Hi !
We are beginners. We have set up our Flow Hive 2+.
We went to pick up our first Nic this morning, and when it was time to place them in our Hive, Catastrophy the frames are not the same size.
What shall i do ?
shall i sew off the bottom of the frames so they can fit our hive ? And (because there is 5 frames in this nuc and we have a 10 frames Hive) Wait that they install on the right size one ?
Can you do that ?
Help please !
Thank you
Hi Katia, welcome! Yikes - that’s quite a bad surprise 
I think sawing off or cutting out comb to rubber band it into right sized frames would be possible, but a big and messy undertaking for newbies. I don’t know what size/type of box your nuc is compatible with, but I am wondering if you can try to exchange it? or get the same kind of brood box, remaining frames, and a base and covering for it for now. Just to set up and allow your bees to settle sooner.
Another possibility I can think of is to make a shim - a small extra piece that raises the Flow box enough to admit the nuc frames, that keeps the sides continuously closed all around. This is assuming that the nuc frames are long enough to rest properly along the top recess. You can put in the remaining Flow frames and then cycle out the nuc ones over time.
I think that @Eva’s suggestion of a shim is an excellent and elegant idea. In case you don’t know what a shim is, and I don’t think that it would translate accurately to French, here is an image:
If you have some basic woodworking skills, you can easily make one yourself. Just measure how much deeper you need the Flow brood box to be to fit the frames, and make it that tall.
My husband also suggested that it may be easier for you to simply buy a cheap French hive kit, and put the bees into that until you can find another way to solve this. When you are looking for a nucleus, you need to ask for it to be on Langstroth deep frames (I think that most of France uses Dadant sized frames and boxes). That doesn’t help you for now, but it may help the next time.
Good luck! 
Thank you both so much this is such a good idea ! Of course, a shim
Thank you and i apologise for my spelling (my english husband just made a joke about a spelling bee, which i dont anderstand but he thinks its hilarious 
)
Pas de soucis! Votre anglais est beaucoup mieux que mon français!
Amicalement
Dawn (Odette en France)
