Bee gym

[thewoodgatherer]

I apricate their is not a lot of evidence for these things working but I'm wondering if anyone uses and has found any clear positive effects. I'm still treating my bees with either OA or Maqs but feel drawn to the organic approach.

[NigelP]

If they really worked then we would all be using them.
Spend your money on something that really works, not snake-oil.

[Alfred]

Or wait for the version that can be controlled via WiFi link and has colour change Led lighting......

[NigelP]

That would be the Bee Disco version......

[AndrewLD]

I am keeping an open mind on this but it does seem one more bit of kit designed to do what the bees do anyway if the grooming I see on the landing board is anything to go by.
I am worried by the idea that the bee gym may be seen as an alternative to mainstream varroa treatment. It is supposed to be part of an integrated pest management.
Those who want to move to an "organic" bee management might bear in mind that modern beekeeping is anything but natural for the bee, the hives are quite different to what they would choose and so is keeping colonies in such close proximity to each other.
If you are really serious about organic beekeeping you should take each hive, stick it up in a tree nowhere near the other hives and leave it alone.
The bees will sort themselves out, engage in healthy swarming and the wax moth will clean up after them..........
Of course in our modern intensively farmed world that won't work so we engage in modern beekeeping with all its drawbacks for the bee. Is not "organic beekeeping" falling between two stools...

[Patrick]

You are not alone Woodgatherer. I don’t like putting anything in a hive I don’t have to.

I have no experience of the Bee Gym but as mentioned, whilst it may help dislodge some adult of which a proportion then falls through the open mesh floor, does that constitute sufficiently effective control at the colony level? I somehow doubt it.

I think many of us would love it if say, icing sugar dusting proved a viable alternative to commercial alternatives. Problem is there is poor evidence it works well enough unless applied quite invasively (i.e. all bees shaken off frames into a box and communally dusted, then tipped back into the hive). One of the things you pay for with registered medicines is trials having proved they actually work.