Drone frame.

[Teemore]

Morning Keith, I was thinking this over. If you were to run brood and a half on the drone producing colonies you could drop a couple of Manley frames with drone foundation into the half along with hoffman frames. You can migrate these out to the sides as you are currently doing with your deep frames.
I have a number of dummy frames that give narrow spacing to one face and slightly wider spacing to the other. When the face with the wider spacing is towards the brood nest, the colony will often produce a fair bit of drone brood on the adjacent comb.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

So far....not so good though I am ever hopeful. Next year we'll see.
I will keep you all posted if anybody is minutely interested

Yes please. Maybe a sticky thread? @Hivemaker. ? @Admin ?

 

[keith pierce]

It does if you have 30 in the one apairy

Yes

 

[Tremyfro]

So far....not so good though I am ever hopeful. Next year we'll see.
I will keep you all posted if anybody is minutely interested

I'm interested...I'm having to live my Hygienic Dream through you...since mine scarpered. I think my LASI queen must have infiltrated the colony next door.....the Flow Frames were spotless when we removed them!

 

[Finman]

. I think my LASI queen must have infiltrated the colony next door...!

I read about Lasi queens, but I did not are, what was the race. I saw that it avoids almost all diseases.

Those hygienic queens have been reared in many countries long time.

Worth to remember that it only cleans freezed brood from combs. There are no specified disease resistant tests with those bees.

 

[Into the lions den]

Hoffman frames are 1"3/8 while the Manley frame is 1" 5/8 and i was thinking along the lines they the bigger side bar might fit my needs better. I have looked on the internet for natural depth of drone comb but cant find anything so far.

Actually Hoffman BS frames USED to be 1" 1/2. All our old frames are thus and we still get our side bars specially made order with the old style wider side bars.

The narrower side bars became popular quite a long time ago as you could get 12 in a BS deep. In my opinion it is indeed too narrow and irregular combs in any way (including drone patches and saggy foundation) tend to lead to bald patches on opposite faces. It is much less so with the old style spacing size.

Yes its only 1/8 of an inch, but it does make a difference.

 

[Swarm]

I bet it does, a better honey arc for one.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I bet it does, a better honey arc for one.

More honey stored for winter, wider clustering space in the seams for the bees, a much better fit in a standard national/Smith box, no need for a dummy frame or any wide gaps left, and find any honey combs uncap much better in my particular case.

 

[Swarm]

A beek I know kept most of his hives on castellated spacers and the first thing I noticed was how deep the honey arc was and yes, no dummy board too.

 

[keith pierce]

I was onto Donegal beekeeping supplies and he is getting a batch made up with manly sidebars all the way to the bottom. Flat on one side and pointed on the other side, I will give them a go next year

 

[keith pierce]

Morning Keith, I was thinking this over. If you were to run brood and a half on the drone producing colonies you could drop a couple of Manley frames with drone foundation into the half along with hoffman frames. You can migrate these out to the sides as you are currently doing with your deep frames.
I have a number of dummy frames that give narrow spacing to one face and slightly wider spacing to the other. When the face with the wider spacing is towards the brood nest, the colony will often produce a fair bit of drone brood on the adjacent comb.[/QU

Thanks for your thoughtful time, but brood and a half would slow down my inspections too much and I really cant see the point in brood and a half. My thinking on brood and a half is that if you think your hive is too small then get a bigger box. But thanks anyway

 

[GaryB]

Actually Hoffman BS frames USED to be 1" 1/2. All our old frames are thus and we still get our side bars specially made order with the old style wider side bars.

The narrower side bars became popular quite a long time ago as you could get 12 in a BS deep. In my opinion it is indeed too narrow and irregular combs in any way (including drone patches and saggy foundation) tend to lead to bald patches on opposite faces. It is much less so with the old style spacing size.

Yes its only 1/8 of an inch, but it does make a difference.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes its only 1/8 of an inch, but it does make a difference.

Now where have I heard that before?...................................

 

[mbc]

As long as it's not some misguided attempt at drone culling to control varroa - another method found rather pointless by LASI

I too like to have a drone frame in my colonies, generally its only half a drone frame as I remove the bottom half of comb on one frame to allow the bees to build drone comb, this frame is marked on the top and is useful on many levels.
- as Kieth mentions, it gives the bees some drone comb so other comb is more likely to be left to worker comb
-it is a quick diagnostic tool for the mindset of the bees, varroa levels and incoming nectar
-if a quick dig with a fork reveals worrying varroa its a moments work to whip the drone comb off and if thiis is done on their first round of drones it sure does slow the mites from building( this is a personal anecdote from my experience, if you'd like me to publish a rigorous scientific paper on it please donate all your cash to #mbcisemigating&needsloadsofdosh.com)
Generally the drone comb is just left in place all season long but it does no harm there, if it wasnt there they'd only build more elsewhere.