BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 3 Nov 2011 12:24:04 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (57 lines)
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
 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm
 

ATOM RSS1 RSS2