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Karen:
Like you, I run all Mediums (8-frame to be exact). While you acknowledged that the answer may be dependent upon many factors (including your management approach), I have found that three 8 frame Mediums is a volume that many colonies I am acquainted with are perfectly content with. I have also had a couple colonies the past two years that will gladly fill up 4 or 5 boxes full of brood if given the opportunity and managed accordingly.
Another way you might think through this is to consider what most successful beekeepers in your area run for their brood set-ups. For simple math I like to consider that an 8-frame Medium is approximately half the internal volume of a 10-frame Deep. Thus, if you live in an area where most beekeepers run double deeps this would be equivalent to 4 8-frame Mediums.
So while I am not sure I have answered your question, maybe I have at least got the discussion started to let some of the more experienced beeks offer their thoughts.
Russ
p.s. You may be running 10-frame Mediums, so if you want to think through the volume math the following article has the internal volumes listed for reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstroth_hive
Like you, I run all Mediums (8-frame to be exact). While you acknowledged that the answer may be dependent upon many factors (including your management approach), I have found that three 8 frame Mediums is a volume that many colonies I am acquainted with are perfectly content with. I have also had a couple colonies the past two years that will gladly fill up 4 or 5 boxes full of brood if given the opportunity and managed accordingly.
Another way you might think through this is to consider what most successful beekeepers in your area run for their brood set-ups. For simple math I like to consider that an 8-frame Medium is approximately half the internal volume of a 10-frame Deep. Thus, if you live in an area where most beekeepers run double deeps this would be equivalent to 4 8-frame Mediums.
So while I am not sure I have answered your question, maybe I have at least got the discussion started to let some of the more experienced beeks offer their thoughts.
Russ
p.s. You may be running 10-frame Mediums, so if you want to think through the volume math the following article has the internal volumes listed for reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstroth_hive
