Robo’s World

Various footage of honeybee washboarding.

Well I finally got around to building my “new and improved” bee vac design. I had it all figured out in my head for a while now, but never got to actually put one together. You can see it and all the details here.
 
 
 
 

Ok, I usually don’t put much attention to the latest diet fads, but the Hibernation Diet caught my attention because it promotes the use of honey. So I spend a little time and checked it out. I found that although it seems that it is trying to take advantage of the diet craze as a marketing ploy, the diet has a lot more to offer. Here is a short video from the author explaining the theory and advantages of taking honey before bed. It is an interesting view, so check it out.

Tired of catching mice one at a time? Tired of all the hassles trying to set the traps? How about building a better mouse trap? One that is self resetting, has no poisons, and best of all can be built from stuff that you already have. Even better, you can build it in a matter of minutes.

The principle is actually quite simple. It consists of a 5 gallon bucket of water with a tin can “log roll”. A simple ramp allows the mouse to climb up to the top of the bucket and get onto the peanut butter baited tin cans. Once on the cans, it is just a matter of time before the cans roll and the mouse falls into the bucket and drowns. Since the cans just roll, there is no need to reset, so it is always ready for the next mouse.

Here are a set of simple step by step instructions to make it happen.

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There are good reasons to have your queens marked, including:

1. Ease in locating the queen during inspections.
2. Confirm the hive hasn’t swarmed.
3. Confirm the queen hasn’t been superseded. This can be very important in areas that have Africanized honeybees.

Unfortunately, many folks don’t have marked queens. Whether it not being an option when the purchased their queens, not wanting to pay the extra money to have it done, or they have raised their own queens.

For those that realize the benefit of having marked queens and would like to mark their queens, I have included a short demonstration video below.