With $US5.2 million raised, this Australian beehive project is one of the world’s biggest crowdfunding successes

Australian inventors Stuart and Cedar Anderson are doing to beehives what Michael Jackson’s Thriller album did for music.

In February the Andersons launched a revolutionary beehive system that lets you to harvest honey on tap without disturbing the hive, on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. The father and son team wanted $US70,000. It took just less than eight minutes for to reach their target.

Within three hours they had $US1 million in pledges and pre-sales. Just a day later, it was $US2.18 million ($AU2.8M) and set a record for the most funds raised in a day.

More than 92,000 people have pledged support, raising an average of $US53,000 an hour, with more than 10,000 products ordered.

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Thanks for that I was thinking of getting a bee hive

I think this stuff can be manipulated very easily, as can all social media.
Pledges aren’t worth anything, I could pay a stack of people to pledge me millions to invent a new Morris Dancing doily.

Cymek said:

Thanks for that I was thinking of getting a bee hive

I have a few hives but never bothered to get honey out of them, they are way up high on top of a stack of empty beehives (the shed had a few hundred in it, now just a pyramid in the back corner) plus they absolutely love my pepper tree and that apparently taints the honey.

I saw some European bees on the purple top at the redoubt, thought there must be hives around but the farmer told me they were wild European bees, didn’t think they went feral.

yep, lots of feral honey bees. will nest anywhere there is a hollow.

Bees are cool

$290USD
Flow Light 3 frames – with Box

$290 USD = $ 376.79 Australian Dollars

Just bought one, arrives in December

Includes: 3 Flow frames, tool and tubes + custom-made Flow Box to fit 8 frame Langstroth hive. Place the 3 Flow frames in between four standard frames in the new Flow Box. Harvest up to 20lb (9kg) at once. Put the Flow Box directly onto the brood box of your existing hive and in time enjoy honey on tap. The Flow box will come flat-packed for you to assemble and paint. Shipping paid separately prior to dispatch.

Peak Warming Man said:

I think this stuff can be manipulated very easily, as can all social media.
Pledges aren’t worth anything, I could pay a stack of people to pledge me millions to invent a new Morris Dancing doily.

What a brilliant idea, who do I send money to? wait, “ doily” sorry I read this as daily, I thought you were starting a News Paper, all bets off!

Peak Warming Man said:

I saw some European bees on the purple top at the redoubt, thought there must be hives around but the farmer told me they were wild European bees, didn’t think they went feral.

They do. Had a swarm move into a hole in the concrete blocks on the back verandah in Moorooka when I was in the bush one time. They evicted the possum that live there previously. After being stung a few times, I put a brick over the opening. (Sorry colony.)

use talcum powder puffed into the hole next time MV. doesn’t kill them but will make them move house.

JudgeMental said:

use talcum powder puffed into the hole next time MV. doesn’t kill them but will make them move house.

Thanks for that! Wish I’d known at the time.

We had some move into a wall space once. The bedroom wall hummed. Without dismantling the house, we were advised you can hang pest strips into the space (couldn’t do that there, but have done it here for the same problem) or, as we did in Hawkesdale, Mr buffy put on his full leathers and full face helmet at dusk and walked across the verandah roof to spray their entrance hole with surface spray. They take it inside on their feet and unfortunately it does kill the swarm rather than encourage them to relocate. Sometimes it just has to be.

I also saw some scouts around here one day and I could see where they thought they might bring everyone else. So I stood for about two hours with the hose on jet and they got their own personal rainshower whenever they went near the wall opening. It was a hot day. Not an unpleasant occupation for a couple of hours.

JudgeMental said:

use talcum powder puffed into the hole next time MV. doesn’t kill them but will make them move house.

feral bee is feral.

Feral honeybees are not good for the Australian environment, they poorly pollinate native species and displace the indigenous pollinators, but worst of all, they take over the nesting hollows of native animals, which are limited and take decades to form.

PermeateFree said:

Feral honeybees are not good for the Australian environment, they poorly pollinate native species and displace the indigenous pollinators, but worst of all, they take over the nesting hollows of native animals, which are limited and take decades to form.

Do we assume honeybees we see in surburban gardens aren’t feral and do belong to a owned hive.

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

Feral honeybees are not good for the Australian environment, they poorly pollinate native species and displace the indigenous pollinators, but worst of all, they take over the nesting hollows of native animals, which are limited and take decades to form.

Do we assume honeybees we see in surburban gardens aren’t feral and do belong to a owned hive.

There are an increasing number of people with one or two hives producing their honey, so they maybe domesticated or feral bees, therefore hard to say. However the trouble starts when the owners become bored with their bees and just leave them to it, but what happens is every spring the swamp divides and half the hive takes off to find a new hollow and start a new hive, The following year it happens again until all the available hollows have been taken over. It might not be so much of a problem in cities where hollows are many and the animals wanting to use them few, but out of town or in parks and gardens, it can be disastrous for native species.

swamp = swarm

PermeateFree said:

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

Feral honeybees are not good for the Australian environment, they poorly pollinate native species and displace the indigenous pollinators, but worst of all, they take over the nesting hollows of native animals, which are limited and take decades to form.

Do we assume honeybees we see in surburban gardens aren’t feral and do belong to a owned hive.

There are an increasing number of people with one or two hives producing their honey, so they maybe domesticated or feral bees, therefore hard to say. However the trouble starts when the owners become bored with their bees and just leave them to it, but what happens is every spring the swamp divides and half the hive takes off to find a new hollow and start a new hive, The following year it happens again until all the available hollows have been taken over. It might not be so much of a problem in cities where hollows are many and the animals wanting to use them few, but out of town or in parks and gardens, it can be disastrous for native species.

I can imagine, its why I need to make sure its something I really have the time to look after a hive, its a potential dangerous weapon if you can’t be bothered looking after 1000’s of bees

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

Cymek said:

Do we assume honeybees we see in surburban gardens aren’t feral and do belong to a owned hive.

There are an increasing number of people with one or two hives producing their honey, so they maybe domesticated or feral bees, therefore hard to say. However the trouble starts when the owners become bored with their bees and just leave them to it, but what happens is every spring the swamp divides and half the hive takes off to find a new hollow and start a new hive, The following year it happens again until all the available hollows have been taken over. It might not be so much of a problem in cities where hollows are many and the animals wanting to use them few, but out of town or in parks and gardens, it can be disastrous for native species.

I can imagine, its why I need to make sure its something I really have the time to look after a hive, its a potential dangerous weapon if you can’t be bothered looking after 1000’s of bees

Its quicker, less painful, cheaper and easier to get your honey from the stupermarket.

PermeateFree said:

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

There are an increasing number of people with one or two hives producing their honey, so they maybe domesticated or feral bees, therefore hard to say. However the trouble starts when the owners become bored with their bees and just leave them to it, but what happens is every spring the swamp divides and half the hive takes off to find a new hollow and start a new hive, The following year it happens again until all the available hollows have been taken over. It might not be so much of a problem in cities where hollows are many and the animals wanting to use them few, but out of town or in parks and gardens, it can be disastrous for native species.

I can imagine, its why I need to make sure its something I really have the time to look after a hive, its a potential dangerous weapon if you can’t be bothered looking after 1000’s of bees

Its quicker, less painful, cheaper and easier to get your honey from the stupermarket.

Another point against keeping bees is a considerable number die each day, both around the garden or near the hive. All these dead insects are a boon for ants who will rapidly increase in numbers to take advantage of the bountiful harvest.

PermeateFree said:

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

There are an increasing number of people with one or two hives producing their honey, so they maybe domesticated or feral bees, therefore hard to say. However the trouble starts when the owners become bored with their bees and just leave them to it, but what happens is every spring the swamp divides and half the hive takes off to find a new hollow and start a new hive, The following year it happens again until all the available hollows have been taken over. It might not be so much of a problem in cities where hollows are many and the animals wanting to use them few, but out of town or in parks and gardens, it can be disastrous for native species.

I can imagine, its why I need to make sure its something I really have the time to look after a hive, its a potential dangerous weapon if you can’t be bothered looking after 1000’s of bees

Its quicker, less painful, cheaper and easier to get your honey from the stupermarket.

Or even a local professional beekeeper. If you have one around. We do.

There are native bees to make honey and pollinate flowers.

JudgeMental said:

use talcum powder puffed into the hole next time MV. doesn’t kill them but will make them move house.

So how does the queen get out to move the house?

the powder is taken into the hive by the workers comings and goings. so they all leave. irritates them or interferes with their scent or something. forget the reason.

JudgeMental said:

the powder is taken into the hive by the workers comings and goings. so they all leave. irritates them or interferes with their scent or something. forget the reason.

Yeah. I spent ages trying to find the exact reason they don’t like the stuff and all the links were about how excess talc dust from sowing treated seed was killing bees.

oh and this:

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is part of the World Health Organization (WHO). Its major goal is to identify causes of cancer.

•IARC classifies talc that contains asbestos as “carcinogenic to humans.” •Based on the lack of data from human studies and on limited data in lab animal studies, IARC classifies inhaled talc not containing asbestos as “not classifiable as to carcinogenicity in humans.” •Based on limited evidence from human studies of a link to ovarian cancer, IARC classifies the perineal (genital) use of talc-based body powder as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

JudgeMental said:

the powder is taken into the hive by the workers comings and goings. so they all leave. irritates them or interferes with their scent or something. forget the reason.

However, you didn’t actually answer my question regarding the queen.

All Hymenoptera will not cross a barrier of talc.

I do suppose though that a puff of it would only give the bees a big cleanup job.

roughbarked said:

JudgeMental said:

the powder is taken into the hive by the workers comings and goings. so they all leave. irritates them or interferes with their scent or something. forget the reason.

However, you didn’t actually answer my question regarding the queen.

All Hymenoptera will not cross a barrier of talc.

I do suppose though that a puff of it would only give the bees a big cleanup job.

Talc mixed with sugar dust is used to force the bees to clean the mites off.

So a dusting of talc won’t kick the bees out. It only makes them work harder.

A barrier of talc would keep the foragers out until they die. The queen would then also die along with her brood. So they wouldn’t be shifting house either way.

well this was related by a pest exterminator and shown to work.

JudgeMental said:

well this was related by a pest exterminator and shown to work.

You recorded all the events over the ensuing days?

i wasn’t there. but someone i know was. and they said the bees went. so….

JudgeMental said:

i wasn’t there. but someone i know was. and they said the bees went. so….

ah, anecdotal then.

yep, just like your answers.

JudgeMental said:

yep, just like your answers.

I’m actually a beekeeper. I’ve done the work.

it is still anecdote though. show us the controlled experiment results.

JudgeMental said:

it is still anecdote though. show us the controlled experiment results.

They are all dead.

JudgeMental said:

it is still anecdote though. show us the controlled experiment results.

The bees without the talc survived fine.