A Close Look At The Abelo 12 Frame Poly Hive

We're in Adam's apiary, and today we are talking about why he uses Abello beehives. So I was very pleasantly surprised to come into this apiary and see a wide array of Abello beehives, but there's other beehives here as well. I think there's some BS Honeybees over there, maybe some Maysmore, definitely some BS Honeybees back over there. But today we are talking about Abello beehives, and specifically we're talking about the Abello 12-frame rebated So why the Abelo 12-frame rebated hive?

Well, I started out with lovely cedar hives, and the more researching and videos I watched, I found I wanted to try a different type. And then I watched a video on the 12-frame and how unique it was to the others, where it's the rebated system. And I just thought, if I'm going to go for it, I might as well try the whole apiary off the same sort of kit. I can mix it. And yeah, so I found that especially poly, you get— I feel you may be a month ahead in the season. So come next year, I mean, this year for instance, I was the 14x12s, I had maybe 9 frames of brood in, 8, 9 frames of brood in May, June time.

Nice.

May, May.

Yeah, yeah.

And you know, you're ahead. I mean, I don't think that a cedar would have kept that warmth, that insulation as the poly does.

Yeah, the spring buildup in poly is very, very good. The Abello poly, 160 grams per litre, Slightly less insulative than some of the other varieties, but a lot harder, a lot more dense. But I think it's negligible, the different densities there. But what you definitely get is really nice fast spring buildup.

Yeah, the rebated system, I also think that that helps with drafts and stuff. Being in such an open area here, the wind and the rain is really quite bad. Well, the UK is in general, but I think the rebates, it allows that That protection from the wind cutting across, that when you've split your hive to inspect, for instance, they haven't got to immediately reseal everything to get that extra protection.

Yeah, so one of the things that I really, really like about the rebated system, and I'll make sure that I do this the right way round. Wow, that is a heavy super, isn't it? I didn't expect that to be that heavy. Let me do this without breaking everything. The things that I love with the rebated system, and that is 2 supers, that is ridiculously heavy. But you can kind of hold them like that's a 45-degree angle. I'll show it on there as well. It's really heavy. 45-degree angle both ways, and you can see I'm not holding that top box on, but it doesn't slip, does it?

No.

And you know what, you become a little bit complacent with that when you start using the other boxes though. They're gonna fall down, they're gonna go mad. Because it's, because it's rebated, it just, it can't fall off. So you can carry like, you can carry 6, 7 supers, obviously not full, But when you're walking around and they don't fall down. Some people talk about crushing bees on the rebated system. Do you find you get bees crushed on there?

Yeah, that's where smoke— if I was going to go in to take every frame out and a full inspection, I would probably use smoke, mainly because of that, that when you put them back together, it's a nightmare. You will end up crushing some around the rebate.

Yeah, so you can see along the side there are a few dead bees, but really not that many. Like, that's just 2 or 3 bees that are dead. But I find just giving it a little bit of a smoke or brushing it with your finger, you'll get the vast majority of those bees off. So this is the rebate system that you can see here. Really nice rebate, and it means that you get minimal water ingress. You still get a bit, you still get a tiny bit of water ingress.

Yeah, I have noticed, but it has been very, very wet. But I do find that ratchet strapping them together does help.

Yeah, I think that's really important. Like with the standard Abello, people talk about water ingress getting in and sitting between the kind of frames and the runners. And you can cut a little bit of the runner off to make it track out, but I find with the rebated system it eliminates it mostly. But then if you ratchet strap it down like Adam said, the water just can't get in. You'll get a tiny bit kind of in and up through capillary action, but water in the beehive throughout the year and throughout the winter, it's not really the end of the world. They need it in the summer to cool the beehive down, they need it in the winter to break down their stores, and as long as it's not dripping on the cluster, in these little kind of reservoirs here, it's quite handy for the bees actually to have some water in there.

Yeah.

So a little pause in proceedings there. My camera just stopped working. Absolute nightmare. We were talking about the rebate system and water getting in. What else do you like about the 12-frame? Do you like the additional frame in here? Does that help you?

Yeah, obviously a benefit that without having to put another box on, you get another frame. It's not sort of a game changer as such, but it is obviously a positive that you can put another frame in.

And you say like you prefer them over wood, so have you seen like tangible difference in the build-up? Have you seen tangible difference in the build-up of the colony kind of like throughout the year and through spring and stuff?

Again, it's very difficult to compare colonies, I think, unless you've got a clone of the same queen or whatever. Just from having— I originally maybe had half and half and—

Second one. So it's time for the bee suit. That was the second sting, but there was one that was really intense, and I think I've probably got a sting in my beard somewhere. So Can't really blame them because we have had this hive open now for about 20 minutes while I've been trying to mess around with cameras and stuff. So time for the bee suit. Sorry, I cut Adam off there and I did get stung a couple of times there, but I have just noticed— did you notice what was happening there, Gonzo? You tell everyone what happened there.

Well, from what it looks like, you know, a bit of robbing was— a bee from another colony tried to come in and get some honey.

So that is our cue to close things up. But definitely what happened there, we've opened the beehive up for too long. Too late on in the season, there's not much of a flow on. The other bees are coming in trying to get involved, and that is what's triggered the aggressive behavior. So that's why I got a couple of stings to the beard there. But yeah, a Bello 12-frame rebated hive. I'm a big fan of this hive. If I could only have one hive, that would be it. I like the extra frame, I like the rebate system, I like the fact that it's a nice light poly hive. I also like your color scheme. What do you paint these with?

I use a Rust-Oleum. I made an agreement with my wife if I moved from the wood, which I would say probably are more natural, better looking hive that the colours would suit the surroundings. So we come to a compromise, but yeah, Rust-Oleum All-in-One.

Nice. And is it like an oil-based paint or a water-based?

Yeah, it's an oil-based. It's a very thick paint. It'll pretty much go on anything.

Oh, nice.

And you brush it on one coat. I think most of these have had, so it's pretty well sealed.

Yeah, really good for one coat and a nice colour scheme as well. Cool.

So there we go.

A look inside the Abello 12-frame hive in a real-life apiary situation. We're going to move on to the next video now, but first I'm going to go and fix my other cameras.