DN4 or DN5?

[Jackie]

Hi Everyone

I'm a newbee and on a learning curve at the mo. Apparently the frames my bees came on are DN5s and I have mistakenly bought DN4s to replace the old ones with. So now I have a mixture. I have been told by my mentor that I need to change this, but Thorne say it's okay to mix. Does anyone have thoughts on the best way forward please?

Thanks.

Jackie

 

[iball]

I can't see mixing the two would cause a problem, the only difference is the width of the top bar, inside the side bars. Everything else is the same.
Ian

 

[Jackie]

Thanks Ian. The only problem I can think of is that the top bars are slightly different in width and so the bees might make brace comb here, but I can't see any other probs.

Jackie

 

[Teemore]

I have attended a couple of lectures where attendees were advised that the extra width of the DN5 top bar appears to reduce bridging comb. Another point of interest i came across is that the extra width may also serve to keep the Q down in the Brood Box if you are not using a Q excluder. I haven't tested this out though!!

 

[Midland Beek]

You only need to change to one frame type if having two types of frame will bug you, the bees will not mind.

 

[iball]

You could always run a plane across the DN5 top bar to make a DN4.

Ian

 

[Jackie]

ha ha ha, thanks everyone that's been really useful. But the only planes I know about take me to faraway places! I will leave my mismatched frames as they are for now. I don't think the bees seem to mind.

Jackie.

 

[MuswellMetro]

ha ha ha, thanks everyone that's been really useful. But the only planes I know about take me to faraway places! I will leave my mismatched frames as they are for now. I don't think the bees seem to mind.

Jackie.

Th**nes will sell you just the DN5 top bars