brood and a half do they HAVE to line up?

[8ace]

I have 11 deep brood frames with a plastic dummy board all on plastic spacers and last week put a super above for brood and a half as they are building up very nicely. The super above has 10 frames on castellated spacers. Will this be OK or should I ensure they are all in line and change to 11 castellated spacers or even turn them 90 degrees to one another? Thanks in advance

 

[Thymallus]

Nah, not something to lose sleep over. HM will lay regardless of 11 below and 10 above.

 

[8ace]

Nah, not something to lose sleep over. HM will lay regardless of 11 below and 10 above.

OK cool ta

 

[Canary Honey]

I have a similar set up to you but have the same number of frames in each box.

What I am finding is that the bees always fill the gaps between the top of the frame below and the bottom of the frame above with comb, usually capped drone cells. I remove these to tidy the hive and try to keep comb where is should be.

1) Is this normal?
2) I see this as removing over half of the capped drone, so helping to control varroa?
3) Just a waste of their energy and I wish they wouldn't, much like their enthusiasm for building comb anywhere else, it is more often than not in the wrong place and not in the shape of the frame (bulges out double thickness into the space of the neighboring frame etc)

Hoping I haven't done something stupid in the construction and the spacing is wrong?

 

[YorkshireBees]

I have a similar set up to you but have the same number of frames in each box.

What I am finding is that the bees always fill the gaps between the top of the frame below and the bottom of the frame above with comb, usually capped drone cells. I remove these to tidy the hive and try to keep comb where is should be.

1) Is this normal?
2) I see this as removing over half of the capped drone, so helping to control varroa?
3) Just a waste of their energy and I wish they wouldn't, much like their enthusiasm for building comb anywhere else, it is more often than not in the wrong place and not in the shape of the frame (bulges out double thickness into the space of the neighboring frame etc)

Hoping I haven't done something stupid in the construction and the spacing is wrong?

Check your bee space between boxes. Sounds like one of your boxes isn't right hence brace comb.
Bees will build brace comb anyway but most of the time it's because the bee space isn't right on your box.

 

[YorkshireBees]

I have 11 deep brood frames with a plastic dummy board all on plastic spacers and last week put a super above for brood and a half as they are building up very nicely. The super above has 10 frames on castellated spacers. Will this be OK or should I ensure they are all in line and change to 11 castellated spacers or even turn them 90 degrees to one another? Thanks in advance

Although I wouldn't say it's wrong you may suffer from brace comb more as the spacing is too large between the frames in a 10 frame castellated box.

See how it goes.

 

[8ace]

I've ordered a set of castles with 11 frames it was 3.40 a pair or something so I have them on standby. Ifm things get messy I can switch the half brood body come inspection time with a spare super that I can put 11 in they'll have an extra frame then in they're not already built out too wide

 

[Canary Honey]

Check your bee space between boxes. Sounds like one of your boxes isn't right hence brace comb.
Bees will build brace comb anyway but most of the time it's because the bee space isn't right on your box.

Its not normal then?
The frames are basically at the level of the top of each box and the bee space is at the bottom so what can go wrong? (apart from having the wrong size frame in use!!)

 

[itma]

I've ordered a set of castles with 11 frames it was 3.40 a pair or something so I have them on standby. Ifm things get messy I can switch the half brood body come inspection time with a spare super that I can put 11 in they'll have an extra frame then in they're not already built out too wide

IMHO all brood frames (whatever depth) should be at hoffman spacing and on rails (for simplicity and practicality). The alternative view that castellations are better for all brood boxes is only held by a small minority of British beekeepers.

11-slot castellations give a wider spacing than hoffmans (12 frames to a box when new - 11 and a dummy board for practicality).
SN1 frames (the most usual in crop supers) can be converted with "hoffman converter clips" - which cost about a fiver for 25 framesworth.


Putting the same frames on a closer spacing is itself going to be a messy operation.

 

[wessexmario]

some bees will build brace comb everywhere just for the fun of it, or maybe they prefer having contiguous vertical comb, they probably view the unnatural gaps above and below frames as "holes" and so try to fill it.

My two colonies love making bridging comb, as often as not when I lift frames they're stuck to the one below, if lifting a box I always have to twist it horizontally first to detach it from the frames in the box below, otherwise a few frames in the box below will lift and roll the bees in the lower box.
On the plus side, they seem to draw out foundation fairly quickly and I'm getting good at removing bridge comb quickly when inspecting

 

[8ace]

I can always flip the castle spacers over flat side up then use plastic spacers if they haven't built it out to a given thickness already in which case I'll prob leave them too it

 

[snelgrove]

Brood frames hoffman, super Manley or Hoffman if brood and a half. I run brood and half with Manley no problems. Brood and a half a messy system according to ted hooper and I think he's rite.

 

[wessexmario]

I can always flip the castle spacers over flat side up

some would argue that's the only practical way to install them !

 

[Canary Honey]

according to ted hooper and I think he's rite.

More often than the bees themselves