message to base-I think they found the wire

[Andy Duff]

Bit of a give away, made me laugh

 

[fatshark]

Are those three QC's on brace comb at the top right?

 

[enrico]

Good one Andy.....made me laugh!

 

[Luminos]

My bees do the same, but only on 14 x 12 frames (??)

 

[aberreef]

Got a few frames like this too. Not as clean as that one though, they really don't like that wire

 

[Andy Duff]

Are those three QC's on brace comb at the top right?

Not any more.
Simple job.
remove all castellated rails from 3 single brood hives (the former "bee-keeper" was a £$"%$^^%) 10 frames in a national deep!!!!!!!
Convert all 3 permanently to double brood.
unite 10 frame nuc (slightly bonkers part Carniolans HM to be dispatched) with heinz 57 breed (little darlings). It took 2 hours to find the condemned Q, hiding in a cut out bit of foundation at the bottom of the frame, I go in for the kill she flies back into the nuc with 3 frames in it and what now looks like 25 million bees.
Assistant squats down to try and spot her and is stung by bee on back of his knee, assistant remembers urgent appointment and leaves.
Thanks to the poster last week who advised on finding the queen by wide setting two pairs of tightly spaced frames and leaving for 20 mins....
opened nuc, lifted first frame HM sat in middle of it and the axe falls.
The next job is to convert to Hoff's when I can work out how to un-glue 100 DN1's

 

[Baggyone]

Hoffman converters Andy?

Baggy

 

[Andy Duff]

Hoffman converters Andy?

Baggy

Cheers. £9.45 per 100 @NBS so that's times 2

Do they work okay? (from anybody who has used them)

 

[ultreen1]

I had to convert 5 dn1 I had in a bought nuc. It wasn't easy, I did 2 every inspection. I had to remove the spacers and put the converters on! If the frames were heavily propolised i found it helped them fit better. they do have holes for pins but I didn't fancy bashing them into a frame of brood.

 

[For want of a better word]

my experience with the converters are they are a waste of time and money.. let alone effort
I M H O use castellated spacers !!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Remove the castellations, add runners (or invert castellations to use as runners) and put narrow plastic spacers on the lugs - far less hassle

 

[Black Comb]

I agree converters are a waste of time.
Plastic spacers better (but not as good as proper Hofmanns)

 

[MuswellMetro]

my experience with the converters are they are a waste of time and money.. let alone effort
I M H O use castellated spacers !!

Sorry but he wants them for DN1 not SN1, but all means use castlellated spacers in a super with SN frames( if you must) but he has just converted from 10 castlellated spacers to runners in the brood boxes....you should not use casrtle in a brood box as the spacing is wrong

haffmans.convertors...not as good as DN4/DN5....as the dont quite match, move and fall off unless you secure them

 

[Andy Duff]

I used plastic spacers in the 10 frame nuc, they only allowed 10 frames and the spacing was too wide the bees built their own comb all over the place, every inspection was a nightmare.
One of our cooperative bought some spacers and I could only get 8 frames in a national (I chose not to bother with them for the obvious reason).
I am now on 11 frames, spaced by eye and a mark on my hive tool, I would feel happier with 11 frames and a dummy board (or is it a blank?), this will involve a bit of calculation and double checking by measuring and a new mark on my hive tool.
Next year I may test one hive on triple brood.

 

[rockdoc]

I've found the opposite experience with hoff converters, they work fine for me, although they can make some boxes a tight fit.

 

[Andy Duff]

I've found the opposite experience with hoff converters, they work fine for me, although they can make some boxes a tight fit.

could you get 11 frames to fit, 11 frames and a dummy or just 10 frames? and who supplied them?
cheers

 

[betterbee]

Converters

TRUSTED FRIEND TO BUY MY FRAMES IN T.....S SALE BOUGHT ME 100 STRAIGHT SIDED NATIONAL DEEPS HAD TO USE PLASTIC CONVERTERS WITH 2 DRAWING PINS TO SECURE NO PROBLEMS,BUT WILL CHOOSE WHO ORDERS MY FRAMES MORE CAREFULLY

 

[hiveabee]

The little darlings could have spelt your initials correct.