What did you do about the unused frame rest? Interesting Idea.
Nothing. I have it in a poly hive, but I don't think it matters. The gap is behind the side bars and out of their way.
'm guessing that you used standard top and bottom bars and then built the sides yourself.
Well I did use top bars, but only because I had some extra pieces floating around. I did rip them down to 1.25" so I can get 11 frames in the hive.
the only thing is if you let them burr comb it between inspection, how bad would it get tore up pulling a frame out?
So far they have shown no interest in bur comb, which I am actually surprised by since all the other frames are HSC. I figure they have plenty of wax to use.
bee nice in a OB hive
Never thought about that, but would fit nicely in my observation hive. Will have to keep that in mind.
Just one thought: The bees will now get fewer ways/spaces to go through and have to make a longer route in some cases. Do the bees make more "holes/spaces" to navigate through than in a usual frame? Or will they just have to make longer routes?
I guess it depends how you look at it. With the larger frames, the bees can enter the bottom and shoot straight up the comb and not have to transverse the gaps between supers. They did not make any holes/passages in the main comb. There are holes left in the sides, but you see that even when letting them draw natural comb in mediums.
"PLEASE,"PLEASE", Let me know what happens when they glue the end bars to the hive body "NEAR" the bottom.
One of the reasons I didn't go with the Hoffman style frames was propolis. With the staple spacers, there is 5/16" clearance at the top (and bottom) of every frame. So propolis will be reduced to just the staple crown. I'm sure if left unmanaged for a year, they would build brace comb and such, but you would get the same problem if you neglected any type of hive.
"BUT", If you have done your home work, then if I'm not wrong, I have never found a deep super filled mostly with brood, no where near as heavy as one filled with honey.
OK :? I don't disagree nor was I trying to insinuate anything contrary. My objective was to eliminate jockeying boxes around.
I hope you glued the frames well, with twenty pounds of honey and bee glue holding it,"IF" you have to pull one that is filled with honey, you will have a problem.
Yes, they are glued well and stapled.
Is that comb strong enough? I would think that you would want a little more support, maybe a couple of wire "x"'s. But if it is working, this is only conjecture.
Time will tell, I have some pretty
big TBH frames that have held up without problems. Once they get a few cycles of brood thru them they will harden right up. Obviously they won't hold up to extracting, but that is not the plan.
I still have to move all the 60# supers off to get to the brood box, so it don't matter too much to have an extra box to move.
True, but that is only part of the year, and if you are using all mediums, it is at least 2 extra boxes and if you want to do a full inspection, that could be 20 additional frames to pull and manipulate. I'm not looking to convince anyone this is the "solves all problems" solution, just something I'm playing with :-D