Plastic frame Dadant blatt (deep) hoffman

01 · COMPATIBILITY

Both are called Dadant and they differ by 12 mm

Side by side in the store they are hard to tell apart, and the name does not separate them. Only one test settles it: take a frame you already run and measure the full top bar, lug to lug. 470 mm is Blatt, the French and Italian standard; 482 mm is the US pattern, the common one in Spain. Those 12 mm decide whether the frame rests on the rebate or hangs crooked inside the box, and forcing it does not fix anything.

02 · BUILD

Top bar, Hoffman side bars and comb from one mould

The Hoffman self-spacing, the outer frame and the comb foundation are produced as a single piece. There is no sheet to come loose in a July heatwave and no wire to slacken in the extractor, and the side bars widened to 35 mm set the spacing by contact, so no spacers are needed. It sits in the same brood box as wooden frames of the same format, so you can swap over gradually instead of renewing the whole box.

03 · PREPARATION

It arrives unwaxed, and waxing it is not optional

The plastic leaves the mould bare. Before it goes into the hive, run molten beeswax over both faces with a roller or a brush: on bare plastic the bees are much slower to start drawing it, and sometimes they ignore it altogether. Do not dip the whole frame in very hot wax, because it will distort. Like any new frame, it is drawn faster during a flow with a growing colony.

04 · CLEANING

Steam and hot water yes; solar wax melter no

This is the real gain over a wooden frame with a wax sheet: it goes into a steam wax melter or a hot water bath, gets scraped and goes back to work season after season. A solar wax melter is ruled out: it has no thermostat, its temperature climbs unevenly with the sun, and that is what warps the piece. And once it comes out of the melter, hang it straight back in the box: left to cool outside, resting on its edge, is exactly how it warps.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is a brood frame: the Dadant Blatt super frame at 47 × 16 cm is a different part. The manufacturer does not publish a cell diameter for this reference, so if you work to a defined cell size, ask us before ordering. On colour: it is supplied in yellow, but some batches have arrived black; colour does not change the geometry, though it is worth checking with us if it matters to how you work.