Polystyrene dummy boards

[Kate Atchley]

Ideally, I give each colony enough brood frames but not lots more than they will draw out. Overwintering on double brood boxes with, say, 16 frames, can work well. So wide dummy boards are very useful - say 70mm - each about the width of two frames.

Although I've made them in various ways, I haven't found the ideal material. Expanded polystyrene - hung from wooden or plastic top bars for strength - would probably be the best solution but I don't know a source for the "blocks" to hang off top bars.

Any suggestions or known/likely manufacturers? I'd have thought it'd be worth someone producing these commercially.

Kate

PS: Patent pending!!

[Jon]

B & Q have it in various sizes and thicknesses from 25mm to 100mm
Make sure it is completely covered with tape or faced with correx as the bees will chew it to pieces otherwise.

[Adam]

Cellotex or Kingspan are the names the come to mind for a foil backed insulation material. It will cut with a sharp knife. The cut edges would have to be covered as Jon suggests.
I have found that with Duck/Gaffa tape that if bees chew it, they get themselves tangled in the woven material and can't get out.

Kate, I did play with a 16 frame national and it never worked - bees only got to 8 frames of brood in the summer and it was difficult to heat in the spring, so with the use of a saw I now have some 8 frame nationals! Similar to your idea, 16 frames is quite a nice number - unlikely to need a third brood box - the supers are quite easy to manage too and the double national would be good for overwintering I think.

[gavin]

My attempts to fix top bars to pieces of polystyrene failed (well, they failed to stay on) so I've just been using pieces that slide snugly into a frame space and protrude slightly above. No need for a top bar. Being the disorganised fellow I am, I never followed Jon's advice and so the polystyrene was chewed if the bees came up against it. All I did was move the polystyrene back behind a frame of foundation and all was well. This autumn I might paint these pieces with acrylic masonary paint rather than cover in plastic or duct/duck/gaffer tape, or go for foil-backed stuff as Adam suggests.

The piece above the crownboard, cut to crownboard size, is probably even more important. They have stayed on weak colonies all summer. If I did one thing differently from pre-winter 2009 it would be to put that insulation above in winter.

[Jon]

My attempts to fix top bars to pieces of polystyrene failed (well, they failed to stay on)

I use a correx strip for the top bar and attach it with gaffer tape circling the dummy board from top to bottom.
I will take a few photos as I have dummy boards of all shapes and sizes.
You can also recycle the polystryrene used for packing fridges. You probably won't get a rectangle big enough but all you have to do is fill in the indents by cutting another piece and then tape over the lot of it.

[chris]

I use hardboard dummy boards that I buy. To insulate the space, I fill a plastic rubbish bag with wool from the sheep and stuff it in. But then I live in a different century

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Kate,

Making these is as simple as it looks just a few small nails and some staples.

Softwood about 2" x 5/8" makes a box frame the top of which is 3/4" oversize at each side
Hardboard is cut to size for the sides and tacked or stapled on that gives the rigidity to the structure

This works for top bee space Smith hives anyway

The ones on the top of the stack just use 1/2" ply cut into strips to for m the box and ply again for the sides.

Anyone who can make a Horsley board can make these easily

[Jon]

Here is a fine array of the correx and gaffer tape version.

dummy boards.jpg

[The Drone Ranger]

fair play Jon yours are cheap to make but they are truly hideous to look at.
Still, can't see anyone nicking them

[Kate Atchley]

Wow, what a flurry of suggestions. Thanks.

I meant to say high density polystyrene to begin with rather than expanded (my bees have been talking to Gavin's, evidently ... they chew into the expanded stuff and covering it is quite a chore).

Anyone know of a source of the high density polystyrene or polyethylene blocks?

By the way Gavin, Copydex works fine on HDP... at least it's holding well where I've stuck frame runners inside the polynucs ... and the absence of squashed bees is a good too!

Kate