# 9 Frame Natural Comb



## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

It will work better to draw the comb with all 10 (or 11) frames tight in the box. Once drawn, you can space them wider; to do otherwise invites cross, burr, doubled and drone comb.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Will this work with natural comb?

In the supers, sure. In the brood nest, no. 9 frames does not work well in a brood nest with any kind of frames in my opinion. I run 11 in a 10 frame box and 9 in an eight frame box.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#framespacing
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesframewidth.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

There are no conditions where I would run 9 frames in a 10 frame box as a brood nest. I purchased some colonies several years ago that had 9 frames for brood. It was a tremendous mess to clean up. IMO, you are better off with 10 or 11 frames.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

If you have larger space on the edges of the brood box the bees will draw the outside comb wider & fill it with honey.
It will be more difficult to remove the outside frame. with 9 than it would with 10


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

CentralBee; If you plan on using the frames spaced at their design spacing of 1 3/8 inches center to center and the extra space filled with a dummy board, then foundationless would work fine. The bees would draw comb just as though they were in 10 frames in a 10 box.

I am not a fan of foundationless comb, but if I intended to have it drawn, I would do it between frames of brood in an established colony. After I had several frames drawn and brood in it, then I would use it in a single hive body split and draw the remaining comb there. You have a better chance of mostly worker cells being drawn between frames of brood.


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