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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
James Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:58:58 -0400
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> And then there are those who shave wooden end bars 
> so they can squeeze 11 frames into a 10 frame box. 
> Though I have heard the logic explained I still don't get it.

Well, I did this for a while, and it makes just as much sense as using 9
frames for honey supers in terms of operational efficiency at scales of
300-400 hives and up to less than thousands.

With 11 frames per brood box, you get 10% more brood cells (or brood food
cells), and you can thereby support more brood in each box. Brood comb is
only drawn own so thick, so you sacrifice nothing.  With the extra cells,
one has a slight advantage in terms of the number of larvae that can be
raised by a certain-sized mass of bees, as the brood "sphere" (actually a
watermelon shape in the boxes we use) has more slices through it.

Does this matter?  Dunno, is your older car stock, or did you rip off the
carbs and replace them with dual downdraft Webbers?  Or if your car is new,
did you buy an aftermarket chip to recurve your ECU's performance at
different RPM?  Do you sail with a rail in the water on even the calmest
days? Do you flip Hobie Cats more often than not? Are you a performance
junkie tweaker, or not?

I used to fiddle, as a 10% cost-savings in frames over a barn-full of
9-frame supers made sense, and 10% more brood area per box made sense.  But
the advantages of standardized gear are greater in a "hobby" setting, as one
makes splits for others  and so on.

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