I try and download it just gives me a bunch of charters and not a pdf file

[AllenF]

Send a message to Robo.   It did not work for me either.   Something with the site I would guess.

[Robo]

Site fixed.  Upgrade gone bad.....

[RobWok]

Thanks so much for putting this out there.  I love it.  Instead of plywood, I had some pallets that had boards on top that were 10.5" wide  Was able to use a few of those and built 5 of these.  Instead of the extra pieces that you put inside, I instead cut a 1/4" dado on the inside before I assembled the boxes.  What this means is that it is exactly the same size inside and out as a standard deep.  I'll be affixing basically an inner cover that is flush on one side on the bottom.  My goal was to see if I could build your setup with a standard deep box and just modify it a little.  That way, anyone should be able to order a deep box and cut some rabbets and some holes in it.  I also made the frame rests the 13/16" like you have in your plans.  It should have minimal effect on a normal frame. I always seem to run out of deep hive bodies.  This way, I can have some spares if I need them.

Here's the other plus.  I plan to take out 2 of the sides and just leave the center divider in for the winter - meaning, I can try to overwinter 2 hives that share the same deep box.  I'm trying to figure out the best way to stack them too.  That could get a little tricky.  May still need to put 2 5 frame nucs on top to super them.  Probably just better to make more solid nucs, or order them.

Anyway, thanks for the plans!