Brushed Off

[premo]

Hi


I have a small amount of hands on beekeeping experience helping my uncle with his bees when I was a lad , I have read a couple of books on the subject and was thinking about getting back into beekeeping.

Now keep in mind that I am no where near as knowledgeable as some of the people on this forum, so this is a question for the more knowledgeable beekeepers amongst you and its most likely been suggested before.

Reading some books and looking on forums like this one there seems to be a word that crops up on a regular basis “VARROA” now I have seen the use of mesh floors and a new idea (I presume) of round plastic pipes taking the place of the mesh floor,
The text and pictures explains how the bees brush against each other and parts of the hive as they move around and the mite’s loss their grip and fall through the mesh floor.

Now this is my idea so don’t laugh, would it be possible to have at the entrance or some other part of the hive a very fine haired brush that the bees have to push passed on retuning and leaving the hive, the bristles need to be strong enough to dislodge the mites but weak enough to allow the bees in and out.

I am more than likely talking out of my back end, but I would be interested to hear what you have to say on this idea.


David

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not so daft - one of the posters on here has already floated that idea, and Bayer have patented a similar idea in America.

 

[premo]

Not so daft - one of the posters on here has already floated that idea, and Bayer have patented a similar idea in America.

So it looks like it’s an old idea, they say the best ideas have already been done,
Looks like I wont be making my fortune out of the idea then.
Although I could come up with a super duper sort of walk through car wash for bees!!

 

[premo]

On the subject of bees and the varroa mite I thought this was quite a good video for beginners

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7304562435786960616#

 

[Midland Beek]

In any bee colony it is only the older bees that go out foraging; perhaps about 50% of all the bees in a colony. Now if you were a varroa mite, would you want to go flying around the countryside clinging to the body of a bee for dear life, or would you want to be having sex in a warm and cosy bee hive?

 

[xgeordie]

You would also have to be sure the bristles would not damage wings or knock pollen off.

 

[Skyhook]

In any bee colony it is only the older bees that go out foraging; perhaps about 50% of all the bees in a colony. Now if you were a varroa mite, would you want to go flying around the countryside clinging to the body of a bee for dear life, or would you want to be having sex in a warm and cosy bee hive?

I think this is where the idea falls down. Its probably more like the oldest third (last fortnight of a 6-week life). Most of the mites in a hive will be in the brood making whoopee, and of the rest I understand they have a preference for younger bees as they know that these are the ones that hang around brood. So basically, if the device was completely effective you'd probably be looking at removing a small proportion of the mites, at the cost of possible wing damage and loss of pollen- so it could conceivably have a place in IPM, but probably not a major one.

 

[premo]

I was not thinking of this as a total cure for varroa but a tool to help reduce the overall numbers of varroa mites, but the post from Midland Beek:

(In any bee colony it is only the older bees that go out foraging; perhaps about 50% of all the bees in a colony. Now if you were a varroa mite, would you want to go flying around the countryside clinging to the body of a bee for dear life, or would you want to be having sex in a warm and cosy bee hive?)

This suggests that adults do not carry varroa mites, if that is the case then the idea is not so good, unless you could have some type of brush inside the hive that would gently brush the mites from the younger bees as they move around the hive.

With regards the type of brush, I am not talking about a yard broom and think there would be need for some research into the most suitable types so as not to damage the bees.

My thinking and experience is one of a novice, and I was looking at the problem from a different angle.