Dan, the Bee Gym was invented a few years ago by Stuart Rowland in the UK. I bought a few out of curiousity, an early model that was not perhaps as robust as it should have been.

In thinking about the device it seemed to me that a loose crumple of wire mesh material attached to the bottom board would accomplish the same function?? A fixed place for bees to rub off mites, assuming of course that Stuart is right and they will do that when presented with a rubbing surface in the hive (which as he points out, is not provided in the hives we give bees now).

I never got organized enough to test this out properly, but it would be an easy, low-tech approach. Maybe somebody wants to take this on, perhaps as their Master Beeekeeper research project?  : )

Kindest Regards,
Janet L. Wilson

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