Commercial

The Commercial hive is a single walled hive designed to provide a brood chamber big enough for a prolific colony without additional brood or honey storage space. Frames are 16” x 10” Hoffman spaced in the brood chamber and 16” x 6” in the supers.

Brood boxes hold 12 frames and are usually constructed with bottom bee space.

HIVE DATA	NATIONAL	NATIONAL 14×12	W B C	COMMERCIAL
Brood frame	14″ x 8½”	14″ x 12″	14″ x 8½”	16″ x 10″
Super frame	14″ x 5½”	14″ x 5½”	14″ x 5½”	16″ x 6″
Frames / brood box	11	11	10	12
Cells / brood box	54,000	80,000	49,000	80,000
Lug length	1½”	1½”	1½”	5/8″

Commercial frames have short lugs (5/8”) in order to allow the hive parts to be square. Compare 1½” lugs for the National.

The outside dimensions are only slightly larger than the National hive and it is possible to use National floorboards, crown boards, queen excluders and even supers with Commercial brood boxes.

It should be noted that the Commercial hive uses finger tip recesses cut into the side walls for lifting which may make moving heavy brood boxes difficult.

There is an eke called a Hamilton converter which will convert a National brood box into a 10 frame Commercial hive