I love the cotes boxes. If you put a one inch strip along the bottom face and another at bottom back it closes up that gap and keeps the rain out. Then they stack. It also gives the box more strength. I double deck two five frame cotes fasten them together and catch swarms like crazy with 5 frames in upper story.
About those warped boards : when you seal most of the board from exposure to moisture but don't seal one side you have created the problem yourself. Paint seals the sides of the wood that are painted but leaving one side unpainted allows humidity to be absorbed by just that side - and adsorbed moisture expands the wood. Differential expansion warps wood, always has and always will. To test that just lay a dry, straight and true 1x6" on damp soil overnight. Cupping, bowing or twisting will frequently happen. Spray the top of that board with a garden hose and the board often straightens out like before. As an alternative flip the board upside down and by the end of the day it is often is back to normal.
I stopped making the Cotes nucs for the same reason. They’re good for growing out to put in a ten frame but not for stacking. I started making mine out of 3/4 advantech and dadoing the frame rests. Can’t afford advantech now though. Lol Great idea on the tiles. Never have seen that before. I’ll give it a try.
I have all the same problems with them. They are great for what they are, but in south east Texas, the lids just warps so easily. I have had a couple small NUCs I wanted to combine but couldnt. This is something I am going to try with the lids and bases.
I had the same problem!! I made a cleat on the bottom edge so they’d at least line up, but still not ideal. I also made a mistake and made them a bit short where there wasn’t enough space at the ends of the frames for the bees to be able to defend themselves from carpenter ants. I may still use them if I ever sell nucs-and not ask for the box to be returned.
The beespace between the boxes and frames can be easily dealt with. I keep a spool of fishing line in my beeyard. If the frames are waxed together, I'll just pull some fishing line through like a wiresaw and viola, no more sticky frames👌. A long bread knife works well too.
The Coats box is just a design using 3/8" plywood to make it quick/easy.... In the coats design, the ends of the box become the frame rest. You can change/fix every one of your coats design boxes, by just replacing the strip at the top with a full length 3/8" end board.. Should be 9-5/8" tall, like the sides.. You already have a 3/8" frame rest inside of the box, and it will be perfect.. I lived in New Orleans, and Bogalusa North of the Lake.. Sure miss the good food down there.. Especially stopping and grabbing a few links of boudin every few days.. Ha..Ha.. You can fix the tops, so they fit flat by just making it a bit wider and adding 1-1/4" wide strips around the outside edges of the box going down... It will stiffen the flat plywood and it should stay flat. Instead of the thin piece on the ends, use the same 1-1/4" plywood.. Basically, you make the sides and then lay the plywood top over the sides and nail it down.. Use something water proof to put over that and bend over the sides (1-1/4" sides), and staple it to the sides and use your reflectx and you will have an insulated top cover that won't condensate and drip on the bees during the winter. If you leave the inside of the box 1/4" longer/wider than the box dimensions, you have plenty of play to get the top on/off. The Coats design is probably designed to get a certain number of boxes out of a sheet of plywood, and this is where he used his scraps to do it.. Hard to make a 5 frame nuc out of a single sheet without needing a bit extra to finish it.. The outside finished dimensions of a 5 frame nuc should be 19-7/8" x 9-1/4" The inside dimensions where the frames will rest should be 19-1/16 best to fit frames, or 19" even which may be tight on some frames. Most plywood is metric, so, the reason why the boxes are 19-7/8" vs 20" or slightly below... If you cut 19-7/8", make sure if your cuts are not absolute perfect, they are a shy longer by a 32nd or so, then, you get the 19-1/16" spacing for your frames to rest, instead of 19" exact.. An extra 32nd on each end gives you the 1/16" you are looking for... It's all about the math.
A fix for the top is to paint the inner cover to prevent humidity from penetrating the raw plywood. Run a cloth or builders paper( tyvek or other) as an inner cover.
Great video. On the boxes the frame rest should go all the way down the box. You may have trouble with bees building burr comb on frame end bars. Just my 2 cents.
Nice video Big Daddy! Do you have a follow-up video where you show the inside of the hive once a colony's been living in it for a while? I wanna see what they do with the space between the end of the hive stick and the wall.
I wasn't able to get a video of it, but I did notice on one frame they built burr comb to the wall. I just slid my hive tool down it a cut it loose. Thank you for watching.
I make mine out of 1inch Advantec Play Stack just fine. Any gaps left over The bees propolis. That being said I don’t run stacks of boxes over winter in northern Iowa. Five frames with winter patties on top seems to be my best bet.
![ILLSLICK - THE KING'S LANDING [Freestyle]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/feIJJnNkTfk/mqdefault.jpg)
I love the cotes boxes. If you put a one inch strip along the bottom face and another at bottom back it closes up that gap and keeps the rain out. Then they stack. It also gives the box more strength. I double deck two five frame cotes fasten them together and catch swarms like crazy with 5 frames in upper story.
About those warped boards : when you seal most of the board from exposure to moisture but don't seal one side you have created the problem yourself. Paint seals the sides of the wood that are painted but leaving one side unpainted allows humidity to be absorbed by just that side - and adsorbed moisture expands the wood. Differential expansion warps wood, always has and always will.
To test that just lay a dry, straight and true 1x6" on damp soil overnight. Cupping, bowing or twisting will frequently happen. Spray the top of that board with a garden hose and the board often straightens out like before. As an alternative flip the board upside down and by the end of the day it is often is back to normal.
Put a wood strip there to cover the gap - problem fixed.
That's what I was thinking, a bit of a latt or something would do it
I stopped making the Cotes nucs for the same reason. They’re good for growing out to put in a ten frame but not for stacking. I started making mine out of 3/4 advantech and dadoing the frame rests. Can’t afford advantech now though. Lol
Great idea on the tiles. Never have seen that before. I’ll give it a try.
Great idea using tiles. I'll try that. Thanks' for sharing
I have all the same problems with them. They are great for what they are, but in south east Texas, the lids just warps so easily. I have had a couple small NUCs I wanted to combine but couldnt. This is something I am going to try with the lids and bases.
Thanks! I was looking for a nuc plan and this construction is at my skill level. Can't wait to get started.
Regular plywood(untreated) is best, but this box is still in use. Just make sure to paint it well.
I use them also. Just add a cleat to the bottom like is used at the top.
I also make telescoping covers
I had the same problem!! I made a cleat on the bottom edge so they’d at least line up, but still not ideal.
I also made a mistake and made them a bit short where there wasn’t enough space at the ends of the frames for the bees to be able to defend themselves from carpenter ants.
I may still use them if I ever sell nucs-and not ask for the box to be returned.
The beespace between the boxes and frames can be easily dealt with. I keep a spool of fishing line in my beeyard. If the frames are waxed together, I'll just pull some fishing line through like a wiresaw and viola, no more sticky frames👌.
A long bread knife works well too.
The Coats box is just a design using 3/8" plywood to make it quick/easy.... In the coats design, the ends of the box become the frame rest.
You can change/fix every one of your coats design boxes, by just replacing the strip at the top with a full length 3/8" end board.. Should be 9-5/8" tall, like the sides.. You already have a 3/8" frame rest inside of the box, and it will be perfect..
I lived in New Orleans, and Bogalusa North of the Lake.. Sure miss the good food down there.. Especially stopping and grabbing a few links of boudin every few days.. Ha..Ha..
You can fix the tops, so they fit flat by just making it a bit wider and adding 1-1/4" wide strips around the outside edges of the box going down...
It will stiffen the flat plywood and it should stay flat. Instead of the thin piece on the ends, use the same 1-1/4" plywood.. Basically, you make the sides and then lay the plywood top over the sides and nail it down.. Use something water proof to put over that and bend over the sides (1-1/4" sides), and staple it to the sides and use your reflectx and you will have an insulated top cover that won't condensate and drip on the bees during the winter.
If you leave the inside of the box 1/4" longer/wider than the box dimensions, you have plenty of play to get the top on/off.
The Coats design is probably designed to get a certain number of boxes out of a sheet of plywood, and this is where he used his scraps to do it.. Hard to make a 5 frame nuc out of a single sheet without needing a bit extra to finish it..
The outside finished dimensions of a 5 frame nuc should be 19-7/8" x 9-1/4" The inside dimensions where the frames will rest should be 19-1/16 best to fit frames, or 19" even which may be tight on some frames.
Most plywood is metric, so, the reason why the boxes are 19-7/8" vs 20" or slightly below... If you cut 19-7/8", make sure if your cuts are not absolute perfect, they are a shy longer by a 32nd or so, then, you get the 19-1/16" spacing for your frames to rest, instead of 19" exact.. An extra 32nd on each end gives you the 1/16" you are looking for...
It's all about the math.
I did building myself to and they are great I will be getting building soon like 20 more of them
A fix for the top is to paint the inner cover to prevent humidity from penetrating the raw plywood. Run a cloth or builders paper( tyvek or other) as an inner cover.
Great video. On the boxes the frame rest should go all the way down the box. You may have trouble with bees building burr comb on frame end bars. Just my 2 cents.
Thank you! I'm going to do a complete hive like this this year and video the progress and results.
Nice video Big Daddy! Do you have a follow-up video where you show the inside of the hive once a colony's been living in it for a while? I wanna see what they do with the space between the end of the hive stick and the wall.
I wasn't able to get a video of it, but I did notice on one frame they built burr comb to the wall. I just slid my hive tool down it a cut it loose. Thank you for watching.
Thanks for showing this. I saw your bee feeder just to the left of your nuc. do you have plans for how to make its type of feeder?
I don't have a video to make this feeder. I will do one soon if you'd like.
@@thebigdaddybigzblog9535 Thank you.
this type of plywood will absorb moisture like a sponge, i would build these from outdoor waterproof type like Advantec
Have held up good so far.
How much do the floor titles run you?
I like the tile idea but doesn't it make top feeding kind of hard? You cut holes in ceramic tile??
Thanks, I use a ceramic hole saw to make a 1/2inch hole.
thank you.... bro 🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🌹🌹🌹🌹
Looks like the top box is not as long as the bottom
Carpenter is not within big daddy skill set. Rulers and tapes are great tools to have.
I appreciate your construction criticism.
I make mine out of 1inch Advantec Play Stack just fine. Any gaps left over The bees propolis. That being said I don’t run stacks of boxes over winter in northern Iowa. Five frames with winter patties on top seems to be my best bet.
Just put a piece of wood like the top “handle” at the bottom. Problem solved
BECAUSE 120 MPH WINDS WAS NOT A DIRECT HIT, HAHAHA! PEACE...
Who built them boxes.. Stevie Wonder... 🤣😂🤣
guessing carpentry is not your gig lol
You would be correct. Thank you
@@thebigdaddybigzblog9535 I am a fabricator so I wish I could build this out of aluminum.. :) (my carpentry skills are not so hot either) :)
Sound is too low
Sorry
you building them crappy. I stocking mine
Brilliant! Thank you.