This page is credited in full to Dave Cushman who created it. His voice is expressed in black colour text and any additions or comments in blue belong to myself. Credit: Dave Cushman’s website.
PH.
Castellated Spacers for Beehive frame spacing
Sheet metal plates with rectangular cut-outs that can be used in beehives instead of frame runners to achieve an accurate spacing of frames.
All Notches are 22 mm wide and 9 mm deep.
The drawings are for B.S. National Hives.
The strips are 420 mm long, 28 mm wide with 1.5 mm fixing holes.
There is another, shorter style of castellated spacer that is made in 10’s, 9’s and 8’s spacing to suit the nominally 10 frame WBC hive.
I usually drill 3 extra fixing holes as I find that with only 4… the strips tend to bow between the fixings, due to seasonal shrinkage and expansion.
The 12’s and 13’s are used in mating nucs in an attempt to reduce the possibility of drone production.
The 12’s are also used in extra shallow (75 mm tall) ekes with top bars and starter strips… for cut comb production (and also to satisfy the bees need for comb building).
National Castellations
I use 25 mm? wire nails to fix the spacers to the boxes.
The material used is 28 SWG Zintec coated steel sheet and they can be purchased from B.J. Engineering.
I have never been a fan of these in supers let alone in broods. I know some like them but they are not for me by reason of time and lack of flexibility. Before going down this route think deeply about it and ask why so many use Hoffmans. As far as I know 13’s have never been made though it seems they may have been an intention for Apex.
PH