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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
"Robert T. Dykes" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 6 Jun 2001 19:50:22 -0700
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Digger" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 6:13 PM
Subject: Two brood chambers...


> I'm a hobbyist, and fairly new to beekeeping. Two
> weeks ago I added a second brood chamber to my only
> hive.
> There's alot of burr comb between the upper and lower
> brood chambers. I started to clean it up, but realized
> I was also destroying eggs, larvae, and brood, so I
> stopped. Managing the hive kinda requires removing the
> burr comb, yes? Shall I press on, removing that burr
> comb, and unhatched bees be damned???
>
> Richard
As most of the brood found between the two hive bodies is mostly drone it's
a matter of opinion as to whether or not that is good. If you want to manage
the hive then you have to break that barrier of brood every time that you
remove the upper brood chamber, usually just lifting a frame out has the
same result.
   Now this brings us to the "why?" of all this added work and aggravation.
Odds are that you bought a commercial hive or if you made your own you
either used another hive as a pattern or you read somewhere that the
industry norm is 9-5/8". Let me show you and hopefully a lot of other people
that some American beekeeping suppliers have been lying to us for a good
many years. Back suppliers! Don't take this personal but it's a sad truth to
think about.
   Fact #1: A standard shallow honey super is 5-11/16" high with a 5-3/8"
high end bar with a resultant bee space of 5/16". Fact #2: A medium measures
6-5/8" with a 6-1/4" end bar, bee space 3/8". Fact #3: A deep from most
manafacturers is 9-5/8" deep with 9-1/8" end bars being the norm from all
suppliers that I know of. Also most suppliers have their end bar lugs
thinned down to 3/8". This gives a bee space of 1/2"; duh, we just violated
proper bee space.
Just set a table saw rip fence to 9-1/2" and run that thing across the saw
(watch for curved nails or you'll ruin that blade) and solve all of that
scraping every time that you seperate the brood chambers. Any more of those
store bought ones you can rerip them to 9-1/2" before assembly. That extra
1/8" should be removed from the bottom of the board. Please, don't take my
writing style personally but I just felt like poking fun at a common
question to a common problem.
   If all of this is confusing to anyone then just look at the blueprints
for most "British" hives, there they can choose between top and bottom
spacing.
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