Murray,

Thanks for your usual insightful investigation on the poly boxes: it must
have taken some efforts on your part.

I, too, would like to see them utilized more here in the United States for
the simple fact that if we use them, we may be able save lots of trees.
(I have been using one for a swarm box: it is so light!)  However, just
like any topic in beekeeping, poly boxes seem to show pros and cons:

Pros:

1. Poly boxes are, no doubt, excellent insulators year round.
2. They *seem* environmentally friendly so far.
3. In the long run, we will run out of trees.
4. We are already using plastic frames—with or without wax-coating.
5. They are much lighter, enhancing beekeepers’ conjugal   affairs.
6. In the future, they can produce the kind we don’t have to paint.


Cons:

1. I don’t want to pay $65 per hive for an icebox.
2. The kind I saw on the catalogue, we still have to paint them.
3. A self-respecting mouse can chew them up fast.
4. I am not sure about their long-term effect on honey and others.
5. They do not appear to be as durable as their wooden counterparts.
6. Not all of them are interchangeable.
7. Aesthetically, they don’t appear as appealing as the wooden boxes.
8. Depending on how one disposes them, they could litter our yards.



From the Republic of Oklahoma,

Humdinger