New For the BeeKeeper

HB Hive Co. Protects Honey Bees With Inventive Beehive And Beehive Feeder.

Established in 2016, HB Hive Company designs and builds beekeeping equipment with unique features and high-quality craftsmanship. The company is comprised of beekeepers and craftsmen, whose expertise ensure delivery of products with enhanced functionality and impeccable construction.

HB Hive Company, located in Belchertown, Massachusetts, recently announced the launch of its new beehive and beehive feeder system. The Hartman beehive and patent-pending beehive feeder offer integrated features to feed and care for honey bees, including the ability to feed the honey bees and check sugar syrup levels without opening the hive; vents to deliver critical air circulation; and tools for pest management.

“Our beehive and beehive feeder system were developed from our own beekeeping experience,” explains Ross Hartman, president HB Hive Company. “Like most beekeepers, we did a lot of MacGyvering to provide our bees with the optimum environment to flourish. Eventually we started from scratch and built a beehive and feeder that incorporated our new ideas with best beekeeping practices. The result was a system we believe other beekeepers will appreciate.”

The patent-pending Hartman Beehive Feeder, by HB Hive Company, gives beekeepers the ability to feed the honey bees without opening the hive. This protects the honey bees from the elements on inclement days, discourages robbing, and is less invasive to the hive in general. Beekeepers fill the provided pitcher with sugar syrup, attach the pitcher to the quick-connect port in the feeder, and the sugar syrup automatically flows to fill the feeder. The honey bees access the sugar syrup from inside the hive, through a narrow opening in the special feeder framework. Beekeepers have the option to remove the feeder from the outer framework and place it directly into the hive, which is filled through the same quick connect port, and monitored through a viewing window.

The Hartman Beehive is inspired by the vertical Langstroth hive. With a strong focus on integrated pest management, the custom hive base includes a sliding screened bottom board, Correx board for Varroa mite inspection, and a beetle trap tray. The screened bottom board slides out for inspection and cleaning. Three sliding entrance reducers offer multiple entrance size options. Viewing windows in the deep brood box and super offer a sneak peek into colony activity. Beekeepers control hive temperature and humidity with screened vents in the roof and base.

“Honey bees are vital pollinators who deserve our protection and attention,” explains Hartman. “We hope HB Hive’s products will catch people’s interest and inspire them to join our beekeeping community.”

Made in the U.S.A., HB Hive’s Hartman Beehive and the Hartman Beehive Feeder are available direct from the manufacturer and can be purchased on the company’s website. Follow the company on social media @hbhivecompany.

Visit www.hbhivecompany.com

email info@hbhivecompany.com or call 855-542-4483

 


  

Quail-Honey Bee Feeder

“Best doggone feeder…..”

There are as many ways to feed your bees as there are beekeepers’ opinions, but have you tried a quail-honey bee feeder? Developed for feeding day old chicks and quail, this opaque plastic jar, through which you can easily see the syrup level and “non-drown” base has proven to be easy and reliable.  The wall of the base is straight and only 5/8” deep, providing a 9/16” narrow trough, greatly reducing drowning.  Up to three gallon size feeders can sit on the frames of a 10-frame hive with an empty deep super around them. Half gallon and quart jars with similar “non-drown” base fit perfectly in NUCs.  These feeders are ideal for spring and fall feedings, but also works in below freezing temperatures if needed! 

By placing one to three gallon feeders in the hive you’ll have a constant source ready and waiting for your colony. One Michigan beekeeper who uses these in all of his hives in the Fall says, “It is the best way to flood the brood nest with food and keep the queen ramping up brood production with the simulated nectar flow. They put this feed where they will need it during the Winter, just above the Winter cluster. The bees will store three gallons in just a few days.” Picture your bees lined up wing to wing, feasting on an almost endless supply of syrup, endless providing you keep the jars full!

If you’re a backyard beekeeper or have a hundred or so hives, this feeder could be a real asset. One word of caution, be careful on hives that are not level that the supply hole is on the low side so that it shuts off before running over the edge and down into the hive. You can find the one gallon quail-honey bee feeder (Item BZG49) along with ½ gallon and quart size at:

www.cutlersupply.com 

or contact them at (810)-933-9450

or sales@cutlersupply.com.

 


  

Varroa Cannon

The company was started in 2016 to promote a Commercial-Level Oxalic Acid Vaporizer. The use of Oxalic acid has recently been approved in much of the U.S. but there are few options for large scale application.  Most devices are designed for hobby beekeepers and are extremely time consuming to use. The Varroa Cannon allows for the treatment of many hundreds of hives per hour. It is a heavy duty, precision machine.  Along with a small compressor and generator the Commercial operator can treat 2000 hives or more in a single day!  The cost of treatment is also quite low-pennies per hive!

One of the features of our machine includes the ability to field clean and/or replace parts as needed.  Just open up and replace what is needed and be back treating again in minutes not days. Another unique option allows for precise temperature and air control at your fingertips. This allows for on-the-fly changes to accurately apply optimized vapor into each hive. Without this control, it is possible to overheat the oxalic acid crystals and render the treatment, at best, ineffective. But above 372°F (189°C), oxalic acid decomposes into formic acid and carbon monoxide as well as carbon dioxide and water. This potential ‘blast’ of formic acid can be hard on the bees. Oxalic acid vapor has been tested well above the recommended two grams per two box hive without any negative effect.

We are beekeepers who are also time-challenged. Our products are constantly being updated with the idea of adding to the existing, well-designed platform; no worries of product obsolescence.

Please see our products and information at VarroaCannon.com

 


 

Bee Gym

Beekeepers can help their bees control their greatest enemy, the varroa mite, by giving them a Bee Gym, supplied by honey bee health specialists Vita (Europe) Ltd.

The Bee Gym provides a low-cost, chemical-free and sustainable way of helping honey bees groom themselves to get rid of Varroa mites.

The Bee Gym is a simple device that is placed inside any hive to encourage bees to groom Varroa mites off their bodies. It has wires, flippers and scrapers on its small (11 cm by 11 cm) plastic frame that bees voluntarily rub their backs and abdomens against to groom themselves of Varroa mites. The mites then fall through a normal Varroa mesh floor onto a sticky insert or to the ground from where the Varroa mites cannot jump back into the hive. The sticky insert should be regularly refreshed and the Gym should regularly be cleaned with washing soda.

The Bee Gym is a patented device invented by Stuart Roweth and tested successfully by many beekeepers and beekeeping groups in the UK and further afield.

“When I first saw a bee with a Varroa mite on it I was shocked by the mite’s size and immediately thought there must be an engineering solution to help the bees rid themselves of the parasite,” explained Stuart Roweth, beekeeper, lighting engineer and cameraman with several inventions in his portfolio.

Roweth started with a violin-style bow across the hive entrance and quickly noticed that the bees voluntarily used the wires to scrape Varroa mites off their backs. “This was the moment I realised that honey bees could help themselves in the fight against Varroa,” he said. Appreciating that most mites cling to the underside of a bee’s abdomen led him through several versions until he came up with the Bee Gym for insertion inside the hive.

Dr Max Watkins, Technical Director of Vita (Europe) Ltd said “We have been very surprised and encouraged to see the mite fall directly below the Bee Gym in the hive. Clearly the bees are very keen to use the wires and scrapers on the Gym to rid themselves of their number one enemy. As one element of an Integrated Pest Management strategy, it is clearly a very useful, low-cost and chemical-free varroa-control device.”

Visit www.vita-europe.com/products/bee-gym

for further information and a list of current stockists.