The Thermosolar Hive heats the hive to exterminate any mites that hinder the bee colony. (Image Credit: Thermosolar Hive)
Since the Save the Bees Design Challenge started, I’ve been curious about bees and the technology backing them up these days. With so many factors killing off bees, I wanted to see what practical work is being done today. I wanted to put my mind at rest a little too… while providing some inspiration for the effort.
According to experts, bees suffer from colony collapse disorder, which causes honeybee populations to crash due to Varroa destructor mites. Thankfully, the Theromosolar Hive can help fight off that pneumonia by using solar heat to eliminate mites. These parasites attach to broods and bees, affecting them one by one and causing broods to grow with missing or deformed wings and limbs. Removing them without destroying the hives, putting affected colonies in quarantine, and delaying pollination is also complicated.
Varroa mites have one weakness: heat. Exposing these parasites to temperatures ranging from 104°F to 116°F for approximately fifty minutes kills them off. This also counts for all these mites in different growth stages. With that in mind, the Thermosolar Hive features special mechanisms that harness the sunshine, so it can gradually heat the bee colony and honeycombs.
More importantly, this technique leaves the bees, brood, and honeycombs unharmed. Extermination occurs for all mites inside the cells at a distance of 15.8 inches from the heat source, serving as the hive ceiling. At least 80% of mites are eliminated with one heat treatment, but it could go as high as 90-95%. However, mites latched onto bees outside the hive or at the bottom of the hive survive since they’re still not in the preferred range of the heat treatment. On average, these mites return to the brood in five days and multiply. So the best solution is to perform an additional treatment 7-14 days later to kill off the remaining mites.
However, the parasite can survive the winter as solitary photonts. Typically, these come from late re-invasions that occur due to beekeepers leaving the hives untreated or using chemicals to weaken the mites without killing them. This chemical-free technology allows bees to produce wax and honey without pesticide residue. Plus, the colony doesn’t have such a high risk of collapsing.
The thermosolar hive contains an outer cover, thermosolar ceiling, thermosolar super, and varroa bottom. The treatment process is simple. First, the beekeeper removes the hive’s outer cover, thereby exposing the ceiling to the sun, which warms the sealed brood in the brood chamber. Each box has a theromosolar window in front of it, heating the hive throughout treatment. Sunrays convert into heat waves that release to the brood chamber. The wax, reserves, and brood absorb the heat.
Two built-in sensors, placed in the wax of a comb with capped brood in the brood chamber, monitor the increasing temperature. The first sensor is inserted under the upper bar, while the second one goes above the bottom bar. Then, once it rises to 116°F in the hive’s upper portion, the beekeeper stops the treatment process and re-deploys the outer cover. Overall, the thermally insulated supers and thermal bottom allow temperatures to stay over the healing limit for over two hours, enough time to exterminate any mites hidden within the brood.
Any leftover mites “move from the old bees on the larvae during the following 10 days.” Repeating the treatment process once more will help to eliminate the Varroa. The Thermosolar hive also boosts the bee colonies’ spring expansion, saves honey reserves throughout winter and other seasons, increases bees’ flight activity, and encourages more honey production by 25% to 75%.
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