3/4 Langstroth brood box?

Hello and my apologies if this has been covered - i searched and didn’t find quite what I was looking for.

I am buying bees this spring from a beekeeper who is selling the bees on frames. She told me to bring along a brood box that will fit ten 3/4 Langstroth frames.

Since I have the flowhive classic, it only fits 8 frames, which is fine, I can just tell her it only fits 8, but is the brood box the size of a 3/4 Langstroth box? For some reason googling dimensions just left my head buzzing and I couldn’t quite get my question answered. Thank you in advance!

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I assume that 3/4 Langstroth is an Australian term? Anyway, it comes with a full deep (9 5/8" deep aka 244mm) and I assume a 3/4 would be something similar to what we call a “medium” or an “Illinois” which is 6 5/8" deep (168mm). Probably your best bet is to buy the right size box and frames for the bees you are buying. I would prefer that size anyway… but either way the frames won’t do well in a box that is too deep. You could also cut down the box you have, but the frames will not be the right size…

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I would ask her for the frame depth. It would not be hard for her to just measure one of her frames. The terminology you use is not standard for most Langstroth beekeepers, and I have never heard the term 3/4 Langstroth frame.

Once you have her exact measurement, you can use Michael’s measurements above to see whether her frames will fit your box.

Edit
I would still ask her to measure her frames (most beekeepers have big stocks of empty frames, so it is easy to measure them!), but I just found this Swedish article:
http://www.olandsbiodlarforening.se/files/SBR_Standard_Mtt_p_Yngelrum_ramar.pdf
It seems to confirm Michael’s suspicion that 3/4 Langstroth is what we would call a “medium” Langstroth box in the US.

If you confirm that, her frames will not be deep enough for your Flow hive brood box. If you put them in you Flow brood box anyway, the bees would likely build “crazy comb” to fill the gap at the bottom of the frame. This is a bad thing.

I don’t know where in the world you are, as your profile doesn’t say, but you potentially have a few choices:

  1. Buy an 8-frame medium depth Langstroth box. They are readily available in the US, but harder to find elsewhere. This can then be positioned underneath your Flow deep brood box.
  2. Cut down your Flow brood box to size, as Michael suggests. However, I don’t think anywhere in the world would run a hive on a single medium brood box, so you are going to need to buy another medium or deep to use for brood.
  3. Find another supplier who uses deep Langstroth frames.
  4. Ask her or find another supplier who is willing to make you a “package” of bees. This is usually done by shaking bees off frames from an established hive. They can then be housed in a new hive with a fresh queen. They are very common in the US, and becoming more common elsewhere in the world, so you might find this is a better option.

Hope you find a solution!

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Thank you so much! I didn’t even think about the fact that the terms might be different here, that makes so much sense. (we are in Sweden and it is a little hard trying to research in both English and Swedish, as you say, the terminology is very blended.

Extremely helpful information, thank you again!

Would you consider just putting the short frames in your deeper box. The bees will just extend the frames down. You can gradually work the frames out over a season

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Dee,I didnt know that was an option! I would definitely consider that to be the easiest way.

Dawn, I just saw your edit. After extensive googling, I believe you are right, that the 8 frame box is rather limited to the U.S. I have found ten frame Medium boxes (called 3/4 or apparently Farrar here) but no 8 frame boxes. Just typical that I didn’t realize when buying the flow hive that they wouldn’t be considered “standard” here. I learned my lesson, I suppose. Anyway, I was thinking of buying an 8 frame medium to fit her frames for depth/height but that apparently is not an option unless I import.

That is easy. Use the bottom board that came with your Flow hive, and stuff some sponge foam into the entrance to block it. For the lid, use the inner cover with a round hole in it. If you are going to be driving for more than 20 mins, tape some fine mesh insect screen material over the hole to give some ventilation so that the bees do not overheat. If the trip is very short, then you can just tape the hole closed completely. Then either use a ratcheting strap or some strong duct tape to hold everything together. If the bees are inside the vehicle with you, consider wearing a veil while you drive - you don’t want to get distracted by stings on your face if any escape.

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Dawn, brilliant, thank you! We will be driving about 3.5 hrs!

@Denise
If you fancy a laugh and some head scratching have a look at the table in this link
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/lang.html

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Oh my I had no idea! I thought “standard” meant… well, standard!

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You might be able to give your box & frames to the supplier & request that she gets a colony established into your box & frames. I do this all the time. I only have full depth langstroth frames, however I manage to put colonies into warre hives if a customer requests it. A lady picked up her warre hive with a colony of bees in it only last week.

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A Langstroth medium is 6-1/4 inch or 159 mm. The term Medium is used mainly inside US. In the rest of the world the medium has other names like “Langstroth 2/3” or “Langstroth 3/4” or “Farrar”. Same, same but confusing.