Hi there from Germany,
as I just posted in my introduction, we are using a 9-frame Jumbo-box with shallows as supers.
NOW:
When I decided for these frames I had some ideas.
- most organic beekeepers and new-bees in Germany use the Jumbo-Frames (usually with unbelievable 12 frames)
- faster working on the bees
- pressing the brood-nest
- 9 frames so four colonies will be on a standard-pallete
I also read from some people that they didn`t use these large frames in forest-honey regions, because the flows are late and the honey is NOT good for wintering the bees. Too much fibre in it.
So I asked a friend with a professional beekeeping business. He said: nonsense, go ahead.
I didn`t consider that HE didn`t live in a forest-honey-region....
this year brought it: Pine trees are still honeying. No way to get the honey off the combs. Half the winter-feed would be there, but it`s really russian roulette for the bees: will there be mild weather in between to go potty?
A very few colonies I put on 2 shallows (for explanation: I usually do late splits End of jUly/Beginning of August: so I am wintering "half" colonies). For the reason, they will be run on ONE shallow next year to produce comb-honey (Ross Rounds). And in these few colonies it was very easy to get at the pine-tree-honey (and the "concrete-honey", which is even worse as it cristallizes in the combs and the bees can`t even eat in winter).
Now I was really considering to use shallows all over. I`d go for mediums, but I have some 250 or 300 shallows with frames and all. The jumbo-boxes could be cut in halves...the rest will fit
Anybody running their colonies on shallows only? I know on mediums (common in Austria, eg.). But I would go shallows, IF.
Anybody have any objections apart from the additional box and the additional 9 frames? And of course the extra-work in swarming season. Nothing faster than Jumbos or something like that.
thanks for reading, thanks for comments, very many thanks for EXPERIENCES,
the blackforest beekeeper