Has anyone adapted a polystyrene hive for use with the flow hive?
It shouldn’t fit as far as I know since I know most of those hives have very specific measurements and specific suppers and other accessories that have to be specific to the brand of the hive , at least the ones we have in my local beekeeping shop , things need to be special order for that style of hive
I’m sure it can be done. If you like tinkering and inventing there is a lot of scope for modifying the frames for all sorts of hives. The depth of the frames is probably the main thing that you will need to match up.
http://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/what-are-the-dimensions-of-the-flow-frames/p/70
I am a 3rd year Bee Keeper 3-active hives.
Looking for opinion on Polystyrene beehives?
I had one hive in polystyrene and one hive in wood this winter in Cleveland. The bees in the polystyrene came through the -15 below zero Fahrenheit just fine. The bees in the wooden hive were frozen to death by February 22nd. I also have five wooden hives and one polystyrene hive in Belmont county. All of those hives survived.
Thank You very much for the update, I am in Medina, Oh, I lost all 3 hives last year my friend told ne about the polystyrene hives from Europe, he had great success last year all 5 survived, I purchased 2 complete kits and have 1 wooden one no, I will see how it goes.
Thanks
VS
I’m returning to hobby beekeeping after a long (30+ years) absence and am now in north-east Europe (Latvia), where we have winters far colder than anything in Auckland. I have decided to go with a moulded polystyrene hive (different from the assemble-yourself version, which is more like packing material) manufactured by a Danish company (and sold close by in Lithuania): www.swienty.com
From what I’ve read on a number of beekeeping fora, the polystryrene performs very well in Winter, not requiring any additional insulation. I’m not sure about supplementary feeding and will ask locals about this. My preference is to leave enough honey to avoid feeding.
Swienty makes these in various sizes for different markets: Dadant, Langstroth, and National. Therefore, a Flow-Hive super will fit into the LS polystyrene hive.
I’ve yet to decide upon the exact hive configuration. I’d like two brood boxes. Swienty sells a complete hive with a Dadant brood box and then LS full & half supers. The Dadant is the same length/width as the LS and 50mm deeper.
I can’t decide between a combination of 1 X Dadant + 1 x full-depth LS or 2 x LS for brood (and the FH for honey production). Including the Dadant seems to create the hassle of needing different size frames.
Any thoghts?
Cheers,
Greg