Two Frame Nuc Plans

The nucs are actually three frame nucs which a dummy board to make them work as a two frame nuc. Having the option to turn them into three frames gives you some extra time before needing to move to a larger box and to make the nuc stronger when using them at the end of summer when there are more wasps around.

Purpose of The Nucs

I use them as a mating box in the spring to pop grafted cells in to. They require less resources to make up than a five frame nuc without the hassle of a mini mating nuc. Once the queen is laying it's an easy job to transfer them to a larger box.

Nuc Entrance

Rather than having larger entrance like many other nuc designs having a small hole with a plastic disc entrance helps the bees defend themselves and makes it easy to block the entrance when moving to a new site/location. These can be bought cheaply online or from a local beekeeping supplier. Here's an example of them on AliExpress for £2.71 for a pack of 10.

Nuc Floor

This nuc has a solid floor joined to the box making it easier to move. As it's only used in the spring/summer the entrance is sufficient for ventilation which would be more of an issue over the winter where improved ventilation reduces condensation forming above the cluster then dripping down on the bees.

Nuc Roof

Keeping it simple there is no crown board for these nucs, they don't need feeding and the way the roof is designed with no sides it can be pried apart with a hive tool if the bees use propolis to glue it down like they would with a crown board.

The roof is a similar design to ones I saw being used by American beekeepers. You can see them being used in the videos of Barnyard Bees.

Materials

For the box/floor 20mm plywood was used with a small off cut of 12mm plywood as a spacer on the front/back. The roof is made from phenolic birch plywood, this normally comes in sheets of 2440 X 1220mm, which was used to make some national roofs. The off cuts were big enough to make the roofs for these nucs.
Wood glue was added along the cut sides of the plywood roofs help seal it to further increase durability.

Dimensions

These sizes are for a 14x12 nuc, so to make them for a BS national deep frame remember to reduce the height.

Above: View from the side.

View from the front.

Above: View from above.

Above: The roof design.

The finished nuc