10F Plastic Roof ANEL®

01 · COMPATIBILITY

Measure the box, do not trust the format name

ANEL builds its whole plastic system on a Langstroth footprint of 51 × 42 cm, for 482 × 232 mm frames, and this roof is moulded for that footprint. It fits ANEL brood boxes, supers and shallow supers, and wooden 10-frame Langstroth boxes of the same outer size; there the fit is tight, and a box that has opened up or warped is worth strapping down. A National or Commercial box measures 46 cm square on the outside and a Dadant 50 × 43 cm, so neither will take it. Measure the wall, not the handles: the ANEL plastic box is listed at 55 cm over its moulded handles and 51 cm at the wall.

02 · VENTILATION

Four ports: meshed, blanked off or left open

There are four hybrid plugs, two on each end. Each one is a twin piece joined by a hinge: one face is a mesh that passes air but not bees, the other is a solid blank. You press whichever face you want into the socket and the other hangs beside it, so nothing gets lost in the grass. In heat and in transport you work with the mesh in; going into winter you close them, leaving a top vent open where the site holds damp, because condensation dripping onto the cluster does more harm than cold.

03 · BUILD

Two filled walls, and a skirt that throws water clear

Two plastic skins with the cavity filled with polyurethane foam, the same recipe as the ANEL boxes: the roof insulates the way the walls do, which bare sheet metal does not. The top face is continuous and the skirt overhangs the box, so water runs off clear of the joint. The dotted bands along the top and bottom edges are anti-slip, meant for stacking hives on the lorry.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is the roof only: no crown board, no feeder, no latches. This reference has no central feed hole, which is the maker's feeding-lid version, and the colour is fixed by the reference, with no colour selector on the page. It does carry four fixing points on the ends and sides for adjustable lever latches or wire, bought separately. ANEL does not publish the clear height left underneath, so plan on an empty super if you feed from the top.