Interesting Article

[drstitson]

"takes 14 frames and a dummy board, which seems a bit stupid, why not just 14 frames?"

the point of the dummy board, as always, is to provide a comb free space to make frame handling easier without rolling bees.

 

[Frisbee]

the point of the dummy board, as always, is to provide a comb free space to make frame handling easier without rolling bees.

That may be so, but as I said earlier, they didn't pull out the two end frames so there were no bees on them anyway. They also failed to fill any super frames at each end and especially above the dummy board!

So ... although you no longer use them I'm interested to know whether the outer frames were not used by the bees because the colony was not big enough or because you put supers on before the outer frames were filled ? etc....

I used two hives in two different locations. The colonies were plenty big enough when the supers went on. In my experience if the colony isn't big enough they don't do anything in the super anyway. I did get plenty of honey - this was the year before last, last year being the disaster that it was....I tried to do a Bailey frame change....hahahaha, starting in the spring and was underway when it became apparent that no wax was going to be drawn that year, so you can't really say I gave them a fair chance. They are old fashioned enough to have no decent hand holds...Gale used two men per colony for working as the supers were deep, my friend who I got them off cut them down. So I found them cumbersome and heavy to handle and I normally have my frames 'warm way' which meant these were 'cold way' I didn't like standing at the side and leaning over and didn't like standing at the back and twisting....too old to change my ways y'see...

2 Gales hives for sale plus two supers each, crown boards, excluders, modern OMF, roofs... (no dummy boards)

Frisbee

 

[Ely]

Low drop here too. If everyone decided to stop treating they'd soon rise again. Can't see a reason not to treat.

 

[notaeab]

use gales hive now many still have the original hive number on them thin brass plates i have gales old hive tool and wiring machine and many more bits n bobs gale ran 13 frame not 14 never with a dummy board far to practical for that

 

[notaeab]

once you have used gales 13 frame hives and the supers the same deeps working anything else is like trying to keep bees all year in nuc boxes

 

[Frisbee]

use gales hive now many still have the original hive number on them thin brass plates i have gales old hive tool and wiring machine and many more bits n bobs gale ran 13 frame not 14 never with a dummy board far to practical for that

Perhaps I can't count ;-) I didn't use a dummy board as I don't have any, but the space annoyed me. I like my nationals tight....pretty sure at least one still has it's original number...I'll have a look-see and report back.

Frisbee