Picture from thermosolarhive.com
The fundraising effort for this new hive technology is not flooding the internet as the FlowHive did, perhaps because there is no dramatic visual like the infamous pancake video. Just claims of dead varroa and live bees without chemicals. Or perhaps the internet does not wish to rouse those grouchy, skeptical beekeepers again?
The hive is basically an insulated version of the familiar vertical hive of stacking, frame-holding boxes with solar heating built in. When treatment is required, the beekeeper removes the outer cover exposing a "thermosolar ceiling" to the sun. When the built-in thermometer indicates 117°F(47°C) the cover is restored and this elevated temperature is maintained, causing mites to fall off and die while not harming bees or brood. Such is the claim anyway. What is our take?
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It is true that bees tolerate elevated temperatures much better than varroa mites and so hive heating treatments have been attempted before, usually requiring the hive body or some frames to be moved to an incubator and back. The promise of treating in situ is appealing.
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This hive has the advantage of using solar radiation for the heating so no batteries to charge, no fuel tanks to fill, and nothing to transport to the hives.
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This hive also has the disadvantage of using solar radiation for the heating so the time required to reach therapeutic temperature is unpredictable. In our area sunlight is a tremendously variable resource.
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There seems a bit of marketing with avarice aforethought being perpetrated as they list all the nasty miticides not needed. Better chemicals are more commonly used these days. Still this uses none.
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They also list in passing a number of bee diseases (including European and American foulbrood) implying that this hive prevents or treats all those as well. There seems little reason to expect this.2016-06-24 Per a reply from one of the developers this was a misunderstanding on our part and the diseases were listed without intention to imply efficacy against them but merely to indicate how many problems beset honeybees. -
Naturally the beeks of the internet are already bickering over whether the recommended temperatures may harm brood or melt wax or weaken drone sperm. Just as naturally the makers claim none of these are a problem.
In conclusion there is a germ of scientific truth at the bottom of the claims. Whether that has been effectively exploited in a product that will reliably work wherever varroa is found is another question. Our interest is piqued but we will once more leave it to others to find out first.
2016-06-24 Not everyone reads the comments to a post so we will draw attention to this Bad Beekeeping Blog post about a bee sauna, which links to fifteen-year-old USDA report on applying heat to remove varroa from bees. That report states that such application of heat had been in use for twenty years in parts of eastern Europe. This kind of treatment seems to have a long history yet the report concludes that "Overall, heat treatment is a risky procedure. Even 40°C, the lowest temperature that can remove all the mites is perilously close to temperatures that kill bees."
Meanwhile the developers express understanding of skepticism but stand behind the product and invite interested parties to a public treatment in August held in the Czech Republic.
2016 June 21 at 18:13
Reblogged this on Bad Beekeeping Blog and commented:
Recently, I wrote about something called a “honey bee sauna” which received government grants and crowd-source cash to produce a $1700 gadget to cook mites. The device described in a new blog by The Prospect of Bees’ blog is likely much cheaper. It would be nice to know if anyone has had real success from these, or if they are just fundraising gimmicks.
2016 June 24 at 17:32
Even if not mere gimmick one would want more details of the methodology used to determine that this device was helpful and, as you state in your article, independent confirmation.
Also thanks for the reblog.
2016 June 22 at 01:33
It’s an interesting invention; perhaps its thermal heating properties would also help colonies survive winter and build up in spring.
At $650 (£442) plus shipping it would be too expensive for me at the moment, but perhaps the price will come down in the future and UK suppliers will begin stocking it.
2016 June 24 at 17:38
We are growing increasingly convinced that insulated hives are valuable in surviving winter and beneficial in summer as well. Heated hives? Perhaps.. Heated hives requiring manual intervention to shade or open a window. Inconvenient.
2016 June 23 at 08:26
Hmm. I am just wondering if this is a bit like cracking a nut with a sledge hammer. As Emily points out it is quite expensive and is there any value to the hobbyist beekeeper? Also, where’s the proof?
2016 June 24 at 17:41
Yes, it is too expensive for most beekeepers (certainly for us) to just buy one to try.
2016 June 23 at 19:39
Hi, nice article :-). Fortunately, we don’t have such a dramatic visual like Flow hive 🙂 We have used some marketing, because to be more to marketing means also to be more visible. Without it, nobody would know about Thermosolar hive and there would not be any article about it on The Prospect of Bees :-). So we take it as a necessity. However, the list of bee diseases is only the list showing how many problems bees have, we don’t claim anywhere that the hive cures them. It eliminates Varroa destructor and we think that it is important enough. Hive has also other important benefits, but varroa elimination is the reason of its existence.
We know that people can be a little (or more than a little) sceptical. It is a reason why we invite everybody to a public thermosolar treatment in August. It is always best to see how things work with your own eyes and find out more about results and how effective the hive is. We have done several public treatments already, beekeepers have been satisfied. The only drawback is that it will be held in the Czech Republic, EU. But it is a very nice place for vacation with beautiful historical sites, castles and mountains, so maybe combination of vacation and interesting beekeeping event would be possible for somebody.
Jan Raja
2016 June 24 at 17:48
Thank you for the nice response. We have struck out the lines of the article where we criticized the list of diseases and drawn attention to your invitation for people to witness the public treatment.
We still remain skeptical.
2016 July 05 at 01:56
Thanks for the invite Jan. I cannot travel myself as I have a small baby, but I hope other British beekeepers will.
2016 June 24 at 18:35
surely it is just cheaper, easier, and more reliable to insulate fully and let the bees do the work. New ideas are good, but those clearly developed for monetary gain over efficacy can stay ideas.
2016 July 01 at 10:21
In fairness we have as little evidence that the purveyors are not true believers in the product as we have that the product is effective.
We agree that quotidian thermoregulation of the hive is best left to the bees and that insulation is an effective help in maintaining a stable, cozy cavity regardless of the fluctuations of the wide world without.
Building some sort of solar gain into a hive does not seem a bad idea if one’s climate mostly provides sunny winter days. Our winters are as likely to be cloudy as not. And then we have hot summer days as well, sometimes in spring or autumn.
Our main interest in something like this hive would be providing “heat treatment” for varroa if we were convinced it was a safe, effective treatment.