APIBOX HoneyComb system

01 · HOW IT WORKS

The container goes into the super empty and comes out full

The frame is pre-cut and thicker than a standard one because it carries two rows of cups, one per face: the clear PET cups are held by divider strips screwed to the frame. The hexagonal pattern on the base acts as a guide, so there is no foundation to fit and no wiring to do. Once capped, a section comes away on its own, closes with its clear lid and sells untouched.

02 · WHICH MODEL YOU NEED

Three top bars for three hive formats

MINI, 12 cups in a half-depth super frame with a 48 cm top bar: Langstroth half-depth super and Dadant US super. MIDI, 16 cups with a 47 cm top bar and a 433 × 160 × 36 mm frame: the Dadant Blatt super, the European Dadant of Spain, France and Portugal. MAXI, 24 cups in a brood-depth frame with a 48 cm top bar: it goes in a full-depth Langstroth or Dadant US super. Careful: American and European Dadant do not share a top bar.

03 · GETTING THEM DRAWN

Strong colony, heavy flow and the frame in the middle

Bees take to plastic less readily than to wax, and a weak colony will not do it: you need a super covered in bees and a serious flow: lavender, rosemary, orange blossom, heather. Put them in the centre of the super, between drawn combs, and brush the base with liquid wax. Below it, a queen excluder: a section with brood cannot be sold, and the MAXI is a brood-depth frame.

04 · AFTER THE HARVEST

The frame lasts for seasons; the cups are what you replace

Take the frame out, push each cup through from the back and fit its lid: it clips on, so seal it with the label for the shelf. The comb comes out whole, nothing drained or cut. The woodwork goes back next season; the only consumable is the cups, sold separately by model. Where wax moth is a problem, freeze the sections 48 hours before selling.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is sold by the frame — cups, lids, dividers and bands — not by the super: a super takes as many units as the positions you give it, and price follows the model. All three are built for Langstroth and Dadant, with a 48 or 47 cm top bar. On any other format, measure the inside of your box before ordering and ask us: a Zander, with its 477 mm top bar, is borderline, and Apivita makes sizes we do not stock.