[beeman 202]

It would be quite simple to cut styrofoam for hive bodies. Anyone know glues that work well with strofoam? Waterproof, yet without solvents that melt.

has anyone built homemade strofoam board hives?

Beemax are commercially available, but shipping air around the world can be spendy.

also----a coating to waterproof would allow you to carve a recess into bottom to fill with syrup for feeding. Might work great for overwintering nucs.

 

[Dave W]

Greetings . . .

Some construction adhesives (Liquid Nail) can bee used to glue styrofoam.

1) How would you make the "frame rest"?
2) What happens to bottom super when the 4 or 5 supers above are each filled w/ 60lbs honey?
3) Why not make them w/ pine?

 

[Michael Bush]

>It would be quite simple to cut styrofoam for hive bodies.

Not really. Most styrofoam is quicly torn up by the bees chewing it to peices. The styrofoam hives are much more dense styrofoam than you buy at the lumber yard.

>Anyone know glues that work well with strofoam? Waterproof, yet without solvents that melt.

Betterbee recommends the "ProBond polyurathane glue for their hives. I've glued styrofam (including their hives) with exterior grade wood glud. Either Titebond or Elmers. But the best styrofoam for a hive that you can get at a lumber yard is probably the blue (or pink) stuff that's higher density than the white styrofoam. The only problem is it's slick on the outside and I don't think the wood glue will get a very good bite in it. Also, I'm still afraid the bees will chew it.

>has anyone built homemade strofoam board hives?

I've wrapped wooden ones in styrofoam in a group this winter. I don't know how they will do yet.

>Beemax are commercially available, but shipping air around the world can be spendy.

A bit.

>also----a coating to waterproof would allow you to carve a recess into bottom to fill with syrup for feeding. Might work great for overwintering nucs.

I made "bathtub" bottom boards for the three Beemax hives I'm trying this winter. I cut 1/4" exterior Laun plywood and put 3/4" by 3/4" wood around the edge and glued it with exterior glue and did a fillet in corner all the way around. The idea was that I could put syrup on the bottom or crystallized honey or just white sugar or whatever. I haven't used them that way, though. Figured I'd only do it if it was an emergency.

The styrofoam nucs from Betterbee that you feed from the bottom have the frames going almost to the bottom so they bees can crawl down to the syrup without leaving the frame. Mine have a 3/4" gap at the bottom, and I'm afraid of drowning bees.

 

[Dick Allen]

Betterbee sells ProBond brand polyurethane adhesive to those who want to glue the joints on their BeeMax brand hives (It’s made by Elmer’s, so it’s available in hardware stores, too).

That should work for regular styrofoam, too, I think. A fellow up the road from me made some from 2-inch thick styrofoam. He did them using simple butt joints which he clamped together for 24 hours using regular Elmer’s white glue. He first used contact cement, but that stuff had MEK, acetone, toluene, etc. in it. The adhesive dissolved the foam, so you probably wouldn’t want that.....

He found bees would gnaw on the styrofoam in the corners and the area where two boxes contact one another. He fixed that problem by folding a strip of 2 inch duct tape over all edges, and told me it put an end to the chewing.

 

[beeman 202]

This is pure conjecture:

You could do splits in august, bottom feed with syrup, and overwinter much easier than in wood.

Frame rest: Wood, set in dado.

Used for overwintering 9 to 18 frame divides done in august, not as a brood chamber during honey production.

Using the denser foam boards and coating joints with something hard would (might) eliminate gnawing of the bees.

[This message has been edited by beeman 202 (edited December 19, 2004).]