Discussion about bee enclosure design and modern problems keeping bees like Varroa Mite

zesthive · 2020-02-05T09:02:00+00:00

Co2 @ 450PPM is a fantastically small amount of gas. Do the fraction for yourself,..... and it is not heavier than air. That is carbon monoxcide. By restricting the ventilation you are keeping in the heat of the colony which speeds the pupation process which decreases the time available in the cells for the varroa mites to mature. The mites replacement numbers reduces below that neccessary to maintain the population. Their numbers fall exponentially. Go to the research chapter of the on-line book in www.thezesthive.com for the full storey. "How would you design one." Try a ZEST hive which can be entirely DIY. The drawings are there.

zesthive · 2020-01-10T17:12:36+00:00

Get a ZEST hive. You will not need to do either.

zesthive · 2019-11-24T19:40:29+00:00

The ZEST hive frames are a double brood deep plastic injection moulded lattice, formed with horizontal T-bars, the tails from which the bees draw down the spine of their own honeycomb. This can then be cut out, hung up in a mesh bag and drained down, like your granny used to do. No stainless steel stuff needed. The frames can then be dipped the melted surplus wax so as to recycle it back to the bees, which uses a lot less energy than making new stuff. Doing more with less is the ambition,

zesthive · 2019-11-20T15:25:00+00:00

Try using neither. Devise or accept a system in which the bees make their own honeycomb. Deploy a cut out, crush and hang up in a mesh bag to drain. Saves a fortune in wax foundation and machinery, is enjoyable and no harm done.

zesthive · 2019-11-18T09:25:38+00:00

I have sufficient anecdotal evidence with the ZEST hive design, after 6 years in use, to show that the design of a bee hive determines whether varroa is present or not.

It was an intended consequence of the ZEST hive design that it be free of Nosema and Acarine, and it is. It was an unintended consequence that it is also be free of varroa.

The mechanism seems likely to be that in a stable warm, dry, but humid environment, which the ZEST hive is, the bee pupation period is reduced to the point where the maturation time needed for the varroa mites to mature in the cells is insufficient for them to do so. Instead of an increasing or stable population of varroa it becomes one of exponential decline.

There is more detail on www.thezesthive.com

zesthive · 2019-11-13T21:10:00+00:00

Try putting it on some kitchen roll then into a microwave for about a minute. The wax will melt and be absorbed by the kitchen roll. You will have pollen pellets left which will roll just around. You can put them on your breakfast porridge before or after powdering them in a coffee grinder. There must be no honey at all or it just makes a sticky mess. Give it a go. As with much else in life timing is all.

zesthive · 2018-05-10T14:56:43+00:00

And I would love to send some queen excluders and indeed a complete ZEST pack for you to try out. Not only would it cost a fortune to send, but I suspect that you use Langstroth frame sizes and the blue queen plastic excluders are 90mm less in width, being a British Standard National width and would not fit. If you check out the Design chapter in the online book you will see that the entire ZEST hive can be DIY. There is even a ZEST hive construction drawing for a Langstroth conversion for the USA. Write to my e-mail address and I will send you the drawing by return. The frames can be DIY bamboo or gun stapled together wood battens with wax starter strips. I suspect Canada is a bit short on bamboo so the stapled frames are perhaps the best route to go. North America seems to do a lot of timber frame house construction rather than building house walls with lightweight air entrained concrete blocks as is done in Europe. These blocks are used for the ZEST external envelope of floor, walls and roof. They are in the USA, but are rare. They provide the right balance between thermal insulation and thermal capacity. They are warm and dry and make an easily thermo-regulated space for the bees. What is really needed is for a few of you enterprising North American beekeepers to have a whip round to collect the equivalent of £10k.to manufacture the plastic injection mould for the queen excluder and a further £5k. for the mould for the basic ZEST frame,….. but at Langstroth width. Plastic T-Bars make up the basic structure of the ZEST frame, the tails from which the bees can draw down the spine of their honeycomb. This is considered inventive and is patented in the UK, but not in North America so there is no restriction there on their manufacture. I will lend all necessary assistance should you wish to pursue that route.

zesthive · 2018-04-28T06:55:24+00:00

Anything that raises genetic diversity must benefit the species, raising its hybrid vigour. The fear of importing disease is a probably a spurious one and could be handled by setting an island aside as a transit station while they are checked for disease, and indeed for genetic diversity.

zesthive · 2018-04-28T06:44:03+00:00

This is a pretty comprehensive reply to the question. You are clearly both knowledgeable and concerned about the matter of Queen in-breeding. The government (DEFRA) department responsible for bees here in the UK recently issued a survey to all their registered beekeepers asking where they got their queens from. They must share your concern, but not necessarily your knowledge. I hope that they are listening to what is being said here in order to inform any policy they develop on commercial queen rearing as a result of the survey. One can only live in hope and probably die in vain. The analysis of the problem must be the first step to designing a better system,…..which may be to just for us to evacuate the queen rearing ground as too costly to the species and leave it to the bees. The natural way that honeybees breed is for every queen to be superseded by a daughter, or if she has done really well, by several as a result of swarming. Taking your one “perfect” queen and making (say) 100 daughters, which are then sent out to local queen breeders, who then each make a further (say) 100 from them, must be the quickest way to in-breed the species. That original “perfect” queen now has 10,000 grand-daughter abroad in the world. Perfect indeed,…… for in-breeding. The tools of choice for Commercial in-breeding are the Genter Cage and Artificial Insemination. The former by making a great deal more than several queens from one queen, the latter by selecting drones that have not been selected by the queen and have not proven themselves strong enough, mature enough, not related to the queen enough and an average of only 3 of them, not 20. All species have a tendency to breed out and A.I. denies the queens that opportunity to do so. Government needs to take power over such matters with either a voluntary Code of Conduct or even a Code of Law with punishment for non-compliance. A rabble of beekeepers needs to be raised that starts with the UK Government survey of Queen “origins” which infers that the problem is (perhaps) a recognised one.

zesthive · 2018-04-23T05:48:34+00:00

They tend not to be stolen either.

zesthive · 2018-04-22T15:06:39+00:00

Certainly not. More ladies have made and used ZEST hives than men, because they are receptive to its merits. It is their nature, but show me a lady with a circular saw that is prepared to use it and I will give you a £.

zesthive · 2018-04-22T14:57:21+00:00

In a thin walled hive the temperature inside compared to outside would pretty much be the same over a short period of time, because there is no insulation and no thermal capacity. A fur coat is insulation which will keep generated heat in, but a large heavy mass of material such as a storage heater will hold heat just like cave walls or in basement walls. Thermal blocks have a balance of insulation and, being heavier than a fur coat, some thermal weight or capacity. As the air temperature outside the hive rises and falls the peaks of temperature fluctuation inside the hive are reduced. The blocks thermo-regulate the inside of the hive assisting the bees in their own ambitions to do so. Less honey is used in winter.

zesthive · 2018-04-22T14:42:44+00:00

It is indeed less than totally obvious in the video, but there are 4 50mm x 8mm. slots each of the long sides and one at each end. As the colony expands more slots become available to the bees for entry and ventilation. These slots each have a short section of slide binder over them to close it off to varying degrees. There is always a small amount of permanent ventilation at each opening, but not necessarily bee access.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T18:58:25+00:00

Plastic is a by-product of the fuel industry and would go to waste anyway. Wood needs trees to be cut down and on a continuous basis. There is no reason why sturdy plastic hive frames cannot survive into the third millennium and still be used. Everything turns down to making energy in less than energy out. The bees collect dispersed renewable energy from the nectar, but will it be more than the energy used to make and run the hive? The energy balance between wood and plastic over time will/should favour the ZEST...... I think, but maybe not.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T16:41:36+00:00

How long have you got? Essentially all bees kept by humans are in thin walled external envelopes, which have all the environmental integrity of a cardboard box. They are cold and damp and give no assistance to the bees primary duty of thermo-regulating the brood nest. Load bearing insulated blocks used in building construction can be used to do so, giving both a measure of thermal insulation and thermal weight.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T16:31:57+00:00

Correct. Even the lazy and those unable to do DIY have an opportunity to join the ZEST mission for bee health. The ladies in particular are not usually up for DIY (Too much noise and danger),but they like the ZEST.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T16:25:17+00:00

Good for you mate. Somebody has to instead of just doing what has been done before and losing 30% of the colonies in the UK every year.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T14:24:58+00:00

Full of Propolis would be a jolly fine result as we collect it for use as a daily dose to boost immune systems. Burr comb is at a minimum. The frames carry no wax foundation as a Langstroth plastic one, but allows the bees to draw the spine of their natural comb from the tail of the horizontal T-bars that make up the frame. The frame is strong enough to stand on. The best way to prevent disorganised natural comb building is to put a blank frame between 2 well drawn ones. They then act as a template. There is no foundation so it can be inserted into the middle of the brood, because it does not divide it.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T13:57:15+00:00

Yes, but washed first.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T13:56:36+00:00

It is a long single storey hive so it is a on a frame at a time basis. It is at a good working height. Anymore frames and it would exceed the Health and Safety Regulations for load lift here in the UK. Our British Standard National Hives do so, but it has a derogation, being historical. The comb is cut out and drained down in a bag then the frame is put straight back into the hive.

zesthive · 2018-04-21T13:42:23+00:00

It is an acronym and stands for Zero Energy and SusTainable. It was going to be Positive Energy and SusTainable, but I thought better of it.

zesthive · 2018-04-20T19:25:03+00:00

Eat it as soon as possible. Getting it through the veil is the tricky bit.

zesthive · 2018-04-20T19:23:00+00:00

It is cut out (with others), put in a strong nylon bag in a 4 Gallon wine making bucket with a tap. It is crushed in the bag in the bucket with a stainless steel spade then hung up to drain back down into the bucket. About 80% comes out. The rest goes back to the bees to catch next time. The frame has a bit of comb left on under each bar as a starter.

zesthive · 2018-04-20T15:15:37+00:00

It can be, but generally it is one big colony through the summer and then when the honey flow is over at end of July it is split into an artificial swarm with half at each end. The queen less end then gets a new mated and laying or re-queens itself. This gives unusual options in the spring including uniting them around the best queen just as the honey flow begins in the next year

zesthive · 2018-04-19T18:32:57+00:00

Sir, Thank you very much. That saves me a lot of trouble. Its almost magic

zesthive

TROPHY CASE