At 08:44 AM 11/16/96 -0500, you wrote: >The all-mediums configuration has the advantage (so it's said) that you are >more often shifting entire boxes than individual frames. That is one >reason why Dr. C. L. Farrar used and recommended them decades ago. His, >incidentally, were more or less square, and held 13 frames of Illinois >(medium) depth. He overwintered colonies in stacks of 4 or 5 of these. > >I recently came across a new German beekeeping manual in which the author >devoted an entire section of the book to the management scheme using >mediums only. It was the same basic idea -- you shift around entire boxes >to direct the activities of the colony. Evidently this is catching on in >Europe. > >The smaller units are a great deal easier to move around. The drawbacks >are, you have 30 or 40 brood combs, so it can be a royal pain to find the >queen. The investment is more, as you need a higher number of boxes and >frames to achieve the same volume as with deeps. This can get expensive, as >frames and boxes are about the same price whether you buy deep or medium >size. > >Burr combing, or connecting of the combs in one box to the ones below and >above, is a bane here, too. The bees (evidently) prefer continuity in >their brood nest, so the spaces between brood boxes get filled with drone >comb and brood, even though the bee-space is "correct." This happens with >deeps, too, of course, but perhaps moreso with shallow frames and numerous >shallow brood-boxes comprising the brood chamber. There is more wood within >the brood nest, too, and some have claimed this restricts the queen's >rounds, and as a result the compactness of the brood pattern. Please relate >any experience along these lines. >Thanks... JWG Food for though and comments. How about 8 frame deeps Dan Daniel D. Dempsey P. O. Box #5 Red Bluff, CA 96080-0005 U.S.A. [log in to unmask]