14x12 frames

[kighill]

All of my bees are on Nationals and I usually buy my frames in the sales.
I am giving some thoughts towards 14x12 brood boxes and frames.

My question is do 14x12 frames ever go into the sales?

 

[oliver90owner]

Yes.

 

[Dadnlad]

Around the £40 mark for fifty seconds I think

 

[Erichalfbee]

All of my bees are on Nationals and I usually buy my frames in the sales.
I am giving some thoughts towards 14x12 brood boxes and frames.

My question is do 14x12 frames ever go into the sales?

Yes. I always get mine in the sales

 

[linoleum bonypart]

I've decided to change three hives

 

[Erichalfbee]

I like my 14x12s having started with standard Nationals.
If I was starting from scratch though and knew all I do now I would go poly Langstroth.

 

[REDWOOD]

14 x 12 are good as long as you're are not a migratory beekeeper as moving them can be a trifle heavy at times.
The cheapest new I have fond are these but still work out £26 more than in the sales for 50 https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/frames/14-x-12/

 

[nantmoel]

We paid £29 at the Welsh Spring Convention for 50, I like the 14x12 frames but have started wondering if they big enough for a prolific queen. This season we have seen queens lay every single frame up in a 14x12 BB. I really don't want to go down the road of double BB's.

 

[enrico]

Around the £40 mark for fifty seconds I think

I have heard of seconds and thirds but never of fifty seconds....what are they? A one inch piece of wood? He he

 

[REDWOOD]

We paid £29 at the Welsh Spring Convention for 50, I like the 14x12 frames but have started wondering if they big enough for a prolific queen. This season we have seen queens lay every single frame up in a 14x12 BB. I really don't want to go down the road of double BB's.

Buckfast yes, double brood every time and the entrance blocks need removing to stop congestion. worth noting that poly double brood might be a better option with only 10 frames per box and far lighter if moving them to pastures greener

 

[Erichalfbee]

Buckfast yes, double brood every time

You keep your Buckies on 14x12 double brood?

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

I have some really prolific Italian queens that will almost fill the 14x12 but only almost they do seem to fill the supers to maintain space in the brood but they have to be on in readiness. I have run some of my poly's with eleven frames by shaving off one side of the spacers on the two outside frames, I have not had any unduly stuck together. I bought a few hundred frames in the big t winter sale but will try the abelo this year as I have heard good reports about the quality and price.

 

[MuswellMetro]

considered Commercial 16x10 as well, same footprint, just a bit smaller brood area but easier to manipulate IF you can get on with short lugs like the rest of the world

 

[Anduril]

You keep your Buckies on 14x12 double brood?

I've run double brood 14x12 for 2 months per year for the past 3 years

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've run double brood 14x12 for 2 months per year for the past 3 years

And there's Roger Patterson yacking on about how we should all be keeping our frugal cold bees in one standard National.
I did once manage to get one of HM's queens to fill a 14x12 and half a super

 

[REDWOOD]

You keep your Buckies on 14x12 double brood?

I will next year. Just about managed with a single this year

 

[Erichalfbee]

Where do you get your buckies from ?

 

[REDWOOD]

I'm not obliged to say

 

[Briarfield]

14 x 12 are good as long as you're are not a migratory beekeeper as moving them can be a trifle heavy at times.

The cheapest new I have fond are these but still work out £26 more than in the sales for 50 https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/frames/14-x-12/

These were excellent quality when I bought them earlier this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[oliver90owner]

About 70.000 cells in a 14 x 12. Cell cycle is around 25 days. That means the queen is laying how many? eggs per day consistently? Must be a lot of drones, increasing the cell re-use cycle time!

Even if 15% is honey arch, there are still 60k cells available for brooding. Not so much time in the season when queenie will be laying in excess of 2000 eggs per day for most strains. This is all assuming only 11 frames, not the 12 possible, in the box.

Another way of looking at it is colony size. 3000 bees dying every average day means a hive population of around 120,000? Some colony! I really think that a lot of beekeepers exaggerate the lay rate of the average honeybee queen.

There was one person on the forum that claimed her queen(s) layed up a complete deep brood (50,000 cells) in ten days and then had a rest. It just doesn't work like that!

Think about it.