...although (and if I'm getting boring feel free to just ignore me) the varying space between any two sheets of foundation does mean that the bees have to decide whether to make the cells a particular size and decrease the moving space for two bees between the two sides, or vice versa. Which is normally the result
I understand Adrian's point above now, that maybe the bees end up smaller in a hive with hoffman spacing. Is this what might happen?
as i understand it the bees will draw the comb minimum of long enough for a bee of the size of the cells (you can decrease bee size by making the cells a bit smaller, in stages, but not by much as it gets difficult for the girls to make the cell if they are too big for it themselves) (oddly they will make the comb cell longer if they have the chance, but this wont effect bee size... if it's too short a cell, they simply won't lay in it and it becomes stores only)
with he same bees cell depths will be the same (they will only become shortened with a decrease in cell diameter once they are being built by these smaller bees). the hoffman spacing does not allow for two bees to walk past each other as easily on opposite sides of the frame, there has to be a degree of avoiding one another. the manley spacing allows for two bees to sit directly opposite one another and fan their wings comfortably.
the hoffman is better for fitting more brood into a smaller space, the bees manage to maintain the temp ok summer but come winter the bees can't huddle as closely to maintain their warmth in colder climes (south UK is ok), and things are generally less efficient as bees are constantly passing one another to feed brood/ deliver/collect from the super etc. as Adrian pointed out hoffmans also lead to more rolling/squishing on inspection, use the extra space you have to move frames clear away form one another before pulling out, then push back together horizontally slowly to allow bees to align themselves. then use the dummy board to hold the space.
hoffmans also decrease drone count (a bit) as it makes it difficult for the bees to cap the cell into their little walking space. Manly is closer the natural gap bees leave, and has been said to decrease varroa count as if they fall off a bees back there is at least a chance it won't hit another bee's body before the mesh floor) however hoffmans supposed to be better for nosema levels.. and allows a lesser number of bees to maintain the brood (they can't cover both sides so don't feel they need to) allowing more bees to forrage, if weather is v bad tho they sometimes can't keep the temperature stable enough leading to chalk brood.
if you're not careful to scrape the propolys off frequently the shoulders of the hoffmans will end up growing and you'll move towards manley anyways. the shoulders allow a much larger surface for propylis to build up, which is more difficult to remove it from.. so your big gap wont be so bad in a few months.
edited forgot to say... make the gap too big though and they'll prefer to put stores in it, make uneven depth comb which will lead to more rolling/crashing deaths. so eg in supers don't space them too far apart unless you plan to empty of bees before harvesting)
