"I should be acquiring some dadant deeps. Im just wondering if you folks find that they are truely big enough for the queen to lay in. I have two standard langstroth deeps and my queens will lay in 16 of these frames and even move into the next box up some times, actually quite often. I would like some opinions from you guys over there across the big pond that use this stuff."
I have modified dadants, and I keep Carnies, Greeks, Danish, and UK Yamahondukis (mongrels) amongst others.
They work just fine, and the Carnies don't swarm. The Carnie queens lay at a prodigious rate during flows, then slow down during lower flows or when the temp. drops.
One of things you have to do apart from having big brood boxes is to keep working the brood box, and keep the brood nest open. I also don't always give them frames full of foundation when "checkerboarding", occasionally I will just put a starter strip in the frame to keep them busy.
Are you saying you use 2 x Lang deeps as a single hive, ie double brood?