Stoller spacers

I have never used frame spacers and never liked them...limits to many options.

Personally, I rank them right between plastic bee escapes & queen excluders as the three most worthless pieces of bee keeping equipment made. Actually I have to admit that I do use excluders, but only for the one or two hives with comb supers. I'm even having second thoughts on that use.

I agree, I yank them out every chance I get.

Got them in all my boxes and love them. Why do you guys dislike them?

Limits my options, Without I can go ten frames to 9 frames to 8 frames and back to 10, besides spacing them by hand is easy and quick.

I bought some used 10 frame boxes with 8 and 9 frame spacers already in them. I find that once the bees put some propolis on the frames, it can be a pain to get them out; you have to pry them all straight up instead of being able to work them laterally like bmcmahon said. Also, the last time I put a new piece of foundation into a box with an 8 frame spacer, the bees made burr comb beside it instead of drawing it out!

I use spacers but I don't nail them in. I put a standard frame rest on all of the boxes. When I want to use 9 frames, I lay the 9 frame spacer on and put in a frame. It only takes one frame to hold it. After the first year propolis holds it in, but it is pretty easy to pull off since there are no nails.

bmcmahon said:

I like having lateral movement of the frames and would prefer just a spacing tool but was unable to find one for spacing 7 frames in an 8 frame body.

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I imagine the proper beespace is the same in any equipment. could you get a tool for putting 9 in a ten frame body and either cut it down or grind of the ends to create the tool you need? then you would have the best of both worlds. lateral movement and deeper comb,.

bigeddie said:

Got them in all my boxes and love them. Why do you guys dislike them?

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Because they are for honey spacing not brood spacing. So, if you have them for your brood nest then your combs will get more droney at the top and bottom bars. Drone spacing and honey spacing are the same. If you want your combs to stay worker, push them closer together...can't be done with spacers.

Also...try scraping the frame rests...oops, didn't need that knuckle. Got 9 more.

The spacers are nice that they space the frames so placing the supers on is faster.

When it comes time to take the frames out to uncap and extract the spacers really get in the way.

I would rather take a little more time placing supers on and spacing the frames myself than fight with the spacer during extraction time.

Yeah... what they said.

Looks like I'm the only one who likes them. I don't seem to have the problems with them as the rest of you do. I don't know why I don't but I'm glad I don't. Could be after all these years of having them I'm just used to dealing with them. I liked them from the first time I tried them and have since put them in all my boxes. Someone other than me must use them as they are still on the market, I only have a few hundred :scratch:

That's Ok, my brother likes them also. I just don't see the need for them and dislike it when I need to quickly grab a box (we use all deeps) to catch a swarm only to find it's got those darn things in it. Then I can't install a frame feeder, only get 9 frames which can lead to drone problems and a variety of inconveniences for me. We simply need to mark the woodenware so we can tell whether they're installed or not. That's a simple management fix. I have a spacer tool that I rarely use, but it takes only a quick second or two to gauge the spaces. To mark those with spacers, I thought a 'scarlet letter' might be just the thing. Maybe a big red painted 'A' to signify some ********* put them in there. Just an opinion... it's not like I have strong feelings or anything like that.

Thanks for the feedback. If I do decide to use them inside the hive body I won't nail them in (good idea BeeDeeTee). I did nail a couple of them to a few scraps of 1x2 and it looks like I've found my spacer tools.:thumbsup:

I say do what ever works for you. You can keep bees with them or without them,it'll work either way. The only one you need to make happy is yourself and don't worry the bees will work around any decision you make !

Good luck.