Bee Space

[Polyanwood]

I am about to do the Basic Exam and would like some advice on bee space please. I thought Langstroth found that bee space was universal about 5/16th inch, and that this would always be the bees' preferred distance between the combs and that they would propolyse smaller spaces and draw out the comb to fill the bigger spaces.

The text says that, "Double bee space is common in the brood box, so that the bees can work back to back."

Is this true? I thought bee space, was bee space was bee space????

 

[hedgerow pete]

bee space is bee space 8mm max anything more is filled with comb thats why we dont put two new foundation sheets next to each other as the girls build there comb between them

 

[Poly Hive]

Don't we?

I often do and have no bother, or rather rarely have bother.

PH

 

[Polyanwood]

bee space is bee space 8mm max

I think now we are metric, the course is saying bee space is 4mm to 6mm, so interestingly 8mm would be double bee space. I'm a but sceptical though still...

 

[hedgerow pete]

your right polyhive in theroy we should not we some of us do and get away with it , i cant they build every where they are not to , as for the imperial stuff, can i just point out that since 1969 the uk has been metric and as such before my life started so i dont talk fourty year old diamentions, the bee space that i use is 8mm as 6mm is just a little to tight but i would not go past 9 to 10mm and i have never kept a bee that will go through a 4mm gap!
and whilst i do a little rant on this imperial stuff, the most returned point is america is still imperial and my answer to that is , 1 i am not in america nor am i an american and 2 most of america is metric, cars , nasa, engineering and of course there flippin army forces vietnam was fought using 7.62mm rounds and maps measured in kilometers (clicks) and i can personal verify that if you are shot by a flippin muppet of an american he will fire two rounds of 7,62,, steel at you , i can also verify that they are crap at aimming

 

[Poly Hive]

To my mind 4-6mm is just wrong, I use 8mm in millimetres...LOL

PH

 

[Finman]

.
with 4-6 mm bees will be crushed when you handle frames. When bees cannot go trough 4 mm, they fill it with resin.

 

[Poly Hive]

.
with 4-6 mm bees will be crushed when you handle frames. When bees cannot go trough 4 mm, they fill it with resin.

I checked my encyclopaedia of beekeeping earlier and they said 6 - 8 but usually taken to be 8.

I would pull your lecturer over this as 4 is just nonsense.

PH

 

[Polyanwood]

Glad we cleared that up then!

And the issue of double bee space in the brood box? Is that true?

 

[Finman]

Glad we cleared that up then!

And the issue of double bee space in the brood box? Is that true?

In Finland we have had 10 mm space. Nowadays it seems smaller.

Too tight dimension means that there is no tolerance and bees will be crushed.
Twisted frames make nuisance and drone brood areas here and there.


There are in so many places those "spaces". If some one have written "double space" it is seriuos mistake. Bees make done cells and burr where even they can .

 

[user 382]

Hi Polyanwood,

I pulled out my copy of the Beekeeping Study Notes for modules 1-4 and found it said the following (paraphrased from pages 9 & 10):

• Bees will propolise less than 6mm and build brace/burr comb when greater than 10mm.
• Bee space considered to be 8mm allowing for a tolerance of 2mm above/below to allow for expansion and contraction of woodwork.
• This includes the space between boxes of frames and between frames and crown board, between the walls and side bars, between the walls and end comb and between adjacent top bars and side bars of frames.
• The exception being between the bottom bars and the floor. Here 25mm allows for 'parking' space for bees in bad weather and for building drone brood during rapid expansion in the spring.

It does go on to mention double bee space (this bit taken exactly as printed):

"If a frame spacing of 1 3/8in (35mm) is used the space between comb faces becomes 1/2in (13mm) [ie. two bee spaces of 1/4in (6mm)] allowing the bees to work the two comb faces back to back. If the frame spacing is 1 1/2in (38mm) then the inter comb spacing increases to 5/8in (16mm), ie. two bee spaces of 5/16in (8mm)."
​

If it helps, I didn't even mention double bee space when I did my basic exam , yet still passed .

Steve

 

[Polyanwood]

Thanks. That's cleared that up then.

I think The Basic is just a brief oral exam... double bee space probably won't come up, but I owe another woman doing it an apology as when she was talking about double bee space I told her I thought she was wrong. Fortunately I am an expert in apologising as I seem to have the need to do it all the time.