Polystyrene beehives

Honey Paw polystyrene beehives are a result of over 45 years of beekeeping. Designed by beekeeper for beekeepers. All our polystyrene beehives are manufactured in Finland.

The hives have been tested for several years in a professional beekeeping operation with over 1,000 beehives before being introduced for commercial use. Hives are proven to work in all weather conditions (Finland’s harsh winter and hot summers). Higher insulation capability works on both cold and hot weather countries / areas keeping hive warm during the cold winter and keeping the excess warmth out of the hive in hot temperatures. Honey Paw’s polystyrene beehive boxes are lightweight but designed to last for many years of use. Hive material density is over 100 kg / m³ which makes it by far the thickest on the market.

In bulk supply, all our hive parts are packed tight on a pallet to ensure low freight cost per unit. Buying full pallets ensures you also the cheapest possible price.

Hive standards

We are producing multiple different hive standards. See all hive products here.

Not sure what is the correct size for your frames? View our hive size summary.

Below are few examples of our products.

As with all beehives, the Honey Paw hive consists of four main parts:

1. Hive bottom
2. Brood box
3. Honey supers
4. Hive roof

As additional accessories, Honey Paw offers a feeder box and a pollen trap. The product range also includes nucleus hives (Nucs), which can be used for queen rearing, establishing new colonies, and hive splitting. Nucs can also be utilized for honey production and wintering spare queens.

Hive bodies

Hive bodies come in 10 frame capacity and are in standard sizes. Smooth edges without any complex profiles offer full compatibility with other Honey Paw hive parts. Boxes are lightweight and easy to handle, still offering high durability against hive tools and years of use.

The hive boxes are delivered unassembled and must be assembled before use. The boxes are equipped with joints that lock into place after gluing.

Stewart Spinks from Norfolk Honey Company has made great assembly instructions for our hives. View it on Youtube. The assembly starts at 3:01.

Wondering the hive painting? We do recommend it! Painting protects the hive from the water and UV radiation thus it improves the durability. And, of course, painted hives look nice and they are easier to clean. We don’t recommend painting the inside surfaces. Stewart has made also a complete painting guide, view it on YouTube.

Hive Roofs

Multifunctional hive roof for dynamic and changing climate.

Honey Paw beehive roof is 45 mm thick in the middle and that the beehive stays warm no matter what. Roof has overhanging outside edges to provide protection against weather.

For beekeepers who migrate hives a lot we can recommend our migratory roof. This roof has tabs which secures bodies tightly to roof keeping bees inside hive when moving them. Extra grooves enables use of hive straps.

Beehive bottoms

Honey Paw offers three different type of polystyrene beehive bottom:

• Thermal bottom
• Bottom with mesh
• Bottom with ventilation board

All the hive bottoms are designed in a way that the hive temperature remains optimal without excessive inside moisture (preventing mold forming inside of the beehive) and are functional in use and easy to work with in every way.

Thermal beehive bottom

Polystyrene thermal beehive bottom is like normal wooden bottom, except keeping the hive much warmer. Honey Paw’s thermal hive bottom can be used with polystyrene beeboxes or wooden ones. Hive bottom entrance is 3 cm high and will work as ventilation intake vent, but in some cases it is recommended to add an additional ventilation hole under the hive roof.

Hive bottom with mesh

Honey Paw hive bottom with mesh is supplied with either plastic, aluminum or steel mesh. Bottom is same size as the Honey Paw’s beehive boxes and the entrance is made so that the there is no need for entrance blocks or mouse guard. Bottom with mesh should be placed a little above of the ground (for example with Hive Stand), so that there is a “open space” directly under the hive bottom.

As an option you can close the bottom by separate closing board. The hive entrance should be blocked only when moving the hive or splitting the beehive.

Bottom with ventilation board

Hive bottom with ventilation board provides stable and healthy environment for the honeybees during the whole year. Ventilation board provides airflow from the edges and is designed in the way that no brace comb is formed under the frames. Bottom board has two possible positions: open and closed. By turning the bottom board you either keep the hive ventilated from the edges (open position) or the board can be turned (closed position) so that the bottom hole is completely closed to make sure that the hive stays warm. The bottom is delivered with a plastic mesh, aluminium mesh or a steel grille. Bottom with ventilation board has an option to combine with Honey Paw’s pollen trap.

Hive Top Feeder

Honey Paw Beehive Top Feeder with 15 L capacity.

Honey Paw designed the hive top feeder to make feeding of the bees very effortless. Feeding can be done without disturbing the bees just by opening the hive roof and adding liquid sugar. Hive feeder has an internal access from inside of the hive. Bees climb through the tunnel entrance under the clear plexiglass to feed. Feeder has been designed to offer very easy access by wide enough entrance and providing “bee steps” to help the climbing.

Feeders inside bottom is slightly tilted by material thickness so that the feeder will empty even if the beehive is not adjusted straight on the ground (the side inside of the beehive is completely even so that no brace comb will form). Polystyrene beehive feeder should be painted also from inside to help keeping the feeder clean.

Specifications:

• Capacity of 15 L
• Warm and low weight polystyrene feeder
• Polystyrene density over 100 kg / m3
• Protective plexiglass prevents bees from drowning into liquid sugar.
• Two separate entrances when used “double nuc method or Palmerized hive” with 4 frame nucs

Pollen Trap

Honey Paw Pollen Trap makes sure that the pollen is effectively collected, safely stored and with easy access

Honey Paw provides integrated pollen trap for Honey Paw bottom with ventilation board. Pollen trap replaces the ventilation board but without blocking the hive ventilation. Pollen trap doesn’t change the hive entrance place so the bees will know immediately how to get in. The pipes in the collector allow drones and workers to get out, but not in.

Pollen is stored under the hive into the pollen drawer which can be accessed from behind of the beehive. Since the pollen is stored under the hive, it stays secure from external weather conditions (rain). Honey Paw pollen collector doesn’t cause swarming or disturb the bees like some of the external pollen collectors do.

Nucs

Honey Paw nucleus beehives provide the best thermal performance for small colonies.

Nucleus hive is small beehive that can be used various ways. Nucs comes in 4 frame capacity and can be used when splitting the hive, queen rearing or wintering “spare queens”. Nuc boxes are made of same high quality material as the normal size Honey Paw beehive boxes ( expanded polystyrene “EPS” with density of over 100 kg / m3).

Complete nucs include bottom, box for frames, nuc feeder and roof. Honey Paw nuc hives have special interlocking small notches on the sides helping the parts stay in place and when moving nuc hives. This doesn’t prevent using nuc boxes together with normal 10 frame boxes (“double nuc hive or Palmerized hive”). As an advantage compared to small queen rearing boxes, Honey Paw’s 4 frame nucs doesn’t get “robbed” as easily as smaller and weaker ones.

Nuc beehive boxes are provided flat packed and are assembled in the same way as the full size beehive body.

Honey Paw’s polystyrene nucs can be used in double nuc beehive: 2x 4 frame Nuc = 10 frame normal beebox

Double Nuc beehive can bee formed either using normal size beehive bottom or with two nucs hive bottoms. With double nuc hive you can use Honey Paw’s 15 L feeder and beehive roof to cover the whole double nuc beehive complete. Colored sheet between the boxes demonstrate the use of queen excluder.

Mating Hive

The Mating Hive is our own production and it has several improvements compared to other mating hives on the market. Our model has more space and better ventilation solution.

More space, but need the same amount of bees.

• Better ventilation thanks to a bigger ventilation grid
• Easy to fill through the bottom
• Removable feeding space -> space for additional frames

Includes:

• 3 plastic frames
• Removable feeding tray + excluder
• Ventilation net
• Opening base plate
• Partition plastic with a hole