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The side-bar dimention is 9.25 inches, a National Brood frame is 8.0 inches tall. A smith frame might fit, but the box is too deep. If it were me, I wouldn't touch them.

F1 hybrids (plant or animal) don't breed true. You finish up having to purchase successive generations if you want any kind of continuity of end result. As far as bees are concerned, if an F1 queen mates with a local drone, results can be horrifying - like 50 followers coming into the house...

I'd be more worried about how you sterilise the hives. You can put a blow-torch on wood... Savoyard

A brood-box with a super full of stores. However, with a small colony the bees could move into the super, leaving the queen behind in the brood box. You only need an excluder present if you are keeping the queen out of something. All-in-all, it is generally a bad idea in the winter. Savoyard

If the hive roof encloses an (empty) space then it MUST be ventilated. A couple of summers ago I lost a roof to dry-rot when the vents became blocked. In hives with top bee-spaces, a flat, un-vented roof can double as a crown board. Savoyard

My friendly neighborhood printing shop lets me have old A-zero or A-one aluminium litho plates. They can be cut using old scissors, and fold down to the roof dimensions quite nicely. It's not necessary, but a jar of honey as a "thank you" makes things more amenable for next time. Savoyard

Snodgrass? Laidlaw? The ones I recommend to my mentees are For husbandry (management and handling):- "Guide to Bees and Honey" by Ted Hooper "Practical Beekeeping" by Clive de Bruyn For background (social organisation, natural history, genetics, anatomy, pheromones, etc.):- "The honey bee...

Just to be controversial - May I recommend to (British) newbies that - IN THE SHORT TERM - they avoid American books. American books are among the best, but their climate, legislation, and husbandry techniques are quite different to ours. You need the confidence to know when something doesn't...

FWIW I have found something (almost) definitive in some hand-outs from a local guru about cold wintering on a mesh floor. My notes from those hand-outs (acknowledgments to D Maslen esq) 1. MAXIMUM AREA OF OPEN FLOOR - Stiff mesh - No ledges to trap debris - Circa 20mm space between...

This is ventilation ABOVE the crown board - I expect it would still need to be the same... There are two holes in each side - making four times the area of the modern roofs. A very good experiment to try! Savoyard

I found condensation underneath the space quilt on one hive - next to the blocked off feed holes. Glass / perspex / polycarbonate crown boards are not vapour permeable - another reason to start using them... You still need a ventilated roof though. Damp + no ventilation = dry rot; I lost a...

Over time, foundation will develop a grey crust or "bloom" as the surface dries out / oxidises. The bees seem unwilling or unable to work this crust into drawn honeycomb. Warming the foundation with a hair dryer or in front of a hot fire, will release the natural oils in the wax, and make...

In the days before varroa they used to say "If a colony dies, FIND OUT WHY". Take a sample of dead bees (about a matchbox full) and try to get them analysed. Many local associations have microscopists who could help. The organisation which is now CSL used to take samples for analysis, perhaps...

I read about a week ago that they are able to "switch off" individual genes in the Varroa mite. If they can use this to switch off (say) the auto-immune system, or the moulting mechanism (a la sacbrood) then we would have a powerful new weapon against the b****y things. Heres hoping Savoyard

Whether they need it or not :)

The converters which clip round the outside of the side-bar interfere with the bee-space, so I am told. The ones which go over the top of the frame are better (again, so I am told). If you put plastic spacers on two consecutive Hoffman frames, then the Hoffman shoulders don't quite touch and...

I don't keep an inventory, although I number my brood boxes and supers. I foster the habit of making up "colony kits":- a floor, entrance block, QX, and crown board, all packed inside an upturned roof. If you want one, you will want them all. Other than that, I maintain a simple journal of...

I find last years' underpants a suitably repellent material. I have also used the wooden cat-litter pellets (unused of course!) with some success, but they tend to roll out of the nozzle unless you put something else on top. Savoyard

Branding with a hot iron is good. (the hives, not the bees!) Use post code or BBKA membership number. If it is on the outside of the hive, it is a deterrent to a would-be thief. I have even heard of people branding the frames, but perhaps that is over the top. To cancel, put the identical...

In this area (inner-city Bristol) we have a fair bit of autumn forage (ivy, balsam, knot-weed), often even into November. I have a problem preventing the bees re-occupying returned supers (they will do that through a crown board), and significant difficulty in getting them to lick the supers...