10F Poly Dadant Blatt brood body Paradise®

01 · THE SIZE

Blatt at 47, and a footprint that is not wood’s

47 cm top bar and 47 × 30 frame: the Dadant of France and Italy, as the two French reviews confirm. The 48 cm Dadant US frames common in Spain do not fit: measure your top bars before ordering. With Hoffman frames the spacing takes care of itself; straight frames need a spacer strip or clips. And the box does not share a footprint with a plank hive: with walls of about 4 cm it measures 55 × 46 cm outside, so it only stacks with 10-frame BeeBox floors, supers and roofs, never on wood. The exact inside dimensions the mailbox asks for are not published by the maker: ask us and we will measure one.

02 · WHAT ARRIVES

Four flat-packed walls, no frames, no fittings

It comes as four tongue-and-groove walls with an internal lock and plastic profiles that slot into the rebates, where the box suffers most from the hive tool and scraping; it assembles in minutes and, if you like, with waterproof glue. No frames, no spacer strips or clips, and no joining hardware: boxes rest by gravity and are strapped for migratory work. Floor, shallow super, roof and the system’s 10-litre feeder come separately.

03 · THE MATERIAL

100 kg/m³ polystyrene, and how to treat it

It is extra-hardened EPS, far above ordinary white foam, and it insulates against the Finnish cold it was designed for and the August heat; the plastic profiles in the rebates protect the box from the hive tool and scraping. Propolis is scraped cold and flat with a plastic or wooden tool; clean with hot water and neutral detergent, steam or 2-4 % soda; never a torch, solvents or concentrated bleach.

04 · BEFORE FIRST USE

Paint the outside only, water-based

Polystyrene neither rots nor absorbs moisture, but the sun attacks it: the paint is what protects it. Before populating it, two coats on the outer face only, with exterior water-based or polyurethane paint with UV filter; no enamel or solvent, which eat polystyrene. In hot climates, a light colour; the inside stays bare, the bees propolise it.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

10-frame BeeBox system: bodies, shallow supers, floors, roofs and feeder are bought separately.