Poly hive musings.

[GRIZZLY]

Prakel , I've had a rethink concerning the MB hives. Having now used them over two seasons I am finding practical reasons to start disliking them. The faults that have become glaring are their non-compatibility with my old wooden kit, top bee space which gets lost by the sagging Q excluder causing brace comb being built between the brood box and bottom super , causing a lot of regular cleaning off of frame tops , queen excluder and super frame bottoms , manipulation of supers causing gaps to open up in the joints allowing ingress of the sort of driving rain we've had up here this year, dirt and water getting behind the slot-in entrance closeres, roofs not deep enough resulting in mislocation if you are in a hurry to get round your bees etc,etc. - they look alright but as the location recess is only about 8mm deep it's possible to not locate exactly. this does't occour on swienty roofs which are sensibly deeper and difficult to mislocate.

[prakel]

Crikey! The evidence seems to be stacking up against the Paradise offering -got to admit that it's the probable difficulty of interchanging existing wood kit that made me most wary of spending all too scarce resources on trying them. I'm sure that it would be quite easy to build a basic wooden adapter to sit on top of the brood but that's just extra work to make a brand new box work for me. So far it seems that the Swienty model is coming out on top with regards to flexibility.

[fatshark]

I have both Swienty and MB kit ... and much prefer the former. I had to botch a super-wide edge for a National clearer board to fit the MB hives which was the last straw. I'll be selling them them this winter. In contrast I mix and match the Swienty and cedar kit and - at this time of year - use the poly supers to house 12.5kg blocks of fondant opened onto the QE.

[GRIZZLY]

I too made up a special "adaptor" crown board and this resulted in a lot of moisture getting into the hives because the overhanging part seemed to direct the water into the hive mostly because it got soaked with all the rain we've been having. I ended up cutting the overhang off - making the edges of the board flush with the outside of the broodbox.This didn't work very well either because the top of the box tapers all round making location dodgy - the board did however locate into the recess on the bottom of the supers. I put a deep rim on both sides of the crownboard to ensure the bees had somewhere to run to when clearing. I'm now going to order 10 Swienty brood boxes which will replace the MB ones and will make wooden ventilated varroa floors. I dont like the Swienty ones being wider than the National 18 inches for some unknown reason. The roofs however are o.k with their deep recesses.

[Mellifera Crofter]

...The problem at the moment is there are some pretty poor units on sale and as ever buyer beware. What do I buy? Swienty and never so far had an issue.

I too made up a special "adaptor" crown board ...

Would you be able to name names, PH, and give reasons? I don't have PH's experience of beekeeping or of polyhives, but I've tried polyhives from two suppliers over the last two years - MBs and Paynes - and this is what I think so far:

They all have problems with crown boards. In polyhives I only use CBs as feeder boards between the broodbox and an eke (a super). I do not like the wooden ones because I think they would create a cold bridge and, in any case, standard wooden CBs do not fit the MB hives. The the plastic ones are too slippery. I noticed that the super eke can shift about despite being tied down. I've now trimmed the plastic CBs to fit inside the super eke. That works better.

MB: As everybody has mentioned already, they are incompatible with wooden hives and the over-hanging sides are a problem - the Lantstroth ones are worse than the Nationals. There is also the space issue between two National brood boxes - as mentioned before. I think, however, they are the most sturdy ones being made of ultra, ultra high density polystyrene.

Paynes: They have very tight-fitting roofs. It's a struggle fitting them without squashing bees. They also have large landing boards that might be a problem when moving hives. I also think bees struggle with the landing boards in wet weather. I've seen bees flipping over with their wings stuck to the wet polystyrene landing board and unable to right themselves again. The hives are made from a less dense polystyrene - but they arrive ready-assembled.

I've now ordered a new hive from a company in Cornwall, and will probably try a Swienty at some stage. Eventually I must choose.

[Poly Hive]

Not the decision I would make or have made.

I find the Pains design just wrong, a valiant attempt at a full Nat brood box but the scalloped front is a pain and a loss of needed material for warmth. Said material is in my thoughts soft, certainly softer than I am comfortable with. yes they are "ready assembled" and so more vulnerable to breaking in the delicate hands of white van courier man. One of my supers was in bits.

MB? I listened to their spiel at the spring convention two years and had difficulty with my ears. They are obviously not compatible and have a built in weakness with that silly lip. I phoned the old foreman from Steele and Brodie as they produced a nat with the same lip and it was not a success due to gosh, the weakness of the lip.

I buy Swienty as it is the best poly on the go at this time and it works.

Good poly is tough stuff, when I do a chat or demo I jump up and down on it, and I am a decent weight. No issues with strength and I demo that as many still think of poly in terms of packaging.

PH

[Mellifera Crofter]

Not the decision I would make or have made. ...

PH

Thanks for the reply, PH. I'm trying to figure out what decision you're talking about ... Is it cutting down plastic CBs to fit inside a super, or ordering a hive from that company in Cornwall (with their very, very big roofs) - or something else?
Kitta

[drumgerry]

I have 4 of the Paynes offerings and I'm not impressed for the reasons PH states above. Also got a couple of Swienty brood boxes and they are in a different league in terms of quality and density of construction and ease of use.

[Poly Hive]

You are buying the worng units Kitta.

Good poly lasts, I have handled units that are over 35 years old now and still going strong.

Please forget plastic CB's. Use timber or ply they work very well and solid ones mind, no need for chimneys in them...lol

PH

[Jimbo]

I agree with PH I have had poly hives for the last 7 years with no problems. I purchased mine from Murray Macgregor (Denrosa) after seeing poly hives in action in Denmark and at Sweinty. I purchased nationals which fits well with all my other wooden national equipment. The density of the polyhive is quite high and is stronger density than poly fish boxes you sometimes see