On 2/19/15, Kevin Kelly wrote in a message entitled
Automatic honey harvester:
“Might be revolutionary; might be hype.
To which I replied:
“Looks plausible. The FAQs read pretty well. You keep the normal brood chamber.
They ought to set one up in the UC Davis bee lab. You used to be able to stop in there and watch the bees through a glass cover do their pollen-directional dance.
If this really does work and doesn’t get clogged, it’s revolutionary. To not have to mess with extractors would be a boon for a family-sized bee colony.”
–LK
Then Kevin emailed again:
“That crazy honey extractor has raised $ 2.5 million so far and counting.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive
If it does not work a lot of folks will be disappointed.
But I tell ya, Kickstarter-style crowd funding is very powerful.
— KK”
Hey Lloyd, I look at the times of some of your postings and I have to wonder (if it's not too personal), how many hours of sleep do you get each day?
Its a good idea, but at $230 for three frames and theres 12 in a super (national) I dunno?
I'd take up bee keeping if it was that easy. looks very cool. and also….the CALIFORNIA HONEY DROPS following this post….that's SWEEEEEEEEET.
when I first read about this, watched the videos, I thought it was brilliant…As in, a MUCH better idea brilliant…
since then, reading more of the comments on some of the articles, has made me wonder about a few things…
-there is a clear section at the end for bees to be observed…….does it stress the bees out to have a constant light?
-the inserts are made of plastic, non BPA of course, but new articles I've read claim (which I've long wondered) that the chemical which replaced BPA is just as toxic in different ways, for humans and critters…
-bees (and wild critters in general) are actually pretty smart and tenacious……..wonder how long it will be before some bee keeper reports tiny chunks out of these inserts, which in turn they find the bees have "bit off or worked off" and incorporated into the actual honey?
-if bees to manage to work off / wear off chunks of plastic…what new disease will that cause them?
etc….
PG Geoff,
Plenty! 8-9 hours per night.
well then…. You can not make this stuff up……
DEA warns of stoned rabbits in Utah
http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/health/dea-warns-of-stoned-rabbits-if-utah-legalizes-medical-marijuana/article/427356
@Irene…It is as easy as that pretty much…15-40 mins every 9 days technically…A lot less from autumn to spring
you know, I worry this is not good for the bees….
there is a reason and need in everything nature (bees) does. When humans try to get so smart and try to outwit/shortcut nature, it seems almost always there is a negative consequence.
I suspect bees make their honeycombs for a particular reason…….
-maybe it fulfills certain nutrition needs of bees
-maybe it gets rid of certain toxins in bees system and this is how they "rid and store" it
-maybe it fulfills a psychological need of bees (do bees have psychological needs?)
-maybe this "new fangled" hive will literally exhaust the bees, as they are constantly filling it with honey, and have no down time to make honeycombs?
don't know…but….I have gone from looking at the video and thinking what an amazing / easy way to "get honey"…
to
considering nature/bees have evolved their ways and techniques over thousands of years………maybe there is a reason…????
I agree with the above. Bees are an 85-million-year-old species. There may be something inherently wrong with this device, as there is with GMOs.
Lloyd, just read your comment, reply, and yup, I agree also with concern re GMOs.
I don,t want to sound negative, but having honey coming out of a tap in a bee yard is going to cause all kinds of robbing the videos do not show any of this especially near the tap.
Sounds dicey….
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-04-24/washington-state-turns-to-neurotoxins-to-save-its-oysters
Washington State Turns to Neurotoxins to Save Its Oysters
A pesticide from the group of chemicals linked to colony collapse disorder will now be sprayed in US waters. What could go wrong?
so bizarre it is hard to believe it is accurate…but…
https://www.revealnews.org/article/shot-and-gassed-thousands-of-protected-birds-killed-annually/
never-before-released data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showing more than 300 species of migratory birds – from red-tailed hawks to American kestrels, turkey vultures to mallard ducks – have been killed legally across the United States since 2011 to protect a wide range of business activities and public facilities under what’s called the “depredation permit” program.
wildlife advocates say the government-sanctioned killing is a taxpayer-funded threat that the birds should not have to face, one that is hidden from the public
For their part, most of the sandhill cranes usually were killed for eating farmers’ potatoes and corn.
many are beloved by a broad swath of American society, including great blue herons, white and brown pelicans, cedar waxwings, robins, belted kingfishers and mourning doves.
And some are struggling to cope with habitat loss, climate change and other threats and are classified by the government as “birds of conservation concern.” These include upland sandpipers, lesser yellowlegs, roseate spoonbills and red-throated loons, who, because of declining populations, could be on their way to the endangered species list.
and now they are releasing GMO male Mosquitoes, which they state must have Tetracycline to live (that is how they designed them so they could be certain they would die in wild).
only problem is, Tetracycline is available in wild…there is "wild" tetracycline in soil, as well as copious amounts in water ways, due to accumulation fr human use, passing into sewage, and water release…Stay tuned for the next evolution of these critters, and let's hope they die quick.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31664-meet-the-new-gmo-mosquito-millions-carrying-the-kill-switch-gene-already-released
Meet the New GMO Mosquito: Millions Carrying the "Kill Switch Gene" Already Released
according to Oxitec's website. It claims that 95 percent of the offspring die before reaching maturity.
That 95 percent percent number in and of itself creates issues for environmental groups because many mosquitoes carrying the gene, both male and female, could grow up to maturity and mate – opening up a pandora's box of unknowns throughout the entire ecosystem.
They've designed the pest in such a way with its kill switch gene, that it requires the widespread popular antibiotic tetracycline to survive. So, as long as the OX513A offspring are unable to get to a supply of tetracycline, they perishes before they can reproduce.
this below seems like a really bad idea…
http://www.ameripublications.com/scientists-to-breed-genetically-superior-bees-resistant-to-disease/5397
Scientists to breed genetically superior bees resistant to disease
(((Instead of cleaning up the human mess/ chemical quagmire, they will try to GMO bees to cope. Gee….seems like all those t.v. commercials…"if you take this pill, you will have this side effect and need a pill for that", etc etc)))