I wanted to follow up on this post, showing what I had in mind and see if I could get any more input,
A few weeks ago I ran off 60 foundationless frames, half at 1.25" and half at 1 3/8"
After assembling them, I just modified this one to see what folks would have to say....I am looking for any feedback, but particularly any negative like this is a bad idea because:
Breaks up brood nest?
will actually create a "barrier" rather than promote ease of winter cluster movement
etc.
I had just about abandoned the idea after the my initial posting here. But then I saw a comment Michael B made elsewhere regarding his belief/experience that mediums winter slightly better because the individual cluster "slices" were less isolated, and seemed not to have small groups left behind as often.
And I have continued to find references to the greater ease with which wintering bees move vertically rather than horizontally...but I want to run a horizontal hive.
It makes sense to me as I imagine the ball of bees moving through the hive that more "conduits" would make it easier for them to maintain a compact mass in a northern climate.....but for me it's all theory and I could easily be overlooking or misunderstanding a great many things! As I said before, I don't mind wasting a bit of time on something that probably won't help...but I really don't want to make things worse overthinking how to improve them (I have certainly been known to do that before).