# Modified Dadant 11.5 in deep brood chambers



## bentonbee (Jan 31, 2007)

Hi ,
I just got through reading Frank Pellet's book, "A Living From Bees." He is a very very strong believer in using the modified Dadant 11.5 inch deep hive bodies. I am going to try it this year. I have made a couple of them and made some homemade frames. I will go to Dadants to get some crimpwired foundation. I was wondering if there is anyother folks out there who are using this hive body for their brood chambers and what is your experience?
Of course they are extremely heavy. I plan to use one of these deep hive bodies with an additional shallow super to winter the bees on. I don't plan on using any of these for honey supers.
Pellet claims less work per hive, and more honey and better wintering in the north. He was a fellow beekeeper from Iowa 
I look forward to hearing from you all,
Mike


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

*Work well for me*

This is a picture of last summers crop off of 11 5/8" supers with 11 1/4" frames











I am in an area where we need little winter stores, the super works well for that, I leave an empty medium honey super on for the winter. The queens lay some nice patterns on 11 1/4" frames. I now have an extractor that will fit them. I like to draw brood chambers out as honey frames first, to avoid that chewed gap on the bottom. Yes, Dadant has the vertical wired 10 5/8" foundation, yes, you don't want to lift them full. I had three filled with honey last year, probably 100 lbs. Make sure your supers are 11 5/8" or more. I have some 29 year old ones that have shrank down to less than the depth of the frame.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>was wondering if there is anyother folks out there who are using this hive body for their brood chambers and what is your experience?

I have several. They usually do well. You don't want to lift them. But the nice thing is you only have one brood box so you don't need to lift them.


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## bentonbee (Jan 31, 2007)

OdFrank,
Wow that is quite a crop you have there in California! Your bees do well there.
Frank Pellett says with the deep dadants your honey crop will go up.

Michael Bush, where are you located. I am in Iowa and we would probably need one shallow super on top of the deep dadant for the winter, and probably just leave on all year round.
Thanks guys,
Pastor Mike in Iowa 
BentonBee


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## MrGreenThumb (Apr 22, 2007)

Well...ask the guys that use Warre hives and the Dadant frames/hives are TOO big. I am at my wits end when it comes to various types of hives. Some claim their type of hive is best while proving others are worse and visa versa.
When will it it...hopefully never, because it it fun to try new designs.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

I made a long hive with 12 inch deep Permacomb, 22 frames long.

The bees use half of the hive and last year expanded up three medium supers. I pulled all three and they had plenty in the brood to winter on.

See pictures of the hive and frame on myspace in the equipment album. I moved the hive once,  I will probably move it one more time, back to my home where it can set on concrete.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>where are you located.

Greenwood, Nebraska.

>Well...ask the guys that use Warre hives and the Dadant frames/hives are TOO big.

I don't think the bees care. 

> Some claim their type of hive is best while proving others are worse and visa versa.

Bees are very adaptable. There is often a bit of "Post hoc ergo proctor hoc" (after this, because of this) involved. You try something and have a good year and you assume it was because of that thing you tried. Or you try it on one hive and that hive does well or not and you assume that was the cause, when any hive might do well or poorly in a given year.


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## balhanapi (Aug 22, 2006)

Hi Bill, do I have to sign up to see your pics? or is there a way around?
I want to see the deep hive..


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

balhanapi said:


> Hi Bill, do I have to sign up to see your pics? or is there a way around?
> I want to see the deep hive..


You will have to have an account, but it's no big deal. They don't send you annoying e-mails or bother you in any way. All you do is give them a screen name and a password like when you signed up here.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Bill, that the truck you have for sale? Photo's on your myspace album.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

That's the before and after pictures, yes it's for sale.

What you can't see in the long hive pictures is that it has a screened bottom with a pull out tray, a slatted rack with the slats parallel under the frames, inner cover with top entrance as well as an entrance on the end. It is long enough to put two supers side by side and stacked as high as you wish.

Unfortunately they only use about half of the hive and run up into the supers, the queen stays down.

I plan to put a partition in it and make it a two colony hive.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

"Unfortunately they only use about half of the hive and run up into the supers, the queen stays down."

Same thing I found with my long hives, so I am turning them into a 2 queen unit this year.


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## bentonbee (Jan 31, 2007)

*long hives*

Hi,
I am interested in hearing more about your long hives. "You say the bees ran up in the supers and the queen stayed down." Isn't that the way you wished it worked...to keep the brood out of the supers?

How did you super a long hive?
Thanks
Mike


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

My hive has 22 - 12 inch deep frames, the first two years I did not put supers on it as I wanted them to use the deeps for honey storage. They never complied and I never had a crop from the long hive.

The last two years I started putting supers on the hive and the bees happily fill them up for me.  The queen has more than enough room in the brood area and hasn't tried to move up past the top entrance to get into the supers.

Seeing that the queen is partial to the extra deeps but is not using more than half of the frames, I might as well put a divider into the hive and make it a double hive.

>How did you super a long hive?

I have a special top entrance that has a queen excluder build into it that limits the queens movements, the supers are stacked on top of that.


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## bentonbee (Jan 31, 2007)

*Thanks*

Thanks to all of you for your replies!
Mike in Iowa


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## bentonbee (Jan 31, 2007)

Bill,
I really like your horizontal hives! How do they work now?
Mike


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## tim adams (Feb 18, 2010)

I just spoke to Dadant in IL. and they don't have the jumbo foundations 
10 5/8 in-stock. They can run some but not any time soon as they are a little busy right now. I was thinking about building some extra deep bodies but using 11 1/4 frames the bodies should be 11 3/4 and not 11 5/8 right? I'm wanting to use 1 brood box and not 2.
Tim Adams


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I apologize, I just ordered a case recently and it came promptly, maybe the last on the shelf. You could use two sheets made for medium frames, I have done it. 
What size wood are you using? It is hard to find 1X12's deep enough for 11 1/4" frames. I like 1/4" space on top and 1/8" on the bottom, so 11 5/8" works for me. BUT, the boxes I made in 1979 have shrank to less than 11 1/4" tall over the decades, so you might be better off with 11 3/4" boxes. I just made winebox bait boxes 12" deep for my jumbo frames, but I don't plan on leaving the bees in them too long.
Call Dadant in Fresno, maybe they have a secret stash. I have the catalog number if you need it.


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