Help regarding Maisemore Polyhive and possible adaption

[amandaj57]

Having reached the grand old age of forty mumble I am reaping the rewards of suffering from juvenile arthritis and I am losing strength and mobility in my back, shoulder and right arm.

I am telling you this so you understand that I am not asking for information here because I think I can reinvent the wheel better, but because I am trying to find ways in which I can continue a hobby I love. I am becoming very aware, I am not going to be able to lift supers easily, let alone brood boxes for much longer so I am trying to think of ways round it.

My location is high above sea level and I have experimented with wooden and poly hives (Paynes 12 x 14 and Maisemore nucs) and found the poly hives suit my bees significantly better. (No winter losses in poly over the last six years compared to about 25% in wood along with better harvests).

I had considered a long hive as I thought I could get away with less lifting but they are all wooden. I thought of insulating them but the will make them very bulky which made me think about maisemore,s flat packed boxes. I am wanting to know from anyone who has experience of them if the lugs are square or whether they are doved as I would like to get two boxes with three sides and then rotate the fourth sides to connect the boxes, making a box three hive lengths. I know I will have to do some reinforcing.

Also, I am assuming the indentations for frames only run on two sides so the rotated sides would need the rebate routing out to continue it along the whole side. Is the polystyrene dense enough to be likely to cope with this?

I do have a general plan in mind and there are lots of other things to iron out but this is my starting point.

I would appreciate any info you can give me about these boxes.

 

[Madge]

...I am not going to be able to lift supers easily, let alone brood boxes for much longer so I am trying to think of ways round it ... which made me think about maisemore,s flat packed boxes.

Amanda, poly hives from whomever, and flat-packed or not, won’t help you with the weight issue. The weight is in the combs of honey or brood - not so much in the box.

If a box is too heavy to lift, remove some of the frames one by one into an empty box until you can lift the box - and the same in reverse.

 

[amandaj57]

Amanda, poly hives from whomever, and flat-packed or not, won’t help you with the weight issue. The weight is in the combs of honey or brood - not so much in the box.

If a box is too heavy to lift, remove some of the frames one by one into an empty box until you can lift the box - and the same in reverse.

Thanks for the suggestion MC, but the idea of looking towards a long hive is that I don't have to lift anything off to look at the brood, other than a roof and crownboard. The weight of the boxes becomes more or less irrelevant here, it is just my choice of construction method/material I was trying to sort out. I think it is probably a non starter and I will have to use wood but I know the bees like the poly where I am.

 

[madasafish]

You can make your longhive in wood and stick on fail backed insulation board...on sides and roof.

In practise this works (did it with TBHs) and is likely to much easier than most other alternatives (in my view)

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Depends on your budget - contact Hyde hives - they are very much into building bespoke long hives and I'm sure I saw one with them not long ago which was insulated.

 

[Angry_Mob]

@Poly Hive prevousily mentioned was using sheets of insulation to make nucs? Depending how he got on you may be able to source sheets of dense insulation and construct the hive solely out of that and maybe reinforce the runners.

Slightly off topic but have you looked into bee sting venom for the treatment/alleviation of arthritis?

 

[Newbeeneil]

I made myself a long hive made from a sandwich of 1/2" cedar and 2" PIR insulation. It's only 23 frame long as mine takes standard supers on top but if yours was 33 frames long you probably wouldn't need them.

 

[Madge]

Thanks for the suggestion MC, but the idea of looking towards a long hive is that I don't have to lift anything off to look at the brood, other than a roof and crownboard. ...

Oh, sorry. I thought you’ve rejected the idea of a long hive, and was enquiring about Maisemore flat-pack. I now see you want to use the Maisemore parts to construct a longhive.

Yes, I think you can make it to work. The most dense polystyrene sheets you can buy are still far too soft to use as a hive wall without additional protection from being chewed up - so, re-using Maisemores might be a good idea. But perhaps you should go and inspect a hive up close!

 

[amandaj57]

Thank you for your responses so far. I have a lot to think about.

That is a super job newbeeneil! You are obviously a skilled craftsperson. I am pretty good with basics but rely on my cabinetmaker best friend to guide me through the tricky bits.

 

[amandaj57]

Oh, sorry. I thought you’ve rejected the idea of a long hive, and was enquiring about Maisemore flat-pack. I now see you want to use the Maisemore parts to construct a longhive.

Yes, I think you can make it to work. The most dense polystyrene sheets you can buy are still far too soft to use as a hive wall without additional protection from being chewed up - so, re-using Maisemores might be a good idea. But perhaps you should go and inspect a hive up close!

Sorry, I probably didn't make it very clear I was thinking about repurposing the maisemore hives into a long hive, unfortunately I don't know anyone near me who uses them or I would have asked for a sneaky peek. Maybe I will just have to bite the bullet and order one to play with before going down the insulated wood route. It just felt like a quick fix if I could make it work.

 

[Madge]

Go for it! I think you can make it work.

 

[Swn58]

Amanda, poly hives from whomever, and flat-packed or not, won’t help you with the weight issue. The weight is in the combs of honey or brood - not so much in the box.

If a box is too heavy to lift, remove some of the frames one by one into an empty box until you can lift the box - and the same in reverse.

Yes....I use Poly hives, initially for their lightness and insulation. You are right about the weight though. Because they allow for 'end to end' production, due to better insulation, I have found all hive units just as heavy, if not more so!

 

[redpig]

I think it could work, as long as the dovetails line up when you re-orientate them, and I think the maisiemores will have enough meat on for you to shape the runners. If not then it should be possible to add a strip or two of poly to give you stock to work with. Gorilla glue works a treat. Good luck.

 

[Ringlander]

To answer your original question the maisemore hive corners are dovetailed, so you would not be able to link them end to end to make a long hive without some serious surgery I'm afraid. The runners are as you guess only on two sides as well so additional work would be neded to create the runner grooves, although this would be too hard as you can easily cut the polystyrene back and put simple aluminium L sections in to create new runners. There is plenty of material there to do this The Maisemore hives are pretty strong and would work if you could find a way to overcome the dovetail issue. Maybe you could simply cut the dovetails off on the long sides, butt the sides together and use metal or plywood sheets screwed on the outisde of the hive to hold the long sides together and seal them at the same time? Hope this helps

 

[Ringlander]

sorry, "would be too hard" should have read "wouldn't be too hard".....
Doh!

 

[Madge]

.,,Maisemore hives are pretty strong and would work if you could find a way to overcome the dovetail issue. Maybe you could simply cut the dovetails off on the long sides ...

A heated cutter like this might help.

 

[North End Bees]

sorry, "would be too hard" should have read "wouldn't be too hard".....
Doh!

To save reposting, there is an edit button at the end of the post. (Just mentioning as you may not have seen it.)

 

[Tommo]

Just a thought, why not stick with the Maisemore hives and cut the honey supers in half and on the cut face glue and screw a piece of ply. You would then have two half supers just like the Dartington uses butted together. I have two Maisemore hives and although I haven't done so yet as at 74 I can still lift them (just about!) it is something I would consider doing to make life easier. You would lose a frame but I don't see why that shouldn't work. A strap around them would hold them together when on the hive and with careful cutting the joint could be invisible and weatherproof.
They are brilliant hives and now I have overcome the humidity problem in the winter the bees do really well all year round, my honey yield from them is also better than the wooden. hives.
The suggestion may need a little thought but could be worth a try
I not my bees got on with the long hive.
The forum might call me a new bee but I have forty plus years keeping bees.

 

[North End Bees]

Have you contacted Maisemore/Paynes direct? If you explain your needs
maybe they have some ideas or possible further contacts.
Maybe they would consider putting a poly long hive into production themselves? (There must be lots of potential customers in similar situations to your own.)

 

[matt.the.shep]

Hey guys,

It's an old thread but I'm Matt from Hyde Hives, if we can assist or advice then give us a shout as we're always happy to help. I've never seen a poly long hive so if you have made one I think it's a world first.