[BruceBee]

There was some discussion in the top-bar hive forum about comb spacing. For example, MB said:

> I ended up going to 1 1/4" for brood and 1 1/2" for honey because that's what the bees were doing no matter what I did.

Does that mean that in regular hive that it would be better to space the brood frames closer together and the others farther apart? The implication would be that you could fit either 6 brood frames or 5 other frames in 7.5 inches.

 

[Sundance]

Some shave down the sides on Lang frames to make 11 frames fit in 10 frame boxes. I am going that route.

Others space them out to 9 frames in 10 frame boxes.

It is open to debate.

 

[BerkeyDavid]

interesting. seems like it would be worthwhile if you wanted smaller cells to shave down the top bars of the lang frames in the brood nest.

But up top in the honey storage area better to use the 9 frame stoller spacer. you get more honey that way.

ps on the other hand as Walt Wright pointed out in his recent article in Bee Culture, the offset between the supers/hive body does slow down the worker...

[ April 19, 2006, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: BerkeyDavid ]

 

[Sundance]

That is my thought regarding 11 frames David.

I will go with 9 frames in honey supers. I am also interested in trying the honey super cell that is 6.0 mm for honey. Makes sense at least on the face of it.

 

[iddee]

Sundance, I thought you were going for interchangability of frames. That won't work if you have supercell and SC.

 

[Sundance]

No iddee. I was debating switching to mediums. But have elected to go with deeps for hive bodies and mediums for supers.

This was done for several reasons. Pollination, and resale were among the points that swayed me.

I agree that mediums for brood chamber is best. But choose to follow the herd on at least this.

 

[Michael Bush]

>Does that mean that in regular hive that it would be better to space the brood frames closer together and the others farther apart?

That would follow what the bees wish. It also helps in getting smaller cells.

> The implication would be that you could fit either 6 brood frames or 5 other frames in 7.5 inches.

Yes, you can put eleven frames in a ten frame box, or nine in an eight frame box. That's what I do most of the time.

 

[Craig W.]

"That would follow what the bees wish. It also helps in getting smaller cells."

How do you know that is what the bees wish? and it seems and I put emphasis on that word seems to contradict what Walt was teaching in his article about using 9 frames in a 10 frame hive please explain to me. You have to remember i am a newbie so be as detailed as possible.
Thanks and much appreciated.

 

[Craig W.]

Bruce if you go with deeps on your hives and mediums for supers which I like that idea how will you make them line up properly?

 

[Michael Bush]

>How do you know that is what the bees wish?

Because it's what the bees do on their own. I've let them do what they want many times. Most of my top bar hives have been started with one comb or one top bar with a guide in the center and top bars with no guides in a five frame nuc and they build most brood combs somewhere between 30mm and 33mm with most about 32mm (1 1/4") in the brood nest. Then they make them wider in the honey storage area. A standard frame is 35mm (1 3/8"). 9 frame spacing is about 1 1/2" which is 37.5mm.

Heres some free form brood comb I cut out of a hive top feeder and then measured from the midrib to the midrib.

http://www.bushfarms.com/images/CombSpacing30.JPG

Here's more on natural cell size with a whole section on comb spacing:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm