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8 Frame Size Standard

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beyondthesidewalks:
I've cut down all of my old 10 frame woodenware to 8 frame in the past few years.  Somehow, I don't remember how, I came to the size being 13.75" on the width of the 8 frame hive.  Today I decided to order some 8 frame woodenware and I have the choice of 13.75", 13.875", 14", or 14.25".  Before I order I'm wondering if any of these sizes have become standardized to some degree or am I always going to have to worry about mixing and matching?  I'm looking at Western Bee gear because I've used them in the past and been very happy with their stuff.  Apparently, they can match up with anyone else's woodenware.  I'm just wondering if everyone else in the industry is standardizing on one of these four sizes.

Michael Bush:
Brushy Mt. and Miller Bee Supply and most Southern suppliers are 13 3/4".  Mann Lake and  Betterbee are 14".  All of mine are 13 3/4".  I think the 13 7/8" ones are a compromise that works with either of those two sizes pretty well.  The 14 1/4" would easily take 9 frames but other than Western Bee Supply (who will make it whatever size you want) I don't know of anyone using that size.  I don't know why there isn't a standard.  Pick one and stick with it.  :)

bwdenen:
I ran into the same thing when I started.  I wanted to get an idea of the quality of all the different suppliers so to get a comparison I purchased 5 - 8 frame supers from 4 different suppliers to see which one I liked the best.  They were not all the same size.  The Mann Lake boxes hung over, the rest fit fine.  I did find the ones I liked best and buy them all there now.

Intheswamp:
Here's a copy and paste of some info I gathered up when I was trying to get my equipment gathered up and didn't want to run into problems matching up equipment size.  Maybe it will help you....  Ed


--- Quote from: Intheswamp ---Ok, here's what I've gleaned so far regarding width of 8-frame boxes coming from the different companies. If anybody has any information to add such as other vendors sizes or corrections to my list feel free to speak up.

Rossman 13-3/4"
Kelleys 13-3/4" (ok, I just looked and Kelleys is stating 13-13/16")
Miller 13-3/4"
Brushy Mountain 13-3/4"
Dadant 13-3/4"
Mann Lake 14"
Betterbee 14"
Western Bee state standard as being 13-3/4" but will cut to your specs.

That's all I have info for. I'm taking it that the associated wooden ware (bottom boards, tops, etc.) should interchange between the companies with the same box widths.

Length shouldn't be a factor should it?...being as standard length is 19-7/8"? Or, is there differences encountered there, too?

Thanks,

Ed
--- End quote ---

beyondthesidewalks:
The 10 frame standard width is 16.25". 
Subtract 1.5" for the two 3/4" sides and that leaves 14.75" for an internal width.
Divide that by 10 and I get 1.475" per frame width.  (That's almost 1.5".)
Multiply 1.475" by 8 and you get a 11.8" internal width for an 8 frame hive, keeping the same dimensions as a 10 frame.
Add the 1.5" back for the sides and you get a total width of 13.3", maintaining the same spacing as a 10 frame hive.
That means we have about .45" (almost 1/2") extra space in the 13.75" wide 8 frame equipment.
The 14" wide equipment would have almost an extra 3/4" inches.
Feel free to correct me if I've made an error.  Just wondering how they arrived at 13.75" and really amazed that some vendors are using 14" for 8 frame equipment.

Thanks for the feedback.  Looks like most of the vendors are using 13.75" as a standard with a few exceptions.  So I'll stay with what I have.

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