Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[fiddle]

the new supers, boards and clearer boards, i have been told not compatible with old beehaus's all very well improving for new people, but like cars it'd be nice to have a few years of support in exchange for our initial confidence in your product. the moulds have already been bought so carrying on making them but smearing in a bit of silicon to stop mite/moth infestation wouldnt be that hard, i'd even do ti myself as i have for all other similary compromised parts.

 

please could someone confirm.. i currently have the 4 supers my mark 1 beehause came with, if i want to double layer must i buy 8 of the new ones, would they even fit on my hive???

 

seems a tad unfair given all the fixes we've needed to do off our own backs on these hives (with no warning/recall etc- had i descovered the bees could get out the bottom while transporting the hive in a car i dread to think what would have happened!!!) to then be out of pocket to have to buy whole new sets of supers clearer boards and covers.. and what is going to happen when the QX gets worn down the the queen gets through.

 

previously you have instigated upgrades that were at least compatible with the origional models, even an email to say we will be discontinuing soon please get in your orders would have been nice.

 

is there anyway to get hold of some old style ones, i'm happy to mod them myself. if anyone else is having to do the same maybe i can buy their old ones off them to save them throwing them out. not all that fussy on colour... at least it would be a band along the length of the unit..

[Guest]

Mandabow,

 

Seems like you are dissatisfied?

 

Not yet used my beehaus with supers yet but I do use National supers on my Dartingtons. I may be shortly, though.

 

I don't like the small ''1/2'' supers and although using some, most are consigned to making bait hives or supers for large nucs or simply to prop the roof to keep it level.. I haven't tried to see what mods, if any, are required to make a National super fit the beetainer (but I doubt it will be too difficult).

 

See you back on t'other forum.

 

RAB

[fiddle]

Lol Hi RAB,

 

fancy seeing you here.. actually twas someone mentioning other forums in chat that prompted me to come here, hopefully get an answer from people who know, tho maybe no-ones beehause has been sucessful enough to need two layers yet?

 

 

dissatisfied.. yes in some ways, had i known i was getting the beta testing version i think i would have waited.. word was this had been tested and i thought after having to siicon up all the holes in my cube to reomed the vast areas available for red mite breeding that things would be better first time round in the beehause.

 

as it is without this and the other forum i would be very dissatisfied. luckily i've traweled throught posts and hopefully nipped most of the problems in the bud. I'm surprised at the lack fo followup form omlet on these matters, when you spend so much on an item you expect afterservice, you don't expect to have to find thee things for yourself.

 

the bees being able to get out of the mesh where it joins under the door is the scariest one. i'd have thought for public safety they should have sent out some kind of warning to purchasers. there are stil probably beeks out there with a beehause totally unaware until they try and move house in a few yrs strap up their bees and load them in the car!! crazy not to issue a fix required notice.

 

even having a sticky on this forum of things you need to do to make you beehause work would have been a nice gesture.. tho looking at responces to people notifying of these problems seem they've bene swept under carpet for us and fixed for new purchasers.

 

i'm sure it would help sales too.. if everyone thinks the beehaus mark1 is how it's ment to be and have fantastic breeding grounds for beetles and waxmoths in all the holes etc their colonies arn't goign to do well, so there nto going to encourge their friends to get bees.. ive had several friends buy eglu cubes of the back of me finding ours so much easier to clean, less smel etc than the wooden ones.. even though they had to siliocone off the holes too.

 

not sure using national supers would be a cunning plan. it's adding an awful lot of extra weight again to a structure that buckles a bit under 1 X brood and one row of very light super frames + honey.. not even sure my concrete to stop the legs moving out will help as the obeservations on others hives have been that the grey plastic between is buckling too, and there doesnt seem to be much structural support between the legs, unles it's imbedded in the side pannels where i can't see..

 

time will tell i guess.

 

I personally quite like the mini supers.. memories of lugging full supers around apiarys are probably a bit too much for my fragile mind..( though saying that i'm a lot bigger and stronger now so maybe my adversion is unfounded) was going to at some pont buy some extra cover boards and convert them into exits..

 

to see if i couldconvert beehause into mini nuc maker.

 

main brood in base - QX - layer of stores -QX- 1/2 brood, insert modified coverboard to make Q-, remove it once cells started to make Q+ then put back in before queen is hatched.. can sit on top of main hive as a mating nuc (bees will have filled empty brood space with stores while queen couldnt lay there) and once queen is laying then.

 

could do just as well with the stores being a double though i admit.. guess we'll have to wait till they decide to make them, did read it was planned somewhere, but then i did read some time ago that there were going to be 14x12 plastic frames..

 

i'm not so much dissatisfied.. i know the molds were expensive, i know they ahve to recoup R&D costs and i know times are hard ebing a recession and all, and the fad for bees hasn't quite taken off like the fad for chickens,

 

...as dissapointed, i write to omlet and get no responce, i write again after a few weeks asking if the guy i wrote to has left the comany or sommet as i've had no respnce and get a reply saying that they have new improved supers, yay i think, i wont have to crack open a fresh tube of silicon. i read on this site the boards are incompatible, think so i have to by new covers and new clearers for these boards, thats pretty rubbish, well maybe if i put 4 on one side then 4 ont he other i only have to buy 2 covers and i can maybe get away with one clearer, then it hits me. the boards match the omlet roof, if they don't interchange will they even fit the roof.. i write back to omlet asking if this is the case and can i buy old ones. and hear nothing, so thought maybe someone else has had this issue, certainly people have commented on the shop ratings (presumably leading to the caveat in the description that they don't fit)

 

wondering if i should have just sent it back under statutory rights as not fit for purpose months ago and waited to get a mark 3.. bit of a visious cycle tho.. if no-one buys the mark 1s they can't afford to do mark 2 or 3s and in princile i like the beehause, and i see it having a lot of potential.. but why are such basic problems being ironed out so long after launch? if anythign i'd ahve thought eglu woudl ahve taught them to wait a while, beta test with some reduced price options for experienced beeks and then only have to make one set of molds and make them well.. i fear that doing it this way round will have dented their sales greatly in the long run, shame..

 

maybe the poison chalace of the dartingtons fantastically design.. i still don't get why it didnt soar the first time, its a brilliantly malleable piece of equipment.

 

 

edited to add... i guess i'm tryign to say... i've seen the analogy used of the comparason between buying a merc/bmw and a say ford, you pay more for a beehaus if you like it an can afford to.. but like in cars, if either had a faulty airbag you wouldnt expect to find out about it in an online forum.. if you did you would expect the company to jump on that as soon as possible, send out letters to all owners, like thornes have at least treid to with their faulty queen excluders.. it errodes confidence.

[Christian]

Hello fiddle and welcome to the forum.

 

May I suggest you contact Omlet directly at info@omlet.co.uk as they don't read the forum. They will be able to answer your questions/concerns directly

[fiddle]

Hello fiddle and welcome to the forum.

 

May I suggest you contact Omlet directly at info@omlet.co.uk as they don't read the forum. They will be able to answer your questions/concerns directly

 

Hi Christian, thanks for the welcome.. been here while actually (mostly reading mind)

 

i realise the don't read, hence the asking the masses... i've already asked Omlet, and i believe given ample time for a responce.

 

Edited to remove pointless ranting now i have a responce

Edited May 27, 2011 by Guest

[Chucky Mama]

Hi Fiddle, sorry to hear of your lack of satisfactory response/resolution. As moderators of the forum we will bring your post to the attention of the Omlet team. We don't work for Omlet, we merely moderate the forum as volunteers but will do our best to bring this to their attention. Keep us posted of any developments

[fiddle]

Hi Fiddle, sorry to hear of your lack of satisfactory response/resolution. As moderators of the forum we will bring your post to the attention of the Omlet team. We don't work for Omlet, we merely moderate the forum as volunteers but will do our best to bring this to their attention. Keep us posted of any developments

 

HI Chunky Mama

 

thanks, no need to aplogise, i know it's not your fault in the slightest, noticed previously this forum isn't really manned or frequented by omlet staff.

 

really just hoped that either someone on here would have come across this problem, or that it would prompt them to respond. didnt want to post on the other forum as seemed bad form. but perhaps someone on there will know. if i havn't heard after a while i'll probably give it a try, tho it does seem a fair few people are on here lurking anyways

 

even staff wise i'm not angry persay, i just want to know, preferably in some from of email/writing as i rarely have time in the day to get caught up in call + am beginning to wonder if they did say fine on the phone if i get my bf to drive there to pick up, taking up most of his lunch hour, or indeed pay for postage that i don't then discover they don't fit. i would be muchly hacked off.

 

I will indeed post up my findings whatever happens, even if only to help anyone else later searching this forum for the answer to the question.. as not getting one by conventional means is a rather frustrating experience.

 

just glad i only want to use them now for introducing a nuc, not desparate for honey storage as my bees would have long swarmed by now.

[fiddle]

Thankyou to all who have helped.. finally got a responce today...

 

 

the supers are compatible with the old supers in one direction

 

i.e. you can put them on top of existing old stylee supers. but not the other way round.

 

presume that means they are compatible with the beehaus and the cover clearerboards too, but it wasn't specifically said in the email..

 

bf should hopefully pick them up sometime next week, will update as to how well they fit if anyones interested. but will probably just edit this post to save bumping the thread.