Beehive Dadant Blatt by Paradise®

01 · THE SIZE

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

The frames are Dadant Blatt, the standard in France and Italy: 47 × 30 cm in the brood chamber and 47 × 16 in the shallow super, wooden or plastic. 48 cm Dadant US frames, the usual ones in Spain, do not fit: measure the top bar of your frames before ordering. 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 the parts only stack with other 10-frame BeeBox parts.

02 · WHAT ARRIVES

Four flat-packed parts, no frames or spacers

Light floor without tray, 10-frame brood body, 10-frame shallow super and flat roof, each box as four tongue-and-groove walls with internal locking and plastic profiles that push into the rebates: assembled in minutes and, if you like, with waterproof glue. No frames, no spacer bars or clips, no fastening between parts: the boxes rest by gravity and for migration they are strapped or clipped. With Hoffman frames the spacing comes by itself; with straight ones, spacer bar or clips. The system’s 10-litre top feeder and crown board come separately.

03 · THE MATERIAL

100 kg/m³ polystyrene, from Finnish cold to August heat

It is extra-hardened EPS at over 100 kg/m³: it withstands the hive tool, stacking and rodents, and insulates against the Finnish cold it was designed for as much as against August heat. Propolis is scraped cold and flat with a plastic or wooden tool; it is cleaned with hot water and neutral detergent, steam or 2-4 % soda, and after disease with soda or Virkon; never a blowtorch, solvents or concentrated bleach.

04 · BEFORE FIRST USE

Paint the outside only, water-based

It is painted before stocking, only the outer face, with exterior water-based or UV-filter polyurethane paint; no enamel or solvent, which eat polystyrene. In warm climates, a light colour. Two coats and let it dry: the paint is what protects it from the sun, its only enemy.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

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