Hi All
 
At my university Prof Hepburn who is very good with bees has used a
system where he filed the edges of frames so as to reduce the bee
space showing between frames - this works for our bees as they are
slightly smaller - in this way it removes the brace comb. However the
size of a good cape queen and a good euroqueen are not very
dissimilar and I find in the hives that use some of these frames that
I bought that I can fit eleven frames in a box and the queen does not
go through, even if prompted. If one then moves her upwards she does
not go back down.
 
I don't like these frames and think they are a good idea with bad
side efects. They result in an increased risk of rolling the queen,
and ripping brood and all sorts of nasties.
 
As Andy mentioned, a queen is very unoriginal when it comes to moving
around a hive. Watch a queen in an observation hive - you will see
how she moves from frame to frame on braces - recently I tried to see
if it increases hive productivit to cut corks in quarters and
thenembed them in the middle of frames so that two adjacent frames
would be in contact by this bridge - when I opened the hive to
inspect the bees had glued the things together and I ripped up the
beautiful brood sheets!!
 
Anyhow, hope that is of interest.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P
the I. may not stand for important.
(rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)