And if the hive was bigger I'd be in there with the gals.

It's actually 42 degrees here, been raining, blowing from the SE ( the direction the hive entrance faces ) foggy and basically shi^%%$ all day.

But last fall I read the Beemax Styrofoam hive proganda and decided to try it this spring.

A week and a half ago I started converting my hive from a non standard sub standard size to standard size in Beemax bodies.

The process is not done yet, while I wait for all the brood to hatch out in the middle section which is still the old box.

The configuration is
Bottom section - Styrofoam with SBB, with brood on
1/2 the frames of wood and some brood started on Permacomb
Middle section old wooden with brood on wooden frames
Third level is styrofoam with Permacomb through out. The middle couple of frames have some partially drawn comb and some honey going in.

On top of that is a short pail type feeder with some pollen patties, enclosed in another styrofoam deep
Topped off with a styrofoam lid.

At sunset I put in my wife's meat thermometer with a remote readout, between the Permacomb frames in the 3rd deep up. So the prove is not in the brood.

It's down to 42 degrees outside still raining and the readout says 90 degrees. I think thats pretty close to ideal isn't it. When I put the probe in at sunset they were in the syrup feeder and all over the pollen patties. So I'm thinking that the colony is still moving forward, laying eggs, building comb etc, where after a day when it did not get above 45, a wooden box hive would likely be in cluster mode and only preserving the brood.

[size="1"][ April 22, 2006, 08:32 PM: Message edited by: brent.roberts ][/size]