>  (As originally designed, the BeeMax products were very high quality.  
> Based solely on comments by others, I would say that the quality has since 
> decreased but have no personal knowledge of that.  My personal 
> BeeMax-type products are as good today as they were 10 years ago!)

I bought 100 this summer and was quite disappointed.  

First, they were damaged in shipment: the fingers protrude and a few 
were broken off when they arrived.

The frame rest pieces suupplied were not the plastic strips that were 
originally used.  Galvanised strip were supplied and not only did they 
have a bad "feel" due to sharp edges, but they did not fit and fell out.  
To this date, I have not received the proper ones.  I was fortunate 
that some friends had enough extras for my 100 boxes.

Third, I had problems identifying the correct glue and the one I chose did
not work well.

Fourth, when I stacked them to paint and some fell over, the boxes 
simply broke.  The drop was four feet or less.  This happened more than
once.

This caused me to examine the design and I realised that the way they 
are designed, the corners are held by only small areas of material in the
 two fingers.  It is not possible to glue the whole joint surface. 

These boxes are extremely weak.  I have Swienty boxes which are cast
in one piece and otherwise are pretty well identical except that they 
do not have the ugly and hard-to-paint markings emossed on all sides 
that the BeeMax boxes do or weak corners.

The Swienty boxes are possibly a bit more dense and very strong.  I have 
approached Swienty about importing back when the Euro was dipping.  
Today, the price would be too high, but there is a possibility of importing 
the mould for a run and returning it.  Personally, I don't need that many, 
but I have commercial friends who would buy 2,000.   I think that a 
reasonable run would be more like 10,000.  (1500 fit in a container).

>I have had personal contact with beekeepers in the northern US and Northern
>Scandinavia (outside of the area of major Gulf Stream influence) and both
>claim no problems with winter condensation despite a complete lack of
>upper ventilation.  To put it mildly "I don't understand".  The
>expanded polystyrene boxes and tops seal up really tight.  Much tighter than
>a wood hive.  Why doesn't condensation occur and the subsequent moisture
>harm the bees?

I found that there is condensation and had middling success with these boxes 
until I drilled a 1" auger hole in each box.  The moisture was not the problem, 
though.  The problem was that the bees did not seem to recognise that 
spring had come until a month after my bees in wood hives.

I did not use the boxes in the hive config as sold.  I use pillows under the 
lids, if I do use the BeeMax lid at all, and before the auger holes, used to pull
back the pillow a bit for a vent.  All this is described in excruciating detail and 
illustrated throughout the diary entries over the past two years at 
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary  

The search at honeybeeworld.com was not working well for a while and people 
may have been frustrated, but now it seems to work very well and finds all the 
references on my site reliably.  (I had a site map for the Googlebot on my site 
and it got outdated.  I took it off and Google again began to do a good job).
Check it out. 

>Anyone have difficulties using Styro hives without upper winter
>ventilation?  Anyone help my understanding of what is going on, or does
>anyone else agree that the apparent lack of harmful condensation is a
>mystery?

Moisture is essential in a hive.  Too much or too little will stress bees if they are 
confined.  Water on the walls and even the lid is harmless IMO unless it drips 
on the bees or into the cluster.  This is a complex topic and often discussed 
here in the past.

The long and the short of it is that the heat of a good cluster dries the 
volume near the bees and a well configured hive will not accumulate or direct 
water where it is harmful.  The impervious walls of a plastic hive have the 
advantage of not providing a reservoir of moisture.

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