Hi all
I don't recall if I posted this before but it reinforces the idea that the correct number frames in the US standard hive should be nine, not ten. Almost all the commercial beekeepers I have known adhere to this config

The seventh and last condition for the successful prevention of
swarming is the spacing of the frames 1 1/2 inches from center to center,
instead of the usual spacing of 1 1/2 inches. The bees work as satisfac
torily in combs spaced 1 1/2 inches as in those with the narrower spacing.
But there is a greater comfort for them in the wider spacing, which adds
a total of about 160 cubic inches in the narrow breathing and habitable
space of an 8-frame brood-chamber. Think of the large number of bees
which may be accommodated in such a space!

The standard hives of the present day are nearly all of the narrower
kind. Nevertheless the broader spacing is much the better, both for
prevention of swarming and for clustering in the winter, since more bees
can hang between the brood combs. My attention was called to the
former of these advantages during the past summer by Mr. Allen Latham
of Connecticut, one of the most observing beekeepers I have ever met.
We have used the wider spacing for years, as more convenient, without
realizing until lately that it was one of the causes of our success in
avoiding swarming.

The Prevention of Swarming
C. P. DADANT, Hamilton, Illinois.
Given at the Michigan State Convention. 
Lansing, November 30 and December 1st and 2nd, 1916

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