PU hive with DPGF

[user 6228]

Built a polyurethane/polyester resin NuC and National hive using 50mm foil coated Polyurethane foam sheet (kingspan) and polyester resin. The resin is both glue and edge sealant with fibre glass tissue for re-enforcement.
The floor is a double poly grill(DPGF) based on the ideas from the happy beekeeper, but executed in resin covered PU. The floor base is made deep to allow a second grill to be inserted below the first to act a baffle /wind break to allow the warm air bubble surrounding the bees, to extend below the floor. The lower grill also acts to prevent clustering under the hive.
The entrance mas in PU/polyester forms an 45 degree angled tunnel, two bee space high. This again aimed to retain the warm air bubble down to the grill. The alighting space/tongue is a piece of plastic green house screening mesh. Frame rails made in aluminium angle design so hive tools do not to puncture resin coat on the PU. internal dimensions standard national

lower grill

upper grill

parts of Nuc with full national BB and supers

 

[user 6228]

Forgot to mention, foam parts cut using a chop saw, table saw and router table.
The metal rails, including super ones with cut outs , milled from standard ally sections. Fixings for entrance turned and tapped from nylon rod.
Estimated cost £30 to £40 per hive, complete with supers, lid, floor, no frames.
The thicker section, lower density foam and use of reflective ally foil should give significantly better thermal performance than commercial HD polystyrene. The floor and entrance design should make further additions to the thermal performance. Not a new design just different materials

 

[oliver90owner]

How do they fare in a 'crash test' - dropped on a corner (vertex) from a height of about a metre when at full laden weight with honey or a colony?

I might expect damage, but not spillage with my kit!

Regards, RAB

 

[user 6228]

How do they fare in a 'crash test' - dropped on a corner (vertex) from a height of about a metre when at full laden weight with honey or a colony?

I might expect damage, but not spillage with my kit!

Regards, RAB

THe stuff is quite strong and impact adsorbing The resin soaks into foam and forms a rigid hard skin The large area rebated joints confer considerable strength. The concern is it would lose bee nibble proofness on impact , relying on just foam and resin if the internal resin layer is punctured . Thus the fibreglass tissue reenforcement, . My motorcycle fairing is fibreglass with a PU core. I have tested impact with the road at above 40mph with the bike weighing 200Kg. The hive is the same material but less fibreglass more PU. The mk2 version will have more fibreglass reinforcement, especial on the edges of the lid. This item seems to have a propensity to fall and get damaged on its edges.
I will not be able to convince you if you are unfamilar with the properties of the composite material. Try it,

 

[bee-live]

Do the bees know about properties of composite ?
I bet the will propolise the gap between the boxes/ parts and your hive tool will dig into the soft core or chunks will be removed when pulled apart (guess propolis is good glue & stronger than polyu)
You should also epoxi the top botton of boxes; i.e. all the surfaces to make and Armadillo hive (hard on the outside, soft on the inside).

 

[user 6228]

Indeed all of the exposed PU core is has about 3 coats of resin, and on the box facing surfaces glass fibre tissue reinforcement. however the resin is polyester rather than epoxy in your suggestion

 

[user 6228]

Design proven ! Bees have actually creat

​

ed a queen
And now have sealed brood. Nothing proven really except the enduring adaptabilty of bees
Still feel chuffed though

 

[Hombre]

There is an immense amount of pleasure to be had from making your own bits of kit with your own features or wrinkles. Some of mine have been known to have a wrinkle or two.

 

[user 6228]

You are right about the satisfaction. I made a lot of assumptions particularly about the floor and the entrance. Seeing the bees: not clustering tightly to the frames, just getting on with what bees do, with a few on the floor and on walls, with the outside temp at 15C, did bring a grin to the face.

 

[user 6228]

The PU Nuc had been in service only about 8- 6 weeks before the bees graduated to the full PU hive.
It was a success! the bees survived and progressed rapidly in the NUC even if they killed the introduced queen.!
They behaved quite placidly during inspections and surprisingly it took only 2 to 4 weeks after they had a new queen then downing 2 litres of syrup before they wanted to swarm ! We removed queen cells and they did it again and so we moved them up to a full national PU hive, with two dummy frames
After the first inspection on the full hive they have stopped making queen cells and are vigorously moving on to the extra frames.
The queen is doing her stuff and the foraging is keeping up with demands the moment using the local heather, so we have brood in all stages and some stores.
We going install a feeder this weekend as these bees seem to do things at the double and could easily outstrip their foraging capacity

Impressions on opening the PU hive is the bees move about more than the wooden hive as they rush to cover the brood.

The pu NUC has been taken apart to see how it survived and there is no evidence of chewing on the resin. This NUC was bottom space no crown board. I think it needs a few mm of space at the top to allow better heat and pheromone distribution and to make it harder for them to glue the lid down. This was incorporated into the full size hive before they moved in.