Common readers of a sure age would possibly consider a TV collection entitled the Six Million Greenback Guy, or its sister collection, The Bionic Girl.
In the ones days that appeared like a huge sum of money (and most definitely nonetheless does for someone incomes a residing from beekeeping).
Six million greenbacks 50 years in the past is identical to about $46.5 M at the present time (which might make for a miles much less snappy name). Had it been £6 M, the extra inflation the United Kingdom has ‘loved’ for the reason that early 70’s corresponds to just about £95 M in 2024.
All of that bionic expertise is pricey.
The hole catchphrase to the Six Million Greenback Guy used to be “We will rebuild him, we now have the expertise” {{1}}, the second one a part of which (‘We’ve the expertise’) is ceaselessly heard {{2}}) when commenting favourably about any new innovation.
And one of the most issues that characterises a lot of our leisure pursuits and pastimes {{3}} is the unrelenting technological ‘enhancements’ that make us quicker, higher, quieter, extra correct, or no matter high quality may well be regarded as vital by means of the advertisers and providers … and possibly by means of a minimum of one of the members.
‘We’ve the expertise’
I’m (or had been) an enthusiastic hillwalker, bike owner and fly fisherman. Yearly there are new water-resistant materials, ‘tactical’ clothes {{4}}, technical enhancements, carbon-fibre composite motorbike frames or fly-rods or strolling poles … a cornucopia of must-haves which might be assured to make stronger the joy of my selected pastime.
I realise {{5}} that 98% of this simply is advertising hype.
Trendy top-of-the-range fly rods don’t seem to be essentially other to the mid-range ‘fishing poles’ I bought, or constructed, two or 3 many years in the past. Even if they’re ten instances the fee, they would possibly not make me forged higher, or catch larger fish.
Or catch any fish.
In a similar way, my legs, common loss of health, and aversion to steep hills are the rate-limiting steps in having the ability to cycle quicker or additional … and, anyway, I would wish to potter, get a espresso someplace, surprise on the view, take some footage after which move house.
Ideally freewheeling.
However, it sort of feels to me, beekeeping isn’t like this.
Even if I fight to seek out wheels to suit my aging mountain motorbike {{6}}, I may just most definitely nonetheless use L.L. Langstroth’s smoker, hive device, hives and extractor from the nineteenth Century.
And they would most likely be appropriate with apparatus I recently use (if I used Langstroth hives).
The basics of beekeeping are the similar as they have got been for nearly two centuries. The elemental apparatus utilized by the vast majority of beekeepers has remained in large part unchanged for lots of, many many years. The place technological ‘enhancements’ had been offered, they make little have an effect on at the ideas and observe of our hobby.
Why is that this?
The bees and the beekeeper
Regardless of the reverse of knowledgeable within the historical past of beekeeping is … that is me. If you wish to know in regards to the evolution of the detachable body hive, learn one thing by means of Eva Crane, Michael Bush, Rusty Burlew, Wyatt Mangum or Peter Borst.
Without reference to the historical past, I believe the principle causes the vast majority of beekeeping apparatus has remained in large part unchanged is because of the restrictive wishes of the bees and the beekeeper.
The bees want a safe and weathertight void during which to construct their nest. Evolution dictates the ‘bee area’ wanted across the detachable frames. This, coupled with the dimensions and collection of frames, defines the elemental dimensions of the hive.
Sure, there are diversifications within the latter, both attributable to the vagaries of historical past, or designed to house extra prolific or productive bees, however the elementary conformation of a hive has been in large part unchanged for nearly two centuries.
There were traits within the subject material that some hives are constructed from (about part my hives are actually polystyrene), however does this make a elementary distinction to the well being or productiveness of the bees? {{7}}
The beekeeper’s wishes are somewhat extra nuanced. She wishes packing containers that may be lifted when complete (of bees or honey), that have compatibility in combination correctly, and which might be inexpensive. Those packing containers want to be powerful sufficient to take the knocks and bumps of on a regular basis use, simple to wash, and – possibly most significantly from the 2d 12 months onwards – appropriate with different packing containers which might be already owned, or is also bought someday.
A blessing and a curse
A brood field comprised of a inflexible carbon fibre and kevlar shell enclosing a super-insulating polystyrene core, with deeply recessed handholds to make lifting simple and enough thickness to give you the insulation houses of a centuries-old oak, may supply an excellent atmosphere for the bees … however you could not have enough money it, and it could be incompatible with any different apparatus.
This want for compatibility – with queen excluders, supers, roofs, flooring and so forth. – is each a blessing and a curse.
It is a blessing as a result of if the packing containers are appropriate, you’ll be able to mix ‘n match them at will, you’ll be able to stack cedar on poly, or selfmade on bought, or new packing containers on the ones you inherited out of your grandfather in 1957 (who were given them secondhand).
It is a curse as it inevitably restricts construction of recent and stepped forward hives. Moreover, it isn’t only a case of designing a brand new field, it is a whole ‘machine’ that is wanted {{8}}. And if that machine is incompatible with current apparatus it is attainable marketplace proportion is restricted.
The most recent Abelo hives have a ‘lip’ on the interface of the packing containers, defining (and proscribing) the sorts of supers and queen excluders, flooring and crownboards that have compatibility.
I am certain they’re completely wonderful hives, however it feels extra like an ‘growth’ wanted by means of the vendor reasonably than the patron. I have no longer purchased one (and would possibly not) and I have solely observed one in use in an apiary … surrounded by means of a motley selection of – in a different way appropriate – cedar and poly packing containers from various producers.
Is that this ‘lip’ an growth?
I have no idea. My bees seal the interface between packing containers with propolis and I have by no means had packing containers slide aside laterally.
‘Nuff mentioned.
Is new expertise higher?
Extra usually, are any trendy variants of the attempted and depended on vintage beekeeping apparatus if truth be told higher?
Listed below are a couple of ‘we now have the expertise’ hits and misses (in my – pedantically biased – opinion).
Flooring
I have solely truly ever used open mesh flooring (OMF), so have little to match them with. At the few events I’ve used strong flooring, I have no longer observed a significant distinction between colony ‘efficiency’ (alternatively you would love to outline that), both for higher or worse.
Obviously the OMF permits hive particles and Varroa to ‘break out’. While the latter would possibly be really useful, the herbal mite drop is just a fraction of the full mite inhabitants, so it most definitely has little really useful have an effect on general.
What in regards to the different hive particles?
What about environment friendly thermoregulation?
A decade in the past I would have mentioned it isn’t important, however I am rather less sure now.
The evolutionary choice of swarms for solid-floored bait hives means that that is the most important attention within the number of nest website. Then again, it may well be not anything to do with thermoregulation {{9}}, however it is one thing I am excited about. As well as, the expanding proof that the intestine microbiome influences identification suggests to me that the interior atmosphere of the hive – due to this fact the ‘stuff’ that the bees day by day come into touch with – will not be highest reproduced with an open ground.
It is best to stay an open thoughts, despite the fact that possibly no longer an open ground.
What in regards to the front?
I really like ‘underfloor front‘-type flooring, a minimum of all through the spring, summer season and autumn. They supply just right coverage in opposition to wasps and are simple (or, more uncomplicated) for the bees to protect in opposition to different robbing bees. Within the iciness this coverage extends to mice, who can not negotiate the L-shaped front tunnel, so no mouseguard is wanted (in itself a get advantages).
Then again, giant colonies which revel in a excessive attrition fee of staff all through the iciness – possibly as a result of Varroa and virus ranges had been poorly controlled – may end up in the L-shaped front tunnel getting blocked with corpses.
As entrances, they paintings neatly, however vigilance is wanted.
Observe … reasonably than fail to spot some great benefits of those underfloor entrances, it is higher to correctly minimise mite and virus ranges the usage of rational Varroa keep an eye on.
Broods and supers
I am more than pleased to mix ‘n match broods and supers constructed from cedar or poly … so long as there is no lip, overhang or no matter to limit compatibility.
In my revel in my Abelo poly packing containers are lovely just right. Light-weight, pre-painted, hideously vibrant, weather-resistant, relatively powerful and so forth. Most likely their main fault is that they’re somewhat too small to house 11 frames and a dummy board. That is normally manageable, but when your bees produce quite a lot of propolis then issues can get tight.
After lifting ~30 complete supers on Tuesday I would upload that the handhold recesses at the Abelo packing containers are too shallow and – as a result of they slope – a lot much less simple to grip (specifically when damp) than the chunky sq. ones on a cedar tremendous.
Handholds
The Swienty poly packing containers solely take 10 frames {{10}} however the bees appear to do truly neatly in them.
Is it that they are higher insulated, or do they only glance as despite the fact that the bees are doing higher as a result of they’re 91% the quantity of an ordinary Nationwide field?
Then again, the large failing of the Swienty brood packing containers is the loss of a rebate at the backside of the aspect and endwalls. This implies the higher field of a double-brooded hive will get completely propolised to the tops of the lugs of the frames within the field under.
As particular person packing containers, they are nice. As double broods they’re infuriating … each on account of the propolis and (when stacked on an 11 body field) on account of the body spacing.
Queen excluders
I do not believe there are any queen excluders higher than a wooden-framed, inflexible stressed excluder.
The brand new-technology plastic variations are all – in a method or any other – deficient. They crack or warp, are a ache to wash, stick with the highest bars and so forth.
Zinc excluders bend or – worse – crease, ping unfastened when prising them up (flinging bees all over), and stick simply as resolutely to the highest bars because the worst of the plastic excluders.
Purchase as soon as, purchase the most efficient, in brief wince on the worth, however by no means take into consideration queen excluders once more 😉.
Roofs
Here is one space the place expertise has stepped forward issues {{11}}. The similarly hideously-coloured Abelo roofs are light-weight, robust, deep-sided, utterly weatherproof and insulating. I nonetheless normally have a block of Kingspan beneath them, however I feel they’re a marked growth on the usual metal-topped, cedar sided roof used for generations.
Correx and Abelo roofs
On the different finish of the fee spectrum, I stay a large fan of folded Correx roofs … ‘reasonable as chips’, impervious to the elements and truly helpful, each for protecting hives and stacks of packing containers, for cleared supers, or preventing drips from ruining the automobile upholstery.
Neither roof reacts neatly to a sizzling smoker 😢.
Mini-nucs
Those are any other instance the place one of the more moderen variants are most definitely higher. Higher this is, for those who rely on mini-nucs to your queen mating. I have written about those moderately lately so would possibly not repeat myself.
Those that have used them discuss favourably of the brand new(ish) Mini-Plus taste hives. Then again, the ones already invested in smaller Kieler or Apidea’s may baulk on the further price and the incompatibility of the frames – with both current mini-nucs or greater hives.
It is value noting that compatibility is some distance much less of a topic with nucleus hives general as they have a tendency to be used in my opinion, reasonably than stacked or combined with portions from different producers.
Partially because of this, there have most definitely been extra technological traits in new designs of nucleus hives than another during the last couple of many years.
People who smoke
I see that a couple of providers are promoting ‘electrical’ people who smoke.
Has someone used one? Are they higher?
I would want to hold a blowtorch to relight my smoker than a spare battery … or an extension lead.
I have observed a few unenthusiastic social media feedback about those new-fangled people who smoke, however that is about all. I believe they have got no longer offered neatly … and that’s the reason most definitely as a result of a just right smoker is a smart instance of optimised design and serve as.
The huge and small Dadant people who smoke {{12}} are very good. They continue to be lit for ages, spare bellows and inserts are to be had they usually will have to final years. Simply do not again over them with the automobile 😉.
Hive equipment
Periodically a brand new design in hive equipment seems. I do not imply a refined variation at the theme of a J device, however one thing extra radical … cranked, L-shaped, palm leisure, built-in bee brush or no matter.
Thorne’s normally promote those off for a fiver within the gross sales a few years later.
Does this imply that the brand new ‘expertise’ {{13}} is if truth be told worse, or does it merely replicate that beekeepers are a conservative bunch?
I skilled a kind of Damascene conversion about hive equipment a couple of years in the past. I have at all times favoured the claw-type device proven under.
For years I bought el cheapo metal copies all through the once a year beekeeping gross sales for £2 every. I reasoned that, since maximum had been going to be misplaced within the lengthy grass anyway, I would save a couple of kilos by means of buying the most affordable I may just supply. I would upload 5 or ten to the top of my annual order to qualify without cost postage {{14}}.
Then, one season, I both entered the mistaken catalogue quantity, or the flawed inventory used to be picked from the shelf.
To my marvel I won ten top class high quality claw hive equipment … they had been pretty, and I have hardly used the rest since.
I have additionally misplaced fewer of them {{15}}.
Every prices about six instances the fee I used to be paying, however I believe it cash neatly spent. They have got pretty sharp bladed ends for scraping off burr comb and are immensely robust. I have additionally but to bend one, which used to be a no longer unusual incidence with the inexpensive variations.
Bee fits
There were some technological traits in bee fits during the last couple of many years, with some being higher ventilated and/or impervious to stings.
This season I have wanted higher waterproofing, no longer air flow.
As with beekeeping historical past, I am unqualified to remark as I have by no means attempted this sort of new fits, or checked out them with a lot passion. I nonetheless basically use the primary bee swimsuit I bought (secondhand). It is been repaired a few instances and can most definitely live much longer than me.
I am no fashionista and, worn to the espresso store to shop for lunch it promises I am socially distanced, however it supplies greater than sufficient coverage for all however probably the most psychotic bees.
Extra coverage merely insulates you from bees that truly will have to be requeened or changed.
Warding off an issue does no longer remedy the issue.
I have were given various equivalent fits and jackets, each standard and light-weight variants (in a variety of unflattering colors and sizes), however the authentic one nonetheless bears the brunt of the paintings.
So bee fits are a case of the expertise current, however I without a doubt wouldn’t have it … and query whether or not it is truly essential.
Peripherals
Are plastic frames and basis higher? I used to be tempted to take a look at the latter this 12 months for my heather honey, scraping them again to the mid-rib after which extracting in my hydropress. Then again, I am mindful they want near-ideal stipulations to get drawn correctly, so promptly shelved the speculation.
The fruit press used to be a revelation (when put next with weigh down and pressure), however it is hardly ever new expertise. Guide variations had been used for fruit (and honey) for many years.
My SAF Natura radial extractor has an on/off transfer and a guide velocity keep an eye on. It is labored faultlessly for years.
More moderen extractors – a minimum of the ones from the high-end producers – come with further expertise; timers, controllable acceleration and deceleration, LED lights, web connectivity and an accompanying ‘app’ to your smartphone {{16}}.
Is that this new expertise wanted and used, or are they only but extra issues to head mistaken?
Advantages
I welcome the conservative nature of beekeeping, and the overall loss of technological ‘growth’ in many of the apparatus we use. I feel it makes issues so much more uncomplicated for inexperienced persons (who nonetheless face a protracted and shallow finding out curve), it reduces the whole price of an increasingly more dear hobby, and it manner that there is nonetheless a little bit residual worth within the teetering piles of kit hoarded by means of many skilled beekeepers.
It without a doubt contributes to the sustainability of our pastime.
There is something reassuring about managing bees within the 21st Century the usage of necessarily the similar apparatus that had been used within the 19th Century.
The web
A century in the past, for those who sought after to grasp one thing about bees or beekeeping, you would ask your neighbour (who additionally saved bees) or possibly learn a e book at the subject.
With the rise in approval for our obsession, and lengthening club of beekeeping associations, you must ask for lend a hand from fellow fans.
You would ask a easy query, get six solutions from 4 beekeepers, have a minor war of words about height or backside bee-space after which both, a) do what you would first concept anyway, or b) create some nightmarish hybrid from the contradictory solutions you won and therefore surprise why the hive swarmed.
However the creation of web expertise made issues worse modified all that.
There may be now an enormous quantity of knowledge to be had despite the fact that – reassuringly – a lot of it’s nonetheless contradictory.
At the boards, you’ll be able to now ask hundreds of beekeepers, scattered far and wide the globe in numerous time zones or even other hemispheres, the similar query.
Maximum would possibly not resolution (fortunately) however sufficient will that it is inconceivable to get settlement on any subject (possibly rather than the outrageous worth of Api-Bioxal).
Along with the extraordinary argument – normally a little bit extra heated on-line than in-person – about bee-space or brood and a part, you’ll be able to additionally ‘get advantages’ from the critiques of conceited know-it-alls who let you know not anything (rather than ‘paintings it out your self, like I did’), or woefully green practitioners that experience but to topple down the precipitous scarp slope in their Dunning-Kruger curve.
Has web expertise stepped forward beekeeping?
Discussing a profoundly sensible and locality-dependent drawback with anyone at the different aspect of the arena may be really useful. Then again, I will be able to’t lend a hand pondering that the mix of fine commentary, a little bit concept and a talk with the chap who assists in keeping bees a few fields away is probably not higher.
All of which may appear a little bit ironic coming from anyone who writes about beekeeping, and is learn (or a minimum of accessed) from far and wide the arena … other time zones and hemispheres.
However, having moved area final week, I to find that I’m now not at the expertise data superhighway. The brand new area seems to be attached to the around the world internet by means of a protracted piece of damp, very frayed wool.
In a single day I have long gone from a 900 Mbps connection to a shonky 1.3 Mbps (if I am fortunate). This explains why this publish is possibly even much less neatly researched than standard, and why it took 77 hours to put in writing 😔.
I am sat within the automobile, overlooking the valley under, with my cellular offering intermittent, and v e r y s l o w, web get entry to to add the photographs and time table the publish.
I am confident that ‘standard provider shall be resumed in a while’ however I stay sceptical … as I’m about slightly slightly of this new-fangled expertise.
This website exists due to masses of overdue nights and the caffeine content material of “double-shot” cappucino’s. If this, or different, posts has helped or impressed your beekeeping, or used to be fun (sure, truly!) or enlightening, then please believe sponsoring The Apiarist. Sponsorship prices lower than £1/week. Sponsors obtain the weekly posts, an abnormal per thirty days publication, and increasingly more sponsor-only content material … the ones starred ⭐ within the lists of posts.
Then again, lend a hand cut back my caffeine overdraft … and please unfold the phrase to inspire different beekeepers to subscribe.
Thanks.
Observe
Why no point out of the Float Hive? … see compatibility above.
{{1}}: He’d been in a airplane crash they usually reconstructed him “with bionic implants that give him superhuman energy, velocity and imaginative and prescient”.
{{2}}: No less than by means of the ones sufficiently old to bear in mind the – looking back reasonably tacky – 70’s TV collection.
{{3}}: And employment, however I will stick with the issues we use our disposable source of revenue on on this publish.
{{4}}: WTF? Tactical? It feels like I am going into combat reasonably than trudging up a hill within the rain.
{{5}}: Belatedly, for those who had been to appear in my storage 😢.
{{6}}: Wheel diameters and axle lengths have modified during the last 30 years.
{{7}}: Some believe we’re inflicting untold rigidity to colonies by means of proceeding to make use of ‘skinny’ wood hives. Most likely … however organic rigidity and anthropomorphic rigidity are two very various things, and there are literally thousands of cedar hives nonetheless in use during which the bees thrive, overwinter neatly and produce bumper honey vegetation.
{{8}}: A ‘tactical’ or ‘technical’ beekeeping machine?! 😱
{{9}}: As a substitute, it may well be a end result of the techniques bees decide the quantity of the void, or consequence from their choice for a gloomy area, or no matter …
{{10}}: A lot of these feedback relate to Nationwide hives … for those who use Langstroth’s you’ll be able to want to do your personal analysis.
{{11}}: Be mindful, in my biased opinion.
{{12}}: Different makes are to be had, however purchase the largest imaginable … they’re more uncomplicated to mild, more uncomplicated to stay alight, they usually stay alight for longer.
{{13}}: It is hardly ever expertise … it is a bent piece of metallic that is used to lever out frames and separate propolised packing containers.
{{14}}: Beekeepers would possibly or will not be conservative, however this one is imply cautious along with his honey “income” (is honey income an oxymoron, like army intelligence?).
{{15}}: Fascinating … do I drop them much less steadily or exert extra effort looking for them if dropped?
{{16}}: OK, a few of that may well be fiction … it is overdue and I have nonetheless were given to get in the course of the ultimate couple of paragraphs. For all I do know, this stuff may if truth be told exist.