Home made vapouriser

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Tom Bick said:
Nice idea redwood but you may need a large solar panel to charge the battery at the time of year you will need it and even then it could struggle. A good thing to look into could be the 6v batteries used in fork lift trucks join two together and you could easily have something like 200 amps + to play with.
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Got a trickle charger so no problem. Thought almost everybody had one these days?
 
drex said:
Wonderful. With yours being 80 as opposed to my 50 watt should heat up quicker. I wondered how you were going to mount it. Nice solution. Does the heat resistant epoxy form a barrier to conductance though? If not I will use the idea on mine.
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I've been trying to think of a method of checking the final temperature that the kit reaches - I might need to beg, borrow or steal on of those infra-red digital thermometers to check for sure.

When I stuck the copper dish to the heater, I used the minimum of adhesive between the two surfaces but packed it along the edges so that the fillet between the curve on the dish and that on the top of the heater was full of adhesive. I clamped the whole thing together as the glue set, overnight, to try to minimise the amount of glue between the heater and the dish because I was not sure whether the glue would act as an insulator.

I went with the glue solution because I could not come up with a sure-fire way of holding it all together with mechanical means without possible damage to the heater.

CVB
 
I've been trying to think of a method of checking the final temperature that the kit reaches
Click to expand...
Worth checking your toolbox as I discovered I already had one...

Electrical multimeters often have a temperature sensor range, and simple digital ones aren't very dear.


a sure-fire way of holding it all together with mechanical means
Click to expand...
a metal jubilee clip ?
 
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charlievictorbravo said:
I've been trying to think of a method of checking the final temperature that the kit reaches - I might need to beg, borrow or steal on of those infra-red digital thermometers to check for sure.

When I stuck the copper dish to the heater, I used the minimum of adhesive between the two surfaces but packed it along the edges so that the fillet between the curve on the dish and that on the top of the heater was full of adhesive. I clamped the whole thing together as the glue set, overnight, to try to minimise the amount of glue between the heater and the dish because I was not sure whether the glue would act as an insulator.

I went with the glue solution because I could not come up with a sure-fire way of holding it all together with mechanical means without possible damage to the heater.

CVB
Click to expand...

I managed to test my vaporiser today with a digital infra-red thermometer. After it had been heated and cooled a few times I found that it warmed up to above 160 degrees in about 2min 30 secs. The hottest temperature I got to was 180 degrees after 4 minutes. It did not heat the handle and the temperature under the heater was about 30 degrees when the dish was at its hottest - this is good because it means I can put the vaporiser above the monitoring board, below the OMF and it won't melt the plastic monitoring board.

I'll need to do some tests to see how long it takes to vaporise 2.5 grammes of OA after which I can write down clear timings for the whole process - warming up, vaporising, cooling down. I know the first is 2 1/2 minutes and I'd better allow 5 minutes for the last so the whole process could be 10 minutes, which would not be very good in a professional apiary but it's ok for an apiary with only a small number of hives needing treatment.

I'll report back when I know the accurate timing for vaporising 2.5 grammes of OA.

As to using a jubilee clip, WessexMario, to hold the thing together, I think it would look naff and would also conduct heat away from the OA pan, making the process longer.

CVB
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Portable-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item41880ba2ab

I made one out of one of these it does vapourise OA easily. 3g in 2 1/2 mins.

The drawback is that it won't fit through the entrance or under the floor so you have to put it in an eke with some ply as a base and lift the hive ontop of it to use it through an omf.
Works with a lot less power than the varrox i got after but not as easy.
Lifting the hives is a pain.
I stopped messing around with it when the wife bought me a varrox for christmas.
 
Arfermo said:
Your alternative evaporator requiring lifting the hive to insert an eke would be worst practice whatever. Varrox or similar worth the expense I reckon - would use anything else frankly.
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I had to lift the hive on top of the vapouriser and treated through the omf. It was a pain in the bum but it proved the treatment worked well enough to buy a proper tool.
It was only made to try the process out. Cost less than £10 .
It wasn't great but it did work.
The varrox is a lot easier to use no lifting.
 
Finished mine as well

Attached a bottom bar either side of the unit using wire to form a handle. Cut two tiny bits of aluminium and stuck (with the heat resistant adhesive)them to the unit to form a rectangular receptacle for the OA.

Tested with my multimeter and the unit gets to 178-180c in under 2 mins. Unit is very slim (width of the bottom bars) and fits into the entrance comfortably. I will probably apply a layer of the adhesive to the underside so heat isn't wasted.

Cost: £7 for the ceramic heater, £5 for the heatmate (99% of tube left!), £1 for crocodile clips. Extra aluminium, bottom bars, and wire terminal all lying around in garage.
 
What's the craic with OA Vaping

Ok so all the books say to trickle OA between the frames but I then stumbled across this article online from just last year, which says vaporising the oxalic acid does a far superior job:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ear...Honey-bee-treatment-applied-in-wrong-way.html

Can anyone on here give a complete numpty like myself the run down on what is now seen as the best method for maximum effect before the spring build up. The old timers in my club are still trickling, and the books have not yet been re-written. Do I just stick to what they used to do or should I be looking forwards?
 
If you need straightforward, unambiguous, clear advice, you'll struggle here. Ask 2 Beekeepers a question and you will get 3 different answers.

My answer would be to vaporise. Its easier and surely must be better for the bees. The draw backs imho are it takes longer to do a number of hives, there is equipment to buy and you have to carry it to the apiary ( my battery weighs a ton ) Also, wearing a breathing mask is unpleasant. With trickling you can get through the apiary in no time at all and you only need sugar solution in addition to normal equipment. You don't need a mask, but you do need to be wearing a bee suit. For the winter treatment, i closed off all the entrances when I arrived then took off my bee suit, put the mask on and worked my way through the hives. It took me an hour to do 6. I am guessing I could have done the trickling in 20 mins or so.
 
SixFooter said:
The draw backs imho are it takes longer to do a number of hives....It took me an hour to do 6. I am guessing I could have done the trickling in 20 mins or so.
Click to expand...

If there are a lot of hives to be treated then buying more expensive equipment that allows for much faster treatment is justified, six hives would easily be treated in under five minutes.
 
Floor Design - looking forward

This post was prompted by the Home Made Vaporiser thread but thought it might warrant the thread of it's own.

The discussion there was around using a vaporiser with a standard floor, and the difficulties of devices higher than the entrance slot.

There also seems to be a growing consensus that the standard entrance of 421mm wide by 21mm high is far too big both in width and height for normal use, bees can cope best with an entrance 9mm high and three or four bees width at most. So the vapouriser needs a larger access, but the bees smaller.
(would be interesting given a narrow entrance to survey if they prefer "driving on the left" or right, but I digress...)

Considering the difficulties people have with using vaporisers, and looking ahead at the possible requirements for combating Small Hive Beetle (using an oil tray), it looks like the way forward is going to be a 'deep' floor unit, with the space to accommodate:
- an OMF to allow varroa and SHB but not bees to fall through,
- an oil tray to catch the SHB,
- brackets/bars/removable shelf to hold either or a combination of... the SHB oil tray, a varroa drop board allowing ventilation, or a closing board with a vaporiser for treatment. (I believe that convection from underneath rather than gravity from above is the best way to apply oxalic).

There might also need to be a lower or side mesh to allow ventilation but prevent bees entering the oil tray from below.

Having a deep floor will enable a vertical periscope entrance to be incorporated, which is also beneficial in reducing robbing by insects and vermin, and eliminating rain being blown into the hive.

Anything I've missed before I start detailed design?
 
wessexmario said:
(I believe that convection from underneath rather than gravity from above is the best way to apply oxalic).
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wessexmario said:
Anything I've missed before I start detailed design?
Click to expand...

The oxalic vapour falls out of suspension and settles quite fast, tends to pool more in the lower part of the hive, if treating double brood or bigger, then treatment from above is much more effective.
 
Hivemaker. said:
If there are a lot of hives to be treated then buying more expensive equipment that allows for much faster treatment is justified, six hives would easily be treated in under five minutes.
Click to expand...

probably don't need more expensive equipment, just more of the same. I.e 3 varroxes would keep me busy all the time instead of standing around waiting for the heating or cooling. I won't achieve 6 in 5 minutes though, but 50 seconds per hive. I'd like to see that! From a distance though!
 
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SixFooter said:
probably don't need more expensive equipment, just more of the same. I.e 3 varroxes would keep me busy all the time instead of standing around waiting for the heating or cooling. I won't achieve 6 in 5 minutes though, but 50 seconds per hive. I'd like to see that! From a distance though!
Click to expand...

Puts me in mind of the southern comfort ad
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=southern+comfort+advert&qpvt=southern+comfort+advert&FORM=VQFRML#view=detail&mid=9E249473B31E271096299E249473B31E27109629
 
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