i would keep 10 frames in all brood supers. my mentor used to keep 9 frames in honey supers so the wax would be drawn out farther and make uncapping easyer.
Adding deeps and removing frames
I have this dvd by marla and gary from the u of m and it gives the step by step of basically everything we learned in class. In the video Gary removes one frame with nectar and bees from the first hive body and puts it into the 2nd hive body when adding the 2nd deep. When adding the third deep today my hubby and I removed the one empty frame from the third deep to make room for a frame with nectar and bees from the 2nd deep. But this left the 2nd deep with 9 frames instead of 10. In the video it didn't show if Gary put that empty frame that was removed into the 2nd deep to make up for the empty space so I just put it in there. Now 2nd and 3rd deeps have 10 frames. Is that wrong? Should I just have removed that frame with nectar and bees and put it in the third deep and left the 2nd deep with 9 frames? Or does it even matter?
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It's all in the preference of the beekeeper. Some run 10 frames and some run 9. 10 frames makes it harder to get the first frame out but there are less bees squashed when putting frames back in and pressing them together. You also gain a frame of brood per hive body with 10 vs 9. Some of my honey supers I use 9 frames and some I use 8 frames to make uncapping easier with my cowen double knife uncapper.
I remember hearing Gary say he runs 9 drawn frames in a brood box. He likes the extra space. The key word is "drawn". The bees will make a real mess if you put 9 undrawn frames in there - a lot of cross comb will be built. Adrian.
i just recently went from 10 to 9 and have been in heaven since. I only left the bottom deep with 10 in one box as i screwed the dimensions up when i built it, but the brood med got 9. I build my own boxes and screwed a few up and it was just too tight. So i rectified the situation, went to 9 on everything except that one deep and love it. Allows me to move slower and i havent royally made the ladies made by trying to get that one frame out since
Ok, now I understand!I remember hearing Gary say he runs 9 drawn frames in a brood box. He likes the extra space. The key word is "drawn". The bees will make a real mess if you put 9 undrawn frames in there - a lot of cross comb will be built. Adrian.
I think I'm failing at this "moving undrawn frames in" part. So as of right now my 1st hive body has 9 frames and the 2nd and 3rd have 10. When we rotate the boxes (moving 1st HB to the 3rd position) I will add the one empty frame I have making it 10.
Thanks everyone for your help!
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