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Thu, 3 Nov 2011 12:24:04 -0400 |
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Sorry Moderators, forgot to cancel the original message when I first
replied.
Old forager honey bees do not adapt well to confinement. They have flown
free, and just don't get the transparent barrier. Bumble bees adjust far
better to greenhouses.
Tricks to using honey bees.
1) Move the colony into the greenhouse mid-day, actually best to move
colony at least twice during peak flight, then into greenhouse. You want to
lose the old, experienced fliers. The new foragers will have to learn a new
world that has limits.
2) Use a small colony - a big one will just over-saturate the space and the
number of dead bees trapped against the ceiling can be huge.
3) Bees are going to UV light. Shade cloths may help. Plain glass on
sunny day terrible - whitewash it. Some plastics are better, some worse -
depends on how much UV gets through.
4) Place colony OUTSIDE the greenhouse, plumb its main entrance into the
greenhouse via a tube through the wall. Leave a funnel-shaped, one-way
external entrance (modify the original entrance to look the same, face
outward. This gives you a hive with a 2-way entrance in and out of the
greenhouse, and a one-way into the hive that replaces the entrance that the bees are
used to using.
Now, drill some exit holes in the ceiling/wall corners and along the top
plate where the roof meets the walls.
Bees trapped against the ceiling tend to accumulate in corners, so if
they find an exist, they will fly OUT to freedom. Once there, they will find
their hive and go back in through the back door.
5) Small greenhouses and tents are worse than large. Some of the new
fabrics for insect tight enclosures with good light passage have proven in our
experience to be far better than the old in terms of bees and trapping.
Seems odd that better light transmission decreased wastage, but the screen is
white and seems to act as a translucent diffuser.
Only tent/greenhouse that I've ever used that did not trap bees was one
DARPA insisted on building - insect tight fabric over 1/2 acre with trees
and shrubs, 40 ft tall.
Jerry
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