I have spent months looking back into the which poly hive question. To complicate things, Abelo brought out the new 12 frame one and then BS entered the ring.
I currently own 15 Paradise hives and various wooden ones. Side note: I actually did put a cedar super on one of my Paradise hives last season. People have said it couldn't be done, but there were no problems at all. I do use straps though.
Overall, they are pretty good and I was amazed how quickly a colony develops in them. I have had issues with these hives though, involving the space between between the frame lugs and the plastic rails. basically bees can easily be crushed, unless you manage to 'chivvy' them out of the way. A difficult, more 'animated,' hive can make it hard not to crush bees when inspecting. This can only make matters worse I think? I also find that because the box sides are thick and have a small lip, no amount of bee-chivvying or smoke will prevent some getting crushed there either.
I am expanding my operation and I realise that using Paradise hives would create more time-consuming inspections, if I have to do extra 'bee-wrangling' on every hive. Paradise are cheaper of course, but a bit basic. I had to make my own crown-boards from correx for example.
I decided that the new Abelo 12 frame hive was the best that they were doing and compared it to the BS hive. If I was to score it, without getting my hands on them first, I would say 98 - 100 in favour of Abelo.
I won't go into the detailed reasons for the moment. I have just ordered twelve unpainted Abelo's. I will most likely use some BS hives as well in the future, utilising their unique features as well.
