Build It or Buy It?

Long Ago and Far Away

The times, they are a changing.

It’s been 32 years since I built my first top bar hive! There weren’t even any tbh plans back then. Just the concept of a sloped sided box with comb wide top bars. That first tbh was built as a novelty. And it never saw a single bee. I was involved with keeping thousands of commercial hives which took all of my time and energy.

I’m not sure what happened to that hive. Maybe I gave it away, or used it for some other purpose. I just don’t remember. But I do remember moving it out of the way, for years, until it finally disappeared.

A dozen years ago, I built another one, the first in a series of tbhs. At that time James Satterfield had the only tbh information on the web. That original site is gone now. But it’s contents are still available thanks to the wayback machine at:

http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://www2.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm

(On another note, don’t forget to submit your favorite sites to the wayback machine as they all eventually succumb to web rot.)

Back then, if a beekeeper wanted a tbh, he had to design and build it for himself. That’s why much of this site’s content was based on building them.

Today, It’s a New Day

That’s what my son says when he wants to devalue my opinion. But it’s true concerning tbhs. There are many high quality natural beekeeping sites/blogs on the net today, far too many to link to.

And I’ve Googled “top bar hive kit” and found more than a dozen companies that manufacture or sell them! Looking at the pictures, they have some great ideas and can build a quality product for a reasonable price.

Build It or Buy It?

So today, buying a tbh is just as valid an option as building one:

• it’s  economic when just a hive or two is needed.
• no shop equipment – no problem, just buy the tbh.
• some are made out of exotic wood like cyprus.
• some manufactures provide bees, training and support.
• the costs are slightly less than buying comparable standard equipment.
• no pain – all gain, it’s much cheaper than sewing on those sawed off fingers.

Today’s tbh beekeeper isn’t a commercial guy with thousands of hives and a woodshop. But he’s more likely a stealth suburban beekeeper with 5 hives and a few hand tools. So, buying, not making tbhs will probably soon become the most popular option.

Calling All Tbh Manufacturers

So, I’m adding a web page about buying tbhs. It will be a reference page only, as I won’t endorse anyone’s product without personally evaluating it.

But if you make tbhs and would like to be on the list, just leave a comment and link below. I’ll pull an image from your website and link to you on the webpage.

Regards – Dennis

Top Bar Hive Podcast

Craig's Organically Managed Beekeeping Podcast

Craig’s organically managed beekeeping blog, The Southern Maryland Beekeeper, is back online and has another neat podcast concerning top bar hive/Warre’ style beekeeping. In this podcast he interviews Matt Reed of BeeThinking.com. Matt runs and manufactures top bar hives.

On my blog, I’ve tried to stay away from endorsing or promoting any commercial product that I haven’t personally tried. So, when a tbh manufacturer drops a link in a comment, I let it stand for itself without comment, as most manufactured tbhs simply didn’t meet my needs.

And there are several reasons:

• as tbhs are vertically challenged, one size normally doesn’t fit all climates.
• as beekeepers needs vary, one design doesn’t fit all needs.
• I’ve got all the woodworking equipment needed to build a tbh.
• I’ve still got all my fingers.
• I can build a bunch of minimal type tbhs very fast and cheap.

I have to admit, I’ve been put off by the relatively high cost of most manufactured tbhs. I’m not begrudging the manufactures, as their tbhs are often more a piece of fine cabinet woodwork than are my minimal bee boxes.

Check out BeeThinking.com

Yet, if a beekeeper only wants a hive or two, it’s probably much cheaper to buy them already made. And as a bonus, a beekeeper gets to keep all of his fingers.

Thinking of buying a tbh? Be sure to evaluate the design. Will it meet your needs and be suitable for your climate? Then checkout BeeThinking.com. They have some reasonably priced, very good looking hives for sale.

Buying one? Be sure to listen to the end of the podcast. It could save you some bucks.

Like Craig, I’ve been intrigued with the looks and management of the Warre. And if I didn’t have all that shop equipment, I’d order one from Matt.

Thinking of my fingers, I’m tempted to wish I didn’t have that equipment and could just order one instead.

Parasitic Fly Threatens Bees

This is an A. borealis phorid fly female, depositing eggs into a worker honey bee. Photo by Christopher Quock.

There’s a new honeybee pest in North America. It’s a native A. borealis phorid fly who lays eggs inside honeybee workers. The larva change bee behavior. This fly apparently has switched hosts from native bumble bees to the honeybee.

Could this fly be a factor in some forms of CCD?

Today on Science Friday, Ira Flatow had a segment with John Hafernik, a biology professor who discovered this fly infecting honeybees. You can download or listen to the podcast. The player is in the upper left corner of the this page.

You can read the entire research article here:

A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis

Science Friday's parasitic fly podcast. The player is at the upper left of this page.

It appears to be a new kind of infestation. I doubt if strange behaving honeybees, filled with phorid fly larva, would have escaped the attention of beekeepers and bee scientists.

But who knows? Sometimes we only see what we are looking for. And it often takes someone who looks at things differently to see what others look past.

I must admit noticing small phorid fly’s inside some brood chambers a half dozen years ago. I didn’t notice any infected bees. And I doubt they were the same kind of fly. There’s a bazillion different kinds of phorid flys. But they were unique inside the hive and very noticeable at the time.

Infected honeybees fly at night and are attracted to light. Several years ago, I observed honeybees buzzing the screens in our home at night. Thought it was odd at the time.  Hummm?

I hope this phored fly phenomena is a novelty! But it probably wouldn’t hurt to set up a light and check for infested bees as suggested in the podcast.

Regards – Dennis

New Look and Feel

Hi Guys

The new Bee Natural.

It’s a new year. The bees are in cold storage for awhile. And it’s time for a Bee Natural make over. The new look is inspired by Apple’s iPod. It includes a fancier background reminiscent of the 2006 site without it’s transparency.

And I’ve been reworking the contents to more closely match how we read, or should I say quickly scan web pages. My goal for every page is to:

• start off with “The Idea” section, a concise summary.
• follow that with “The Details” section expanding on The Idea.
• update and consolidate content.
• replace as much text as possible with bullet items.
• cut word count by 50%.

Rewriting the contents is a long, arduous task. But the WordPress iOS app makes the process much easier. I can quickly edit content on my iPod whenever I have a few moments. And there’s something about viewing content on a smaller screen that gives me a new perspective.

Have a blog or web site? Want to know how users view it? Time for a make over? Jacob Gube wrote an very interesting article, which focuses on website usability for Mashable.com.

And Six Revisions it also a great resource.

Have a great New Year – Dennis Murrell

Collaboration

Honeybees are the ultimate collaborators. A colony, the result of that collaboration is much more than just the sum of the parts.

There’s another group of great collaborators. And it’s us. Our ability to collaborate makes us what we are. In the past, our collaboration was limited by our means of communication. But today, the internet has virtually connected us all.

OK worker bees, check this out:

And check out Duolingo. I’ve signed up.

Regards – Dennis

 

Bee Unto Others

BeeUntoOthers.com

Interested in beneficial bacteria in bees? In bee probiotics? Checkout Laurie Ramona Herboldsheimer’s Micro Refs.

Dean and Laurie are quite active in the small cell/treatment free beekeeping scene. They’ve recorded much original video/content that would make a great addition to BeeUntoOthers.com. I hope they can find the time and energy to build a real portal to their work here.

The Micro Refs is a great start. Check it out.

Regards – Dennis

Beehive Probiotic News

Social bees use faecal diet to fight parasites.

Ted Hankock, at Bee-L, posts a very interesting link to a Cosmos article describing some bee gut bacteria transfer experiments.

Previous research has demonstrated the importance that probiotic honeybee gut bacteria play to disease resistance.

For me, the implications are very clear. Running bees un-naturally will produce a cascade of unintended consequences. That’s been my own beekeeping experience.

Probiotic relationships, so necessary for a colony’s health, are also necessary for human health. At least that’s been my personal experience.

Regards – Dennis

Oxalic Acid’s Sublethal Effects

Treating bees with oxalic acid damages honeybees. Peter Borst, at Bee-L, writes:

Sublethal effects of oxalic acid on Apis mellifera are hardly investigated. However, permanent damages of the digestive organs of adult workers are described. This can influence the nutrient supply and the feeding behaviour of the bee. In cage-experiments the food ingestion of A. mellifera after a treatment with oxalic acid was investigated …

The treatment with 3.5% OA resulted in sublethal effects on A. mellifera: reduced food ingestion and vitality. The less requirement of food can indcate changes in the metabolism which are also reflected in the low activity. It has to be investigated in further studies whether these results are caused by organ damages or other effects like dehydration or symptoms of poisoning. Sublethal effects of oxalic acid on Apis mellifera: changes in food ingestion. S. Schneider, E. Rademacher (Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Neurobiologie, Königin-Luise-Straße 28/ 30, 14195 Berlin)

This shouldn’t be any surprise to a natural beekeeper. Dumping oxalic into a beehive just isn’t natural.

My own oxalic acid experience indicated oxalic is one of the least harmful and most effective mite treatments available. It:

• wasn’t as invasive as powdered sugar dusting.
• didn’t leave toxic residues or by-products like the synthetic pesticides.
• didn’t interfere with colony function like essential oils and formic acid.

But that’s not to say or even think that oxalic is benign. Who knows what it does to the beneficial bacterial balance in the hive?

 

First Semiload of Westbound Bees and Snow

Today, I saw my first load of commercial bees headed west. That’s almost two months ahead of what’s normal. It’s been a strange year with semi loads of bees trucking toward the Dakotas through mid-summer. Now they’re high tailing it out of there. I’ve never seen this kind of movement. Not sure what it means. And without my commercial contacts, I’ll probably not know. But it just shows how hard it is to get the commercial out of an old commercial beekeeper. Sort of like a propolis stain on a nice white beesuit.

Today

Looking out my window, I can see snow on Casper mountain about two miles south of here. The county’s webcam shows about 4 to 6 inches at 8000 feet msl. There’s probably more snow coming before the system moves out Saturday. It’s the first real snow of the season. But here, it’s just a third of what’s predicted for the taller mountains to the west. At least 10 to 12 inches, to start with, is predicted there.

The basins will probably get a dusting. But it will be gone at the lower elevations by mid-day tomorrow. And there won’t be any real snow here until the usual Halloween blizzard.

Well, that’s Wyoming for you. Two days ago it was 85 degrees. Not too unusual if you’ve been in Wyoming for awhile. But I suspect those who have travel here for a little hunting adventure, might get more adventure than they had planned.

Winds will be gusting above 65mph in basins and really roaring in the back country for the next couple of days. I will expect half again that much wind at my house, probably 85mph. Any back country climbers should have been off the peaks 3 days ago and out below timberline by yesterday. It’s been a season of tragedies in the back country this year. Anyone still above the trees and unprepared for this kind of weather will be there till spring. Hope all goes well now.

Regards – Dennis

Chilling Out with Probiotics

More probiotic news from Science Friday:

Probiotic Bacteria Chill Out Anxious Mice

Reporting in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers write of reducing anxiety and stress in mice by feeding them a probiotic-laced broth. Study author John Cryan discusses how the gut influences the brain, and whether the same might hold true in humans

And I’m sure I’ve experienced much the same with kombucha. My initial impression was just how ‘smooth’ it made me feel. And my wife’s friend calls it ‘feel good juice’.

Be sure to check out this Science Friday Podcast. And you can read about my kombucha experience here.