Apologies. I made a mess of sending my original letter and lost it and the
quotation I was replying to. Briefly, a member wrote querying the demise of
the deep Dadant comb. A reply came back to the effect that the combs were
too heavy, leading to possible broken lugs and bottom bars. Having used
this deep comb for some fifty years without damaged frames I thought I
ought to write in its defence. Yes, the combs are heavy, around ten pounds
when well filled with stores. I once had a comb, which I put on display,
weighing fifteen pounds. It was, of course,  a freak in that I had left a
wide gap between it and the next combs and the bees had extended the cells
to fill the gaps.
Dadant combs are similar to the Langstroth, the only difference is the
depth, which is 11.25 inches. The Dadant hive has external dimensions of 20
inches by 18.5 and holds eleven combs. Long ago I found it too large and
switched to what we call Jumbo Langstroth. This has the same dimensions as
the Langstroth, 20 inches by 16.25. Only the depth is different so all
parts are interchangeable. Like the Langstroth it holds ten combs at a
pinch. I prefer nine and a dummy board to fill the gap. This makes comb
removal much easier. Only one brood chamber is required for the queen. We
always use an excluder so brood and honey never mix.
It would appear that the Langstroth is the most popular hive world wide but
it has never taken off in England. We have several types of hive in general
use. The National is popular but rather small for a prolific queen,
requiring a second brood chamber or a shallow, the Commercial,with a much
larger brood chamber and an excellent design in my opinion. Then we have
the Jumbo Langstroth and the Dadant, both excellent to stay in one place
but too heavy for migratory work.                                Sid P.
Southern England.