Paradise beebox hive

[gwizzie]

Some bees like a bit more propolis and that means when things are tight it becomes very hard to get them out
Many are even tempered till you bump or spring something with the hive tool so you don't want things tight
As boxes get older the general build up makes things worse

gwizzie I suppose a lot depends on the bees in the box as well as the box itself

One issue though is that we tend to stick with what we start with
In my case Smith Hives
That's not too much of a restriction but if you say choose Langstroth or something they will be great until you need a frame of eggs or something from a friend with nationals

Making a switch later is so expensive everyone will be trying to make sure you don't have to do that
I've never seen a Paradise hive by the way so can't comment

Thanks Drone ranger,

I know and understand this.

the only other poly hive that I have considered is the Paynes National Hive
5029839063098.jpg

I am not sure if any member has any dealing with this make or not ? PLEASE let me know if you have any or have worked with them.
I know that the nukes are well liked apart from the feeder.

[fatshark]

A better crownboard for these hives is a simple sheet of polythene (clear if you want a view through it) or damp proof membrane. See one of the pictures I posted above. DPM is actually very good as propolis and wax don't appear to adhere to it particularly well.

Of course, instead of "plastic crownboard replacement" being an Olympic sport you now have "fetch the polythene sheet from the other side of the field on a windy day". Which is why I leave a drawing pin in place to hold it down.

[The Drone Ranger]

I have one friend who swears by them (Paynes Nationals) but I'm not a fan.
I think to some extent its hobsons choice with the Paynes nuc.
But all power to their elbow they are improving them as the years go by

[The Drone Ranger]

you might have a solution there fatshark because it avoids the squashing of bees but not the cussing and swearing which we all enjoy
has anybody tried making the paynes crownboard a bit more rigid
I have a gluegun

[greengumbo]

Thanks Drone ranger,

I know and understand this.

the only other poly hive that I have considered is the Paynes National Hive
5029839063098.jpg

I am not sure if any member has any dealing with this make or not ? PLEASE let me know if you have any or have worked with them.
I know that the nukes are well liked apart from the feeder.

Hi Gwizzie - I have experience of using the beebox but only Langstroth. I actually really like them. The colonies are by far my best and biggest. Not an issue these days but in the start if i needed a frame of eggs from a friend with a national or smith hive I strapped them to a lang top bar.

Mine get propolised up a fair bit but I just put up with it and swap and clean brood boxes at the end of the season. Plenty other beekeeping things to get worried about !

[madasafish]

I have used a Langstroth Paradise hive for 12 months. I prop the clear crownboard with a bit of wood ( I use clear crownboards on my self made wooden langs).

Easy to use, 10 frames fit easily, I don't squash a lot of bees - smoke the edges..

I use jumbo brood boxes- far less handling required. Double brood is the spawn of the devil- designed to knacker old backs..

Mine with two (smallest) supers cost £29 delivered - (I won a £100 voucher from MB)

Only colony that did not catch AFB..

[prakel]

Just because it's not interchangable with other hive does not mean that I can't use them effectively, or does it ? (as I only have 2 other wooden hives) so it not something that I will lose any sleep over.

Not at all, it was an explanation of why I haven't used them not a reason why someone else shouldn't use them.

With the weather the way it is we haven't yet done any stress-testing of the absconding risk from MPs up in the air in the sun. All seems OK but the sample is small so far.

I'll bet against absconding troubles with those boxes .

Now. Back to silent mode for prakel...

[gwizzie]

Hi Gwizzie - I have experience of using the beebox but only Langstroth. I actually really like them. The colonies are by far my best and biggest. Not an issue these days but in the start if i needed a frame of eggs from a friend with a national or smith hive I strapped them to a lang top bar.

Mine get propolised up a fair bit but I just put up with it and swap and clean brood boxes at the end of the season. Plenty other beekeeping things to get worried about !

Hi greengumbo, many thanks for taking the time to reply

How long have you had your ones ? and did you get the feeders for them ?

G.

[gwizzie]

I have used a Langstroth Paradise hive for 12 months. I prop the clear crownboard with a bit of wood ( I use clear crownboards on my self made wooden langs).

Easy to use, 10 frames fit easily, I don't squash a lot of bees - smoke the edges..

I use jumbo brood boxes- far less handling required. Double brood is the spawn of the devil- designed to knacker old backs..

Mine with two (smallest) supers cost £29 delivered - (I won a £100 voucher from MB)

Only colony that did not catch AFB..

Hi Madasafish,

thanks for the words of support in using the Paradise hives, I never got clear crown boards with mine ? I will need to ask my supplier why

As for squishing bees when working on a members hive with this design thats all he said to me smoke them and lower it slowly into place they will move!!!

(from MB) ???

[drumgerry]

Never worked with the MB/paradise boxes but it's a system that looks decent enough. I know someone who uses them and they seem pretty happy with them - they haven't voiced any complaints about them within my hearing anyway. But....I have no experience with them so I'll defer to those who actually do.

The full sized Paynes hives are a different matter - those I do have experience of. I bought 4 in one of their crimbo sales a few years back. In use as long as you don't have to move them they're ok. There's enough room at the end of the lugs, the bee space is ok. But......the poly is a bit soft, the floor has a large landing board which sticks out and makes moving them a problem, the floor and BB have little corner lug things that interlock and are a pain (payne?) in the ass, the roof is a tight fit, they have a bigger footprint than wooden kit so are not interchangeable although you can get away with using wooden supers if you switch the roof for a standard wooden one (I guess in theory you could still use the poly roof but it'd have a big overlap). All that aside they're perfectly useable but I won't be buying any more.

If you're going down the poly route probably the best option are the Swienty hives. They have the same footprint as wooden kit so you can mix and match no problem - this alone makes them the best option imho. The floor is flush with no landing board. There's enough room at the end of the lugs. Bee space is good. No frame runners but a bit of judicious smoke and some care will leave few casualties when replacing frames.

All of the aforementioned relates to Nationals btw.

Having said all that I'm not convinced that poly gains you a whole helluva lot over wooden kit when we're talking about full sized colonies. Nuc sized colonies are a different matter and I think the ubiquitous Paynes poly nuc is a superb bit of kit for those summer and winter.

Pretty sure I've said all of this before in the poly hive thread but hey ho!