"Maxi plus”, or “maxi +”, is our naming. It refers to the honey chamber’s size for Dadant 6-frame hives. It is twice the volume of a size "Mini +". The frames’ arrangement totally depends of your preferences. They can be placed according to the length or to the width.

A Maxi+ is made of:

• 12 frames of type Mini+ in a warm way,
• 6 shallow frames in a cold way.

The Maxi+ is the transition between the small frame size and the size of a shallow frame. The same way as the 6-frame hive allows the change from a super-frame to a brood chamber.
Since 2012, the Maxi+ honey chambers (in a cold way) are the only size we are using.

Disposition:

• A 6-frame honey chamber including the queen as well as the brood frames,
• A queen excluder,
• A stacking of honey chambers

Advantages:

• The light weight,
• The colonies’ dynamics,
• The overwintering of inseminated queens is more certain compared to the Mini+,
  – / Less sensitive to the drought occurring at the end of summer (still in comparison with Mini+)
• A single type of frame (we removed the frames),
• Increase the efficacy of the anti-varroa treatments on a horizontal cluster.

Risks:

• The reserves’ control,
• Sensitivity to the cold related to the cluster disposition.

Moreover, it’s in 2013 that we achieved our first tests on Maxi+.

Behaviour maxi+

The different formats of hives used on our farm specializing in queen rearing and the swarms production