Hello,
I've been approached by a researcher that currently works in an orchard near me to help them out with their study.
They need 1 hive with a pollen trap for 10-15 days during the blooming of the apple trees (they check for a bacteria in the pollen that might be passed on from tree to tree).
The local beekeeper in the orchard has been approached by this but refuses to put a trap for more than 1 day saying it will jeopardize the honey production.
How bad would a pollen trap for 10 days (at most 15) impact a hive ?
Could I add an extra frame of pollen from another pollen-rich hive ?
The pollen trap that I would go for would be placed between the bottom board the brood chamber (sliding the door == stop collecting). (73$ :()
So far we had a very rainy / cold spring here in Quebec with only 4-5 days that were sunny.
Any feedback welcome.
The pollen trap I use does not collect 100% of the pollen, instead of walking thru a screen they walk over it. While I was running it I did notice a dramatic increase in the percentage of foragers gathering pollen, seems like they knew alot of it wasn't making it into the hive.
Here is the one I bought: http://www.betterbee.com/Products/8-Frame-Hive-Components/Bottom-Mounted-Pollen-Trap (http://www.betterbee.com/Products/8-Frame-Hive-Components/Bottom-Mounted-Pollen-Trap)
I'd either ask if the researchers are willing to pay what you think the potential honey crop from that hive would be (this won't kill a hive, but it will impact it), or see if collecting every other day would be sufficient. The bees do have a feedback loop that tells them how much pollen they need coming in, and how much is coming in...if some is being trapped, they will add more pollen foragers.
deknow
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Pollen traps are not recommended to keep continuosly and not during good nectar flow.
When apple trees bloom in Finland, there are dandelions and many other good nectar flowers in bloom too. Actually it is the first good flow here. I have worked much to get early yield and if the researchers want to look my pollen, I recommend to continue they way to the next door.
If they want to look for bacteria, they do not need many pollen balls to do that.
They can catch bees from trees.
Quote from: Finski on May 18, 2011, 12:59:35 AM
.If they want to look for bacteria, they do not need many pollen balls to do that.
....that's a very good point. I would think that a small pollen trap (one that allowed the vast majority of bees to pass without taking their loads) would work fine here, and not impact your bees.
deknow
When I had bottom entrances and used 1/4" hardware cloth for mouse guards, it would knock off some pollen...
Thanks for the input guys.
She needs all of the pollen trapped. If it were not a rainy spring, I would have trapped every other day.
I'll see what I can do...
No commercial pollen trap will trap all the pollen.
If you devise one that does (trap all the pollen), you will have a mess (more and more bees will be assigned to forage for pollen...other duties will be neglected while no pollen is getting in the hive).
I'd offer to sell the researcher a hive, and say that you might buy it back at the end of the trial...price depends on the number of bees and frames of healthy brood in the hive after the trial.
deknow
Quote from: mushmushi on May 17, 2011, 09:21:35 PM
Hello,
I've been approached by a researcher that currently works in an orchard near me to help them out with their study.
They need 1 hive with a pollen trap for 10-15 days during the blooming of the apple trees (they check for a bacteria in the pollen that might be passed on from tree to tree).
The local beekeeper in the orchard has been approached by this but refuses to put a trap for more than 1 day saying it will jeopardize the honey production.
How bad would a pollen trap for 10 days (at most 15) impact a hive ?
Your local beekeeper is mistaken, a pollen trap will not interfere with honey production in the short term, the honey sac is internal to the bee, the pollen sacs are on the back legs. I believe his concern is the loss of brood production towards the end of the apple bloom period. Leaving a pollen trap on a hive too long can jeopordize future brood production, which endangers hive population which in turn affects how much the hive can collect for stores/harvest. I think 10-15 days is stretching it, I prefer not to collect pollen for more than 5 days at a time, giving the bees the same amount of time to store pollen in the hive then repeat.
QuoteCould I add an extra frame of pollen from another pollen-rich hive ?
You can but it's not necessary if pollen is only trapped for short periods of time.
QuoteThe pollen trap that I would go for would be placed between the bottom board the brood chamber (sliding the door == stop collecting). (73$ :()
So far we had a very rainy / cold spring here in Quebec with only 4-5 days that were sunny.
Any feedback welcome.
Why not see if they would be willing to use 2 hives with the traps activated on opposite weeks for a 3 week period? That way they get a full 21 day pollen trap between the 2 hives and the hives don't get overly depleted of pollen. And don't forget to get some enumeration for your troubles.
Does she really need all the pollen or does she just need to have things quantified. You might be able to collect all the pollen in the trap, weigh it and collect a subsample for analysis- giving the rest of the pollen back to the bees. We use a front loading trap in which the screen through which the bees pass can be shut or open. With that you might be able to trap for say a couple hours a day depending on the researchers protocol and whether or not she has someone in the field to open and shut the door. Using two hives seems like a good solution but you'll find that two hives in the same location collect very different quantities and types of pollen. Depending on what your researcher is trying to find out, that may or may not matter.
Some updates:
I've met her today. She is doing research on Fire blight (Erwinia amylovora). Bees, birds, rain, etc can transmit the bacteria and infect other trees.
More info here for those interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_blight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_blight)
Turns out she only needs 2-3 day samples while the apple trees are blooming.
I.e. the day she wants a sampling, I turn on the trap, off otherwise.
She gave me the pollen trap and after disinfecting it with blow torch and water/bleach, I installed it on the hive.
The hive I installed it on is a very strong colony and I've seen at least 4 frames with pollen and a lot of queen cell beginnings... but that's another story ;)