Another weapon in the fight against Varroa Mites?

I think it’s true to say that beekeepers enjoy “tinkering”, and I dare say we all know one or two who have their own particular system of doing things when it comes to managing their hives.  I think the same is true when it comes to beekeepers playing about with beehive design.  There’s an excellent blog (http://beehivejournal.blogspot.com) that contains literally hundreds of beehive designs, old and new, some of which are still in use and some of which probably shouldn’t be!  It seemed to me that everything must have been tried at least once.  So, just when you thought there really wasn’t anything new to try out…

Enter the “Rotating Broodframe Beehive” from Hungary!  This was first exhibited in 2002 and comprises disk shaped brood frames mounted on a horizontal axle in a conventional looking brood box, located under “normal” supers.  Brood is raised on the disks which slowly rotate (once every 36 hours). So why do this?  Well it’s all done in the name of Varroa mite control. 

In a traditional hive the mites live and lay eggs etc. above the bee pupa. However, in the rotating hive the location of mite eggs may be under the pupa, so they are effectively trapped and the mites are unable to hatch. The food source for the hatched mite larvae (i.e. the hole the female mite chewed in the bee pupa) is also periodically closed off by the bee pupa’s shifting/rotating position.  All this serves to interrupt mite development and causes the female mite in the cell to try and reorganize her eggs, further delaying mite development. The result is that Varroa mites do not have the chance to mature properly in the cell and are not able to survive once the cell cap is opened! 

But how do the bees cope?  Well according to the inventor the rotating brood chamber does not trouble the bees. It just encourages them to reorganize the brood daily. As well as the reported Varroa reduction another interesting aspect of the hive design is that it allows frontal entry to the brood chamber so inspections can be done without having to lift off any supers!  Now that sounds a very good idea!

It all sounds brilliantly simple.  I wonder how effective it has proved to be since it first was developed? Some further research is needed...