To save honey bees we need to design them new hives. The Conversation (Media Outlet)

[Ian123]

What a load of tripe I guarantee feral hives in a tree suffer far heavier losses than mine and I would imagine most of the beekeepers here and even dare I say it even worse than the bbka averages. His general premise that bees select a cavity with 100mm of timber makes me laugh. I wonder how many trees he found with a cavity in the 10s of litres and a 10mm average.....none because the bloody tree would snap the first time a squirrel farts. So who selects the cavity the next gale or the bees. I’ve also got a large number of bait hives with 9mm, 12mm and 18mm ply that fill up every year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

and even dare I say it even worse than the bbka averages.

Come on now - that's going a bit too far!

 

[alfazer]

He mentions higher humidity and the thick wood of the tree compared to the thin wood of the hive.
What strikes me about this is that humidity could be a lot higher because the "green" wood of the tree has maybe 45 to 60% water, compared to the seasoned wood of the hive, with somewhere between 8 and 20% moisture. I don't he mentions this aspect of the humidity.

I'm wondering is there anything significant in that.

 

[Ian123]

He says varroa don’t like humidity.....did they not originate in Southern Asia

 

[Anduril]

You could always buy the thermosolar hive, which can reach 47°C to kill varroa. A snip at around $540
Or be Finmanesque and use a car battery, 12v STC1000 and heating pads.

 

[Murox]

To save honey bees we do not need to design them new hives. Instead, just care for and protect our environment from despoilment abuse.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

To save honey bees we do not need to design them new hives. Instead, just care for and protect our environment from despoilment abuse.

especially as honeybees are in no need of saving anyway

 

[Curly green finger's]

To save honey bees we do not need to design them new hives. Instead, just care for and protect our environment from despoilment abuse.

I hate to say it but we can blame farmers and land owners for some of these problems .
Sprays, land clearence over use of nitrate's, stock management problems the list goes on .

 

[Vortex]

What a load of tripe I guarantee feral hives in a tree suffer far heavier losses than mine and I would imagine most of the beekeepers here and even dare I say it even worse than the bbka averages. His general premise that bees select a cavity with 100mm of timber makes me laugh. I wonder how many trees he found with a cavity in the 10s of litres and a 10mm average.....none because the bloody tree would snap the first time a squirrel farts. So who selects the cavity the next gale or the bees. I’ve also got a large number of bait hives with 9mm, 12mm and 18mm ply that fill up every year.

Your hive suffer less losses than wild colonies because you molly-coddle them.. ergo the two are no comparable.

Hollow trees that snap in gales, generally do so long after they become hollow, and generally long after a colony of bees have taken up residence or abandoned said residence. Your argument is non-sensical because when you find a colony of bees in a tree there is generally 100mm or more of wood around the colony. What is generally not found are colonies of bees in trees where the cavity is less than 80 litres (and that's Tom Seeley's work).

The fact that you happen to attract swarms year on year is also not an argument. The natural density of bees in an area is typically with a spacing of 400m centre to centre, again Tom Seeley's work. When you have 150 colonies within 3km of any nominated colony, and significantly less than 150 hollow trees available on an annual basis then the bees will make use of any convenient, or non-convenient cavity (including walls, chimneys, and compost bins), including any bait hive you put out.

 

[Repwoc]

Maybe someone needs to put a bait hive next to a (vacant) hollow tree next spring to see what happens.

 

[Finman]

To save honey bees we do not need to design them new hives. Instead, just care for and protect our environment from despoilment abuse.

There are 20 ways to kill mites. Just do it.

If moisture kills mites, they should be allready dead in your maritime climate

 

[Finman]

You have become mad with your hollow trees.

Rotten Wood has filled your brain

 

[Beefriendly]

The logical conclusion to Dm's research...

 

[Ian123]

Maybe someone needs to put a bait hive next to a (vacant) hollow tree next spring to see what happens.

Already done it they go for the bait hive or at least they did last year!!.. vortex you can’t have it both ways you say my bees survive because they are mollycoddled yet they are in these poor man made hives that the bees need saving from....so quite frankly according to the article they should be in trouble, you can’t have it both ways!! So in regard to to wood surrounding a cavity how many trees would have a cavity in the 10s of litre range and have 10mm of timber surrounding the cavity? Maybe none!!!! So on average how many mm of timber does it take to support a tree capable of say a 40l cavity, maybe it’s closer to his quoted 100mm so who’s selecting the cavity Mother Nature or the bees. Just for the record I’ve kept bees for a good few years and as a kid made a hobby collecting cut outs removals and would stake the house I’ve done more removals than you. The records 12 in a day by the way. The number of feral bees is far fewer than in the past and when cut out many don’t amount to much more than a decent nuc, they really aren’t doing well.

 

[Finman]

40 litre hollow tree is very heavy to handle
Poly langstroth box is 1,0 kg.

Why the perfect future is 200 years behind?

 

[Finman]

The logical conclusion to Dm's research...

There it is. Everyone can do it.

Then just pile them together. 5 trunk hive.

 

[Ian123]

I think he meant log....ical. ��

 

[Finman]

I think he meant log....ical. ��

Loghouse would be better.

 

[Murox]

There are 20 ways to kill mites. Just do it.

If moisture kills mites, they should be allready dead in your maritime climate

I do and they are

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Around here, bees seem to prefer cavities in the stone walls of religious buildings - they're not fussy whether it's church in Wales or non conformist, even one settled in a Pentecostal establishment!! even though there is no shortage of hollow trees.