Hi Ellen & all

>  but the grooves d tend to fill up with propolis after a couple years
>  of use, making a bit of a mess,

That indicates to me that either the design of the rebate that takes the
frame lugs, is incorrect, or that you are using a strain of bee that uses
excessive propolis.

In UK our frame lugs are 9.1 mm thick and we arrange a for 6 mm gap
underneath these lugs. The space above the lugs is either 8.9 mm or 1 mm
according to whether "top" or "bottom" bee space is in use.

The rebate is often (sometimes) coated with petroleum jelly. This may seem
like "extra work" but I can assure you it saves many times the amount that
it takes to do the original coating.

> > On Kelley boxes the top inside ends were rabbeted out 7/8"

In UK, in imperial times, we used to use 15/16" for this.
This equates to 24 mm in modern production terms. We call frame rests
"runners" in the UK and they are manufactured so that the frames sit 6 mm
above the rebate "shelf" If we use castellated spacers these are also
installed so that there is 6 mm under the lugs.

We do not get the build up of wax and propolis that you are complaining of.

Allowing the lugs to rest directly on the rebate seems like deliberately
asking the bees to propolise.


Regards From:- Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping and Bee Breeding, http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman
IBList Archives, http://website.lineone.net/~d.cushman