At 08:44 AM 11/16/96 -0500, you wrote:
>The all-mediums configuration has the advantage (so it's said) that you are
>more often shifting entire boxes than individual frames.  That is one
>reason why Dr. C. L. Farrar used and recommended them decades ago.  His,
>incidentally, were more or less square, and held 13 frames of Illinois
>(medium) depth.  He overwintered colonies in stacks of 4 or 5 of these.
>
>I recently came across a new German beekeeping manual in which the author
>devoted an entire section of the book to the management scheme using
>mediums only.  It was the same basic idea -- you shift around entire boxes
>to direct the activities of the colony. Evidently this is catching on in
>Europe.
>
>The smaller units are a great deal easier to move around.  The drawbacks
>are, you have 30 or 40 brood combs, so it can be a royal pain to find the
>queen.  The investment is more, as you need a higher number of boxes and
>frames to achieve the same volume as with deeps. This can get expensive, as
>frames and boxes are about the same price whether you buy deep or medium
>size.
>
>Burr combing, or connecting of the combs in one box to the ones below and
>above, is a bane here, too.  The bees (evidently) prefer continuity in
>their brood nest, so the spaces between brood boxes get filled with drone
>comb and brood, even though the bee-space is "correct."  This happens with
>deeps, too, of course, but perhaps moreso with shallow frames and numerous
>shallow brood-boxes comprising the brood chamber. There is more wood within
>the brood nest, too, and some have claimed this restricts the queen's
>rounds, and as a result the compactness of the brood pattern. Please relate
>any experience along these lines.
>Thanks... JWG
 
 
 
        Food for though and comments.  How about 8 frame deeps
 
Dan
 
 
Daniel D. Dempsey
P. O. Box #5
Red Bluff, CA 96080-0005
U.S.A.
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