Commercially poly hive - does anyone sell them

[Black Comb]

According to my notes a commercial box has approx. 74,250 cells
A L/s deep has 72,250
A L/s jumbo has 85,200

I run my L/s jumbos with 9 frames + dummy board so I'll only have about 77,000 cells.

Will depend on your type of bee, i.e. how prolific a layer.

A L/s jumbo with 6/7 frames of brood and 2/3 frames of stores is pretty heavy but I rarely have to move mine.

Must say, in your situation with your back I would go for something that takes national supers. A full L/s super is also pretty heavy.

 

[drstitson]

a LS BB is roughly same volume as a standard national.

 

[Alabamaeee]

My first thoughts were to buy poly 14x12 but I'm thinking the brood frames may be harder to manipulate than the commercial as they are much deeper.

Just wish there were commercial poly hives as that would solve all my problems

 

[BeeJayBee]

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

The sizes are listed here http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=856

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

I can't compare those two, but a full poly Jumbo Lang is a fair bit lighter than a cedar one although they're both heavy.

The type of roof makes quite a difference to the weight too. Our Sw1enty Langs have a metal cover over a thick slab of polystyrene, no wood, so weigh next to nothing even though they're quite deep.

 

[drstitson]

Personally i'd say that the lug issue takes more getting used to than the depth for relative newbies. 14x12 fine IMHO. try jumbo LS/dadant blatt - shorter lugs and 17x12 frames!

 

[mbc]

I have both Langstroth and Commercial

I was interested in the commercial nuc before doubt was cast on it, should I still be interested ? (ie. is it any good ?)

 

[Alabamaeee]

Personally i'd say that the lug issue takes more getting used to than the depth for relative newbies. 14x12 fine IMHO. try jumbo LS/dadant blatt - shorter lugs and 17x12 frames!

DR

Do you mean the lugs are bigger than the standard national?

I had a few problems in the first year with the short lugs on the commercials, as you can imagine, leather gloves and short lugs make difficult manipulations.

 

[Black Comb]

No, the lugs are shorter.

 

[drstitson]

Alabamaeeee

i hope you've ditched the leather gloves.

commercial lugs are shorter than nat/14x12.

never had a chance to compare comm and LS/DB lugs.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Personally i'd say that the lug issue takes more getting used to than the depth for relative newbies.

Not if they're the only frames you've ever used.

 

[itma]

Do you mean the lugs are bigger than the standard national?

14x12 has exactly the same lugs as standard national.
(This is longer than your existing commercial)

 

[Alabamaeee]

I've gone for the 14X12 poly hive from "Downsouth" so will report back on my impressions later when I get them populated.