From: "allen dick" "I hope that no one believes that."   , referrring to
Jim's earlier post: " 2)  Mass-production approaches as used by larger
beekeepers are simply NOT APPROPRIATE for a small, or even mid-sized
beekeepers. Mass-production approaches, where hives are standardized merely
for handling, movement, and the convenience of preventing hired hands from
making mistakes, are clearly not intended to maximize colony strength or
honey production"

I used to believe it, chiefly because I thought commercial methods were
boring, reducing the interest possible from managing a colony down to simple
hard labour, just banging boxes about with no time to examine, muse, see the
beauty, learn anything new. I rather resented what I saw as the suppression
of beekeeping as a part of everyday life for the countryman in favour of
industrialised methods that treat bees as mere items of industrial plant, to
be altered, abused, destroyed at will just to make money , with no regard or
respect for the millions of years of slow evolution into so complex and
well-adapted a form of life. The posts on this theme have however been quite
outstandingly informative and educative -  one of the best demonstrations of
the value of Bee-L for communicating up-to-date ideas and practices.

So,  next year I intend to set up a few colonies on double UK standard
(medium) brood boxes to  compare it with my normal long boxes for deep
frames as a method for hobby beekeeping - despite deciding 30 years ago that
using 2 brood boxes was inherently too clumsy to be fun, and that finding
queens in two boxes was always more tricky than on one set of deep frames.
Each box will however have only 9 frames and 2 dummies - I will still hold
to my belief that u have to be able to create free space in every brood box
for handling combs without jarring bees if u want to minimise disturbance
when operating a hive, and 9 frames reduces the weight to be lifted.  18 UK
brood frames are still a lot for winter in our temperate regions - Ron Brown
advocated a 'double-7' system.

Are any UK beekeepers on the list doing just this already?   Have they made
any careful comparison of 'double 9' against the more normal UK practice of
using one standard and one shallow box for brood, each with 11 frames?

Allen's final words will be pinned up in the Bee Shed:
 "One of the signs of an excellent beekeeper is the consistent suitability
of his or her colonies and equipment to the purpose at hand, and consistent
management. Commercial or hobbyist, consistent, knowledgeable and purposeful
management is the mark of excellence in beekeeping."

Robin Dartington.

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