Dadant US hoffman frame Premium wired, tightened with eyelet

01 · 48 OR 47: MEASURE BEFORE ORDERING

The body is the same in both

This is the Dadant US, with a 48 cm top bar, the usual one in Spain. Its twin is the Dadant Blatt, at 47 cm, the French and Italian size. 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 entire difference lives in the top bar lugs: 22.5 mm each side on the US against 17.5 on the Blatt. Take one of your own frames and measure the whole top bar, end to end. That centimetre decides whether it seats as it should.

02 · THIS ONE IS THE HOFFMAN

It self-spaces and needs no spacers

The side bar is widened into a 36 mm shoulder: frames touch each other on that shoulder and sit at the correct spacing with nothing added — you build the nest and the spacing is done. That is the convenient bit when you run many hives, because it saves metal spacers, nails and keeping an eye on distances. This reference comes in the Hoffman version only; if what you need is a plain side bar to work with your own spacers, the straight version exists in {a(BLATT, 'the Blatt format')}.

03 · THE EYELET IS FOR THE SECOND LIFE

A wired frame gets re-tensioned

It comes wired and tensioned at the factory, ready to take foundation, and that is what saves you the assembly session. But the detail that matters years later is another: a frame in use slackens and has to be tensioned again, and that is when the wire under tension bites into the side bar. The eyelets are there precisely for that — they spread the load onto metal and let you re-tension without eating into the wood. Before fitting foundation, in any case, run a finger across the wires: a comb that goes into the extractor slack comes out collapsed.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It comes without foundation: bought separately and chosen by size and type. If you are genuinely renewing the brood nest, the unit price drops from 100 frames and steps down again at 720 — gather the season's order rather than buying by the dozen. And order all of one type: mixing Hoffman with plain side bars in the same box throws the spacing out and you end up with comb built where it should not be.