Dadant Blatt Beehive complete with frames

01 · BLATT OR US

47 cm top bar: Dadant US frames do not fit

This is the mistake that causes the most returns. Dadant Blatt is the French and Italian standard and takes 47 cm top bars; Dadant US, common in Spain, is 48 cm and will not go in. One centimetre decides whether the kit you already own is any use. If you are in France, this is your hive without discussion; if you are in Spain and already have frames, measure a top bar before ordering. Foundation for this measure is 41 × 26 cm in the brood box, and the Dadant super size above.

02 · WHAT COMES ASSEMBLED

Box, super, roof, crown board and all 19 frames

You get the brood box with 10 frames and the super with 9, the metal roof that takes the weather and the crown board that insulates. The frames come without foundation: sheets are bought separately and fitted at home. Brood box: 500 × 430 × 315 mm outside, 450 × 380 × 315 inside; the super is 170 mm deep. At 25 mm walls the box is heavy and insulates — which is what you want where day and night swing far apart.

03 · THE TWO CHOICES

Straight frames with a spacing rack or Hoffmann · open-mesh or solid floor

Hoffmann frames have the spacer built into the side bar: you push them together and the bee space appears by itself. A straight frame is plain, and then the spacing comes from the rack — the wooden or metal comb that sits in the rebate and fixes each frame's position. It ships with Hoffmann by default; ask for straight frames with a rack when ordering. As for the floor: the standard floor is solid wood, and the open-mesh floor has full ventilation — the one that lets you slide a greased tray underneath to count varroa drop.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is a hive for a serious start or an expansion: it arrives complete and assembled, and all it needs to be populated is foundation and bees. If your kit is Dadant US, this is not your measure. And if you want a full-ventilation Nicot floor from the factory, the Hybrid model carries it as standard.