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Thread: Paradise beebox hive

  1. #1

    Red face Paradise beebox hive

    Hi Guys,
    just got my second Paradise beebox hive for my birthday last week as I new I was getting some more bees from a lady from one of the clubs I am a member of. Anyway not sure if anyone else has them or tried them ??. I will keep you posted on any developments.
    The first one that I got I bought the feeder for it and well was not impressed as a lot of dead bees in the feeder, I put some plastic grilling in it that I had to help the bees climb back up this did help but still getting some dead bees ;-( .

    I decided to remove this and the new one from the hives and made a board to go in the inside of the supper so that I could use a rapid 4 pint feeder that I had used on my other hive with NO dead bees. As you can see in this video, the queen was marked but on installing the bees noticed that the attendants had removed most of it and she only had a few speck on here, while I had the chance I remarked her with Yellow my colour for this year (odd year number and White for even year)

    Anyway thanks for watching and click the like button if you like it thanks


  2. #2
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    The way you have to jam the top bars in the hive indicates that the spacing is wrong. There should be 17 - 1/8 inch across the hive to accommodate the 17" top bars and give you some slop. You will also find that the space (or lack of it) under the end of the top bars is excellent for crushing bees - there's no thin runner for the top bars to sit on. I too cut out a plywood sheet on which to place a feeder inside a super. I also have a special queen excluder as the dimensions are wrong on the hive and a standard one doesn't fit. There are no castellations available for supers either. And if you put one brood box on top of another, bees get crushed as the bee space is too small. And the entrance sheet that drops in is - weird. I have one of these that is used as an emergency hive. I would not buy another. having said all the above, bees do well in them!

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    The way you have to jam the top bars in the hive indicates that the spacing is wrong. There should be 17 - 1/8 inch across the hive to accommodate the 17" top bars and give you some slop. You will also find that the space (or lack of it) under the end of the top bars is excellent for crushing bees - there's no thin runner for the top bars to sit on. I too cut out a plywood sheet on which to place a feeder inside a super. I also have a special queen excluder as the dimensions are wrong on the hive and a standard one doesn't fit. There are no castellations available for supers either. And if you put one brood box on top of another, bees get crushed as the bee space is too small. And the entrance sheet that drops in is - weird. I have one of these that is used as an emergency hive. I would not buy another. having said all the above, bees do well in them!
    Hi Adam,

    thanks for your comments, this is my second one of these hives and I don't have any problems with the frames not fitting on the 1st hive, the reason for me having to jam the frames in as you say was because of proplus which was so built up on each end of the frames. As far as I can see and have been made aware of is that there is NO bee space under the frames it is on top of the frames like in the commercial hives.
    The queen excluder that I have fits ok no problems there as it does not have a frame around it. The entrance gate as I call it is ok and I like it, as do other at my local club as it is easy to make what size you want! just slid it open or remove it if you want to have it open totally (but it does have sharp edges).

    I do like them so far the only thing I don't like is the feeder that you can buy for them,, to many bees getting killed in it but I will be using them later, as going to cut a hole in the bottom for a rapid feeder and also use it for feeding fondant in the winter time.

    As you have said bees do very well in them.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    My comment about the bee space is that space between the top bars and the plastic extrusion. There is no space. Most hives have a plastic or steel frame runner the frame sits on so the possibility of crushing bees is minimised.

    Your entrance thingy (gate) is different to mine - so maybe mine is an early one.

    For queen excluders, they need to have rounded corners and are (slightly) smaller than the usual. Maybe I have an early hive and things have changed but I did hear that the first excluders they sold were cut down ones to make them fit. With all these things, you tend to like what you get used to and learn to live with any imperfections. (That's what SWIMBO tells me anyway)!

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    My comment about the bee space is that space between the top bars and the plastic extrusion. There is no space. Most hives have a plastic or steel frame runner the frame sits on so the possibility of crushing bees is minimised.

    Your entrance thingy (gate) is different to mine - so maybe mine is an early one.

    For queen excluders, they need to have rounded corners and are (slightly) smaller than the usual. Maybe I have an early hive and things have changed but I did hear that the first excluders they sold were cut down ones to make them fit. With all these things, you tend to like what you get used to and learn to live with any imperfections. (That's what SWIMBO tells me anyway)!
    Hi Adam,

    it does seem to be that you must have an earlier model of this hive, I have seen the entrance thingy that you refer to and yes there were older ones that went right across and fixed into the sides of the floor, Mine does not.

    The queen excluder that I used in the video is standard one for national hive NO corners cut . As I am new to beekeeping I have done a lot of research into these ones and have spoken to others that are using them and they love them BUT as you correctly have said it is what you are used to and want to use... (some won't even use poly hives)

    It is down to the individual what they want to use and are use to, but again thank you for you comments.

  6. #6
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    I've got a couple of these boxes and only use them as bait hives these days. They're a good thickness and well made, just not to the correct dimensions in my view. Both of my broods and all the supers are too narrow.

    My experience after running a couple of colonies in these for a year was that they soon propolised up the frame ends so what started off tight ended up stuck fast. If you've not glued the boxes together you could consider prising them apart and putting a thin shim between the ends and the sides - about a matchstick thick I'd suggest - then filling in the gaps with some sort of gap filler (OK, that last part wasn't too helpful - just not something solvent based). What's a minor inconvenience now will become really annoying once the box is boiling with bees.

    They may have changed the QE … mine is square, but it is smaller in area than a standard QE.

    If you choose to work with cedar or Swienty poly's as well you'll need a shim to mix'n'match the supers - the photo below shows me uniting a swarm that arrived in the MB/Paradise dual super bait hive with a wooden one.

    20150711-16-2.jpg 20150711-16.jpg

    Note - just re-read this after posting and realise it's a bit negative. You're absolutely right Graham, you should use what you're happy using. They are nicely made, strong, well insulated boxes. The bees will do just fine in them. I simply couldn't get on with them because of the width being too narrow … they make great bait hives
    Last edited by fatshark; 14-07-2015 at 05:58 PM. Reason: Added Note at end

  7. #7

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    Hey Fatshark,

    thanks for the input and the pic's. I have glued mine and I really don't see any problem with them (at the moment) but you never know. The brood box holds 10 frames and a spacer board and my cedar hive holds 11 frames and its tight so losing one frame does not bother me at this time.

    LOL yes I suppose it was a bit neg but don't worry about it I dont take these things personal life is too short and everyone is NOT the same!!!!

    As for being too narrow! the only evidence of that to me was today when I went to take frames out of a poly nuke to then go into this hive only then did I notice this but this was as far as I could see was due to the other hive NOT the beebox.... BUT I will keep you posted on any events that arise in mine.

    Only time will tell

  8. #8

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    These guys don't seem to have any problems with these hives

    apart from getting stung


  9. #9
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    I bought one to try and also noticed the tightness, biggest down side for me though is the impossibility of avoiding squashing loads of bees. I thought despite these down sides the bees did well and so I've now bought some swienty national poly's which are nice and simple. The swienty poly feeder when given a rim for bee space is by far the best feeder I've come across.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Well, gwizzie - you have been warned! Before you invest in any more MB Nationals, go and have a look at somebody using those hives with large, long-established colonies in them. The tight fit of the frames, and the lack of beespace underneath the lugs create a huge problem for manipulating the bees. I've just come back from my bees cursing and swearing at MB Nationals. To quote Grizzly on MBs, "They're not fit for purpose."

    It's a shame, because they're strong and well-made - but the design is poor. Their only good points are that they're easy to close the bees in, and easy to move safely - that's all.

    As MBC, I'm trying to change over to Swienties (but I've reduced the lugs by two millimeters - so now the Swienties are ideal).

    Have a look at the thread 'Polyhive Musings'.

    Kitta

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