I had seen this previously and thought it seemed a little goofy, then this
came in the recent Thorne newsletter.  Perhaps still a little goofy, but is
it actually doing something... can it really be this easy to "help"?


*The Bee Gym – Does it really work??*

When I first saw one of these “Bee Gyms” I was somewhat sceptical to say
the least… The bee gym is a small square plastic plate that locks into the
mesh of an open mesh floor (to stop it moving). It has a number of
“flippers” standing up vertically from the base plate, and from a pylon in
each corner two nylon wires are stretched across. The idea is that the bees
can scratch their bodies to displace the Varroa mites even displacing the
mites on their backs by passing under the wires. There are several videos
on YouTube showing this action but they are in macro close up and to my eye
inconclusive.

A few weeks ago I spoke to a beekeeper extoling the virtues of the gym. He
ran a top bar hive with a glass observation window. The combs at the front
of the hive were drawn down almost to the floor; the top bars at the back
of the hive were as yet undrawn. The instructions are to place the gym away
from the entrance so as to not dislodge the pollen from the bees’
corbicula. The gym had been placed at the back of the hive (the bees had no
reason to go anywhere near it). The customer had a wonderful video on his
phone of the bees dropping off the comb, and walking to the back of the
hive and circling round and round the device. They must have been deriving
some pleasure, relief, benefit from the visit.

Spurred on by the above video I decided to put a couple into my two biggest
National (14”x12”) hives. For several years I have had almost completely
sealed (open mesh floors); the drawer under the mesh floor has a gap of
about an inch and a half, with the drawer in place the air into the hive
comes in through the entrance only. The bees can keep the temperature and
humidity high, optimal for brood development, and detrimental to the
Varroa. I put the gym towards the back left of the floor on a Monday
afternoon. The drop for the week prior on the floor was around the twenty
mark, in both hives. On the Friday morning I visited the apiary to remove a
super I had cleared, and took a quick look to see if anything had happened…

When I pulled out the floor there was a negative image of the Bee Gym on
the card. It was as if you had spray painted the gym on the card and then
removed the gym, leaving an image behind. There were hundreds of Varroa
making up the image. I wish I had had a camera with me at the time. I
cleared off the board, a week later the count was substantially reduced (an
inch wide strip across the back of the card where the Varroa had crawled to
the back of the hive) another week this was reduced to a thin line of
Varroa, and after 4 weeks practically none.

The action of the bees on the Gym has moved it across the floor, and is now
nearly central. I don’t know if the “novelty” has worn off or if the bees
have it under control?

I wondered about removing it, cleaning it and deploying it in another hive,
or re-deploying it in the same hive after a rest period of a few weeks, and
comparing the drop against the other hive with one left in the whole time.
I am personally a fan, and want to find out more about its best use.

             ***********************************************
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