Bee's and Aquaponic system

[timbit1985]

Hey everyone,

I am thinking about building up an aquaponics system. I envision a hive with two entrances, one on the greenhouse side and one that goes outside.  I would imagine that temperature regulation might be a problem if the hive was located inside the greenhouse. Inside the greenhouse, I'd like to culture tilapia and grow a variety of green leafies, stinky bee friendly flowers (marigolds, borage etc) and tomatoes. I would also like to run a black soldier fly composter with the grub harvesting tube dropping into the fish tank. If you don't know about black soldier flies, they are like compost worms on speed, you really need to check them out.

My questions are:
Has anyone ever tried having a beehive in/close to a small greenhouse?
          - If so, were there any benefits other than pollination of the greenhouse?
          - What would be some challenges of doing this?
Are there any problems with having a hive with multiple entrances? Will the bee's feel unsafe? Would they block one of the entrances with propolis?

In winter, would it confuse the bee's to have a cold side leading out of doors and then a warm side leading to the greenhouse? If I had flowers year round in the greenhouse, would this mess with the bee's natural cycle?

Tim

[JP]

You could have a bee hive inside of any enclosure but their entrances need to go directly outside the enclosure. Bees don't see as we do and become confused when on the interior of any building with windows.

If you set up a hive inside of an enclosure that had windows and the bees could access the interior of that enclosure you have essentially set up a death trap.


...JP

[rdy-b]

 Greenhouses are tough-because the HONEYbee will fly up to the light coming through the panels much like a window-
if this is for pollination of the greenhouse perhaps another option would be bumblebees or blue orchard bees
RDY-B

[timbit1985]

Thanks everyone!! Is it possible to setup bumblebee colonies?

[Michael Bush]

The other issue even with an outside entrance is how do you work it without a lot of bees ending up in the greenhouse.  Have you watched a bee in a window?  That's what they are like  in a greenhouse.  Banging on the glass until they die...

[rdy-b]

Thanks everyone!! Is it possible to setup bumblebee colonies?

http://greenmethods.com/biocontrols/bombus/#general
8-)  RDY-B

[BlueBee]

I tried to get some bumble bee colonies going this past spring.  I caught about 6 Bombus Impatiens queens and tried to get them to make a nest in some foam homes.  I wasn't successful, but hopefully I learned enough that I might have better odds of success next spring. 

Catching the queens in the spring is easy.  I think the biggest problem is getting them to nest in your desired container.  If you've got a green house, that problem might be easier to solve.  Maybe you just catch some queens in the spring and let them loose in your green house.  They would be trapped and maybe more likely to find a place of their liking to raise a nest.

[JP]

Actually, if you really truly wanted to set them up in a green house, you might (might) be able to do so if a large section of the building were open to the outside but I would not advise it.

My theory is that in time they could possibly adjust to a large entrance, even in a green house, but you would undoubtedly have losses. It could prove to be devastating losses to the inevitable downfall of the colony.

I have seen them set up shop in the rear of enclosed rooms of vacant houses on a handful of occasions that had doors missing. (This was after hurricane Katrina) These rooms had maybe one small window but I recall they were mostly without windows.

Odd to see them whizzing through an open door and flying 30 or so feet to get to the hive on the other side of the building.

One such hive however that was set up in the rear of a room (that I witnessed first hand) obviously tried swarming out several different times over what appeared to be a few yrs time or so. The issue there was the bees could fly to a set of sliding glass doors in the next room where thousands of casualties lie on the floor. I couldn't help but feel sorry for them, doing their best to keep things rolling.

Windows just mess with them way too much.

If for some reason I had a hive that was flourishing in a green house with exterior entrances I would work that hive in the complete blackness of dark utilizing a very dim red light.

This would get old fast but could work.


...JP

[rdy-b]

I tried to get some bumble bee colonies going this past spring.  I caught about 6 Bombus Impatiens queens and tried to get them to make a nest in some foam homes.  I wasn't successful, but hopefully I learned enough that I might have better odds of success next spring. 

Catching the queens in the spring is easy.  I think the biggest problem is getting them to nest in your desired container.  If you've got a green house, that problem might be easier to solve.  Maybe you just catch some queens in the spring and let them loose in your green house.  They would be trapped and maybe more likely to find a place of their liking to raise a nest.

I have heard that a old mattress makes ideal nesting habitat for Bombus-you can find a small mattress and start many colonies-- :) RDY-B