My other gripe is top bars made of pine or spruce. The bigger question is why the ears of top bars are undercut so much. I agree about the depth of the rabbets.
Personally, I wonder why anyone is still using wood but that is a personal matter. I found plastic better in every way except when it comes time to dispose of them. Some were made of a plastic that became brittle with time but more recent frames are tougher.
> The bigger question is why the ears of top bars are undercut so much. A deeper rabbit would allow stronger top bars.
There is no good reason since the top bars are always cut from considerably thicker wood than the tabs.
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> One of our guys custom-built his boxes with deeper rabbits, and thicker frame ends.
The first 100 hives I bought were from two old guys (at least they seemed old then). One was pushing 100 and the other was eighty as I recall. They had a lot of jumbos and all the boxes had rabbets 3/4" deep .
The top bars were hardwood with 5/8" or maybe 3/4" thick tabs and 2" nails holding the frames together.
It seemed like a good system but I ended up cutting things down to match the other outfits I bought. That was before carbide blades were widely and cheaply sold so you can imagine the surprises.
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