Changing from plastic QE to metal one

[itma]

I've had some ( over 140 of them ) for 10 + years like Hivemaker has and they are still intact, sit square and not brittle either but I suppose the ones we are using might be from better quality manufacturing stock than some shabby plastic manufacturers nowadays.

I'm sure ours were made in France.

Just as a matter of interest, with that number of hives, how many brood box inspections do you do in the season while the QX and supers are on the hive? (ie how many times do you have to remove and replace the QX? - 'tipping' doesn't count!)

The amount of time faffing with brace and prop to get a sheet QX to go back down flat after inspection might be expected to bother a commercial operator more than the extra capital cost of buying the better type.

 

[Swarm]

Plastic excluders seem to be stock items with poly suppliers.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The amount of time faffing with brace and prop to get a sheet QX to go back down flat after inspection might be expected to bother a commercial operator more than the extra capital cost of buying the better type.

Plastic QX's seem to be the norm with commercials, and TBS probably helps - can't remember spending any time faffing around with brace comb etc. when working with ChrisB

 

[Hivemaker.]

The amount of time faffing with brace and prop to get a sheet QX to go back down flat after inspection might be expected to bother a commercial operator more than the extra capital cost of buying the better type.

Don't find there to be any problems with brace comb or propolis that needs to be faffed around with, they go back on flat just fine, and get cleaned once a year at the end of the season, ready for the following one.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Plastic excluders seem to be stock items with poly suppliers.

Not with Bhs, they come with wire excluders.

 

[itma]

Plastic QX's seem to be the norm with commercials, and TBS probably helps - can't remember spending any time faffing around with brace comb etc. when working with ChrisB

The thing with an unrimmed QX is that on one side or the other it is going to contact frames.
On a bbs hive it sits directly on the top bars of the brood box.
But on a tbs hive the bottom bars of the first super will sit on the QX, nicely out of sight and out of mind.

I have met beekeepers who don't trouble to clean off the prop to ensure that the QX is sitting flat, who just rely on the flexing of the sheet due to the weight of the box(es) on top. However that means the QX is flexing into the beespace, causing the bees to apply prop to both sides of the QX, further encouraging the beek not to clean off the godawful mess and just jam things back together.
I would say though that the worst of such messes that I've seen have been on metal (rather than plastic) sheet-type QXs. And those metal sheet QXs seem awfully common in club apiaries ... good training?




Side issue - Commercials -- tbs or bbs 'normally'?
Those I've encountered have been used with standard National supers and were, as per Thorne and Maisemore, bbs.
Is tbs the 'commercial norm' for Commercial hives?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Side issue - Commercials -- tbs or bbs 'normally'?
Those I've encountered have been used with standard National supers and were, as per Thorne and Maisemore, bbs.
Is tbs the 'commercial norm' for Commercial hives?

Bottom bee space.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I would say though that the worst of such messes that I've seen have been on metal (rather than plastic) sheet-type QXs. And those metal sheet QXs seem awfully common in club apiaries ... good training?

That's why i've changed all our association QX's this year to wired