Lloyd asks:
Bob, why don't you refresh our memories on what Farrar said?


Because Farrar (as do many USDA researchers) liked the 6 5/8 boxes for brood
nests Farrar had quite a bit of experience with using a large brood nest if
you will (4 mediums for a single queen hive) with three such gaps. By
contrast if you use two deeps you have only got only one gap.

I consider the gap a bigger problem than the small amount of honey around
brood in the nest.

I have got a friend which quit the Baton Rouge Bee lab in 1967 and went into
commercial beekeeping. He always (and still does) uses 6 5/8 boxes. All his
brood boxes have got the Farrar hole under the hand hole but instead of a
cork (like Farrar used) he uses a piece of tin he makes with two nails .

My own experiments found similar to Farrar that if the queen/bees are not
moving up you can close the under handhold hole in the box she is laying in
and open the hole in the box you want her to move into and soon a steady
flow of bees exists into the new box coming from bees coming and going
through the hole and the queen soon moves into the box.

I have had queens in  my observation hives only want to lay on the frame I
installed her on. Not want to cross the gap. My observation hive is made up
with three vertical deep frames. I also found if I opened the hive and put
her on the next frame she would lay and then not want to return back down
crossing the gap. Around and around she would go searching every cell on the
frame for a cell to lay an egg in when the next frame above or below was
completely empty of eggs.

I found by adding bees to a certain level in the OB hive she would move up
and lay eggs in all frames. In other words once the workers  started a
steady flow of bees moving into the new area she followed.

Actually a queen which is content to lay on one frame in a three frame OB
hive works out great if the hive is in a place of business and the beekeeper
can only service the hive every couple months!

Also getting the right formula of bees in an OB hive is an art!

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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