At 04:15 PM 6/14/00 -0700, you wrote:

Greenhouses usually employ bumblebees for pollination - they seem to adjust
to glass or clear polyethylene better than honey bees.  Many of the large
greenhouses in Europe and the US that raise tomatoes, strawberries, etc.
buy or raise bumblebees.

The British use honey bees for strawberries.  We fly honey bees in our
greenhouses for our experiments.  We found that Dr. Srinivasan's technique
(he studies bee flight, vision, and guidance systems down in Australia)
with a couple of tricks that we learned work with colonies placed inside a
greenhouse.  Note however, that they eventually will dwindle.

Srini puts the colony inside the greenhouse, and ports it to the outside of
the greenhouse with a short piece of pipe (e.g., PVC).  The bees can fly in
and out of the greenhouse from the hives "normal" front entrance.  The bees
can also fly to the outside.

In the spring and fall, the outside entrance gets a lot of use, and this
arrangement seems to keep the colonies brood right and active for a longer
period than if the colony can only fly inside.  Here in Montana, the
colonies don't fly outside much during the summer, if they are fed inside
the greenhouse.

Some things to keep in mind when placing colonies in greenhouses:

1. Use a small colony

2. Pick the hive up and move it a couple of times during the day when bees
are actively foraging, before moving it into the greenhouse.  The objective
is to rid the colony of its older forager bees.  Assuming that you have
more than one colony of bees in your beeyard, these foragers will join up
with the colonies remaining outside in the beeyard.  The older foragers
just don't seem to manage to adjust to flying under glass.

3. Be sure the colny has a laying queen and brood.

4.  Remove the bees that get trapped against the roof and in the corners.
A vacuum works well.  It seems to be a false hope that any of these bees
will return to the hive.  If they are out for 24 hrs or more, they are
trapped and will just die anyway.


5.  If bee activity in the greenhouse is low, condition them to fly in the
greenhouse.

To keep the bees actively flying in the greenhouse, place feeder jars
around the greenhouse with a sucrose syrup (1:1 is fine).  A bit of scent
such as anise will help.  You may have to condition the bees to the feeder
jar at the hive entrance.  Otherwise, it may just sit and ferment in the
greenhouse.

Equally important, provide pollen or pollen sub in the greenhouse.  The
bees usually go for it more aggressively than the syrup.  Now for the twist
- don't put the pollen or pollen sub in the hive and don't put it neatly in
a dish.  Rather, spread a line of it across the entrance of the hive to get
the bees started.  Once they start collecting it, place it further out into
the greenhouse, but not in dishes or neat piles.  Spread it out on a tray
or board.

I haven't any idea why bees like it spread out in a sheet or line, but ours
sure do. You can even throw it on the ground and they will go for it. They
mostly ignore it in the hive or in a dish.


It may be possible to get bees to fly in and out of a greenhouse from
outside - although we haven't managed that one yet.  I do have an
observation hive in my office that is ported out any upper window.  I have
a feeder box that is ported through a lower window.  The bees fly out,
throw a U Turn, and come back in to the feeder.  They drain a quart jar of
heavy syrup in two hours.  We are currently marking these bees.  It looks
to us like we have some interlopers from other hives that are outside the
building.

Hope this helps.

Jerry









>How can I allow my bees entrance to the greenhouse but exclude grasshoppers?
>We have so darn many grasshoppers in my area that the only way to grow
>anything is in a greenhouse or screen box.  But I still want my bees to
>have access for pollination.  Any ideas on how to build an entrance for
>bees that won't also allow the grasshoppers?  The young grasshoppers are
>quite small so making a small hole for the bees still lets them in.
>
>Interesting observation - lately, I've seen grasshoppers (which obviously
>usually stick to plants) eating dead bees in front of my hives.
>
>Jonathan Ruel
>Flagstaff, AZ, USA
>7,000 ft. a.s.l.
>
>