Dave Cushman's use of Hoffman adapters

[ches chesney]

Hi,
On his page about Hoffman Beekeeping Frame Adapters(http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/hoffadapt.html), Dave Cushman describes his use of spacers cut from these and attached to "[...] the inside face of the ends of brood boxes and supers [...]."
He goes on to describe how these spacers can be used with dummy frames.

If I understand correctly, this approach would give a double bee-space at one end when using self-spacing frames, but a single bee-space at the other when using a dummy frame designed as Dave Cushman describes (http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/dummyframe.html).

Has anyone here used this method?

I'd very much appreciate hearing your experience.

Thank you!
Ches

 

[itma]

Not needed.
The bees only require space for one layer of workers to tend the cells on the outside of the end frame. In my polys it is not at all unusual to get brood on the outer face of the end frame when its hoffmans are butted directly up against the end wall or dummy board.

Dummy 'frame'. IMHO, a dummy board is much better if it is thinner than a frame (otherwise why not just run an extra frame?)
Hence my dummy boards are 10mm plywood with 10mm square stripwood used for topbar and side edging for reinforcement/stiffening/anti-warp.
Hoffmans ONLY on the frames.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not needed.
The bees only require space for one layer of workers to tend the cells on the outside of the end frame. In my polys it is not at all unusual to get brood on the outer face of the end frame when its hoffmans are butted directly up against the end wall or dummy board.

Dummy 'frame'. IMHO, a dummy board is much better if it is thinner than a frame (otherwise why not just run an extra frame?)
Hence my dummy boards are 10mm plywood with 10mm square stripwood used for topbar and side edging for reinforcement/stiffening/anti-warp.
Hoffmans ONLY on the frames.

 

[wessexmario]

not needed, especially as you should push the dummy frame hard against the frames, not the wall, otherwise the spacing will be wrong.
It never all exactly fits (and you don't want it to otherwise it'll all get stuck together), there'll still be a little bit of space left between the dummy and the box wall, that's of no matter as it's "outside" the comb area, the bees don't tend to make much comb in the narrow space and it's easily scraped off from there.

 

[ches chesney]

Many thanks for your replies!

So, there seems, so far, to be a consensus that Dave Cushman's spaced 'dummy frame' approach is unnecessary and that a simple divider board will give a more satisfactory result.

OK!

 

[B+.]

consensus that Dave Cushman's spaced 'dummy frame' approach is unnecessary and that a simple divider board will give a more satisfactory result.

Dave was always coming up with solutions to problems that the rest of us didn't even know we had. He would quickly produce technical drawings with little, or no, description of what they were for. His website reflects his compulsive inventor side. I am sure they did have a purpose.

 

[itma]

Many thanks for your replies!

So, there seems, so far, to be a consensus that Dave Cushman's spaced 'dummy frame' approach is unnecessary and that a simple divider board will give a more satisfactory result.

OK!

That wasn't what was said.

A divider board fits tight against the hive sides - preventing bees from getting past, "dividing" the hive.
A dummy board has the same beespaces around it as a frame.

There are occasions when "fat dummies" are used - notably in the Ben Harden Q rearing method. http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/benhardenmethod.html
But in everyday use a dummy board is much better than a dummy frame.

 

[ches chesney]

A divider board fits tight against the hive sides - preventing bees from getting past, "dividing" the hive.
A dummy board has the same beespaces around it as a frame.

Thank you for the clarification. I didn't know the difference.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

There are dummy frames that are sold on eBay which consist of a hoffman frame and a bit of plastic placed where the foundation would be. I would not even consider using one as chances are bees will draw comb on the adjacent waxed frame and then you would not be able to get the dummy frame out.