Dadant Blatt frame Premium horizontal wired

01 · 47 OR 48: MEASURE BEFORE ORDERING

Looking at the frame will not tell you

This is the Dadant Blatt, the standard size in France and Italy: a 47 cm top bar. In Spain the common one is the Dadant US, at 48 cm. And here is the catch: the body of the frame is identical in both — 435 mm wide by 300 high — so side by side you cannot tell them apart. The whole difference lives in the top bar lugs: 17.5 mm each side on the Blatt against 22.5 on the US. Five millimetres. Take a frame you already own and measure the top bar end to end. That centimetre decides whether the frame seats properly or hangs short.

02 · HOFFMAN OR STRAIGHT

One spaces itself; the other does not

Both versions carry the same comb area and differ at the side bar. The Hoffman has the side bar widened into a 36 mm shoulder: frames touch each other and end up correctly spaced with no work from you — you build the nest and the spacing is done. The straight one has a plain side bar of 25 mm, and there the spacing is yours to set with metal spacers, nails or by eye. Neither is better: there is the one that matches what you already run. If your apiary works with metal spacers, take the straight; if you would rather forget about it, the Hoffman.

03 · TENSIONED, WITH EYELETS

Two details that show up years later

It comes wired and tensioned at the factory, which is the difference from the straight vertically wired frame: it arrives ready to take foundation and spares you the most tedious part of assembly. The eyelets are not decoration — without them the wire under tension bites into the side bar and the frame loses tightness season after season; the eyelet spreads that load onto metal. Even so, a piece of advice that holds for any pre-wired frame: run a finger across the wires before you fit foundation. A comb that goes into the extractor slack comes out collapsed, and there is no fixing that.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The frame comes without foundation: the sheet is bought separately and chosen by size and type. If you are renewing the brood nest seriously, note that the unit price drops from 100 frames and steps down again at 600 — it pays to gather the season's order. And order them all in the same version: mixing Hoffman and straight frames in one box is the quickest way to end up with the spacing out of true.