Phenolic board

[Garry R]

Have found a source of phenolic ply off cuts. Is this useable for brood and supers or are the materials toxic to bees for this usage.

 

[Sutty]

I've not come across this product so looked it up.
From the description here I would expect it's ok.
https://www.chilterntimber.co.uk/product/plywood-phenolic-face-wbp-birch/

 

[rolande]

Got a few experimental boxes (nucs and full boxes) made from offcuts last autumn,. Can't say I'm overly keen but the bees seem to be doing ok in it. Was told it's best to build with the textured side facing out as that's the harder wearing surface although it occurs to me that the textured side facing onwards would be good for encouraging propolis application. I have a fair few of the offcuts left which will probably spend the next 20 years waiting for a different project to come along because I can't see me using them on more bee boxes.

 

[Antipodes]

Have found a source of phenolic ply off cuts. Is this useable for brood and supers or are the materials toxic to bees for this usage.

I've seen that stuff used here as covers or lids. It's a different system to your lids, but they just lay a piece as a lid on the top box, directly over the frames. They seem reasonably durable. It's called Formply .

https://plyco.com.au/products/formply