I have some old boxes that were either made the wrong size (depth) or have shrunk over the many years they’ve been out in the open. Some of them I’ve extended back to the intended size with pieces of timber 2mm to 3mm thick. Today however I had a different idea…
I’ve been using some old Abelo poly hives as bait hives so far, ones that were made incorrectly and have both a top and bottom bee space. I reckon I can probably “adjust” those however, to return them to the correct size. Bait hives don’t need to be perfect, so as long as they can be properly closed up and not invaded by anything that shouldn’t be there (bee there, haha!) a box that is a few millimetres too short will do the job.
Keeping track of which are which might be awkward, so I should perhaps look for some paint or something to fit to them labelling them as a bait hive.