Complete Hives
This Section contains complete hives, with and without frames. High density polystyrene hives dominate sales in other northern European countries but the UK has lagged behind for far too long. The hive is designed for a working life of at least 30 years and will take a lot of hard use, such as migratory beekeeping. Designed and supplied by Paradise Honey Ltd of Finland the hive represents the culmination of years of experience and research into the development of the perfect bee hive. Our National hive is constructed to have the same external dimensions as a normal wooden National which because of the thicker walls means it has room inside for 10 Hoffman frames and a dummy board if desired. We do not see this as a limitation because in poly hives the queen will frequently use all ten frames for brood rearing. In wooden hives, where the outer frames are rarely used for brood rearing because of excessive temperature fluctuations the outer frames are rarely used for brood rearing. The Super will take 10 Hoffman or 9 Manley frames. Our hives are top bee space whereas the standard for a BS National is bottom bee space.
Before being taken into use it is essential the hive components are painted. This prevents the growth of algae on the outside of the hive, deterioration by UV. We recommend the floor and roof are fully painted on all surfaces but the brood chamber and supers need only be painted on the outside. Ideally two coats of paint should be applied, though one will suffice. Water based exterior smooth masonry paint is recommend for all surfaces. This is quick drying and easily applied with a 4" wide fleece roller and a ½" brush for the fiddly bits. We have found Dulux Weathershield Smooth Masonry paint is an excellent choice. This paint contains an acrylic resin and gives excellent coverage and wear characteristics. Woodland Pearl No 1 in the Tailor Made range of this paint is an excellent matt green that suits the hives well. We used to recommend Cuprinol Garden Shades but it is not very hard wearing and we feel the extra durability and better coverage of the Dulux paint is worth the extra cost. One litre will be sufficient for two hives with supers although you will find you probably have to buy 2.5 litres. There is a school of thought that supports painting the hive components different colours so the bees can recognize their own hive better, but unless you have a large number of hives in the apiary this would not be economic.
More information on hive care can be found here.
The body material in our BeeBox hive system is especially hardened EPS polystyrene (density over 100 Kg/ m3).
