Ply has glues in it. I would worry about toxicity. I wouldn’t use it for hives. Cedar is a good if you want something a bit tougher than pine.
With the glue lines not exposed to the bees would this be a problem still?
its not about exposure to the glue , its the fumes that come out of it when its heated by the sun and the internal tempeture of the hive
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That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. Will look for an alternative.
Hi Jake, as it has been said that the hives are compatible with the 10 frame Langstroth then is it correct to say the Flow Hive boxes supplied with the Flow Frames in the 10 frame option will be the standard 16-1/2 inch by 19-7/8 inch as per the standard Langstroth dimensions?
Yep that is right they will match up with a standard Langstroth.
Unless you have decent wood working skills and woodworking equipment, I find it easier to just buy all the hive components online (assembled or not - shop around) with some hammering and screwing it is easy to put hives together.
Just an FYI, at least here in the USA you can get Low VOC, no formaldehyde, plywood from The Home Depot. This would solve your offgas issue. I’m not sure on pricing but it’s probably not cheap.
http://homedepotpurebond.com/
Actually the brood box of the Flow-hive is just an 8 frame Langstroth hive. The place their unique plastic honey frame super over it. So it’s just the honey harvest box. You still need to learn how to raise n manage honeybees.
Reading this is helpful ! Thanks !
Any impurities in a good outdoor glue vapors away. I use glues on cutting boards. Just check which can be safely use for salad bowls n cutting board … You n your bees will be safe n okay.
Flow Hive uses an 8 frame box not 10 frame. Be careful. The 8 frame brood box is narrower n nice because it is lighter to handle. I might eventually change to the 8 frame as I get older. 10 frame boxes are heavy. Here in the Pacific NW of Washington State we use a double brood box. The top box usually has nearly 10 deep frames of honey to winter the bees over. That’s close to 80 lbs of the golde liquid.
Just to be clear, the flow frames may be used in either an eight frame box or a ten frame box.
The full flow hive that many purchased as part of the campaign is an eight frame Lang. But the frames them selves will fit in a ten frame just fine, and can be adapted for some other types of hive designs was well.
Those who ordered the seven frames with box will get a ten frame box, not an eight frame.
The eight frame box fits six flow frames, the ten frame box fits seven flow frames, because the flow frames are thicker than a traditional frame.
Good to know ! When I am ready I would probably go for the 7 Flow-Frame set up as all my equipment presently are 10 frame Langstroths. As I get older (now 70) I might switch down to 8 frame to keep beekeeping easier for me. Deal with that as my muscles age 
.
When you are ready there are excellent videos showing how with a jig saw you can do the modifications to a deep super you already have in maybe a half hour. Very easy!
And when the day comes that you want to go to the 8 frame boxes you can modify those for the flows as well ; -)
Youtube has a ton of informative videos.
Good luck,
O