LYSON Multi-frame Polystyrene Dadant US Beehive

01 · INSULATION CUTS BOTH WAYS

Less consumption, but an earlier start

The maker puts the insulation of high-density EPS at up to six times that of wood, and the good consequence is well known: the cluster spends less honey keeping warm through winter, and in summer fewer bees are tied up fanning.

The other side is told less often. A warm hive breaks cluster earlier and can start rearing brood in midwinter: that is an advantage where there is early forage and a problem where there is not — because rearing consumes, and a colony rearing in January with nothing coming in eats through its stores much faster. With EPS you watch the weight rather than assume it.

02 · PAINTING IS NOT OPTIONAL

Sunlight eats polystyrene

It is delivered unpainted, in white, and it needs a coat of water-based acrylic paint before it goes to the field. This is not cosmetic: ultraviolet degrades EPS at the surface, and an unpainted hive turns chalky and flakes within a couple of seasons.

The plastic reinforcements at the bearing points are there for the same reason: the rubbing of the frames and the pressure of the hive tool mark polystyrene, and that is where it breaks first.

03 · IT CANNOT BE FLAMED

Disinfection changes method

This is the practical difference that most surprises anyone coming from wood: a blowtorch melts EPS. Disinfection has to be chemical — soda, bleach — or with hot water under pressure, which this material takes well because it does not rot.

The low screened floor with a removable tray lets you follow the natural varroa drop without opening the hive, and the high roof acts as an air chamber: it controls condensation in winter and buffers the heat in summer.

04 · WHAT THE SET INCLUDES

Body, two half supers and a feeder

It comes with the brood chamber, two Dadant US half supers of 160 mm — handy for staggered harvests and for not lifting full supers of honey — the screened floor and the 7.5 litre top feeder in food-grade plastic, seated in the roof so it uses the heat rising from the colony.

Thanks to the EPS the whole thing is up to 60 % lighter than its wooden equivalent, and that is felt when lifting half supers full of honey. It is approved for food contact under European regulation.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Budget the paint from day one and adapt the management: less winter consumption, but also earlier brood rearing and disinfection without fire.