Looks like we will be trying a poly hive

[nonstandard]

Having gone through the Poly/Wood dilemma a couple of years ago and decided that the wooden hive better suited our ethics and my practical skills, (you can't make your own polys); It now looks like we will be trying out a poly national, or rather my eight year old will as she entered the kids competition in April's Bee Craft and won the hive courtesy of MB.

It's a great prize and will certainly help satisfy my curiosity about poly, although of course it means I'm going to have to order some supers and a feeder as well as having to promise our six year old his own hive as long as he shows enough interest.

 

[Mike a]

Congratulations to your daughter.


The only two things I wish MB would offer is a langstroth poly eke suitable for a good slab of fondant or treatments, the other is a double bee spaced crown board/feeder board with a hole in the centre. As it stands I will be making my own out of wood so they fit over the lip without damaging it.

 

[Poly Hive]

Congrats too here.

FWIW I have made ekes for my nucs out of insulation material and the bees have ignored them from the POV of chewing. Cheap and simple.

PH

 

[snoop]

You could always use an in hive feeder that fits in instead of 1 or 2 frames.

 

[johnandyrob]

Congratulations to your daughter.


The only two things I wish MB would offer is a langstroth poly eke suitable for a good slab of fondant or treatments, the other is a double bee spaced crown board/feeder board with a hole in the centre. As it stands I will be making my own out of wood so they fit over the lip without damaging it.

They do a clearer board with rhombus bee escape. Are they not made to be fitted so you can slide them of the screws attaching them so giving you a crown/feeder board ?

 

[Black Comb]

Congrats too here.

FWIW I have made ekes for my nucs out of insulation material and the bees have ignored them from the POV of chewing. Cheap and simple.

PH

The Swienty nucs have a space in the top for fondant. Do you need an eke as well?

 

[BBG]

Congratulations to your daughter.

Yes, Bee-craft are doing a lot to encourage youngsters forward into beekeeping and its interests.


The only two things I wish MB would offer is a langstroth poly eke suitable for a good slab of fondant or treatments, the other is a double bee spaced crown board/feeder board with a hole in the centre. As it stands I will be making my own out of wood so they fit over the lip without damaging it.

We use a super - in full:

We cut the holes we want in the clear inner hive cover then

Decide on the size of easily replaceable/repeatable clear plastic tub (ours are a KG for top up feeding)

Then cut a hole in some Recticel so that it fits around the tub and side to side in the super (eke).

A small piece of wood (bee space) on top of a frame (more if you like) under the inner hive cover keeps it from sagging.

For large amounts of fondant put more holes in inner hive cover where bees will require ......

Transparent container means easy view to see if extra feed is necessary.

Inner hive cover means all but a couple of bees come up for a nose when replacing tub.

Recticel keeps loss of heat down.

We keep the round Recticel cut-outs and replace when feeding a slab.

Works and utilises the super again for the winter, it's somewhere to store it, means less equipment (no eke)

Will get a photograph later.

 

[oliver90owner]

my eight year old will as she entered the kids competition in April's Bee Craft and won the hive courtesy of MB.

Well done to the young lady.

On the hive front, you can use all and any suitable timber National components on them. There is just the change from wider, 40mm walls to the 19mm timber. As all my shallows are top bee space, I don't even need to think about matching bee space with my timber kit. As things have been a tad tardy this 'spring', I have not been into it too often, so not sure yet whether the gloom and doom of 'the lip' is a problem or not.

Well, it won't be there if it is so no real worries yet. I can envisage the outer frames of a timber box being fixed at the transition, but not yet enough experience of it yet. There may be a way to overcome that, should it manifest itself as a minor nuisance anyway, so I am quite confident these MB format polys will be the way to go for me.

It was one of the best over-wintering and I shall, if all pans out well, be getting more boxes to make broods, and maybe for the first super.

RAB

 

[johnandyrob]

I have not been into it too often, so not sure yet whether the gloom and doom of 'the lip' is a problem or not. RAB[/QUOTE]

There is no lip on the m.b. national. The lip that has been talked about is a pronounced lip that fits into a groove on the bottom of subsequent boxes placed on top of the Langstroth boxes. This lip makes m.b Langstroth boxes incompatible with other makes of poly and wooden box meaning you are locked into using the m.b. product. This feature is not on the National box. I believe this is being confused by some people with the yellow extended frame runner that extends to the out side of the Langstroth and the National.

 

[drstitson]

the poly nats do however have a bottom overhang that sits over the chamfered top edge.

so ok putting wood on poly but more difficult vice versa. as i found out in hurry last night when placing a snelgrove board between two MB nat BBs.

really need dedicated boards for that type of job for the MBs.

 

[Poly Hive]

LOL

The consequences game of non standard kit.

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

There is no lip on the m.b. national.

Really? Look again, all around the bottom edge.

 

[johnandyrob]

Ok I apologise. Every thread i have read the lip on the top of the m.b. has been referred to as a lip and the skirt on the bottom of the m.b. National has been referred to as a skirt

 

[johnandyrob]

Ok I apologise. Every thread i have read the lip on the top of the m.b. has been referred to as a lip and the skirt on the bottom of the m.b. National has been referred to as a skirt . Either way they are design faults.

 

[oliver90owner]

Yep, apols accepted. After all, most people have both a top and a bottom lip!

 

[YorkshireBees]

Congrats to your daughter, I hope you both enjoy the hive.

I have been quite pleased so far with my MB nationals, the 'lip' hasn't been a problem but I do find it a tight squeeze (length ways) to fit the dn1 frames into the brood box!

Maybe I am assembling the poly boxes too tightly?

Also last year I used dn1 frames but this year I am converting some hives to dn4 and found that I can fit 11 into the brood box with space rather than 10 dn1 with plastic spacers!

Both the colonies that I over-wintered in the polys far out stripped the wooden hives in terms of brood buildup so far this year! (So much so that they caught me out with swarm preparations!)

 

[johnandyrob]

Yep, apols accepted. After all, most people have both a top and a bottom lip!

You are right again most people do have top and bottom lips however even m.b. describe the skirt on the bottom of their National hive as a " sort of skirt ".

Back to topic congratulations to you daughter hope she enjoys her prize.