Modify a Beemax or styrofoam bee hive to fit Flow hive

Modifications & Building Bee Hives
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Has anyone modified a Beemax or other styrofoam hive to fit The Flow Hive?

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Surely you don’t need to.
Can you not put a flow super on an ordinary 10 frame lang?

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I see no reason to put the flow frames in a beemax. I wouldn’t leave them on in the winter and insulation would be the only real impetus I would assume for wanting to. Use the Beemax for the brood nest. Put the flow frame box on top. If it’s a ten frame flow frame box then you need nothing else. If it’s an eight frame, then cut a 1 x 3 20" long and put on the side.

TenFrameToEight.JPG608Ă—585 118 KB

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Beemax also keeps the bees cooler in the summer. I had a wooden hive this summer and the bees were thick all over the outside. I changed to Beemax and have had no other problems… bees stayed inside after that.

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I have polystyrene hives and I wouldn’t go back to wood. Just use them as spares. Supers are wood though

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IMG_2513

Flow Frames on Paradise Poly boxes, middle hive has a modified 10 frame box holding 7 flow frames.

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@BruceLonsdale
Hi Bruce. Well done there. Do you know of anyone else who has done this - I haven’t seen it before and thought they weren’t compatible? Any tricks to get them to join together?

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Hi Dan,
The flow box just sits nicely on the little ridge on the poly boxes.Water can’t get in, the excluder fits ok too.

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Thanks for that Bruce, that is great. A good option to consider in the cooler climate.

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Hi BRUCE
Have you modified a poly box to fit the flow frames directly yet?
I’m thinking of trying.
Cheers
John