Perhaps some clarification on the target of the anthropomorphism putdown?
The targets (multiple) are the majority of 'good ideas' that are brought out as the latest advance in hive design. or the latest 'method' or adaptation. They sound like a good idea but are designed with a human perspective on what the bees need.
As ventilation is todays theme............
Can be as simple as the much adored and equally much ridiculed 'matchsticks' opinion.
Can be as complex and expensive (sometimes cripplingly so) as the fan assisted ventilation tops from Canada with solar panels........or Happykeeper floors..............
The costs and efforts far outweigh any slight, if indeed any at all (benefits are often only noted in the developers own tests and not reproduceable elsewhere).
Even today the list is almost endless of things that are nothing more than marginal, or ineffective, or needless gadgetry, or even actually counter productive. Yet many still have their followers despite their being no evidence, outwith that of the originator/vendor, to support the use.
Go back into the history of hive design and the list could fill a small library. I was told by someone who should know better than me that there are around 70 hive designs in use in the UK (dont ask, I do not know the list, even a fraction of it) whereas most countries have under 10. Clive de Bruyn told one of my eager and deep thinking young staff who was full of bright ideas 'just for heaveans sake do NOT design a new hive.......its the LAST thing we need.'
This was funny as the day before the young man had come to me with the most amazing set of drawings for a hive held together by dowels the you removed, the box walls fell away, and the combs inside had no wooden margins and the contents then just dropped into a specially designed heather press style crusher.
Nothing personal on the floors front.......BUT........the bees will cope just fine so long as they get plentiful availability of air. Lack of ventilation can be a big issue especially in summer flows, but apart from that they are perfectly good at doing their own air movement. OMFs work. There are no issues with the bees struggling to get air flow going the way they want, and a lot of the ideas of it being excessive miss the point that for much of the season the air exchange is mostly by diffusion and convection rather than any great need for fixed pattern air currents. We, and by that I mean ALL of us, can be guilty of overanalysing things.
For anyone looking for a further response on this or any other thread, I am just leaving now (4AM) for Doncaster for the BFA Spring Meeting, and will not be back at the computer now until Tuesday (Monday night if I boot it up the road).
