Need of Spacer, or not?

Hi There,

I have just received my complete Flow hive and I am waiting for my bees! super excited. I just have a question about interframes and I thought you might have a take on it.

The brood box contains 8 langstroth frames, and a beekeeper told me there was way too much room for the frames to move around and that it was better to add an interframe, what do you think? he also told me that the bees were going to building around this empty spaces everywhere, he event said it would be good to add a 9th frame to fill that empty space.

Many thanks!
Emmanuel.

I never heard of an “interframe”. A follower board maybe?

Make sure all the frames are tight together and then pretend they are glued together and center them in the hive body.

Hi.

Thanks for the answers!

Sorry, I am using the wring words since I don’t know the name in English. I mean this equipment : http://www.apiculture.net/bandes-intercadre/105-bande-intercadre-10-cadres-375-mm.html

It is something that hold the frame at the proper location.

Red-Hot_Chilipepper, but this is going to make very big empty space on each sides, I have been told bees were going to build propolis structure in this space, making any movement of the frames difficult.

Je m’excuse de mon Francais mauvais, mais je voudrais t’aider un peu. Tu n’as pas besoin d’une bande intercadre. Les cadres Langstroth vont très bien sans la bande. C’est vrai qu’il y a un peu trop d’espace a cote des murs de la ruche, mais ca c’est pour t’aider travailler avec les abeilles sans les tuer. On peut acheter quelque chose pour réduire l’espace, en anglais il s’appelle “dummy board” ou “follower board”. On met le dummy board a cote du mur de la ruche, et il réduit l’espace. Quand les abeilles ont fait les cadres gaufres, on peut enlever le dummy board. Tu peut-être as besoin de quelque chose comme ca:
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/product/WW-155.html

Tu peux acheter d’Angleterre, si c’est mieux pour toi:
http://www.mannlake.co.uk/beekeeping-supplies/product/WW-055.html

Et aussi, @Anon a raison quand il a dit:

C’est très important. Si non, beaucoup des abeilles devient masculin, et ils ne faisant pas de miel! Avec le dummy board, tu peux éviter ca! :blush:

Bonne chance!

Tu peux aussi poser des questions en Francais ici:

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Merci beaucoup ! Ton Français est parfait.

Would you by any chance know the name of that dummy board in French? maybe I can find it here, because getting us from the UK is going to take some time and high shipping price, and for something so cheap…

Personally you would not use Follower board? If so maybe I can start without it then…

Malheuresement, non. Je suis désolée! But I imagine if you call and ask for a “Dummy board” (British english name for it), somebody may know what you mean. “Follower board” is the US name. If you want to describe to them in French what it is, this is the concept. It is a Langstroth size frame, but you can’t put wax in it, instead the middle is a solid piece of wood. It is used to make a “false wall” for the bees. You could probably build one if you shave a little (2-3mm) off the edges of a standard Langstroth frame, then glue and nail some 1cm thick plywood into the area which normally has wax foundation.

I try not to use them, but about one hive out of four seems to need one to get the edge comb built properly.

UK we call them Dummy boards also - my 10 frame Poly Lang has 6 Flow frames, 1 Normal Frame and 2 Dummy boards - 1 either end. A second Normal frame was too wide but the 2 Dummy frames fill the space perfectly

Size (L x W x H): 432.00mm x 13.00mm x 215.00mm

Hi, I’m recommending to local Flow new beekeepers to evenly space the 8 frames. Leave a 3mm space on both sides & a 3mm space between each frame. That’s working out really good.

The ‘Interframe’ appears to be a ‘spacer’.
‘Partition cadre pour ruche Dadant’ is a ‘follower’

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Thanks to you all!

JeffH. I am new to this, but isn’t it going to be complicated to replaced all the frame exactly at 3mm from each other when inspecting the hive? even with no bees, doing this takes quite a while.

Valli, Thanks. But I still have no idea how is it called here in France :slight_smile:

Yes Sara, you are right, what I called inter frame is a ‘spacer’ or 'Dummy board"

Hi Emmanuel, I use that spacing all the time because I use 9 frames in a 10 frame hive. You find if you get that spacing right the first time, (don’t measure it, just guess it) it will be easy the next time because the bees put a propolis bead around the frame lugs onto the ledge. All you do is just follow the propolis outline on the ledge, that’s what I do & it works really well for me.

Interesting Jeff.

I think I found the name in French it is “Partition cadre”, right here : http://www.icko-apiculture.com/fr/partition-langstroth.html But this one seems to be too high for the Flow Box.

With empty foundationless frames in the brood nest it is very risky to space them apart at all. It is a lot less risky to shave them down and put 9 in an eight frame box. That would be the natural spacing the bees would use. Any more space is asking for trouble. You can get away with a lot of things once the comb is drawn. You can get away with some things with foundation, though excess space is not one of them. With foundation you will typically get a comb away from the face or directly between the foundations if you give them any extra space at all. I HIGHLY recommend you push all the frames tight together in the center until they are drawn, with or without foundation.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#framespacing

That one is perfect for a Flow brood box. They are Langstroth deep boxes, and the frames are a little over 9 inches tall = 23cm. :wink:

Dawn_SD, thanks!

Michael_Bush, so basically in the brood box of my “Complete Flow hive”, you would suggest adding a 9th frame (real one) instead of adding a dummy one? (I read that Dummy Board had to be added on both sides of the hive…so I am unsure about putting on just on one side).

I doubt that you could fit 2 dummy boards into the gap, it barely takes one frame. I believe that Michael actually shaves a little off every frame in the brood box to get 9 frames in, so that he still has a little space outside the outer frames by the wall of the hive, but I am sure that he will tell you the real truth! :blush:

9 frames in a 14" wide 8 frame hive (they won’t fit in a 13 3/4" one…) is very tight. I’d shave the frames down to 1 1/4" (they are currently 1 3/8") and put 9 in, but if you don’t want to do that I would put eight in and put them in the center. Or put a dummy board on one side. All things being equal I’d put the dummy on the north side since it’s the coldest and the air space will help with that.

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Cadre faux?? Peut-être ?

ou BATICADRE
ou PARTITION CADRES
ou CADRE SEPARATEUR
http://bijenhof.e-motions.be/cataloog/level2.aspx?lang=F&groep_code=87H