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I'm about to launch into beekeeping and my shipment of hive box pieces just arrived.
I'm using all 10-frame mediums. I had originally wanted 8-frame hives, but the supplier with (by far) the best prices didn't list any 8-frame hives on their website. I should have called them to ask if they had any, but didn't think about it until too late.
So before we assemble everything, I started to wonder about just converting these 10-frame boxes to 8-frame by adding some extra wall or partition in place of the #1 and #10 frame. My husband suggested putting grooves in place where we want the partition, so we could just slide a light little piece of wood down in there.
Is there any reason why this wouldn't work? It seems like this plan will enable us to have flexibility between 8-frame and 10-frame hive boxes, depending on the needs at the moment. And maybe it would give some extra insulation.
My second question is, would it ever be useful to have, say, 10 frames in one box and 8 frames in another, in the same hive? As long as you put in partitions to preserve bee space, do the bees care if the different layers of their hive have different numbers of frames?
Also, I'm using foundationless frames (Kelley's foundationless comb guide frames). I don't know if that matters in relation to my questions.
Thank you for any advice.
I'm using all 10-frame mediums. I had originally wanted 8-frame hives, but the supplier with (by far) the best prices didn't list any 8-frame hives on their website. I should have called them to ask if they had any, but didn't think about it until too late.
So before we assemble everything, I started to wonder about just converting these 10-frame boxes to 8-frame by adding some extra wall or partition in place of the #1 and #10 frame. My husband suggested putting grooves in place where we want the partition, so we could just slide a light little piece of wood down in there.
Is there any reason why this wouldn't work? It seems like this plan will enable us to have flexibility between 8-frame and 10-frame hive boxes, depending on the needs at the moment. And maybe it would give some extra insulation.
My second question is, would it ever be useful to have, say, 10 frames in one box and 8 frames in another, in the same hive? As long as you put in partitions to preserve bee space, do the bees care if the different layers of their hive have different numbers of frames?
Also, I'm using foundationless frames (Kelley's foundationless comb guide frames). I don't know if that matters in relation to my questions.
Thank you for any advice.