dartington/commercial combo

[fox403]

OK been thinking! ,,,,got 5 hives now with bees.. 3 nationals 1 dartington 1 Commercial ....3 hives is plenty for me so heres my thoughts!
keep the two nationals and sell the 3rd one on..
use the Commercial (two deep brood box's) as supers on top of the dartington use paper method to combine them

in ideal world all hives would be the same,,,will this work i wonder

 

[MJBee]

I have never seen a Dartington so don't know if a commercial will fit, if it does then it will work BUT

An 11 frame commercial full of honey is VERY heavy and will your extractor take 16 x 12 frames?.

Given the choice I would keep the Nationals for ease of handling and standard interchangeable frames.

 

[fox403]

Well this is the thing,,,I didn't expect to take this hobby so far was getting one hive for the bees only,,,but now think its time for an extractor,,,hives are at home so lifting is not a prob is there one that will do the commercial and national frames ....dartington will just be used as a broodbox

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[oliver90owner]

14 x 12 frames (presumably your Dartington takes those frames and not deeps) will fit my 'normal size' 9 frame (radial) machine but one needs the tangential screens (sometimes they are standard, sometimes extras) to extract them (three at a time).

Even extracting tangentially they soon fill the extractor with honey!

 

[fox403]

im sure 14x12 better measure them il keep my eyes open for one,,dont want anything to big,,for 3 hives not worth it

 

[MuswellMetro]

I have never lifted a full commercial box of honey but I have lifted a 14x12 with 8 frames of capped honey and 3 brood, and it was very heavy

now the 8 frames of honey weighed about 50lbs and i would think 10 full capped frames of 16x10 would weigh 60lbs and would be lifted at waist height

so yes you could get two commercials side by side on a dartington with a little overlap, but i wouldn't try it on the plastic versions

my association has several dartingtons some with slight but i dont use them myself (KISS)

 

[fox403]

yip with the dartington and two brood boxs on top im guessing it will hold a heck of a lot of bees,,,should be fun