New screen bottom board design

[gaucho10]

OK folks...I have finished my new design of SBB which includes a removable upper screen tray for easy "dead bee" cleaning, has the regular varroa mite tray and is adaptable for my heating system tray.

http://yfrog.us/jysbbnewvideo2410z

[Robo]

WOW!

For a guy that couldn't post a photo a couple of months ago to an awesome video now.  Nice job. 

Looks like your getting as bad as me with your experiments too....  I like it...  I think the 9 watts will work well or you and I like the fact that the screen prevents the dead bees from falling on the heating element,  though your cord distributes the 9 watts over a larger area, unlike my night lights, so dead bees on it probably wouldn't be an issue anyway.

Thanks for sharing.... when will you have them for sale

[gaucho10]

Robo,

While you posted here I was in the process of correcting something in my post.  I am still having a hard time with the UL.  This was the 8th. or 9th, time.  I guess 10MB is a bit too big but I managed.  I didn't have a chance to discuss this so far but on the video I said 3Watts as opposed to 9 Watts.  I know that I can't speak English too well   it has something to do with that Bostonian accent.  Anyways...On my webpage I posted my original heat tape design but that was strictly for this season.  That design slides right over the SBB and it could get loaded with dead bees, etc.  This new design should take care of that but I wont find out until next winter.

[RayMarler]

Looks interesting, thanks for posting your creation.
3 watts per foot with 10 foot heat tape is a tad over 9 watts for the total length.

[Sparky]

Nice Job !! Rich. You have been busy this winter. That SBB is the King of multi purpose management boards. I guess for the summer you will have to make a water feature that doubles as a/C huh ?  Nice to see your experiments, so keep it up.

[gaucho10]

Sparky,

Don't push me or I will have to make it

I did not have time for the a/C but I did finish the "FORCED HOT WATER" system last week.



Just kidding....it is actually 20 ft. of heat tape running from one hive to the other.  The electric pipe is to keep the heat tape dry.  If I was running heat tape on a water pipe I would be insulating OVER the heat tape to maintain the heat.  In this case I just want to keep the tape dry.   It produces 3 Watts per foot of heat tape.  That's 20 ft. X 3W = 60 Watts of power for 3 hives.  Some people might think that it is too much electricity but I have been using a 50W lamp to keep my pond filtering system pipes from freezing for the past four years.  This is deffinitely cheaper and I don't have to keep a 50W lightbulb in a box

[David LaFerney]

It looks like you got it going on.  In case you hadn't thought of this before - exterior grade rope lights make a good economical source of low level heat.  I use them as bottom heat for seed starting.  They're cheap, weather proof, and available right off the shelf.  You would probably have to do something to keep the light from bothering the bees, although some colors might not any way - red maybe.

They would also look festive on your hives.

[gaucho10]

David LaFerney,

Sorry but I can't do that.....My bees are non-Christian

[Sparky]

The thing I like about the heat tape vs light bulbs in this case is that you are not introducing light that may cause the bees to cover the source with propolis. I guess that you could also put some sort of a heat sink above to block the light if you use the rope lights as David suggested.

[gaucho10]

I am not an expert in "introduced" heating.  This is only an experiment on my part.  I never before used heat in a hive.  So far it seems that it is working properly.  Since 2008 I have been using IPM and this was something I wanted to check out.  I know that there are other people doing this but I don't exactly know what type of material or equipment they are using nor do I know their results.  I read about the light bulb use and I just happened to have the "heat tape" in-hand so I decided to try it.  Holyday lights might work just as well.  I am also not concerned with the amount of electric use.  This is a small operation I have here and if this can help my bees stay well through the winter I can get them started strong in the spring and get some "splits".  Last two seasons I started out with all new equipment and my bees spent a lot of energy and food drawing out new comb so my honey production was low.  Hopefully this spring they will take off strong if Mother Nature allows it.  I have only 3 hives right now and my plan is to stay with 6-9 hives max.

[gaucho10]

Sparky,

Another point that I forgot to mention is that if you plan to use some form of extra heat (light bulbs, heat tape, etc.) you will probably do it only during the cold weather.  Here in NE bees don't do much propolizing during the cold weather.  They are too bussy trying to stay warm.  But as Robo stated previously, and I agree, is the fact that with my "new" SBB the heat tape (or light) stays underneath the screen.  The most that could happen is that you get some wax droppings on the tape.  The temperature does not go any higher than 50 deg. F so it won't burn.  Also, the heat tape is on a galvanized 1/2" screen so most of the stuff will continue to fall to the bottom tray.

[Robo]

In the 5+ years I've been using light bulbs, I have not experienced any issues.  I've never had the bees attempt to block or avoid the light in any way. Not only have I seen the bees actually cluster around the lights when it is really cold,  but it is not uncommon for the queen to move right down to the bottom of the frames directly over the light to start laying.   I'm not trying to say heat tape or light ropes don't have their advantages,  but just want to put to bed the myth about light being an issue. The one advantage of the night lights is I can outfit a hive for less than $2.  I don't think you can come anywhere close to that with the heat tape/rope lights. When your doing more than a couple hives,  cost adds up quickly.

[gaucho10]

Robo,  do you keep the lights on 24/7 during the winter?  Did you ever measure any heat difference/change with the use and without the use of the light?  I did not have a chance to experiment too much with my bees this year because I started late in the season and I did not want to disturb them.  I did manage to find a warm(er) day in the Fall where I was able to SLIDE my new ventilated inner cover over one of the hives.  I also did manage to install the heat tapes into all three hives with minimal disturbance to the hives.  Next Fall I will be better prepared to take better stats on my experiments/hobby

[Sparky]

Rich, you and Robo live way north of me and I can see more of a need to have supplemental heat of some sort with the kinds of winters that you guys experience. This year has dumped a bunch more snow on us than normal. If I would put heat in my hives it would be ambient controlled to turn on only when needed. My closest hives to a power source is about 75 yards away and I do not see me digging up the yard to run electric to those hives when the other locations are much farther away and they might feel left out and go on strike.  If I ever put heat in them it will have to be solar and I don't have to tell you the expenses in setting that up to provide heat even when the sun is down. I am intrigued by both yours, Rich and Robo's experiments though. That been said I would like to ask Robo a couple of questions. (1) How long on average do the 7W bulbs last ? (2) Is that first picture what you would put in each hive, the 14W pair ? (3) In the lower picture I am a little confused about what I am looking at. Is the red colored board the bottom board and the way it is shown in the picture the way it is installed with the aluminum plate facing up ?

[gaucho10]

Sparky,

Not to complicate matters but back in the late 60's and early 70's I used to read and play around with photovoltaic, wind and solar power.  I have actually built a wind mill out of a 55 gal. drum and roller bearings.  It could produce enough electricity to charge a small battery.  I was always interested in harnessing wind and solar power but it was not cost effective.  I did it just for fun.  Technology has come a long ways since then and prices will come down to make it worthwile eventually.  This summer I am thinking on building a "small scale" hot water heater.  There are several pages on the WEB that explain the system but the cheapest plans I found so far require a small investment of about $2,000.  Most of these plans are for heating HOME hot water where the tanks are indoors.  I am interested in heating a small hole in the ice on my outdoor koi (fish) pond to keep it open for gas exchange (Ammonia). Presently I am using a small underwater pump that keeps the water moving thus keeps it from freezing.  My plan is to use a 4' x 8' insulated box with pipes.  If I can come up with something for my pond I might extend it to work on my bee hives.