10F Dadant Blatt poly super ParadiseHoney® for 47 x 16 cm frames

01 · COMPATIBILITY

The top bar counts, and so does the footprint

Dadant is not one size. The Blatt frame has a 47 cm top bar and is the standard in France and Italy; the Dadant US frame runs to 48 and does not rest in this super. Measure your top bars before ordering. The second check is the box underneath: this super is the 16.8 cm piece of the 10-frame BeeBox series and fits on the Dadant Blatt brood box of the same system, the one in the brand’s complete Blatt hive. On a timber Dadant it does not sit: the polystyrene wall of around 4 cm gives it an outer footprint of 55 × 46 cm, wider than any box made of boards.

02 · WHICH FRAME FITS

Ten of 47 × 16, timber or plastic

It takes ten Dadant Blatt shallow frames of 47 × 16 cm, timber or plastic alike. They are not included, and neither is any spacer: the frames rest on the smooth plastic profile of the rebates. With Hoffman frames the spacing comes from the frames themselves; with straight-sided frames you need a castellated spacer or spacer clips. In supers many beekeepers run eight or nine frames instead of ten, well spaced, so the bees draw thicker combs that are easier to uncap: this box allows it, but the spacing is up to you.

03 · THE MATERIAL

Hard polystyrene that is neither scraped nor painted like timber

It is extra-hardened EPS of over 100 kg/m³: it takes the hive tool and stacking without crumbling, and the joints and rebates are reinforced with plastic profiles, which are included. It weighs about 2 kg and insulates both ways, so the honey in the super does not overheat in August. In return it asks for different handling: propolis is scraped cold and flat with a plastic or wooden tool, it is cleaned with warm water or steam and never with a blowtorch. And it is painted before first use, outside only, with water-based exterior paint or polyurethane with UV protection; no enamel or solvent, which eat into polystyrene. In hot climates, a light colour.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

You receive the super with its plastic profiles and nothing else. Check two things: that your frames are Blatt with a 47 cm top bar, and that the box underneath is BeeBox.