A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[xoxocammyxoxo]

My aunt and I have talked about raising bees for a long time. Gonna have to read through all 151 pages lol

 

[cheepcheep riri]

We are getting bees in April, 3 hives!! I can't wait to get them...do y'all have trouble with your flock eating the bees?

 

[3goodeggs]

They do not seem interested in the bees. I have the hive fenced off and the chickens can not get in, but the bees fly into the run to drink water from one of the water-ers.
I have bird baths full of water with stones in them for the bees, but they seem to like the chicken house better.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

My hive is right outside of my run, and even though the bees have their own water source right next to their hive, they prefer the chickens water. I also find them in the feeders occasionally. The birds don't bother them.

 

[sunflower4you]

I just saw a video on kickstarter about some people that have invented a hive that has honey on tap & you don't really have to disturb the hive at all. It was too cool!!!! I hope they get the funds & make that baby so i can buy one!

Me, too!

http://www.honeyflow.com

 

[mak1]

my chicken got stung by a bee it was epic i,ll try to get a photo. Never throw banana peels near the chickens because the bees hear the smell and go and attack everything.

 

[RavenStorm1977]

I saw that about the hive...its gotten over $2 million already...guess people are really excited! I love how the back is see through so you can watch the bees. I hope it works as well as it is supposd to. I want to start some hives and this would be a neat one!

 

[xoxocammyxoxo]

I saw that about the hive...its gotten over $2 million already...guess people are really excited!  I love how the back is see through so you can watch the bees.  I hope it works as well as it is supposd to.  I want to start some hives and this would be a neat one!

Keeping bees is one of those things I wanted to do but I worry about a couple things. One is my son. I have no idea if him or his dad are alergic. I worry about him playing with it being a toddler. Two I worry about moving. We rent this house and I couldn't begin imagining what would be involved in transporting bees and the stress it would cause.

 

[Hatchery Hive]

winter photos!

 

[Hatchery Hive]

A few things about this "On Tap Hive"....

The add alone tells you these guys have no problem morally deceiving folks and selling them a dream.
The add is rife with BS targeted only to get the new bee keeper wanna be's money...
Those who have kept bees for longer than a year can see clearly through this adds many fantasies...
The add is unethical.... so... in what other ways will these people be unethical too?

One thing is for sure, this gimmick will get many more clueless people into bees...
These people will start buying nuks and packages... driving up the price.
some of them will screw up by just pouring a package of bees directly into the "on Tap" hive and in essence use it not as the honey super it was meant to be, but as a deep hive home....

Then they will cry when they find out the hard way that most new bee keepers (with no mentor)
have a high chance of their hive dyeing in the first year...
especially when they rob all the honey from their bees just before winter and kill all the larva that pour out with it.

Those smart enough to buy a normal deep hive super (OR 2) with normal frames, (which acts as a proper hive home)
will realize they wont get any extra honey for at least 1.5 - 2 years
while their bees amass the population and draw out enough comb to support that extra honey...
They will loose their patience and abandon their bees or let them swarm...
and we who actually keep bees and have a clue how they function
will find tons of opportunities to collect these swarms for FREE...
which they sold as nuks and packages to these people in the first place.

Then there is what happens when this contraption catches a disease...????
I rather get stuck having to burn an ordinary $60-$80 medium super than one of these colossally expensive tap hives.

Finally these hives will end up being given away on Craig's list...
buy those poor suckers who bought them, learned a thing or two about their bees in the real world enough to understand what a mistake they had made by buying this thing in the first place...

as for the "window":
bees HATE sunlight pouring into their hive...
Within a week they will blot that window out with propolis....

next: one word.... "Robbing" -violence on tap-

and then there are the Varroah mites...
and the other critters which should have been killed by freezing and filtered out
swimming about in the honey so prettily taped out...

For me, the only possible question this thing might offer worth exploring is this:
If this thing is used correctly by real bee keepers, is it possible that it could produce a slightly larger honey flow then the standard mediums which frames are collected and spun once or twice a year...?
and is this extra flow worth the investment price???

I hate to be a neigh sayer.....
but NEIGH NEIGH NEIGH