[olympic]

I saw the recent articles on the Miksha operation where 3/4 depth bodies are used as cell builders. What do you think is the advantage of this system. It seems better as you are ble to "compress" the bees more and make the cell builder more densely populated.
Thanks
Oly.

 

[Joseph Clemens]

I only use 6-1/4" depth frames throughout my entire operation (though I keep two deep hives, just for the principle). I have no difficulties, harvesting honey, raising queens and nucs, or many of the other things that beekeepers commonly do.

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I don't know about David Miksa, but I do know that the bees don't seem to behave any differently on medium depth frames -vs- full depth frames, and medium frames are easier to lift and manipulate. I do notice, especially when I'm checking on my few full depth hives, that it is easier to find queens on medium frames than deep frames, my eye has less territory to examine and I can focus on one side of the entire frame at the same time - deep frames I find more difficult to focus on one entire side at a time.

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

David Miksa makes some awesome queens that ship all over the United States and Canada. I buy his 10 frame nucs that are in medium (Illinois) supers too. David Burns references Miksa's work and Dr. Larry Connor's last chapter in Queen Rearing Essentials is about Miksa's operation. Sounds pretty good to me. I read on one of the forums another breeder in Texas claiming to sell Miksa queens. Miksa does all his operations from Groveland so I know it is a copycat for credibility.

 

[Michael Bush]

I run all 3/4 depth to start with. Besides lifting and standardization, as far as queen rearing it means I can setup two frame nucs that are smaller than with deeps. It works well for me for queen rearing.