Dadant Blatt wooden Super 9F

01 · THE SIZE

Dadant Blatt static apiary only, and worth measuring first

It fits French-size Dadant Blatt static boxes, 430 × 500 mm external, and takes frames with a 47 cm top bar. In Spain the common one is Dadant US, at 48 cm: that centimetre does not forgive. If you are pairing it with kit you already own, take one of your frames and measure the top bar end to end before ordering. And note the word static: this is a super for a fixed apiary, not for migratory work — moving hives by lorry calls for kit with catches.

02 · WHAT ARRIVES ASSEMBLED

Nine frames, a spacer rail and a coat of linseed already on

It comes with its nine straight wired frames and its spacer rail, so you stack it and work it the same day. The box also arrives treated with linseed oil, which is what buyers appreciate most: one less bench job and timber protected from day one. Supered at the start of the spring flow, it gives the room the colony needs to store above instead of blocking the brood nest.

03 · THE FRAMES

Two horizontal wires, and the wire is on the thick side

Worth knowing before you order foundation: the frames carry two horizontal wires, not vertical, and the wire is on the thick side. With a spur embedder or a wax iron it works fine; with a transformer it is harder to heat, and some customers have wrestled with that. If you normally embed with a transformer, plan on more voltage or on switching to the embedder for these frames.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The assembly weighs 11 kg empty. Being oiled timber, if one edge arrives with a high spot a pass with sandpaper before stacking sorts it: it is the flatness of the rim that makes it seat properly on the box.