polystyrene hives

[Archie]

Hi,

does any use or have any experience with polystyrene hives.  our local bee supply store, BetterBee, seems to push them a lot.

Archie    :D

[beemaster]

Archie:

This one I can't help you with, hoping someone can. Seems like they would hold humidity and that could be an issue for mold, chilled brood, excess work to condense nectar to honey - I just am guessing though, I'd like to see replies on this myself.

John
Beemaster

[Robo]

Hey Archie,

Guess I'm not the only one that feels they are pushing them 8)

I don't know,  I have no experience,  but I'm not convinced they are worth it.  I know they are used a lot in Europe,  but I have a feeling that is because lumber is so darn expensive.  

I also question there statement "that they will last just as long as a wood hive if reasonable care is taken, not thrown around or dropped the way beekeepers do with their wooden ones".  I don't know about you, but I don't intentional throw or drop my supers,  but things do happen and they get dropped or stuff dropped on them.  

And then they still want you to paint them too.  And the fact that they don't fit nicely with wooden supers.

I have heard horror stories of styrofoam nucs overheating, even with screened evtrances, when being transported.

The fact that they are more expensive than the wood ones, I just don't get it :?:

I did just purchase a couple styrofoam queen mating nuc,  so I'll see how they work out.


click image for more details

[Archie]

Robo,
 I think I am interested in raising queens for myself and a few friends.  What words of advice and wisdom do you have for me.     :?

thanks

Archie      :D

[Robo]

Archie,

First of all,  I am not an expert at this, but can share with you what I have learned.

There are many methods out there for rearing your own queen,  from simply removing a queen and letting the colony raise and emergency queen to hand grafting.

I personally don't like any method that allows the bees to choose which egg to use.  The age of an egg used is very important to the quality of the resulting queen.

I have tried hand grafting,  and just didn't have a good success rate.  Part of the problem comes from not enough practice.  If I were doing 100s of queens, I would become proficient at it and would probably use that method,  like most commercial queen rearers.

My latest attempt was with the Nicot no graft system.  I had very limited success with this.  But I can now attribute my low success rate to my doings.

Over the winter I purchased a "Nicot" system demonstation video, and learned where I had been making my mistakes. I'm confident, with what I've learned,  I will have better results this year.

Whatever method you use,  make sure you are meticulous in the execution.  Although queen rearing is not rocket science,  it is easy to drastically reduce your success with a few simple mistakes.

Also make sure that you have strong cell builders, so your queen cells are provided with an abundance of royal jelly.

It's a neat thing to experiment with.

There is also a thread somewhere here talking about a queen exchange among members.  The thought was to exchange virgin queens, since providing mating nucs in quantity is not practical for a hobbyist.  As long as they are shipped quickly after hatching,  there should not be a problem getting them mated within a reasonable window of time.

Beekeep On!

[Finman]

Hi,

does any use or have any experience with polystyrene hives.
Archie    :D

I am from Finland and I have used polystyrene boxes since 1987. I have 3 PS langstroth boxes per hive and others wood. I try to keep 5-7 box per hive. If colony is too little to production I put a couple together.

Polystyrene hives (PS) are frienly to back. They are warm at spring and colony developes very good. A moist wooden  box weight is about 10 kg and two is 20 kg extra. This is extra weight when I take them to outer pasture on summer. I handle my nests alone.

In my nest the ceiling and floor are wood. There are difficulties when humidity condensate on walls an goes to floor. It must be a good ventilation on the floor.

[Archie]

Hi Finman,

Thanks for the info on the polystyrene  hives.  I have a couple of questions if I may.  

Do you use an inner cover and do you have vent holes in the hive bodies for air circulation during the hot summer days.?  Our bee equipment supplier tells me I do not need an inner cover but I am concerned about moisture building up during the winter.  Another reason for an inner cover is I have have found the bees are buillding burr comb between the top of the frams to the hive cover and the cover is really stuck to the frames and difficult to remove.  

Thanks again,

Archie

[Anonymous]

Hi Finman,

Thanks for the info on the polystyrene  hives.  I have a couple of questions if I may.  

Do you use an inner cover and do you have vent holes in the hive bodies for air circulation during the hot summer days

In Finland we have two kind of ventilation systems.

I have middle holes in the upper part of polystyrene box. If you do not have upper holes, bees will  get nosema. But  in the floor in back corners I have  one inch holes with net to get ventilation throuhg the floor.

Other system is that during the winter the whole floor is open. It is only net there and no middle holes.  I have guite a windy place in winter, and I am fraid of using that system.

On winter we have usual temperature -10 - -20 C in southern Finland and the snow is on the ground 4,5 months.

******

COVER

I have wooden ceiling 10 mm wood batten with frames. The cover is from used foam plastic mattress 5 cm.  That cover is easy to handle.

Polystyrene box is very light to handle. The oldest box is 17 years old and in good condition.

When ceiling is strong, it it is easy to open it. Often it is sealed quite firmly, but it is a little problem.


PAINT
You must paint it with latex because sun reflect from white box and bees will be a little blind. They does not find door easily.

[Finman]

Hi,

does any use or have any experience with polystyrene hives.  
Archie    :D

More hints: It is difficult to keep nest floor clean, if it is polystynene.  I clean the floor sometimes with gas flame. Also I prefer wood as ceiling, because it absorb moisture.

So you only need boxes.

I also have iron plate rain roof. It should be heavy, because wind will easily throw away light one.  Also i have 7-10 cm eaves, so it protect from rain.

I got from Finnish bee forum idea, that the floor can be slanting forward. So water and rubbish go to the opening of hive.  When we have moisture and rubbish on the floor, mold likes it.