Polyhives

[johnandyrob]

I have a colony that used loads of propalice in wooden nationals but hardly any when moved into poly langstroths

 

[RoofTops]

Nice piccy BBG, illustrates the issue very well.

The "UK Shallow" comment was an fine example of my ignorance ( I wrote it). I have subsequently found out what I called the UK LS Shallow frame is used elsewhere and conversly the 6.25" LS Medium/aka Dadant Shallow is not used in some countries where you might expect it to - such as New Zealand, where a Medium frame is about 7" deep.

I am coming to the conclusion the only thing standard about Langstroth is the name.

 

[Poly Hive]

It's not as simple as it might appear.

PH

 

[the naked beekeeper]

Propolis may be of great benefit to the bees, regards health.

http://www.apidologie.org/index.php...es/apido/full_html/2010/03/m09142/m09142.html


Perhaps we have been shooting ourselves in the foot by breeding for bees that don’t use much propolis!

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-3-the-bee-immune-system/

Great references hivemaker.

I always enjoy it when you provide papers of research.

 

[Finman]

.
Bees gather propolis to stuck too big entrance.
Caucasian bee is busy to gather propolis.

 

[Finman]

I am coming to the conclusion the only thing standard about Langstroth is the name.

Once I bought from Honey Paradis langstroth boxes. They were 2 cm tpp short. I returned them and they were Russian standard.

 

[Into the lions den]

Nice piccy BBG, illustrates the issue very well.

The "UK Shallow" comment was an fine example of my ignorance ( I wrote it). I have subsequently found out what I called the UK LS Shallow frame is used elsewhere and conversly the 6.25" LS Medium/aka Dadant Shallow is not used in some countries where you might expect it to - such as New Zealand, where a Medium frame is about 7" deep.

I am coming to the conclusion the only thing standard about Langstroth is the name.

Not so sure this is quite right....however..........as touched on by several respondents, and once the cause of an embarrassing episode at Steele and Brodie who made me several thousand side bars all the wrong size, it gets confusing.

Someone posted that the real shallow (which has frames well under 6 inches) is commonly used in the US. Not anywhere I am aware of, the ones they call shallows ARE the Illinois or Dadant depth, sometimes also called a medium. The very shallow ones called shallows here are normally only used for comb honey production, and are even shallower than a BS shallow.

There are FIVE sizes in use as a normal line but only two *Standard and Medium) are commonplace.

Jumbo..........not so common
Standard Brood Body.........what we call a standard deep
Intermediate..........as it says, part way between a standard and a medium
Medium...........The Illinois or dadant depth
Shallow........Mostly used for cut comb

Poly boxes are normally made in Standard and Medium depths, and some makers have a Jumbo...never seen an Intermediate or Shallow in poly, though no doubt one of the burgeoning number of makers will have them somewhere.

New Zealad and Australia are special cases and have somewhat different sizes from otherplaces due to the historic availability of wooden packing materials many years ago that were close to the correct size but available cheaply. NZ frames (you can see the size variants of both boxes and frames at the Alliance site although you might need to look up Prime Pine Kaikoura to get into it) are just a couple of mm shorter than International standard and the boxes a few mm narrower, so side bars are also a fraction narrower. UK Langstroth frames have rather skinny lugs and tend to lie lower in the box by a fraction compared to overseas frames.

However, once you get your terminology correct, langstroth gear SHOULD be standard sized from wherever you buy it, the Aus/NZ situation apart. (and to be honest you can mix and match their frames in without too many problems. Boxes are an issue though, as NZ boxes are bottom bee space and need adapting if you want them to fit well in an outfit using the more normal top bee space kit.

 

[Finman]

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It makes me wonder....

After industrial usage 25 years poly hives, the British were the first to find out 2011 that dimensions of boxes are wrong.

Well done!

 

[Hivemaker.]

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After industrial usage 25 years poly hives, the British were the first to find out 2011 that dimensions of boxes are wrong.

Not wrong....just different,bit like bees,different breeds,but not wrong,well maybe Carnica, as they our taking over the world....lol.

 

[jakethedog]

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It makes me wonder....

After industrial usage 25 years poly hives, the British were the first to find out 2011 that dimensions of boxes are wrong.

Well done!

Why oh why? It's so tiresome from this side, all these digs at the British.

No one found out that boxes are the wrong size just that the illinois depth (which had previously mainly been associated with dadant hives by UK users and suppliers) is slightly deeper than the wooden langstroth shallow (and I think, possibly, the poly shallow which used to be sold by M'more about 12 years ago) commonly in use in the UK.

An important point from RoofTops perspective (I hadn't previously connected the MB statement specifically with him) was to make it clear to UK purchasers of the Paradise hives which he used to sell that they would need to specify the right 'langstroth shallow' frames from our manufacturers to avoid a barage of later complaints that 'his' langstroth poly supers were too deep....can hear it now "...the bee space is wrong. I want a refund NOW". I personally made comment on this issue because it seems to be falling into general UK understanding that we have some odd langstroth frame size which exists nowhere else, all because of one slightly inaccurate comment on a respected website.

What is it, photos of old bicycles, constant digs at our 'behind the times' varroa management techniques...all based on forum posts from a very small group of people.

You make some interesting comments and post some good links but please, just relax.

 

[Finman]

, just relax.

i try