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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Jerry J Bromenshenk <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 30 Mar 2002 15:17:59 -0700
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At 10:43 AM 3/30/02 -0500, you wrote:

Lloyd:

Thanks for the history lesson.  I wondered why these escapes were so pricey.

And, the tips about heating them up, etc. are useful.

Now, for a bit of data that may be useful to someone.  These plastic cones
only partially work.  We conducted some tests where we had to be sure that
the bees had either exited or entered the hive, but could not make a round
trip.  We placed a trap box under each hive.  The front of the trap was a
row of holes that fit the plastic escapes. Like a hive body, the trap box
was open at the top.  For a few days, bees came and went through the row of
holes which replaced the standard entrance slot.

On the day of each trial, by using strips with cone-shaped escapes, and a
sheet of plastic that we could slip between the trap box and the upper hive
bodies, we could release groups of bees (cones facing outward), and/or
capture returning bees. We also video taped this.

Normally the cone-shaped escapes are inside the hive where they can't be
observed.  But, the upper boxes do slowly empty.  So, we reasoned that if
the plastic cones "worked" inside the hive, they would work even better at
the entrance.  After all, it would be some trick for a bee to land on the
small end of a cone hanging out into space and squeeze herself back into
it.  Turns out, not much problem at all to the bees.

We had a high percentage of bees getting back into the hive, when all of
the cones were facing outward, so as to allow release but prevent bee
re-entry.  Similary, if we set the cones to trap the bees, lots went into
the trap box, then many came back out.

So, bottom line, the plastic cones may seem to "work" inside the hive, but
our observations indicated that they are very inefficient.

Well, we had to have 100% reliability and we achieved it.  We tossed the
plastic cones and went down to the craft store and bought a variety of cake
decorator stainless steel tips.  Tried them all - every shape and size.

Here's the way to design/produce a cone that works.  You want a cake
decorating (frosting bag) tip that is serrated (narrow end is a circle of
triangular points).  Larger points seem a bit better than smaller points,
but either can work.


You have to cut some slits in the base of the cone and bend them out or in
some other way, mount the cones -- they don't have a flange for stapling.
But, you should be able to figure that out.  To test your tips, use two boxes.

Trap a bunch of bees in a box with a row of pointed tip facing outward.
Put the box with the bees and cone escapes inside another bee-tight box
with a light (either a light bulb or plate of clear plastic or glass - you
want the bees in the inner box to see light through the cones).  Check
after 1/2 hr, 1 hr, etc.

The goal is to select tips that keep all of the bees in the inside box (in
reality, after about 1 hr, at least one bees manages to get back out of
almost any tip shape or configuration).  With plastic cones, the bees get
out in a few minutes.  When it takes more than an hour for any bee to get
out of the inside box, you're good to go.

You will have to do two things to the tips:

Pick the best tip design (point shape and length) and then ADJUST the
points.  Take a needle nose pliers and bend them inward a bit.  You want a
final opening that a bee can just fit through on the way out.  With
serrated tips, you can squeeze that opening down a bit tighter than what's
provided with the plastic cones.  I used a plastic cone as a starting point
- knowing that the small tip of the plastic cone is still too big, but
"close" to what you want.

I think three design factors are playing into the efficiency of the
frosting tips:

1.  The steel is much slicker than the plastic.  Bees walk easily and can
grab onto the plastic.  They have a tough time landing and hanging on to
the stainless steel.  They don't have any problem with the red plastic
cones that I had.

2.  Pointed tips - rather than a smooth tip hole.  Our research shows that
bees, if given a choice, avoid certain surface textures and shapes.  They
especially avoid pointy surfaces, probably for good reason.  Imagine trying
to land on a set of sharp points facing toward you.

3. Finally, the hole size (small end) is too big on the plastic cones.
(This may vary with the strain of bees, so test your bees)  We found out
years ago that bees from different hives vary enough in size to make a
device such as this unusable - and this was long before the introduction of
the Africanized honey bee or any use of small cells in foundation.

I once bought a "dead" hive from a beekeeper who placed a disposable pollen
trap that we provided on his hive and then left it on for days.  His bees
were too big to get through the trap, plugged up against the back of the
trap, and died.

With respect to bee size, the strangest thing that ever happened to us was
when we used a perforated plastic pollen screen in MT for several weeks;
then moved everything to MD (in August).  We packed up the research hives
and bees, drove them to Maryland, set them out, put on the pollen screens,
and found that the bees couldn't get through the holes.  Same hives, bees,
and screens, 4 days apart.  Screens worked in MT, didn't in MD?  I still
have no explanation.  Its as if they swelled up during the trip, like a
passenger's feet on a long airplane trip.

Now, if you need thousands of cones, maybe Lloyd can point you at a
provider.  Me, I'd be calling whoever makes the cake decorator tips and see
if they could manufacture the "perfect" bee escape -- assuming its not a
direct patent violation.

Cheers

JErry

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