Poly vs wood?

[user 6228]

There is a certain gentlemen who lectures others about his version of 'Sustainable Beekeeping' and who condemns the presence of a few pennyworth of metal in a beehive because of it's harmful ecological footprint. He does so on the Internet whilst communicating via a Pentium-class laptop containing rare-earth capacitors, an N-Gigabyte hard drive, and the services of the global Internet structure - which I suspect may well contain just a little bit of metal, here and there.

A bit like flying to a Global Warming symposium on a 747.
LJ

Of all the uses of plastic, a beehive is one of the most benign. It is for a long lived durable product facilating a renewable resource. a useful lifetime that is longer than nearly all cars,
If one sought to eliminate plastics from ones life this should be one of the last item to go along with the plastic encapsulating your solar panels to make them weather proof. (yes they are sealed to the glass with a heat sealing plastic)
Just because polystyrene is mistakenly used in disposable packaging , other applications should not be tarred with the same brush.

 

[madasafish]

If one sought to eliminate plastics from ones life this should be one of the last item to go along with the plastic encapsulating your solar panels to make them weather proof. (yes they are sealed to the glass with a heat sealing plastic)
Just because polystyrene is mistakenly used in disposable packaging , other applications should not be tarred with the same brush.

If you want to eliminate plastic from your life, you cannot have a mobile, use ANY computer, radio,TV,loudspeaker,car, motorbike, train, bus, etc.
And then of course, electricity is carried by copper sheathed in plastic.


Bring back bakelite, all is forgiven - sorry that's plastic as well..

So anyone who wants to get rid of plastic and posts on the internet is a hypocrite ...

As for insulating houses, let alone hives, that's a plastic as well..

 

[Cussword]

Just bought my first poly hive from Maisie's, I'm a happy bunny

 

[Fusion_power]

As for insulating houses, let alone hives, that's a plastic as well..

Fiberglass and wood fiber are the most common insulation materials in houses. They are not normally considered to be "plastic".

Amazing to think that modern plastics trace much of their development to a quest for a replacement for ivory in making billiard balls. The winning formula was a derivative of gun cotton aka smokeless gunpowder. The resulting balls had an annoying habit of exploding if hit altogether too hard.

 

[user 6228]

Fiberglass and wood fiber are the most common insulation materials in houses. They are not normally considered to be "plastic"...

different country, different regs, different building materials

 

[Little John]

Anyone who lived in the 1960's and was subjected to the wearing of Bri-Nylon shirts knows that plastic isn't suitable for everything ...

A mix of 70% Cotton with 30% Terylene - now that's more like it.
LJ

 

[Pendragon]

I love my polyhive and i have noticed during the past few months the bees in it were active earlier and continued flying later than the two wooden hives next to the poly. There could be other variables obviously but I am convinced it is the hive material. They were just outside a patio door so were great to watch at any hour.

 

[Poly Hive]

Just a couple of points which no doubt have already been covered but there is a limit to what I am willing to plough through these days.

1. Bees prefer poly to wood seen swarms make that decision time after time.

2. You get more honey from poly and the bees over winter better in it.

Used poly now for many many years. Just is better.

PH

 

[Finman]

Fiberglass and wood fiber are the most common insulation materials in houses. They are not normally considered to be "plastic".

.

People of USA do not much understand about insulation.

Like this method, you just cannot do this: holes into the wall and insulation foam in. That is criminal.


And not like this http://int.search.tb.ask.com/search...470893724661&imgs=1p&filter=on&imgDetail=true

.

 

[Finman]

Insulation of outer wall of the house

Rough layers

- outer cover of house
- air gap / ventilation and drying of outer cover
- wind barrier
- insulation
- moisture barrier
- room wall surface

.-
What to note:

- the moisture of outer cover conducts water into inner structures
- dew point when warm air moved towards colder wall material
- moisture condensation / mould formation inside the stucture

 

[judy12]

My uncle gave me 4 wbc's when he retired. I retired the supers to the woodburner after 10 years, so they had 30 years of service, refurbished the floors and lifts, painted the lifts outside and put new National boxes inside. The double-walling provides excellent climate control winter and summer, the lifts are doing well after 50 years - they'll see me out.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Fiberglass and wood fiber are the most common insulation materials in houses. They are not normally considered to be "plastic".

Amazing to think that modern plastics trace much of their development to a quest for a replacement for ivory in making billiard balls. The winning formula was a derivative of gun cotton aka smokeless gunpowder. The resulting balls had an annoying habit of exploding if hit altogether too hard.

Judging by recent drive by of building sites The most common insulating material complying with UK building regulations seems to be 100mm thick foil faced plastic foam - Celotex or one of its equivalents with huge sheets being saw to fit between joists of suspended floors and no doubt elsewhere in the build. A few dedicated people employ wool and other "green" materials. There seems to be a move towards "warm roof" with celotex between rafters to utilize loft space for more than somewhere to stow Christmas trees and decorations for most of the year.

 

[fullframe45]

For Home made nucs search for( Lancs Lad ) on here, he was my mentor. nucs still going strong after years of use He used to make dozens of them from Styrofoam. From Pannel systems .If i remember right.

 

[fian]

Solution:
Beehive made from cork oak bark.

 

[Penninetrader]

I can not make poly hives so it is wood for me, I waste nowt and my boxes are of irregular design dependent on what wood I have scavenged, the silly part is that I have stores of oak and other hardwoods that I will probably never get to use but old habits die hard. Latest floor tonight, bottom entrance, landing board former plasterboard pallet, frame 25mm thick tannalised decking and mesh frame also pallet wood. All custom cut and planed as I have the tackle, nearly forgot, 10mm thick angled English oak base runners to sit winter draft proofing board on. I think I might stick with this design but the mix of wood will be whatever comes to hand and besides which following a good painting it all looks the same and my girls seem quite happy living here. You could not do this commercially but this is my dalliance as the rest of my world is quite the grind

 

[Ely]

This thread has aged a lot. Poly is now far more expensive than wood. Unaffordable for many.

 

[Peterjay]

This thread has aged a lot. Poly is now far more expensive than wood. Unaffordable for many.

The basic question remains as simple as it was in 2012. I've read some of the early arguments in this thread, and they seemed mainly to be about the "morality" of using a petrochemical-based product as opposed to a highly machined, timber material.

From my real-world interaction with other beekeepers, it sems that the benefits of using poly are widely accepted now, and if you are right, that the decision is now skewed by excessive pricing, that perhaps makes the beekeeper's decision a bit less complicated.

Beekeeping itself must be unaffordable for many people, but here in Scotland I see many beekeepers who are starting out with poly-hives and a lot of long-term beekeepers who are gradually changing over to poly.