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Inventors Revolutionize Beekeeping
wombatmobile writes For more than 5,000 years, apiarists donned protective suits and lit bundles of grass to subdue swarms of angry bees while they robbed their hives of precious, golden honey. Now two Australian inventors have made harvesting honey as easy as turning a tap — literally. Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart have just been rewarded for a decades worth of inventing and refining with a $2 million overnight success on Indiegogo. Their Flow Hive coopts bees to produce honey in plastic cells that can be drained and restored by turning a handle, leaving the bees in situ and freeing apiarists from hours of smoke filled danger time every day.
Though a lot of cheaper honey ends up in plastic containers anyway, I try to buy it in glass jars (or wrapped in paper).
Will keeping it in "plastic cells" from the very beginning — before it is even harvested — not affect the taste at all?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
First of all, for a beekeeper, it is not just smoking the bees to kill time. It is an important part of the whole ritual of being a beekeeper. Infact, most keepers I know don't wear suits, or do so in rare instances. The smoking also is optional, if you know what you are doing.
Second of all, this can't be good for the bees. I have read research articles that pointed out that square shaped boxes caused the bees not be as productive as how bee hives are in their natural habitats. So, putting them in plastic containers and just churning out the honey seems like the lazy ass way of beekeeping.
--SK
As a beekeeper, I found this invention interesting. You do bring up the point that this is much too simplistic an approach to beekeeping. During the year, collecting honey is one of the less difficult tasks the a beekeeper undertakes. For the hobbyist with a few hives, the effort is a few days per year. The remaining time is spent with hive growth management and as you mentioned pest management.
The next year or two will tell where this goes.
So start a business checking on the hives of others.
I'd love something simple like this. But I'm not going to put the time into learning the details of the bee life cycle & issues to do much more than turn a tap.
Change me $50/year + 1 quart of honey, come out 2x per year to check on the hive, you'll have a deal.
Call it being a 'bee wrangler' or some PC name like that
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