10F Dadant US brood beehive (without super)

01 · US OR BLATT

The difference that decides whether your frames fit

It is the costliest confusion in this format, so it is worth settling first: Dadant US and Dadant Blatt share the idea of the hive but not the frame. In Dadant US the top bar is 48 cm; in Blatt, 47 cm. One centimetre is enough for it not to rest.

In Spain the usual standard is Dadant US; in France and Italy Blatt predominates. If you already run Dadant US kit, this hive slots straight in. If you come from Blatt, your frames will not serve here — nor the other way round.

02 · WHAT COMES ASSEMBLED

Four parts and ten frames

You get the brood box, a wooden floor with a metal entrance, a galvanised metal roof that stands rain and sun, and ten wired Hoffman frames, ready for foundation.

Hoffman frames carry the wide side bar that spaces them on their own, so the brood chamber comes out evenly spaced without measuring anything. No super is included: the brood chamber is the starting point and Dadant US shallow supers go on when the flow arrives.

03 · THE TIMBER

Galician pine seasoned to 12 %

It is Pinus pinaster from Galicia, kiln-seasoned to around 12 % moisture. That seasoning is what stops the box opening up or warping in its first summer: timber that goes out to the apiary still damp keeps moving for months.

It carries heat phytosanitary treatment — warmth, not chemistry — and no chemical product is applied to the wood, which is what matters in a box that will be in contact with wax and honey for years.

04 · BEFORE IT GOES OUT

Protect it on the outside, and only there

The hive arrives with the timber all but bare, and bare timber does not stand weather. Before populating it, give it outside protection — exterior water-based paint, several coats of linseed oil, whatever you normally use — then let it dry and air properly.

And the rule that does not change: nothing gets painted inside. The bees finish the interior with propolis, which is the best treatment that box will ever get.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is a complete brood chamber, not a finished production hive: