by means of Ross Conrad
Stewart and Cedar Anderson of Byron Bay, Australia have made historical past and are rapid changing into mythical. The daddy and son crew have invented the Glide™ Hive and introduced a crowd investment marketing campaign on Indiegogo to lift the cash had to start mass manufacturing and distribution in their invention.
As this newsletter was once being written the marketing campaign, whose unique purpose was once to lift $70,000, had raised over six million greenbacks and contributions had been nonetheless rolling in. With many days left of their 45-day fundraising marketing campaign, Stewart and Cedar are disproving the long-held trust that one won’t ever strike it wealthy via beekeeping. In line with a Glide Hive media unlock, “the Glide Hive Indiegogo marketing campaign is essentially the most a success crowd investment undertaking ever introduced out of doors the U.S., with contributions from 116 nations.” In buck worth, the U.S. is by means of some distance the most important contributor adopted by means of Australia, Canada, and the U.Ok. Because of this, plans are afoot to ascertain a Glide Hive production facility within the U.S. with a view to cut back transport prices to the Northern hemisphere.
This invention is so new that excluding the inventors and a small selection of beekeepers who over the process the closing 3 years had been occupied with product trying out, no one has used this harvesting approach earlier than (even though by the point you learn this the primary manufacturing fashions will probably be in use). Thus what follows is what I’ve been in a position to be informed concerning the Glide Hive and my preliminary ideas at the matter with out the advantage of direct enjoy.
The Glide Hive permits the beekeeper to reap honey with out opening up the hive and with minimum disturbance to the bees. The machine makes use of a picket honey tremendous that’s the identical dimension and form to a regular Langstroth deep tremendous, aside from that it’s changed with openings going through the bottom of the hive reverse the hive front. This Glide Hive field holds a number of Glide™ frames that whilst wider, are identical in peak and duration to the usual Langstroth body. Each and every Glide body consists of entirely drawn plastic comb with deep cells that the bees fill with honey, and cap. A hose is hooked up to the bottom of the Glide Hive body this is uncovered by means of the hole within the facet of the tremendous and a unethical steel rod is inserted into the highest of the body. When the rod is became (like a faucet), it forces the 2 aspects of the Glide body to transport reasonably within the center, permitting the honey within the cells to run down throughout the channels which might be created, and out alongside a trough on the backside of the body resulting in the hose. Merely insert the opposite finish of the hose into your container of selection. The pressure of gravity permits the honey to drift out of the tip of the hose extraordinarily blank, getting rid of the wish to pressure or clear out the bits of beeswax, propolis, pollen, bee’s legs, and many others., this is most often required when generating liquid honey by means of uncapping and extracting. Any tiny quantities of pollen that do occur to search out their means into the honey are particular person grains of pollen that fall off the our bodies of the bees as they cross about their industry within the hive.
Each and every Glide body when utterly stuffed and capped by means of the bees is reported to carry about seven kilos of honey.
Each and every Glide body when utterly stuffed and capped by means of the bees is reported to carry about seven kilos of honey. Relying at the ambient temperature and the moisture content material of the honey being harvested, draining a complete Glide body is reported to take as low as 20 mins to greater than two hours. The Glide body handiest works when temperatures are heat sufficient for honey to drift.
As soon as the body is tired the steel rod within the higher slot of the Glide body is became again to its unique place, resetting the brush permitting the bees to uncap the empty cells and get to paintings refilling them with extra honey. A viewing window is minimize into the facet of the Glide Hive tremendous that permits the frames inside of to be monitored with out the will for opening up the hive. Each Glide frames and standard beeswax frames of comb can also be mixed in the similar honey tremendous, with the utmost of six Glide frames becoming in an eight-frame honey tremendous and 7 Glide frames becoming right into a 10-frame honey tremendous. Then again, it’s most probably that the bees will be capable of squeeze previous same old wax combs and go out by way of the cut-out in rear of the Glide Hive tremendous particularly if the tip bars aren’t complete rectangles however are milled to permit bees room to go between the tip bars of adjoining frames. This “rear front” may just make it tricky for a susceptible hive to stay robbers at bay and may just result in defensive conduct when the Glide frames are being harvested.
This invention is modern in that it has the possible to get rid of about 95% of the hard work most often concerned with typical honey harvesting; a procedure that calls for the elimination of honey supers, the elimination of bees from the supers, transporting the supers to an extraction website online, uncapping the brush, and extracting and filtering the honey, then returning the honey supers to the beeyard or garage house. Since there’s little disturbance to the bees within the hive when harvesting honey within the Glide frames, the possibility of being stung is very much decreased. That is more likely to be very talked-about in South and Central The usa, and Africa the place extremely defensive bees are recurrently controlled.
Glide body with turning deal with in position. When became, the cells are off set
liberating the honey.
After 3 years of box trials, Glide Hive upkeep seems to be minimum with the advice to scrape out burr comb from supers the similar as with same old Langstroth apparatus, and to flush out the ground channel with heat water and in all probability use a bottle brush to wash the channel on the finish of the season. Will have to beebread be saved in one of the vital Glide body cells, they don’t appear to hinder the harvesting of honey whatsoever.
Some critics of the Glide hive have accused Stuart and Cedar of ripping off previous patents that describe identical gadgets for simply harvesting honey from the hive. After I requested Stuart Anderson if the theory for the Glide Hive got here from previous patents that some are claiming had been used as the root for his or her invention, the solution I gained was once, “No, our design is moderately other from the ones previous patents and, in our opinion the designs in the ones patents would now not paintings. Because it came about we didn’t see the ones previous patents earlier than we got here up with our personal design.”
As I identified within the article “Beekeeping and Era” (Bee Tradition, February 2015), there are incessantly unintentional penalties, every now and then just right and every now and then now not such a lot, that include the implementation of recent applied sciences. Two possible problems that the Glide Hive brings to thoughts are the larger reliance on plastic in our bee hives and the kind of philosophy or angle that this beekeeping invention might foster amongst its customers.
In line with the corporate the Glide body that lies on the center of the Glide Hive, is “created from top quality, food-grade, BPA-free plastic.” Atmosphere apart the truth that the bees generally tend not to like plastic, the cause of this observation is as a result of estrogenic chemical compounds (comparable to BPA) present in typical plastic merchandise were connected to a litany of issues in people and animals. Scientists have tied BPA to illnesses together with bronchial asthma, most cancers, infertility, low sperm rely, genital deformity, center illness, liver issues, and ADHD. In the meantime the substitute nonsteroidal estrogen drug DES, which could also be categorized as an endocrine disruptor, was once as soon as prescribed to forestall miscarriages however led to weight problems, uncommon vaginal tumors, infertility, and testicular growths amongst the ones uncovered in utero. Whilst chemical compounds having estrogenic task are obviously a motive for fear, plastic honey bins, plastic basis and fully-drawn plastic comb were used for lots of many years with none noticeable adverse affects. Critics on the other hand would argue that for the reason that quantity of floor house in a plastic comb, such because the Glide body, is repeatedly more than the plastic usually discovered within the hive, there’s possible motive for fear. Serving to to allay such considerations for some on the other hand, is analysis that has discovered that “honey has a possible function in decreasing BPA-induced ovarian toxicity by means of decreasing the morphological abnormalities of the ovarian follicles and making improvements to the traditional estrous cycle.”1
Different research display that present production processes that produce plastics with estrogenic task are needless. To cite from one summary, “Nearly all commercially to be had plastic merchandise we sampled – impartial of the kind of resin, product, or retail supply – leached chemical compounds having reliably detectable EA (estrogenic task), together with the ones marketed as BPA unfastened. In some instances, BPA-free merchandise launched chemical compounds having extra EA than did BPA-containing merchandise.” The authors of the find out about conclude: “Many plastic merchandise are mischaracterized as being EA unfastened if extracted with just one solvent and now not uncovered to common-use stresses (microwaving, ultraviolet radiation, and/or autoclaving). Then again, we will determine present compounds, or have advanced monomers, components, or processing brokers that haven’t any detectable EA and feature identical prices. Therefore, our knowledge recommend that EA-free plastic merchandise uncovered to common-use stresses and extracted by means of saline and ethanol solvents might be cost-effectively made on a industrial scale and thereby get rid of a possible well being chance posed by means of maximum these days to be had plastic merchandise that leach chemical compounds having EA into meals merchandise.”2
It’s nicely established that the substance royal jelly, this is crucial to elevating wholesome larvae right through their first 3 days or so of construction, and the queen this is fed royal jelly all the way through her lifestyles, shows susceptible estrogenic actions.3,4,5 Given the obvious significance of this estrogenic task in honey bee construction, now not sufficient is understood about how the estrogenic compounds emitted by means of plastic hive elements have an effect on the well being of the hive.
“In line with the corporate the Glide body that lies on the center of the Glide Hive, is “created from top quality, food-grade,BPA-free plastic.”
As though the well being considerations of compounds associated with the usage of plastic aren’t sufficient, the poisonous pollution produced right through plastic manufacturing and the large quantity of plastic particles this is clogging up our landfills and amassing in our seas, trapped and amassed by means of ocean currents might not be helped. Sadly it’s onerous to peer how the Glide frames might be manufactured any longer economically by means of the rest instead of plastic. After all this additionally signifies that when a hive should be burned because of American Foul Brood contamination, numerous poisonous fumes will likely be launched into the air and a vital financial funding will likely be misplaced. One has to think that the present value of $51-$77 consistent with body will in the end come down as manufacturing is scaled up.
The opposite main grievance of this new machine for harvesting honey is the possible frame of mind that it’ll inspire in beekeepers that use the Glide Hive. The benefit with which a beekeeper can track the accumulation of the Glide body comb throughout the window at the facet of the Glide Hive tremendous and extract the harvestable honey from the hive with no need to boost the lid and open the hive might worsen a subject matter this is already a priority in beekeeping circles: beekeepers who don’t frequently check up on their colonies and stay tabs at the well being and well-being of the hive.
Whilst the Glide Hive window can provide one a coarse thought of the way rapid the Glide Hive honey tremendous is filling up, it does now not supply a window into the brood nest probably fighting the well timed analysis of queen problems or illnesses. This is a easy undeniable fact that except a beekeeper is aware of what’s going on throughout the hive, they’re not likely in an effort to intrude at the bees behalf in a well timed style when bother rears its head.
For beekeepers within the northern areas of North The usa, overwintering is a significant problem. One of the most number one necessities for a success wintering is an good enough retailer of honey. Except beekeepers take care to make sure that every hive has stuffed sufficient honey supers earlier than putting in the Glide Hive tremendous at the colony, the convenience with which the honey can also be harvested may just simply lead to overharvesting and colonies that both starve right through wintry weather, or require numerous feeding with a view to make certain their survival. If the bees are fed a synthetic vitamin rather than their herbal vitamin of honey and pollen, we now know that the whole well being of the colony’s immune machine is more likely to endure making the colony extra at risk of illness.
The inverse of this case may be simply as disastrous. Conscientious beekeepers who modulate their impulse to reap and go away complete Glide frames on their colony with a view to make certain the hive could have a lot of honey for Iciness might in finding that the considerably deeper cells of the Glide frames so conducive to considerable nectar and honey garage, aren’t the intensity of cellular this is favorable for brood rearing. Because of this, leaving supers of Glide frames stuffed with honey at the hive in chilly climates might lead to susceptible hives in Spring and larger queen problems.
Some people have identified that this invention turns out to drift from the similar extractive mindset that is a part and parcel of our capitalistic solution to global governance. Given capitalism’s present trail of by no means finishing enlargement based totally totally on useful resource extraction to the detriment of planetary well being, one can’t assist however be involved that the convenience with which we will now take honey from the bees might in a similar way lead to not their salvation, however in some instances might hasten their death.
Beekeepers will likely be challenged to struggle the temptation to overharvest and rededicate themselves to correct hive stewardship based totally upon sound beekeeping ideas and an apicultural ethic that doesn’t position their wishes above the desires of the bees.
Judging from the feedback at the Indiegogo marketing campaign website online, Glide™ era is stimulating a brand new wave of folks getting occupied with beekeeping, and has rekindled the spirit in people who gave up beekeeping up to now. Make no mistake, any more everybody who leads beekeeping workshops and teaches beekeeping categories should make an effort to change into a minimum of conversant in the Glide Hive with a view to knowledgeably resolution the questions that can inevitably rise up. Academics will have to be ready to provide recommendation comparable to: in case you are excited about bee stings you will have to almost definitely nonetheless put on a veil, gloves, and many others., you’re going to nonetheless wish to do brood inspections, care for mites and illnesses, hive beetles, wax moths, swarming, and the entire relaxation. Except your bees are situated in a heat wasteland, semi-arid or tropical local weather comparable to happens all the way through maximum of Australia and the bees have forage to be had via many of the yr, the Glide frames will have to now not be left on overwintering hives lest the cluster transfer up onto the frames of honey however are avoided from elevating wholesome brood within the additional deep cells of the brush (as discussed above the plastic honey cells within the Glide body are additional deep which is ok for honey garage, however now not conducive to correct egg laying by means of the queen.
Some people have identified that this invention turns out to drift from the similar extractive mindset that is a part and parcel of our capitalistic solution to global governance.Moreover, the build-up of larval skins within the plastic cells used for brood rearing might in the end motive issues of the power of the honey to drift throughout the channels correctly when the body is activated.)
The Glide Hive seems to be the largest technological step forward in hive design in nicely over 150 years. It’s more likely to take a minimum of a number of extra years of use in all approach of climates and geographic places to ensure that beekeepers to discover ways to high-quality song the Glide Hive advantages and mitigate any of its adverse attributes. With over 12,000 beekeepers from world wide striking pre-orders via Indiegogo, the Glide Hive has now not simply captured the creativeness of beekeepers around the world, it’s poised to have a significant have an effect on on beekeeping in most cases. Whether or not it proves to be of long-term worth to the well being of the hive and the economics of the beekeeping business, or just ends up in a temporary bubble… time will inform.
Ross Conrad is the creator of Herbal Beekeeping: Natural Approaches to Trendy Apiculture, 2d Version.