CAUTION! frame spacing

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worrywort

New Bee
Joined
Dec 25, 2009
Messages
31
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Location
Gravesend, Kent, uk
Hive Type
National
Hello There.
I have national hives with hoffman spaced frames.

having decided to rear queens known as A.M.M. or british black type. The book says they prefer a slightly wider frame spacing.

Hoffman frames are 1 3/8 wide plastic ends are 1 7/16.

My frames are under size by a tiny ammount which allowed my to insert twelve frames in a box without having to stand on the last frame to get it

I have fitted plastic ends to the frames to get the correct spacing and I could have saved a few pounds and many swarms had I noticed.

have You had problems recently?
 
I keep near natives on hoffman spacing and theyve never told me the gaps too narrow
 
frame spacing

Sorry. The book I was refering to is "Honeybees of the british isles, by B cooper" and the frame spacing is hoffman frames which should be 1 3/8 wide, but are narrower by1/32.
 
Sorry. The book I was refering to is "Honeybees of the british isles, by B cooper" and the frame spacing is hoffman frames which should be 1 3/8 wide, but are narrower by1/32.

The book might be good in other respects, but a change of 1/32 of an inch frame spacing is very firmly into magic crystal/mushroom territory. Accurately measure a frame and you 'll find it can deviate up to 1/16" or sometimes more. Plastic spacers should be more accurate, but then you have to factor in propolis.

The answer? 11 hoffman frames to a nationals and a thin dummy board, then you don't need to worry about rolling bees or cramming in that last frame and inspections are a breeze when you loose spacers and castellations.

Now all you need to really worry about is where to get 'pure' AMM and rear them.
 
Worrywort?

You seem to be overly concerned.

Firstly I can assure you bees are rather more tolerant of space than you might think.

Secondly having run AMM (very pure AMM) in Scotland for many years and not a few colonies, I can assure you they are more than happy to be on Hoffman frames.

PH
 
Hello There.
I have national hives with hoffman spaced frames.

having decided to rear queens known as A.M.M. or british black type. The book says they prefer a slightly wider frame spacing.

Hoffman frames are 1 3/8 wide plastic ends are 1 7/16.

My frames are under size by a tiny ammount which allowed my to insert twelve frames in a box without having to stand on the last frame to get it

I have fitted plastic ends to the frames to get the correct spacing and I could have saved a few pounds and many swarms had I noticed.

have You had problems recently?

On a more natural cell size like 4.9 you can go down to 32mm spacing between frames, I personally wouldn’t go large for the Amm than the standard frame spacing , but if it was me I would put them on ready drawn 4.9mm for a few brood turn over’s and then slowly exchange frames with starter strips to see what they prefer.
Tony
 
I found a similar problem with Hoffman frames I bought this year in the Thornes sale, they were 1mm under size, not much you might say but in a National box I can put in 12 frames and still have a 10 mm gap at the end, in my National Poly I can only get 10 frames in normally, now I can get 11 and a 6mm gap. I am going to run them and see but interesting to have an extra 5000 cells to play with.

Enzo
 
similar problem

Give them two or three coats of thick varnish and the problem will disappear.

Just do some of them for the poly? he he.

Regards, RAB
 
seems an odd question for someone running 10 hives, I would say you are over thinking this one, didnt we have a report on the forum discussing the benefits of 42mm+ (may have been more) spacing not long ago..
 
seems an odd question for someone running 10 hives, I would say you are over thinking this one, didnt we have a report on the forum discussing the benefits of 42mm+ (may have been more) spacing not long ago..

it was

46mm italian spacing to reduce varroa, suggestion was using manley 41mm spacing might also be a goer

if i had AMM pure i'd be trying then on either starter strips on 32mm or 4.9m on 32mm spacing like tony 350i

i have some of~Cushmans 32mm castles for when i eventual get AMM
 
Hi MuswellMetro
Just imagine rearing Apis mm queens and then selling them to all that want the strain Amm, you could make a bomb, Good thinking.
 

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