LOL....the naysayers can naysay about the benefits of poly as much as they like....suits me just fine. They can keep up with the proud defence of outmoded gear however long they wish, and just hand the advantages over to those who make progress.
Have run poly now since 1997, big scale since 2000. Only ONE year since then did wood outperform poly on wintering, and in ZERO of these years did it outperform poly in terms of annual harvest. In the bad wintering year we took a disproportionate varroa hit in them as they were the latest treated, and they run a later brood cycle and thus go further up the curve than wood. But....losses run at about half the rate in poly than wood, in some years 25%...and spring average strength is better by some distance.
As stated elsewhere in the thread they are a LITTLE slower off the mark in spring but motor past the wood quite soon. They are never seen to be thirsty..and I have no idea why anyone should think that.
Also...we have NOT had a colder winter than last..it has been open and very little snow......and at this time we were combatting a set of three beasts from the east last year...then hit instant spring while the ground was a quagmire.
HM is being a little naughty referring to the vast amounts of wooden hives I am buying in...there is a specific set of circumstance for that. One is that it is in part a spring selling project in case of a problem from Brexit for our bee clients, so we can sell full colonies in new or second season new gear in time for the OSR, and the majority of UK beeks are still very conservative so like wood. Secondly we have acquired two new vast heather estates good for at least 50 apiaries combined, where the owner hates all forms of plastic, and we can ONLY get on to his ground if we use traditional materials.
So the choice to set up 750 new hives all in wood is dictated by circumstances completely unconnected to performance. Its landowner dictat, market forces, and added to that an unbelievable deal. If it were about performance it would be poly all the way.
Edited to add a footnote......
When I make these statements about poly I am often accused of plugging it for reasons of marketing. I have not sold poly in over a decade. I stopped when the market got very silly, with so many new incompatible moulds being brought out and it was obviously going all fragmented and would eventually end in a lot of failures. I am thus neutral on the argument from a money standpoint...not trying to sell anyone poly hives any more, and unless the market rationalises onto a single standard pattern, will not do so again.