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Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

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Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#91

Post by berkes »

londons_explore wrote: post #53

What impact does humans having beehives have on wild/natural colonies? When there are only so many flowers to go around, keeping bees might just be a disguised way to destroy natural bees.

This is only partly true. And context matters a lot too.

For one, pollination causes better seed production. So better pollination, means more flowering plants, so more food for insects next season.

It's studied (I cannot find the paper, it was a German study, that's all I remember) where a very "poor" area (farmland and production-forests reclaimed as diverse nature) did had much more insects, much faster, on the side where honeybees were kept, than on the side where they weren't, due to the honeybees "creating" flowering plants for other insects to eat from too.

But I've also read a study from the Netherlands which is now often used by nature-management to ban honeybee-colonies from nature areas due to them competing against more endangered insects in those areas.

It's nature. It depends.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#92

Post by mellavora »

berkes wrote: post #88
giantg2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tak…

Yes, my dad took the idea of a "tithe" and set aside 10% of the yard as "wild". Never touched it. I went into it a few times, but it always felt like a type of trespassing.

Wish this was more of a common practice, though I know the (short-term) economic incentives are against it.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#93

Post by jmhobbs »

criddell wrote: post #89

Why honeybees? It seems like of all the bees out there, honeybees get all the attention. In North America, wouldn't it be better to encourage bee keeping of the species that are native to the region?

Honey bees are the easiest to manage really. Some other bees are raised for pollination, but honey bees have a long history of management and semi-domestication. We already know how to raise and manage big colonies for migratory pollination.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#94

Post by jmhobbs »

seanc wrote: post #36
drewm1980 wrote: post #5

How does this control varoa? One of the arguments against domesticated honey bees is that they not only take food from but also spread disease to wild honey bee populations. The more diseased the domestic ated bees get the more hives keepers build to compensate, compounding the problem.

In the FAQ they say they heat the frame to a temperature which "harms the varroa but does not harm the brood". IANABK, but color me skeptical.

That sounded dodgy to me but it does look like it's got some legitimacy: https://scientificbeekeeping.com/a-test-of-thermal-treatment...

I mostly use oxalic acid, but if heat treating becomes viable I'd welcome it on the hobbyist scale.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#95

Post by jmhobbs »

progre wrote: post #20
unfocussed_mike wrote: post #11

Earlier 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'd be surprised to find any commercial keepers using polystyrene. Migratory bee keeping is rough on equipment, and at scale I think woodenware still makes the most sense. I'm not in that community, but everything I see in Bee Culture and online looks like polystyrene is firmly in the hobbyist realm.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#96

Post by gtvwill »

Gasp0de wrote: post #14

So 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…

We get bout 15-20kgs 3 times a year from our hives. Spring, summer n autumn harvests.2 hives gives plenty for a family and all our friends :)

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#97

Post by headsoup »

i_cannot_hack wrote: post #23
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A common symptom of today's society, thinking so short term.

Should we consider these systems are only in place for 10-20 years, are assume their use will grow so we certainly want to make sure we're not evolving less robust bees.

Re: Solar-powered robotic beekeeping

#99

Post by reportgunner »

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…

What about this[0] approach ?

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ItlOFLTUAs

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