Dadant Blatt Hive with 10 frames (without super)

01 · THE SIZE

Blatt means a 47 cm top bar, not 48

This body is Dadant Blatt, the standard in France and Italy: it takes frames with a 47 cm top bar. Dadant US frames, at 48 cm, do not go in, and in Spain the US is precisely what most people run. If you are going to mix it with equipment you already own, measure a top bar before ordering; it is the mistake that causes most returns in this family. If your frames are US, the equivalent brood box in that size has its own page.

02 · WHAT IS IN THE BOX

Body, floor and roof; the super comes later

You get the body with its 10 frames, the galvanised metal roof, the floor and the hardware. There is no super, and that is the point: a colony that is starting out does not need one, and adding it when it is genuinely needed saves the bees from heating an empty volume. When the time comes, count on buying the super and its nine frames separately.

03 · STRAIGHT OR HOFFMAN

What you pick in the dropdown is how the frames are spaced

A Hoffman frame spaces itself: the side bar is widened at the top so that, pushed together, the frames leave the right gap on their own. A straight frame spaces nothing by itself, which is why it comes with a castellated spacer, the notched strip that fixes each lug in place. Neither is better: Hoffman is quicker to handle and tends to get propolised at the shoulders; straight frames on a spacer hold their positions and let you change the spacing if you ever need to.

04 · THE FINISH

Linseed oil is the starting point

The 25 mm pine arrives treated with linseed oil, which protects but is not a final finish. Outdoors it is worth topping with exterior paint on the faces that take sun and rain, and going over it every few seasons. Nothing gets painted on the inside.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The price depends on two choices: standard floor or screened floor, and frames with or without a spacer. Look at them before adding to the basket.