Dadant
Lexikon
The Dadant hive goes back to the American beekeeper Charles Dadant, who developed it in the second half of the nineteenth century.
The Dadant hive goes back to the American beekeeper Charles Dadant, who developed it in the second half of the nineteenth century. Its most important feature is a single, undivided brood chamber with large frames, while the honey super consists of one or more considerably shallower boxes with half-height frames placed on top.
Two versions must be distinguished, and they are often confused. In Modified Dadant, also called Dadant US, the brood frames measure 448 by 285 millimeters and the honey frames 448 by 141 millimeters. In Dadant-Blatt, the version most widespread in Europe, they measure 435 by 300 millimeters in the brood chamber and 435 by 159 millimeters in the honey super. Dadant-Blatt is thus narrower but taller, and the frames of the two versions are not interchangeable. The large single-box brood chamber gives the beekeeper a good overall view of the brood nest when the hive is opened, without having to search through several boxes as with smaller frame sizes.
In practical work, the system means that the brood chamber is worked comb by comb, that is, individual frames are pulled, while the honey super is harvested box by box. For newcomers switching from another system, it is important to know that Dadant frames fit neither the German Normal Measure nor Zander and therefore require their own, self-contained set of boxes, frames, and foundation.