Author Topic: Beetle Baffle  (Read 6704 times)

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Offline Slowmodem

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Beetle Baffle
« on: March 01, 2014, 10:53:15 pm »
I just read some stuff about a metal lip that goes between the bottom board rails and the first box.  Supposedly, when used with a screened bottom beetle trap, this keeps the SHB confined to the very bottom of the hive, because they cant crawl up over the metal lip.

Has anyone else heard of this or used this?  It could probably be easily made at home with some tin or other light metal.

Also, they talk about mounting it on a rim (or a small shim) so that it doesn't have to be nailed or stapled to the bottom board and can be removed.  What would be the effect of an inch or so extra between the bottom board and the bottom of the bottom frames?  With a screened bottom board, the bees tend to shy away from the bottom of the bottom frames anyway.

A thought I had was that if I were to ever use an OA mite treatment, that extra inch might give me a little leeway so that I don't melt my plastic frames.

I know that's a lot of ideas in a short time.  Please give me your opinion.

Anyway, their website is http://www.beetlebaffle.com/
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN
Beekeeping at 26.4 kbs

Offline iddee

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Offline specialkayme

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Re: Beetle Baffle
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2014, 09:30:11 am »
The owner sent me a prototype last year to try out.

My initial results were inconclusive as to its effectiveness. I may try it again this year though.

Installing the metal strips were not that easy. I didn't want to permanently nail them to a deep box (since I was just trying it out). You can't secure them to a bottom board either. The metal shims need to be on all 4 sides of the box, and the two that go on the shorter sides of the box (front and back) are shorter than the length of the board, meaning that the ones on the sides extend all the way, but the ones on the front don't overlap. This results in having the front metal strip just fall down, unless you secure it to the top box. I just added two wooden blocks to act as "wedges" to hold the front one in place, and that appeared to work alright as a temporary measure. If I wanted something more permanent, I'd nail them to the box.

The strips on the front and back also weren't quite long enough. They left about a 1 or 1.5 mm gap between the metal strips on the side and the metal strip on the back. Probably wide enough for a beetle to pass through. The designer thought this was weird, as it fit perfectly on his hives (mine were Mann Lake). He may have fixed it. Or mine were oddly too wide. I don't know.

As far as effectiveness goes, about 2 months after I installed the strips the hive absconded (most likely from robbing pressure during a dearth, although I can't say for certain). During those 2 months, I noticed only a few beetles. Less than some of the other hives had, but I can't say a statistically significant amount less. The beetles that were in there could have been in there since the install, or they could have gotten through the 1.5mm gap, or the beetle rim could have failed and the beetles were kept low because the bees chased them out. Who knows.

You can probably build your own for a heck of a lot less than they are selling for now ($16.00 on the Beetle Baffle website). I'm not a metal worker, but I would imagine it would cost you a dollars worth of tin or other metal, assuming you couldn't use scraps. Originally the owner wasn't willing to share any photos for fear of having someone duplicate his idea, and for good reason. He filed his patent, which is why you can see photos of it now. It's patent pending, which doesn't really mean anything. The patent could get approved, or it could be rejected.

As far as the extra space goes, I doubt it would be a problem. I never have an issue with vent boards, and sometimes bottom boards are too wide, or I put a medium frame in a deep box. They rarely attach comb to the bottom.

Hope that helps.

Offline Slowmodem

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Re: Beetle Baffle
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2014, 10:03:31 am »
The owner sent me a prototype last year to try out.

My initial results were inconclusive as to its effectiveness. I may try it again this year though.

Hope that helps.

Yes, thank you.  :)  You didn't say, but did you also use the screened freeman beetle trap or other screened bottom board with your test?  It seems that is important to the success.
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN
Beekeeping at 26.4 kbs

Offline specialkayme

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Re: Beetle Baffle
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2014, 10:21:51 pm »
I did not use any other type of beetle trap with the beetle baffle.

To me, using the beetle baffle with another beetle trap would skew the results of the test. I wouldn't be able to tell if it was the trap working, or the baffle. Of course, if I had 20 of each and did a scientific study of it, that would be different. But I don't.

Offline Slowmodem

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Re: Beetle Baffle
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2014, 05:11:33 pm »
It seems to me, from what I have read, that the screened bottom beetle trap will be a big help when using the baffles.  With a solid bottom board, that beetles can walk across the bottom and climb up on down-hanging burr comb.  But with a screened bottom board, then would fall through the holes into the tray and drown.

I donno.  I may experiment with one this spring just to see if it's snake oil or not.   ;)
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN
Beekeeping at 26.4 kbs

Offline specialkayme

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Re: Beetle Baffle
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2014, 10:51:10 am »
The entire premise of the beetle baffle is that the beetles CAN'T walk across the bottom and climb up on down hanging burr comb. According to the manufacturer, unless comb attaches the frame to the bottom board, the only way the beetles make it into the hive is by crawling up the sides. Hence the baffle.

Assuming both work independently, having both in there would probably help. But then putting 5 different beetle traps in there would do the same thing, and cost an arm and a leg. If one works well enough, use it. If it doesn't, ditch it. No point in combining something that works with something you aren't sure if it works in the hopes of making it better, or combining two things that don't work in the hopes that it does. Just my thoughts.