Langstroth frames PREMIUM (wire tightened and with eyelet)

01 · WIRING

Stainless and eyeletted: the wire will not rust and will not bite into the wood

It carries four stainless steel wires, tensioned at the factory. Unlike galvanised wire, stainless does not rust in the damp of the brood nest or stain the wax, and it lasts as long as the frame stays in service. The four holes in the side bar carry metal eyelets: they are what stops the wire cutting into the pine when you tension it, or when you go back to a slack wire two seasons later. If a frame reaches you with one wire softer than it should be, a pass with the wire tensioner sorts it out without dismantling anything.

02 · FIXING THE FOUNDATION

If you embed with a transformer, go up to 24 V

Stainless steel conducts worse than galvanised, so a 12 V transformer falls short and the wire never gets hot enough: to embed it into the sheet you need at least 24 V. With a spur embedder or a wax iron it makes no difference. The top bar also has a groove that takes the edge of the sheet; fixing it at the top is the usual way, though with strong colonies and nectar coming in you can fix it at the bottom instead and let them finish the top stretch themselves.

03 · SPACING

Look at the side bar: if it widens at the top, it needs no spacers

Pick the frame up and look at the side bar: the top part is wider than the rest. That widening is the Hoffmann profile: 36 mm at the shoulder and 25 mm down the rest of the side bar, and it works as a stop against the next frame, so those 36 mm are your comb spacing, set without a spacer rail or plastic ends. The practical consequence: if your brood box runs a spacer rail, take it out before fitting these frames — the two systems together throw the spacing off. And do not mix Hoffmann and straight-sided frames in the same box: you get uneven gaps that the bees end up filling with brace comb.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is a brood frame, 220 mm deep: it will not go into a Langstroth super, because that box takes a shallower frame. The sheet that matches it is Langstroth foundation, 42 × 20 cm.