I would push you toward the Russian foam design...... The more square the brood chamber the better .....
Thanks for the ideas!
And btw, I have plans to finally start experimenting with the square compact verticals (need to consolidate the priorities; toss few side-projects).
Outside of an ellipse and sphere variants,
the square and the cube - are the most energy efficient geometrical shapes possible.
The squares and the cubes are the way if using standard building materials.
I really, really like this format:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9rZIPvCTEU
Added another vid about the frame making for this format:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oE06FTUUJM&t=529s
No need for special frames.
Those are your
standard frames:
https://www.google.com/search?q=уле...KHUQcAbEQ9QEwAXoECAAQBg#imgrc=1Rm-bAk9zUOuCM:
Compatible to my current frame - BUT, 1/3 size of my current frame.
The compatibility proportions are obvious if you look at this jumbo frame:
And the beauty - the standard box of a compact vertical is very, very plastic - it can be used as a mating nuc as it is (it is small enough).
Standard small ergonomic box on a small standard frame - many, many custom uses (mating box usage included).
So, I dislike specialty usage equipment - that immediately adds the overhead - the specially mating nucs included, be it Russian foam..
I don't want them.
I do like standard multi-use equipment of
proper, ergonomic dimensions (which, as history of the bee hives demonstrates, is a cavity of about square shape and the cross-dimensions at ~300mmx300mm).
Ergonomic - bee-wise primarily (human ergonomy comes along just as a coincidence - a great bonus at that).
Compact vertical equipment variants seem to be a possible answer (and have been exploding in Russia/Ukraine, just as we speak).
This is one of the huge negatives of the current Langs (people and the manufacturers can argue all they want, hehe) - very poor dimensions of the original architecture.
The evidence - the so called "mating castles" made from the Lang boxes - yet another custom hack created by the awkward and non-ergonomic original dimensions.
Inventors of the system never gave it a thought - the modern version of the multi-use never crossed their mind.
The Lang is ALL about honey-making. More honey - a single-purpose architecture.
The same problem with the Dadants and other large-frame based architectures.
These all require yet another line of equipment of for the queen raising - the evidence of single-purpose minded architectures.
The better dimensions of the multi-use compact architecture allow you to just grab the box, (any box!!! - not customization whatsoever), grab few frames from a pile (any frames!!!) and just use it.
So that the mating box story - the standard beehive box and standard frames - grab it, use it, set it and forget it (be it honey production, bee production, queen production, XYZ production).