Commercially poly hive - does anyone sell them

[Alabamaeee]

Looking for some commercial size poly hives but no one seems to sell them

Could a Langstroth poly be converted to commercial?

 

[susbees]

Yes, apparently....but decided it was too much fuss and bought ten thick ply ones with OMF. Banked together for winter they'll be fine.

For the record, the commercial polynucs sold by Abelo are NOT Commercial...

 

[MuswellMetro]

Our BKA's chairman uses commercials and he researched this extensively this winter but was unable to find any supplier of commercial poly hives

on inquiring about the cost of a mold, to produce a limit run of commercials it was to prohibitive..>£20,000

so he dropped the idea and uses idigo hardwood hives from yorkshire beehives,

 

[susbees]

MM...he did well...the company I approached about making some didn't even bother to reply. Humphhhh....

 

[Alabamaeee]

Thanks for the replies.

It was along shot I guess, but had to ask.

Now I need to decide if I continue with wood commercial or go for 14 X 14 poly hives, as I need to buy a few more hives complete and ready to make increases this year.

Depending on the weather of course

 

[Russel]

Long shot and probably more trouble than worth but would an Hamilton converter allow you to achieve what you want?

 

[susbees]

Thanks for the replies.

It was along shot I guess, but had to ask.

Now I need to decide if I continue with wood commercial or go for 14 X 14 poly hives, as I need to buy a few more hives complete and ready to make increases this year.

Depending on the weather of course

14x12. Wood commercial for me...don't like 14x12 much, further to pull them out of the box each time which matters when there are a few to do at once and can be slumpy in hot weather (no risk of that for the foreseeable).

And still no protocol for AFB with poly.

 

[mbc]

For the record, the commercial polynucs sold by Abelo are NOT Commercial...

Are you sure ? The answer could save me 34 quid !

 

[user 6228]

...

And still no protocol for AFB with poly.

IRC From the talk at the LBKA with the man from FERA it was chemical sterilisation of the exterior plus burning of the frames.

 

[RoofTops]

There's a Fera leaflet on sterilising poly hives.

UK Commercial frames will fit inside two LS Medium super boxes if you pin a strip of wood to the outside of each side bar and then pin or tie the whole lot underneath an LS top bar or strip of wood of suitable size. Have a look at the MB National conversion kit for the general idea.

You can then get you Commercial frames inside an LS hive and over a season convert over to it. LS is a widely used format and has significant benefits if you want to go poly - economies of scale make LS poly generally the cheapest. It is why there is no real interest amongst suppliers to make Commercial sized poly. National makes sense as there are so many of them and the format has its adherants but if you are going for larger frames then LS is the obvious choice.

Alternatively, make up a ply adaptor and just get the bees up into an LS hive by a Bailley frame change.

 

[susbees]

IRC From the talk at the LBKA with the man from FERA it was chemical sterilisation of the exterior plus burning of the frames.

And can't get petrol in to kill the bees. So transfer bees to a wooden box then kill them?

 

[susbees]

Are you sure ? The answer could save me 34 quid !

Lyson Langstroth nuc...aka commercial...

 

[Alabamaeee]

There's a Fera leaflet on sterilising poly hives.

UK Commercial frames will fit inside two LS Medium super boxes if you pin a strip of wood to the outside of each side bar and then pin or tie the whole lot underneath an LS top bar or strip of wood of suitable size. Have a look at the MB National conversion kit for the general idea.

You can then get you Commercial frames inside an LS hive and over a season convert over to it. LS is a widely used format and has significant benefits if you want to go poly - economies of scale make LS poly generally the cheapest. It is why there is no real interest amongst suppliers to make Commercial sized poly. National makes sense as there are so many of them and the format has its adherants but if you are going for larger frames then LS is the obvious choice.

Alternatively, make up a ply adaptor and just get the bees up into an LS hive by a Bailley frame change.

Rooftops, thanks for the info.

I had not considered LS because at the moment commercial BB's are just about manageable with my bad back.

Are the LS frames significantly bigger than the commercial or would a poly LS be about the same weight as a wooden commercial when full?

I'm confused since I have seen LS in three frame sizes but don't know what the differences are.

Another thing to consider is that I have six national supers already, which fit my commercials, so would have to be a complete hive change I guess.

Still, food for thought, as the LS polys are cheaper I think.

 

[Hivemaker.]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=856

 

[RoofTops]

Rooftops, thanks for the info.

I had not considered LS because at the moment commercial BB's are just about manageable with my bad back.

Are the LS frames significantly bigger than the commercial or would a poly LS be about the same weight as a wooden commercial when full?

UK Commercial and LS virtually the same size in area. But LS takes 10 frames so brood boxes marginally lighter.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I think the three frame sizes for Langstroth are for the Jumbo Brood Box which is 11 3/4 deep, the 'Standard' brood box and the super. The supers are standard, whichever brood box you use. We use Jumbo poly, they are quite big.

There are a few designs of Poly brood boxes to choose from, some on Ebay, some from 'big' suppliers such as Southdown Bee Farm and MB. I'm not sure what the differences are.

 

[local_beekeeper]

Lyson Langstroth nuc...aka commercial...

What do you mean?

 

[susbees]

What do you mean?

Abelo advertise Commercial nucs on ebay (and their website...or did when I last looked). They are Polish Lyson Langstroth nucs so a bit confusing...I did a bit of detective work a while back and emailed them about it but never got a reply.

 

[local_beekeeper]

I have both Langstroth and Commercial

 

[Alabamaeee]

Still pondering but wondering...

Would a Langstroth BB with deep frames as opposed to jumbo provide roughly the same size environment for the bees as a commercial?

And would the weight of the poly langstroth BB configured as above be about the same as a commercial cedar hive?

Confused.com - that's me