Sidetrack: I think the focus on domesticated bees as pollinators is dangerous. If wild polinators can't survive we are fucked even if we have bees.
Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
21–30 of 103 posts
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Such are the moving parts prone to jams and stuff like that. They are probably prone to honey rather than jams. /jk Actually the question I most want answered is about materials and environments -- I know hives can start in all sorts of things, but I am wondering about bee health (physical/social) in the context of metal and plastic. Also their material preferences; do bees still need to be persuaded/cajoled to set…
Polystyrene hives are quite common. I'm sure plasic frames exist but I haven't seen them in use.
I don't think I ever want to eat honey again.
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What does it do to bee evolution to take away their instincts and ability to self-regulate their hive ? What impact does that have on how the bees measure the inside and outside environment? Wouldn't this take at least a few centuries of continued use to actually change something via evolution? Unless all your bees are dead in 2 years, obviously.
Bees only life 2-4x longer than fruit flies, and fruit flies "evolve" resistance to stressors in 8-9 generations (a month). So I'm not sure why bees couldn't have some minor changes within a year. But I'm also skeptical that's inherently a bad thing.
A generation of bees is defined by the procreation of colonies / queens, not the life of individual worker bees, since they are eusocial. The queen bee lives for 3-4 years, and establishment of new colonies (swarming) can happen around once a year. I would guess 9 generations of bees would probably be 9 years at a minimum.
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What does it do to bee evolution to take away their instincts and ability to self-regulate their hive ? What impact does that have on how the bees measure the inside and outside environment? Wouldn't this take at least a few centuries of continued use to actually change something via evolution? Unless all your bees are dead in 2 years, obviously.
Bees only life 2-4x longer than fruit flies, and fruit flies "evolve" resistance to stressors in 8-9 generations (a month). So I'm not sure why bees couldn't have some minor changes within a year. But I'm also skeptical that's inherently a bad thing.
I mean a generation of bees takes atleast a year since only the queen is really reproducing, the worker bees themselves aren't exposed to any evolutionary pressure since they can't reproduce. (I guess they are by proxy, once their queen dies so does their lineage)
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What does it do to bee evolution to take away their instincts and ability to self-regulate their hive ? What impact does that have on how the bees measure the inside and outside environment? Wouldn't this take at least a few centuries of continued use to actually change something via evolution? Unless all your bees are dead in 2 years, obviously.
Bees only life 2-4x longer than fruit flies, and fruit flies "evolve" resistance to stressors in 8-9 generations (a month). So I'm not sure why bees couldn't have some minor changes within a year. But I'm also skeptical that's inherently a bad thing.
Although individual bees don’t live very long, all bees in a hive are from eggs laid by a single queen. So genetically a generation would be a hive. IIRC hives swarm (i.e. procreate) roughly once a year.
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#26I have no idea about beekeeping economies, could someone shed a bit of light here please? At $2000 shipping + $400/month it seems expensive, but it claims 24 colonies which seems like a lot, so how much does a colony produce per year? How much should it produce to make it worth this investment?
1. Hives rent for $40-$200 per month.
2. A well maintained hive can easily double in size over a single season ($150).
3. A hive can easily produce 25 lbs of honey in a single season ($125 wholesale, or $250+ direct).
If it can really manage 24 colonies extremely well, $16 per colony per month is NOTHING.
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#27Looks super interesting. I would love to see some reallife feedback. Such are the moving parts prone to jams and stuff like that.
> Such are the moving parts prone to jams and stuff like that. They are probably prone to honey rather than jams. /jk Actually the question I most want answered is about materials and environments -- I know hives can start in all sorts of things, but I am wondering about bee health (physical/social) in the context of metal and plastic. Also their material preferences; do bees still need to be persuaded/cajoled to set…
Here in AU, most commercial hive operators are using very basic wooden hives - many aren't even using (metal) mesh bases, which are a common home-scale defence against things like Small Hive Beetle (SHB) because at scale it's a significant cost, both cap-ex and op-ex.
In 2015, the Flow Hive guys broke all kinds of kickstarter records with their plastic frame / externally-harvestable hive, though we've had plastic frames around for a lot longer than that. The bees don't seem to mind, but the only metric we have are 'do they stick around?'. Given they're free to leave at any time if they don't like their home, that's a pretty reasonable measure.
Before varroa were identified as one of the key causal factors of colony collapse, there were questions around whether the natural wax foundation, with its regular, and perhaps slightly under-sized cells, were part of the problem. Same question with plastic foundation / frames. Empirical evidence suggests that the kinds of high-quality plastic that's used in beehives isn't, so far as we can tell, part of the problem.
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#28Sidetrack: I think the focus on domesticated bees as pollinators is dangerous. If wild polinators can't survive we are fucked even if we have bees.
We are fucked anyways. In my area we just had no rain for more than a month (where usually there should be 12 rainy days) with basically drought coming - nobody even noticed, they were busy with more important things I guess
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#29So according to Google one Beehive can produce 20-30kg of honey per year. For the 24 beehives in this machine that would be 720kg of honey max, selling for around 10€ per kg in Germany. That would make a maximum of 7200€ in one year, while the machine costs 4800$/year plus 2000 for delivery in the first year. Additionally, the Beekeeper has to retrieve, package and sell the honey. I don't see this machine reaching pr…
Raw material is hard to sell these days, due to covid, some countries try not to rely on lots of supply. Those material needs to be processed, package it up, put a cool story to it.
Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping
#30Sidetrack: I think the focus on domesticated bees as pollinators is dangerous. If wild polinators can't survive we are fucked even if we have bees.
We are fucked anyways. In my area we just had no rain for more than a month (where usually there should be 12 rainy days) with basically drought coming - nobody even noticed, they were busy with more important things I guess
Local weather stories hardly mean we're fucked. It snowed and hailed in Tucson yesterday. Does that mean we're all saved?