In this solo video, Laurence Edwards provides a first‑look, hands‑on review of the Anel plastic insulated Langstroth beehive, a low‑cost alternative to the pricier Apimay system. He explains how the hive was sent by Anel Beekeeping (Greece) with no obligation for a review, and outlines the hive’s key design features: a compression latch and catch system that provides a strong, adjustable seal; dual plastic entrances with a mouse‑guard style; multiple ventilation slots on the roof and sides; a heavy, foam‑insulated roof; an integrated feeder with high capacity and the ability to feed fondant; a clip‑on pollen trap that forces bees to drop pollen into a collection basket; a durable mesh floor that resists rot; and overall solid, weighty construction suggesting long‑term durability. Edwards highlights the hive’s price advantage (under €100 versus ~£300 for an Apimay) and praises its insulation and build quality. He notes he will install bees in the hive later in the year in North Wales to test performance, promising a follow‑up verdict. The video is conversational, enthusiastic, and focused on practical beekeeping considerations.
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In this video, I'm going to show you around one of the coolest beehives I've ever seen. It's the Anel plastic insulated beehive. Now there's a couple of different plastic insulated beehives on the market. There's the Apimay that I've looked at, but it's very, very expensive. And then there's the Anel that comes from Greece, not to be confused with the anal. That's something completely different. Late last year, I was approached by the owner who said, can we send you a couple of bits and bobs? No pressure for you to do any reviews or anything. We just want to send you some stuff and see what you think. Massive thank you to the guys at Anel beekeeping. That was very kind of you. They sent me this hive, they sent me a few other bits, and they sent me a metal gas-powered branding machine as well that I will cover on a separate video. But in this video, I'm just going to do a first look at the Anal plastic insulated beehive, show you around it, talk to you about the features, and tell you what I think. So on first glance, I have to say I really like it. And what I also like about it is that it's not that expensive. Like, compare it to the Apimay, it's way, way cheaper. I think the Apimay one's like £300 or $300 for a similar system to this. Where this one here was less than €100. So the production costs, they've clearly nailed that. And the insulation values on this look really good as well. Nice and warm and toasty in there. And do not worry, I will get some bees into this beehive over the year. They're on a Langstroth format. We'll do a little bit of testing and we'll see how well the bees cope in North Wales. So all I'm doing in this video, I'm just going to give you my first impressions, give you that look around, and take a look at the Annel Beekeeping plastic insulated hive. So as I said, first up, I think it looks really nice. It's got some quirky features. But there's not like loads of different bits that you're going to lose. Everything seems to be relatively well connected. And the first thing that I really do like, I love the catches on it. I know a few different companies have these catches. You don't really get many of them in the UK. I can't think of any UK-made supplier that has these catches because they're generally wooden beehives or poly beehives. And the latches like this where you've got the compression latch doesn't really lend itself very well to either of those. It can work with wood, but it's not quite as good as where you're going to get plastic and you're going to get that super positive seal. It means picking up the colonies, picking up the beehives when they're all sealed up, very easy, and they're not going to fall apart at all. So what I really like about this design is you get the proper pressure on it. You can see it pops up like that, and when you pull it down, you're getting that pressure. And that pressure is adjustable by rolling around on this screw to give you the right pressure. At first I thought it was a bit loose, and then I realized that you have the pressure. So if you do it like that, You're not getting good pressure. And if you go down like this, fully adjustable to get it to the point where you get that really nice satisfying sound. Love this catch, it makes a massive, massive difference. So starting off with the entrances here, nice little design. That's in the closed position there, and then you can push that down there, and I think that is just like a mouse guard position, although it's only made of plastic, so it might be difficult to stop anything getting in there. I think these do have a pollen catcher trap in there somewhere as well. Do a little bit more digging, see if we can find that. But it's got a nice landing board, solid plastic landing board, never going to rot. And for me, that's a relatively simple system. So close like that and then open like that. Simple entrances. And then you've got your 2 entrances, so one on either side with this clasp in the middle. You need to have the 2 entrances to get that clasp to make sure that it all connects together. So then going up, you've got your Langstroth brood area in that yellow space. And then up above, you've got your roof and you've got an integrated separate feeder in there as So these here, these are just vents, which is very, very useful for kind of warmer climates, especially if you're ever moving your colonies round. You can open them up and get full ventilation. Got 2 of those on either side and then one of them on the top as well. So what's really interesting is when you take it off, you can see the ventilation. This is the roof and it's surprisingly weighty. It really is. You can feel it's got a good level of insulation in it. It's thin plastic molding that's not gonna rot. And then it's insulated with like a foam spray insulation to give it that good value. It is surprisingly heavy, it's surprisingly weighty, and I think you're going to have good insulation in here. Can't comment really until I've tested it out, but it does feel substantial, feels solid, and it feels weighty. Then the next thing we've got is we've got an integrated feeder. Comes separate like that. You put your feed in here and then the bees go underneath, access up through those slots. Nice branding on the feeder as well, and it means that you can get a really good capacity of feed in there. Absolutely love it when you buy a beehive and not only does it come with a feeder, but it comes with like a decent feeder. This is something about continental Europe that I think we're missing out on here. They do do very good plastic molded products. They do good plastic molded floors. I'd love to have a plastic molded underfloor entrance because they're just bombproof. The floor is the first thing to rot, and if you do it out of molded plastic, they will last for literally 30, 40 years, and then you can just blitz it up and reuse the majority of that plastic again. But I like that though. Interested to see how that's going to work in here, and it should be okay to invert it to feed fondant as well. Failing that, these bits of plastic there, you can get those out and the bees will be able to come up and feed fondant. Maybe not directly in contact with the frames, but at least they'll still have access to it. So I knew there was a pollen trap in there somewhere. This is the pollen trap and it's a really nice design. Just clips on the front of the hive like that. And you can see the bees have no option other than to go through these slots here and makes them drop all the pollen off on their legs. You've got a collection basket underneath to collect all of that pollen and then you can use it and go and do what you want with it. Just a word of warning when collecting pollen, don't do it continuously. Do it for a couple of days, let the bees recover, get some pollen back in there, and then you can go again. But really nice to see that there's a good cheap pollen feeder. I'll reserve my judgment until I've tried it out, but it looks really nice. So then taking a look inside, it's a nice thin-walled design, Langstroth design, so it's super simple. Top bee space, nice runners on the side, no bee space on the runners, so you might crush a couple of bees in there, but it's substantial, it's not going to rot. You've got this mesh floor underneath, which is nice, going to make it really easy to clean out, but really substantial, good-sized brood box. I really do like the feel of this box, and I just have a feeling that this is going to pretty much outlast me. It feels bombproof. It's a good weight, good insulation, molded plastic. I really want this one to work. Can't wait to get some bees in it. So then just looking underneath, there's no collection tray, but you've got nice open mesh Rock solid. That floor is going to last and last and last, really is going to last forever. So there we go, that's my first look at the plastic insulated Langstroth hive from Anal Beekeeping. Stay tuned for later on in the year where I'll do more testing and give you my honest verdict.
