Flat crown board Langstroth/Dadant

01 · WHAT IT DOES, WHAT IT LACKS

It separates body from roof, and little else

It goes between the hive body and the roof, closing the stack without adding structure. The central hole with its plug is all the mechanism there is: take it out for spot ventilation, put it back to close, according to the weather, your handling and the state of the colony. With no perimeter rim it is cheaper and flatter than a framed crown board — and that same missing rim is what to weigh before buying, as explained below.

02 · NOT FOR THE DADANT BLATT

425 mm wide is Langstroth and Dadant US

Worth being blunt, because it causes nearly every return: the 425 mm width is the Langstroth and Dadant US measurement. The Dadant Blatt is wider and needs its own crown board — we stock one made for that format. If your hive is a Blatt and you buy this, it will come up short across the width; more than one customer has told us so after trying. Before ordering, look at the footprint of your box and not just the word «Dadant», which outside Spain almost always means Blatt.

03 · NO RIM: MIND THE SPACE

Top bars flush means crushed bees

A framed crown board leaves clear space above the frames; this one, being a flat board, rests practically on the top bars. If your frames sit flush with the rim of the body, closing up will crush the bees walking over the top. That is not a fault in the part, it is what having no rim means: check the clearance in your hive and, if it is tight, a crown board with an 18 or 40 mm rim gives you the margin this one cannot.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Two honest warnings. If what you want is to clear supers of bees, the direct route is a crown board with the escape already built in; fitting one over this hole depends on the sizes matching, so ask us first and we will confirm it. And if you need the exact material — we get asked, and we would rather not publish it unconfirmed — write to us and we will tell you with the part and the delivery note in front of us.