Dadant Blatt beehive NICOT® with frames

01 · THE SIZE

Blatt, 47 cm: the standard in France and Italy

Dadant Blatt takes frames with a 47 cm top bar; Dadant US, the usual one in Spain, is 48 and does not fit. If you are going to mix it with material you already own, measure the top bar of your frames before ordering. With the 19 frames inside you depend on nothing: 10 for the brood chamber and 9 for the super, wooden and already wired, only the foundation missing.

02 · WHAT IT IS INSIDE

Double wall with an air gap, no foam

The plastic is recyclable food-grade polyethylene, free of bisphenol A and phthalates, injected as a double wall: the air gap between the two walls is the insulation, there is no polyurethane or filling. The plastic does not take up moisture, so condensation is governed with the floor. The floor is fully ventilated, mesh across the whole base, with a separate slide-in tray to close it or count varroa; the plastic entrance reducer sets to 8.5 mm.

03 · WHAT IT IS BOUGHT FOR

Migration and pressure washing

Without frames it weighs about 10 kg, half the same hive in wood: you notice it on the truck, and the NICOT clips hold floor, body, super and roof together for the journey. Between seasons it is scraped and pressure-washed with water up to 60 °C, bleach or soda, without the box rotting or swelling. What it does not take is the blowtorch: plastic is not scorched.

04 · WHAT COMES SEPARATELY

Foundation, feeder, excluder and clips

It comes assembled by modules, without foundation. The 7-litre NICOT top feeder, the plastic queen excluder, the floor tray and the fixing clips are parts of the same system and are bought separately.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Assembled with the roof it measures about 450 × 500 × 530 mm and weighs about 19 kg with the frames; with body and super full, a good deal more.