> The North Pole...Pete? No one keeps bees at the North Pole, and when was the last time you saw packages make a righteous crop in New York State?

That was a shout out to Allen, up there in Canada. They are the experts on package bees, not me. Anyway, you misunderstood me. I wasn't suggesting that you are wrong to use duds to make divides, I merely meant that I wouldn't do it that way. Just expressing my particular bias.  ; )

It's a good idea, nonetheless. All good and all new ideas are welcomed by me, just not necessarily adopted by me. The two story four frame nucs is very clever, although it closely parallels work done by Mike Johnston in NY. He has built hives that have a division board in each box, so you can run two colonies side by side in each hive. So, he winters them in two boxes, with one colony on each side, occupying 8 or 10 frames. 

Again, while this seems like a good idea, I would probably never do it. Too complicated. I like one colony to a hive. Some people like to try new kinds of bees, some like to try new kinds of hives, some experiment with management. Lots of different roads can wind up in a good place.

PLB

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