Hello!

I'm a beginning hobby beekeeper. I have 6 hives by now, three with carniolan
bees and three with what once was the Estonin dark bee, but which has
hybridised by now and turned even more mean that it initially was (I'm going
to requeen these three hives next year).
I've found a lot of very interesting postings here in the BEE-L archives and
after spending several days and nights behind the computer decided to ask
advices from the more experienced beekeepers.
I'm going to build a couple of hives this winter. But I don't want to build
the traditional ones. I'd build a hive that has a brood chamber that has no
frames and where bees could build their combs without foundation. I'd use
supers for "my part" of honey. Now, my questions:
*does the round or oval cross-section of the brood-chamber have  any advantages?
*which would be the optimal dimensions (supposedly from the bee's viewpoint)
of the brood chamber?
*I'd cut off half of the combs in the brood chamber every year - would that
be wise?
In addition I have to say that my hives are in their certain places all the
year round and that the main reason I started to keep bees was a need for
pollinators in my orchards. So, I'm not going to make profit from selling honey.

Merry Christmas!
Harri Poom
Estonia

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