Genuinely awesome new invention

Puppycow

Penultimate Amazing
Puppycow
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Jan 9, 2003
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Yokohama, Japan
It's not even very high-tech or anything, and doesn't require electricity to run, but it seems to be a huge improvement over the prior art:

Flow Hive Delivers Honey on Tap Without Stressing Out the Bees

There's a video that shows how the inside of this thing works. The video is well worth watching.

The main difference is that with a conventional beehive, you have to don protective gear, open it up, and take out the honeycomb. It probably involves applying smoke to the bees to sort of make them them dazed and confused and scraping them off the honeycomb. It's just a pain in the ass. With this one it's like just turning on a tap and out comes honey.
 
We were discussing that concept right here (on the old JREF) years ago. It's good to see someone actually do it.
 
Hunh. I didn't even know bees were capable of being stressed out. Learn something new every day.

Look for my new Kickstarter project: Valium spray. Works just as well for ants as bees. Comes with a mini-dvd player and Mozart's violin sonata in G Major.
 
Pretty cool. I wonder how durable the gizmo part will be when subjected to long term thermocycling and such. I also wonder if there are hygienic reasons to remove old wax and have the bees make new, or if the half-hexagon stuff gets clean enough from the bees.
 
The bees will clean everything they can reach. The problem I see is that there will be a layer of honey between the two haves when they are put back together. If you let the bees in there to clean it, they will build wax and then you won't get them closed. If you don't let them in, the honey will eventually crystallize and then you won't get them apart.

After several years, the older wax can get brittle. I've tried plastic foundation and have not had much luck getting the bees to rebuild on it after the first use. This stuf will probably be similar.
 
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One method that might make this more viable is to put it atop a beehive condo. If the lower section is double height and divided horizontally into 3 or 4 units for separate colonies that all merge into the one storage unit, they will be filling this unit twice a month making the tap and drain much easier than conventional extraction. Then at the end of the season, split the sections apart and let the bees clean them up before storing them for next season.
 
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Dan O. said:
The bees will clean everything they can reach. The problem I see is that there will be a layer of honey between the two haves when they are put back together.
Click to expand...

I don't think it works by separating the two halves; I believe it works by vertically offsetting one side or the other of each comb. When the device is reset, the two halves slide against each other until they are matched up again, and I believe this sliding action would likely keep the mechanism from building up any honey "seams" between the halves.

Of course you would want to remove the thing every year and clean it. I think I would use water and properly clean it rather than letting the bees do it and leaving it at that.
 
Quote
I've tried plastic foundation and have not had much luck getting the bees to rebuild on it after the first use. This stuf will probably be similar.
/quote

And that's where the rubber hits the proverbial road - do the bees like it? Only time will tell. Hipsters should eat it up. Backyard bees are the new backyard chickens. If this thing really works it'll sell millions.
 
Question from someone who has never done this stuff: How do beekeepers get honeybees in the first place? Do they come on their own if you build them a home or do you have to put them in there?
 
It is possible to build traps and lure swarms, but I doubt most beginners start that way.

Easier is to either order by mail or get some from another beekeeper in the area.
 
It is possible to build traps and lure swarms, but I doubt most beginners start that way.

Easier is to either order by mail or get some from another beekeeper in the area.
 
I see a problem in colder zones (but I know little about bee-keeping): Where I am, bees hibernate through winter. When you take the honey, you need to substitute it with sugar, otherwise the bees will die from starvation during winter. I don't know how you can do that with this contraption. But bee-keepers may find solutions.

Hans
 
Puppycow said:
Question from someone who has never done this stuff: How do beekeepers get honeybees in the first place? Do they come on their own if you build them a home or do you have to put them in there?
Click to expand...


The easiest way and how I got started is to collect a swarm. Often in the spring when the bees have outgrown their home they will produce new queens and the old queen will take half of the colony to a new home. While waiting for the scouts to locate a suitable site, the swarm will cluster in a ball on a tree branch or building. You just need to find them and dump them unto your own box.

A more reliable process is to mail-order your bees and the postman will deliver them in an open wire cage.
 
Puppycow said:
Question from someone who has never done this stuff: How do beekeepers get honeybees in the first place? Do they come on their own if you build them a home or do you have to put them in there?
Click to expand...

Ask This Old House had a good introduction on becoming a backyard beekeeper in two of the November episodes that you can watch on-line. Season 13: Ep. 07 & Season 13: Ep. 08
 
MRC_Hans said:
I see a problem in colder zones (but I know little about bee-keeping): Where I am, bees hibernate through winter. When you take the honey, you need to substitute it with sugar, otherwise the bees will die from starvation during winter. I don't know how you can do that with this contraption. But bee-keepers may find solutions.

Hans
Click to expand...


If you look at the hive in the article it is two parts. The lower section is the brood chamber where most of the bees live, where the queen lays eggs and the larvi grow up in their own little cells. The upper section is all excess honey storage. In the fall on a regular hive, the upper section is removed and the bees proceed to store honey in the brood chamber for their winter reserve. If the bees don't have enough stores to last through the winter it is necessary to feed them sugar water until the honyflow begins in the spring.

To keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers, it is typical to install a queen excluder between the brood chamber and the supers. The queen excluder is simply a metal grate with gaps that the worker bees can fit through and the queen cannot. If you leave the queen excluder and honey supers on over the winter, the worker bees will move up through the excluder as they consume the stores and the queen will be left behind and freeze without the warmth of the cluster.

This gadget therefore must be removed in the fall like you would any honey super. It's advantage is that you can extract honey throuout the summer without disturbing the hive.
 
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