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This may seem an unusual topic, but it relates to what
the bees will do when faced with different circumstances and
what we as beekeepers can do to influence this.
We have all noticed that bees will put holes in combs that
they use as passageways. Some beekeepers will remove such combs and
melt them down as they are considered defective, but we should
consider why the bees are doing this.
In nature it is rare to find an unbroken sheet of comb as
large as the brood frame of a beehive, holes are not needed as
the bees can travel easily throughout the colony as there are plenty
of gaps, some of these gaps are brought about by irregularities in comb
building and some are due to
airflow and ventilation
reasons.
When designing equipment I believe it is preferable to work
with nature rather than against it. I have taken particular notice of
this when dealing with the
raising of queen cells
and the raising of drones.
I think bee flow is also important if we are trying to
produce section honey.
Anything, that we as beekeepers, can do to increase the
natural process of honey gathering becomes profit.
Transparency to Bees
Beekeepers introduce all sorts of gadgets into beehives,
some of which can interrupt the normal bee traffic in a localised
region. Cell bar frames are an obvious example as there is much extra
space within the frame. In this case it is helpful as it allows more
bees easy access to feed the larvae in the growing cells. In the
design of my
queen banking cages
I was aware that the large mesh covered areas were an obstruction and
incorporated bee spaces above and below the cages to ease this. The
cages themselves needed access for worker bees and so I put two areas
of queen excluder either side of the passageway that gives the workers
internal access, in order to improve the transparency and at the same
time provide an extra barrier to an escaped queen. I have employed
artificial 'popholes' in the plywood sheets that form the matrices
that are used to get the
egg transplants drawn
out and filled with eggs.
Shorter Routes
On various occasion I have used
Cell Punching to produce queen cells. I have noticed
that sometimes the portion of comb removed is replaced, but at other
times the hole has been left as a deliberate pophole. I conclude from
this that the bees themselves desired this shorter route.
I have a personal, unsubstantiated theory that one of the
triggers of swarming is due to bees bumping into each other more
frequently in a congested nest. The provision of shorter or
alternative routes may reduce this aggravation and thus reduce
swarming.
Top & Middle entrances, are much used in USA... Partly for
ventilation and partly to provide alternative routes for foraging bees
to place nectar directly in the honey supers and avoid traveling
through the brood nest. This may seem a good idea at first sight, but
I personally have grave doubts about this for the simple reason that
bees in a hollow tree will seal up such alternative entrances. Some
fresh research is being conducted in USA, but this has little
momentum as the Americans have been wedded to their ideas for a long
time and there are some very rigidly held opinions. I do think that
there is some mileage in temporary extra entrances in honey storage
supers, but robbing may be difficult to overcome when it occurs.
Mouse ramps or extended alighting boards that run down to
the ground, can be a big bonus in honey gathering. In the early 1980s
I noticed that many bees fell short of the hive entrance by several
feet. The first thing that such shortfall bees did was to climb a
grass stem until they could see the hive, but instead of taking off
and flying... The bees concerned climbed back down to the ground and
walked towards the hive. During this walk there would be other climbs
up the grass for re-orienting, eventually the walking bees would reach
the hive stands and climb the legs to gain entry to the hive. I did
not keep any records of times and distances, but I promptly made some
alighting boards that were 900 mm long. And I try to maintain a
smooth area directly in front of a hive. I have always considered
that this is a major improvement in 'time and motion' and that it has
contributed as much as 25% extra honey on some occasions. (This is
subjective as I did not do any actual recording or controlled
experimentation.)
The ideas of Eugene Killion have influenced some of my
designs. I have incorporated Killion Slots into all sorts of boxes
and frames. The "Rational" box ideas were based on this...
More later!
Written... Winter 2001,
Revised... 18 June 2001,
Additions... 12 August 2002,
Transferred to New Domain... 15 June 2004,
