Going crazy with expanding foam again!

Here's how I made a shelter for our forthcoming Koppert Bumble Beehive box.

For farmers Koppert recommend a simple sheet of polystyrene foam with a brick on top to hold it down - but to me this seems a bit cheap and cheerful and not necessarily well engineered against bad wind and rain. So, I wanted to do something a bit more creative and potentially robust. 

Having quite successfully made my fake "grass hummock" last week out of expanding foam I decided I could use a similar system to create a protective cover for the new beebox nest. I've been thinking about the design for quite a number of days and it seemed this would be simple and fairly cheap to do. I don't have any wood-working or metal-working equipment (or skills!), so this is a simple solution; even a child could do it. 

However, the structure needs to be more robust than the pure foam structure I created for the "hummock" - as it pretty much rests directly on top of the existing box. However, this structure cannot rest on the box; but more importantly, it must be very resistant to weather - especially the wind which can be very strong here. It would be a complete disaster if it was able to blow over. So, some requirements for this:

1. enough strength to support being weighted down - e.g. with bricks
2. ability to mount some brackets, which is necessary can be fixed to the garage wall
3. overall enough structural strength to hold together even if flexed and blow about

My solution is actually to build a skeleton within the structure with some chicken wire; line this with plastic to ensure excellent waterprooofing; and then apply the foam to this structure to create the overall shelter. 

The steps are outlined below. 

step 1 - measuring out the chicken wireThe chicken-wire is easy to work with - I just measured it to twice the size I needed. 

step 2 - heavy duty plastic folded into the chicken wireThen folded the wire with some heavy duty plastic (you could cut up a bin bag) sandwiched between.

step 3 - creating a folded template over an existing boxThen I folded this over a box that I had checked, double-checked and triple-checked was big enough to cover for the size of the beebox PLUS the bricks it will sit on PLUS room to open/shut the bee entrance control PLUS an overhang to provide shade over the front of the box. It pays to do the arithmetic up front!

step 4 - applying expanding foam to the structureThis actually took two large cans of expanding foam. It's quite tricky to do the sides as it can drop off - so you have to be patient and work in small blobs. That's why the surface looks the way it does. 

Notice also the brackets that are wound into the chicken wire. These provide a future option to tether the shelter to the garage wall if needed. 

step 5 - painting in a light stone colourThen I painted the shelter with some cans of plastic spray paint. Really quick and easy to do. We chose quite a light stone colour which blends against the garage fairly well. 

step 6 - cover installed in location with a "test box" underneath on greased bricksThe greased bricks are to keep the beebox off the ground and prevent ants and insects from being able to crawl up into it. For this reason the beebox should touch any plants or other objects. We also have an ant-trap right next to it. 

I'm testing the shelter for a few days with an empty box inside. If it remains there safely through any blustery weather, I'll be happy. So far so good. For now the shelter is held down with two bricks on the purpose designed "feet". It's actually very stable like that.

view of the box cover with the video camera mounted about itI've also mounted a video camera over the box. At this stage I don't know if it will be possible to get a camera inside the koppert box, so we've put a camera over it. We'll put plants and pollen on top of the shelter that will attract the bees and we'll be able to see them going in and out of the entrance. The camera is all set up and tested and we can view it on the main TV in the house. 

You can get anything in a box!

I've been away for a few days and the weather has more typical April - more inclement, cooler (max about 16 degrees) and cloudy. Consequently there has been little observable bee activity and little human activity associated with it. 

As May rapidly approaches and our sightings of nest-searching queens diminish we know all too well that our opportunity to nest a queen is now veyr marginal, although we have not given up. 

However, that is not the end of our efforts - far from it. Aside from my wacky ideas about building artificial embankments with expanding foam and improving the video camera setup (such as adding a network DVR), we've decide to source a colonised bumblebee hive from Koppert Biological systems.

This year (2011) is actually the first year they are providing them in the UK, so we are really excited at the chance of being able to get one. The colonies are typically supplied to farmers and growers to aid pollenation of their crops; but Koppert have been great at agreeing to provide us with a single box for our conservation project. 

The hives come in two sizes - about 30 - 40 workers (with about 6 week lifetime) and about 40 - 50 workers (with about 12 week lifetime), and both with a Queen. We have opted for the larger size because of the longer period of activity which will give us more time to observe their behaviour and learn more. We have also opted for a native species (Bombus Terrestris Audax) because our box will be out in the open. It is possible to get a non-native bee, but these must be kept in an exclosed area - e.g. if you were a commercial tomato grower. The boxes are about a foot square. 

It's absolutely amazing to be able to get something like this practically mail order! It turns out the UK distributor is only 30 miles from where we live (I guess we do live in food-growing-land!) so we will actually go and collect the box next week.

However, it's not just a case of dumping the box in the garden and leaving it at that. We need to make sure there is adequate siting, protection from the elements and protection from other insects, especially ants. So the weekend will be spent sourcing the necessary materials and constructing some the right protection. Rain is a problem, but probably a bigger problem in our garden is wind, with a risk of the box being blown over. So that's a problem we have to solve.

It also changes the technology landscape a bit, as I won't have the luxury of installing video cameras into an empty box. At this stage I have no idea if I'll somehow be able to get cameras into a live nest. Even if i can get through the side of the box without disturbing the bees and being stung to death, I'm aware the hives are made of an outer and inner box which I may not be able to get to at all. So, I'm not counting on any internal cameras at this stage.

However, all is not lost. Today my wireless outdoor infra-red camera arrived; over the weekend I hope to get this installed in the garden, and with it should be able to obseverve the exterior of the box at least.

It's a slight change of direction, but we're really excited for the box to arrive!