Dadant US Migratory Beehive, brood box only, 10 Hoffman frames

01 · DADANT US, NOT BLATT

One centimetre of top bar changes everything

Here is the confusion that costs most when buying from abroad: the Dadant US takes a frame with a 48 cm top bar and the French Dadant Blatt, 47. The body of the frame is identical — 435 mm — and only the lug that rests changes. A Blatt frame in this body rattles; a US frame will not go into a Blatt body. If you are coming from the French system, measure your top bars before ordering.

02 · THE THREE ENTRANCES

Two to fly from and one for the pollen trap

It comes with three entrances: two to fly from, which lets you open two fronts or close one depending on the season, and an upper one meant for the pollen trap. That third one is what turns the body into a hive ready to harvest pollen without rigging anything on the outside.

03 · THE TIMBER

22 mm pine and one coat of linseed

The body is jointed pine, 22 mm — migratory thickness, not garden-hive thickness — and leaves the workshop with one coat of linseed oil. That is not the final protection: the oil soaks in and slows moisture, but for years outdoors it is worth a second coat or an exterior paint before the first wintering. Internal dimensions 464 × 380 mm, external 508 × 424.

04 · WHAT COMES AND WHAT DOES NOT

The frames come, the super does not

The ten wired Hoffman frames are included — the self-spacing system, which saves measuring gaps — along with the wooden lid clad in metal sheet. What does not come, because it is not part of this product, is the super, the foundation and the excluder: this reference is the brood chamber only.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is the brood chamber only, with no super. And it is Dadant US (48 cm top bar): not the French Dadant Blatt at 47.