>They make a nice a comparison with my friend Alan's method. Here he is working bees in shorts pants
>http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/10/mystery-san-diegos-vanishing-honey-bees/

Good Video.  I prefer to dress that way, too, although I did suit right up for the Arizona bees.  I recall that Andy said bees that were tranquil in California somehow turned mean when moved to Arizona, so temperament is not always a simple matter

I noticed in the middle of  Alan's video, a cut to some EPS hives and I had noticed his were all wood with strip handles.  I gathered the EPS hive shots were from the UC apiary and spliced in.  They seemed to use quite a few EPS boxes there if I read that part of the video right.

Anyhow, that reminded me: some of us have been using EPS boxes and have come to like them.  We are all agreed on one thing, though, we don't like the Beemax boxes due to their extreme fragility and the hassle of assembly.  Beemax boxes break if an empty stack of four or five boxes blows over while waiting to be painted.

As a result, some friends have decided to invest in a mold and plan to run off a few thousand or more in the next months at a plant in Edmonton.

These boxes will be more like the Swienty boxes than the Beemax.  Although both are pretty much identical in dimensions, the Swienty are slightly more dense material, and also cast in *one piece*.  No assembly is required and the corners are three times as strong, or probably stronger, than Beemax.  The only issue is that they are a bit bulkier when shipping since they do not know down flat.

Once the expensive mold is made, running off any number of boxes is just a matter of time and material cost, and we may offer to run off boxes for any others who are interested.  The cost per box is not yet established, but should be comparable to Beemax and considerably cheaper than Swienty in Western North America.  Anyone interested in running some off should contact me direct. (not on BEE-L).  I doubt this would be practical for small numbers, but for anyone considering hundreds or thousands, it might just work out.

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