I want to tidy up my brood box

[Little John]

The mesh came with the hive. It is a stainless steel mesh and I haven’t been able to find anything like it anywhere. I was going to make a winter queen excluder but cut some bigger hols in places so the queen could get to the top of the hive but most of the workers would squeeze threw the small hols. I might make one out of copper if I get chance because copper has antibacterial properties

Errr - 2 points:
if the queen can get through - then it ain't a queen excluder, by definition.
But - more importantly - the idea of installing any kind of winter queen excluder is totally and utterly insane.

I can't believe anyone would seriously suggest that.
Is this a wind-up ?

LJ

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I can't believe anyone would seriously suggest that.
Is this a wind-up ?

LJ

In all probability yes - the OP has just been spouting a load of b*ll*x from the offset and totally oblivious to any input but hey, he's on five pages already. Should we be feeding a troll?

 

[MuswellMetro]

Perhaps he has been expelled from Phil Chandler's forum for being too natural

 

[REDWOOD]

I'm quite perplexed and cant find any words to explain why someone would spend the time and effort to wind us up, there is a place called Facebook for that sort of thing.

 

[alldigging]

The mesh came with the hive. It is a stainless steel mesh and I haven’t been able to find anything like it anywhere.[/url]

Do you mean the floor?

Where did you buy your hive?

Do you mean like this?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_o...TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xmesh&_nkw=mesh&_sacat=116881

Or is yours different?

If you mean the floor and you have seen bees squeezing through the mesh there then I think you need to go and take a picture of the floor in your hive.

 

[Finman]

I think you need to go and take a picture of the floor in your hive.

Picture is not needed. It is very clear that mesh does not pick mites away from bees. It is only Shedman's own idea, like many other beginner's ideas in his writings.

I have had mites over 30 years, and I have never heard about sieve, which catch mites from bees.

 

[shedman]

It is a diamond shaped varrowa mesh like the third photo down but that is galvanised not stainless steel like mine. I got some of that mesh thinking it was the same and it is a bit thin and the holes are small. I have not been able to find any the same
The hive came from amazon. Red Cedar National Hive
Taking the queen excluder out hasn't made any difference to the varrowa count but it is colder and the bees are behaving different now. I just thought the excluder was scraping the mites off. The varrowa mesh that they squeeze threw did increase the count but needs more work. I will try to take a photo of the bees getting threw the next time the bees are out and about.
Copper has got Antimicrobial properties whether you like it or not it is a scientific fact. It wouldn't expect it to kill the mites but help against the virus.
I don't believe crystals have any mystical powers or would benefit a hive.

 

[Finman]

.
Your mite count is becoming bigger, because mite population is many fold compared to your early counting. Population douple itself in one month.

 

[Little John]

Copper has got Antimicrobial properties whether you like it or not it is a scientific fact. It wouldn't expect it to kill the mites but help against the virus.

Certainly, copper does have biocidal properties - when in aqueous solution, when it's salts are created, which can then be absorbed by micro-organisms. But you're planning on installing copper metal - so - how exactly would salts from this metallic copper come into intimate contact with either Varroa mites or any viruses carried by such mites ?

Copper is indeed an acaricide (kills mites), but that is when ingested as a salt by bees, and not some kind of occasional contact with the metal itself. Copper Gluconate is the salt of choice, when given as an additive to sugar syrup. The results are actually quite good (around 70% kill rate, iirc) - the snag is that Copper Gluconate is difficult to obtain and costs an arm and a leg.

Copper Sulphate, on the other hand, is very easy to obtain and is relatively cheap - but - the bees don't like it very much. There's always a 'but'.

LJ

 

[MuswellMetro]

Don't think any of this will matter come spring whatever he does as a 50 per day drop is nearly 3000 mites, can you imagine febuary new brood and 6000 phoretic mites trying to find a pace to breed and the DWV levels biulding up

i am aslo worried about how he is going to get a photo of the mesh with weather about 7c in Lanchashire

 

[BeeJayBee]

i am aslo worried about how he is going to get a photo of the mesh with weather about 7c in Lanchashire

From underneath the hive?

 

[itma]

From underneath the hive?

Yes, I expect he's going to cut a hole in the shed roof for a better view … !



But, before he does, I'm bowing out of this lunacy.

 

[wessexmario]

I'm with Itma on this one... don't feed the trolls , especially the ones showing early symptoms of acute shed-fever.

 

[denise washington]

i think this bloke lives on cloud cuckoo land, its time he listened to some proper advice and put his bees first

 

[shedman]

I nave been looking for information to see if anybody had done any experiments with copper but was unable to find any so the information from Little John was interesting. Maybe they were trying to hard to get the copper into the bees. Water doesn’t react with copper in any way yet it still kills bacteria
Copper corrodes when it is exposed to oxygen and moisture. My thought is that a queen excluder made of copper would slowly corrode so when the bees scrape threw partials of copper would rub off on the bees. It might not work but I am going to have a go. According to some people my hive is doomed anyway.
As for taking a photo of the bees a 7mm Mini USB Digital Microscope Endoscope £20 off Amazon. I could make a full length movie if you want.
I can encourage the bees to come down to the bottom of the hive any time I want but I am not going to bother explaining how here

 

[drex]

I can encourage the bees to come down to the bottom of the hive any time I want but I am not going to bother explaining how here

.

Am I worried?

 

[mbc]

I use 12 frames in a national box, I have quite a few too, and the idea of a copper excluder to deter mites is in no way more insane than the commercially available bee gym imo.
I believe some alternative continental beekeepers have copper entrances to their hives, it would certainly help keep the slugs out!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

is in no way more insane than the commercially available bee gym imo.

Exactly! you've hit the nail (copper or galvanised) on the head especially as the bee gym is no less insane either.
Talking of knocking on the head - isn't it time this thread was?

 

[Little John]

Water doesn’t react with copper in any way yet it still kills bacteria

That may well be true for pure water, but where are you going to find such a substance ? Water always contains a tiny amount of impurities. When rain falls from the sky, for example, it picks up CO2 and becomes acidic. All water in nature is impure.

And what do these impurities do ? They ionize the water into H+ & OH- ions - and it's the hydroxyl ions (from whatever source they may have arisen) which then react with metallic copper.

So water (in practice) does react with copper.

The rest of this post deleted as irrelevant following discovery of CuO toxicity as an acaricide.

LJ

 

[Little John]

Ok - I think this might be of interest.

From many of the OP's rather off-the-wall ideas has emerged one which could possibly (I need to stress that) be worthy of further research.

The most likely copper salt to develop on the surface of metallic copper (when kept out of the weather) is going to be copper oxide - and this is what I've just unearthed:

Copper oxide-impregnated fabrics for the control of house dust mites.
International Journal of Pest Management, Volume 54, Issue 3, 2008

Copper oxide (CuO) has broad-spectrum anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties. The aim of this study was to test the acaricidal efficacy of CuO-impregnated fabrics on the common house dust mite, Dermatophagoides farinae. The overall vitality/mobility of the mites was reduced when they were exposed to the CuO-impregnated fabrics and, when possible, the dust mites migrated to fabrics where no CuO was present. The mortality of mites exposed for 10 days to fabrics containing 0.2% (w/w) CuO was significantly higher than the mortality of mites on control fabrics (72 ± 4 and 18.9 ± 0.3%, respectively). The mortality reached 95.4 and 100% with fabrics containing 0.4 and 2% CuO after 47 and 5 days, respectively. The acaricidal effect of copper oxide seems to be due to direct toxicity. The use of fabrics containing copper oxide may thus be an important avenue for reducing house dust mite populations, and for reducing the load of dust mite allergens.

So this particular idea may not be so barmy, after all.

LJ