10 Frames Dadant US brood body Paradise

01 · THE INSULATION

It works both ways, not only in winter

EPS at over 100 kg/m³ insulates far better than a timber wall of the same thickness, and it does so in both directions: in winter it helps the cluster hold its heat, in summer it slows overheating. What you gain is not temperature, it is colony energy: what is not spent on thermoregulation can go into brood. And the 2 kg of the body tell on every inspection and every move, especially across dozens of hives.

02 · DENSITY AND REINFORCEMENT

This is hard polystyrene, not packing foam

That high density makes it an extra-hardened polystyrene that takes stacking and hive-tool leverage far better than soft foams, which crumble at the first go. On top of that, the joints and the frame rests are reinforced with plastic profiles — precisely the two places that suffer when you lever and when you scrape propolis season after season.

03 · HOW IT IS HANDLED

It is not scraped or painted like timber

Here is the handling difference worth knowing before you buy. Polystyrene does not absorb damp or rot, but it does not take what timber takes either: attack the propolis with a steel hive tool and the blade bites the wall and leaves a groove. What works is scraping cold and flat with a plastic or wooden tool, and washing with warm water — no blowtorch and no solvents. And if you paint it, paint it outside only and with water-based paint: the solvents in ordinary paint eat polystyrene.

04 · THE BEEBOX SYSTEM

This body is one piece of a set

The floor, the supers and the roof of the BeeBox system are bought separately, so you build the hive to your own measure and replace only the piece that gives out. The flip side is that the first purchase has to be planned whole. And mind the measurement: this is the Dadant US, at 48 cm. The catalogue also carries the French Blatt version of this same system, which runs at 47 — one centimetre that decides whether the frame sits or not.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

You receive the body and nothing else. Budget for the 10 frames, the foundation and the rest of the system, and set aside time to paint it before it goes out if it will stand in the sun.