In a message dated 96-11-17 21:02:04 EST, you write:
 
<< m:   [log in to unmask] (Joel Govostes)
 To:    [log in to unmask]
 
 Hi Dean:
 There is a current thread on the BEE-L regarding equipment for less than
 ten frames, such as 5-fr or 8-fr sizes.
 
 Seems to me some photos in a bee magazine article about Hybri-Bees (years
 ago) showed some hives in the program there.  They looked like 6 5/8" boxes
 stacked up, 5 or 6 high, but each chamber appeared only 5 or 6 frames wide.
 Do you know how these narrow or half-size hive bodies were being used, or
 to what advantage?
 
 I'd be interested -- was it just a good unit for raising queens or
 something? (if you have any background information on this for me, you can
 post the answer to the List)
 Thanks and best regards,  [I'm sick of snow already...!]               J.
 Govostes
 
  >>
Joel,
 
Your observations were correct we still use the five frame hives here at HBI.
What they are is Five Frame 6 5/8" nucs. We use the nucs to raise and store
Instrumentally Inseminated Queens. We also stack them up to five and six high
to have the bees draw comb on flows and for winter stores. They are for Queen
rearing and storage only as they are to small for much of anything else.
There small size will not work for evaluation of stock etc.
 
We run approximently 500 of the nucs and they perform well even in the hot
summer months. The baby nucs will not work here after the first of April
because the heat drives the bees out of the boxes. That was the reason for
HBI using them in the first place.
 
Dean M. Breaux
Hybri-Bees
Breeding Better Bees