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Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

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Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#81

Post by 0des »

ct0 wrote: post #35

Im surprised this isnt getting the same level of push back as the flowhive did in bee keeping communities. The flowhive simply makes extracting honey easier, you can literally leave the flowhive on the brood box and pour out honey. Its very nice for someone who doesnt want to pull frames and use an extractor, which is tough work. People would say its not real bee keeping and worried about spreading problems to other…

The main criticism I remember of the flowhive was that it increases chances of infection and can destroy the cells of the frames. I have no experience with this hive, that's just the common criticisms I remember from the time.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#82

Post by freemint »

znpy wrote: post #44
femto wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beekeepers also make money by renting out hives for pollination? Edit: Found an interesting article: https://theconversation.com/the-farmer-wants-a-hive-inside-t... To quote: "Alternatively, crop growers can buy their own hives and set them up permanently, eliminating the cost of rental and reducing the pressure on honeybees used for pollination services. However, this comes at its own cost. Growers need to maintain…

> Beekeepers also make money by renting out hives for pollination? The sad things of those practices is that the hive is stressed by being moved around a lot, and that hives are often used to impollinate but after pesticides have been used thius killing the hive. It happens very often, sadly.

Bees swarms are pretty much the only organism that consents to how it is treated. They stick around because it is easier that way.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#83

Post by tastyfreeze »

0des wrote: post #80
tastyfreeze wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came to say something similar. If we stopped spraying everything with herbicide, pesticide, and fungicide we wouldn't have a pollinator problem. We need to stop trying to subdue mother nature to our will and work with her.

We need less people. As with livestock, the more of a crop or animal you pack into close proximity the higher the chance one disturbance or sickness wipes out everything which is what makes those chemicals a necessity. Unfortunately you can't feed this many peoples demand without superfarming. Make less people, decrease demand, and if we aren't able to make less people we should make these people less wasteful and co…

> Unfortunately you can't feed this many peoples demand without superfarming.

There is a growing contingent of farmers proving this statement to be false by producing more on the same land with minimal use of fertilizer or biocides.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#85

Post by DonHopkins »

How about enabling the bees to collectively walk their robotic bee hive around on its legs, kind of like how this goldfish controlled robot works -- "Just Keep Swimming":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GDgmP1ac_A

Or less bee-enabling and more bee-exploitive:

BeeCopter is TacoCopter for Honey: delivering hive-fresh honey to your picnic or garden breakfast table by flying in live bee hives via drones!

https://tacocopter.com/

>On the East Coast? Try LobsterCopter -- "Taco Of The East!"

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tacocopter-startup-delivers-t...

>Tacocopter Aims To Deliver Tacos Using Unmanned Drone Helicopters

>(As for the worry that these tacocopters could eliminate delivery jobs: "I don't think that's what tacocopters really stand for," [Star] Simpson said. "But it's certainly the sort of robophobia we've lived with for a long time.")

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#86

Post by berkes »

kortex wrote: post #60

Not a beek, but I'm close friends with some, and might actually take the plunge this year. This looks like a classic case of "automating the wrong way" and thinking in terms of agents instead of tools (force multipliers). What beekeepers really benefit from are tools that let them do more work with less effort. Hive lifters are a perfect example [1]. The most popular design has a couple of mechanical flaws that can l…

I am a beek, just hobby, and totally agree here.

It's one of the reasons I went full "topbarhive": no more lifting, dragging wooden boxes around and such. Less checking-up too, so overall much less work.

I'd like to add that bees, at least mine, have a thing against combustion engines. I think it's the vibration/shockwaves combined with the smoke.

So lawnmowers, bushwhackers, farm-tugs, chainsaws and such all need to be battery powered. Which is possible in 2022, but expensive. I've had to learn how to use an old-school scythe to keep my stand a bit nettle/grass free over the summer. Motor-mowing in my bee-suite, while being attacked by angree bees is not fun.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#88

Post by berkes »

giantg2 wrote: post #78
femto wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beekeepers also make money by renting out hives for pollination? Edit: Found an interesting article: https://theconversation.com/the-farmer-wants-a-hive-inside-t... To quote: "Alternatively, crop growers can buy their own hives and set them up permanently, eliminating the cost of rental and reducing the pressure on honeybees used for pollination services. However, this comes at its own cost. Growers need to maintain…

Maybe. The cost of this machine seems to still make contracting more feasible. If it's a big monocrop place, then it probably still makes sense to contract pollination because you only need it for a short period during the year. You likely couldn't harvest any or much honey in the large monocrop fields because they would need that honey to support themselves the rest of the year when the monocrop is not flowering (or…

Whats more: big monocrop areas cannot sustain bees naturally. So they would die or become very unhealthy very fast.

Bees need consistent food supply for the entire season. Which is why contractors travel around. When they leave the plum-orchards, they travel to the next place where they are needed and bees can have food.

This is also the reason why "bees are dying". Apis Mellifara - the honeybee - isn't dying, we take good care of that. But many of the other insects are. Because monoculture cannot provide them food.

Farmers used to specially source areas of their land for this long ago. A plum-orchard would have at least 10% of land with flowers, brambles, etc. To keep a healthy, natural population of pollinators around.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#90

Post by Kerrick »

When I was getting into commercial honey production on a small scale for my farm over the last year or so, I looked into Beewise quite closely. Unfortunately, they don't do small scale. From their FAQ:

> We currently cater exclusively to Commercial Beekeepers managing 1,000 beehives and above.

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