Chuck Norton wrotes:
>>It worries me considerably that someone would even consider a frameless
brood chamber... Make your own frames if ... beekeeping supplies are
difficult to find or to purchase...

Actually, the lack or difficulties in finding the beekeeping equipment is
not the case here. It's just the curiosity... Maybe I should describe more
completely for what I'd like to build such a "silly" hive. Of course, would
I be interested solely in pollinators, this idea wouldn't come into my mind
at all. Also, I don't think that I would even got to know that such an
interesting site as the BEE-L exists - not to mention to start browsing
it... But I happen to be a somewhat inquisitive person and bees have made me
pretty curious about how they would build up their life if I will disturb
them less than I used to. I'm a beginner, yes, but it does not mean that I
don't have any idea what would happen if I just let them by themselves in a
foundationless hive without frames! So I started browsing books and net for
the information that would help me to construct a hive that allows me to
observe how the bees live with less interference from my side.
I think that a cavity-like brood chamber that is more high than wide should
be fine. If the cylindrical cavity would be more suitable than the
parallelepiped-shaped one, I'd build the cylindrical one - but it would be
more complicated to do so. I asked about the dimensions of the brood chamber
because I have no idea how high and how wide it should be. The conventional
hives may give some clues - but I don't have any reason to think that their
dimensions are (or are not) just the optimal ones (for bees, I mean).
I also think that I'll not have much - if any - problems with using supers
if the brood chamber has a ceiling with the movable queen excluder and the
distance between frames in the super and the queen excluder is about 8mm.
I expect that the foundation starter strips hanging from the ceiling should
guide bees to build up (more or less) parallel combs if this is necessary.
As our bee keeping books advise to replace a half of combs every year, I
asked weather it is wise to destroy half of the brood chamber combs or not.
I wouldn't like to do this at all - unless a really significant reason exists.
For observing and , if necessary, handling the brood chamber I plan to
establish two double doors per hive (in the opposite sides) - the inner ones
from glass and the outer ones from the insulated wood (our winters are
pretty tough, -25 C is not a miracle and the temperature can drop well below
-30 C).
I would not be troubled with the swarming very much - but only in case of
these two experimental hives (if I'll build them; I guess I will). Of
course, I try prevent swarming in all my other, conventional  hives. I plan
to establish some more hives next year, so that I'll have 8...10
conventional hives and 2 experimental ones.
Last but not least - I am aware that I definitely will have more troubles
with these two experimental hives. But I don't care, I expect it be
interesting. If I fail... well, it may easily happen. But not much changes I
think.

Sincerely,
Harri
Estonia.

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