Lyson polystyrene beehives
We started using Lyson Polystyrene Beehives in 2018. Before that we had been using traditional wooden hives from top to bottom. I know there is not a lot out there regarding how these hives work especially in the United States. However, if you look in Europe you will see them used a lot.
So what are the benefits?
- They are thicker than traditional wooden hives and as such they have an actually higher R-value than wooden hives. Typical wooden hives have an R-value of 1.2 compare that to polystyrene hives with an R-value of 6.2. While the temperature inside the hive may only be a difference of 1 degree Celsius between the wooden and polystyrene hives it is the humidity level especially in the winter. One study found a difference of 10 percentage points when measuring humidity inside the hive in the winter. The polystyrene was 52% humidity and the wooden was 62% humidity. Here is a link to the study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00218839.2021.1999578
- As most beekeepers know that it is not the cold in the winter time that kills the bees, it is the humidity in the hive. If you can keep the humidity down then you can better protect the bees over the winter time.
- Also with the added insulation you are not having to add additional insulation to the hives in the winter time to try and protect the bees.
- Another benefit of these hives is they are light. You can easily lift an empty stack of 2 deep boxes, 2 medium supers, bottom board and top cover all with empty frames in them.
- They also come with latches to hook the boxes and tops to each other. This means that if the hive falls over it all stays together. You don’t have to put heavy weights on top to keep everything together.
- The temperature in the hive does not change as rapidly. This makes it easier for the bees to keep cooler on a hot day and warmer on a cold day as the changes are less drastic.
- As of right now my hives are 5 years old and they are holding up extremely well. I have wooden hive boxes in worse shape in less time and some that are falling apart.
- You can use them with most wooden hive boxes and parts. You just lose the ability to lock them together and the insulation.
So what are the down sides?
- They are a bit more expensive that wooden hive boxes, but if you couple that with the fact that they are lighter, have a higher R-value, and interlock. You are definitely getting more for the money.
- Five years ago it was harder to find replacement parts. For example, the entrance reducer was hard to find. However it is getting easier each year and more items are being made to support these hives specifically.
I have created a few videos over the years regarding our Lyson Polystyrene hives. They cover the unboxing from Better Bee through putting them together and deploying them. Finally I did a two year overview so you could see how things were going.
Videos:
Lyson Polystyrene 2 year follow up
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