3D Printed Stingless Bee Hives

[@timeygenraam4370]

I was utterly confused by this video as someone who's kept bees before, until I realized these these aren't for honeybees! Very cool!

[@aniconomics]

Their native Australian bees, their hive structure is very different compared honey bees. Australia also has honey bees

[@CRAWLFORCEable]

Great looking hives. Would move in if I was a bee for sure.

[@PensWoods]

You go where your queen tells you.😂

[@justinmorrow2932]

Great work, look forward to seeing the thermal comparisons

[@TheOccasionalNomad]

Great designs. Loved it. Tried having a look at the website but was getting security warnings

[@Tiger-fv3nl]

I wish we had these bees in USA. I have seen them before, in travels, and they are so cool! I have looked hard to see if anybody has imported them with no luck. Best i could find was some guy in texas back in the 50's who raised them.

[@BrokenSoul79x]

neet to see some bee vids of non-north american bees.. interesting to see the differences in hive structures

[@mrglasecki]

Outstanding 😎

[@dibbleandseed]

They look awesome! Didn't see one with the log pattern though? Must be the next video 👍

[@PracticalPrimate]

@@dibbleandseed haha working on it!

[@bluepinkman4488]

What specific type of stingless be are you keeping? This is so cool, I have wanted to keep stingless bees for awhile but it always seemed so expensive to set up

[@crashoverride93637]

For knock over resistance perhaps a design with tie down areas like rings clips etc so uou can steak them down for wind

[@PracticalPrimate]

@@crashoverride93637 not a bad idea! Could easily incorporate that into a lid design and the lids are easily swappable :)

[@rosseling3630]

put some wheel weights or ball bearings in the base before filling with foam

[@racheenighteyes5496]

Ok, I'm in Caribou, Maine, so I have no clue what those things are even lol. But that being said, 1. No clue on predators, but thread the tops and bottoms or just a simple quarter-turn lock. 2. Again, predators also wind. How about printing a loop on the side, They line up, and a piece of rebar goes through all loops and into the ground. Threads won't work with that, though. and no clue about crawling predators, but how about a skert one inch by one inch, down at the bottom of the hive, packed full of grease that will stop any creepy crawly stuff. I have no clue if any of this will help. I have 2 feet of snow, and it's -9°C, so it's a bit different problems up here.

[@JoelFortmann]

That looks like a really good option for those of us with poor woodworking skills. Any chance of a design with thicker insulation walls? Wooden hives in the South (Sydney) tend to need 45mm walls or to be covered in styrofoam boxes each winter or is the insulation good enough to be able to cope with our cooler Winter temperatures? Most ASA filament is not food safe so I might be tempted to try print lids in ASA, but anything that makes contact with the bees in PETG. While PETG isn't as UV resistant as ASA, it does have some resistance, and if you're painting the outside anyway, it might not matter. Do you plan on releasing the STL files or is this only for your own use?

[@PracticalPrimate]

@@JoelFortmann great comment. I’m doing the temperature tests now and hope to release the vid in the next few days. Regarding food safe it isn’t something I worry to much about for personal use - wood isn’t food safe and the honey never comes into contact with the plastic. The ASA itself is a food grade plastic, but you are right, most aren’t sold as such due to the other unknowns with them (PETG is similar in the respect - at least my ones are). I’ll probably release the files, the plan is to eventually open source it. I just want to do all the testing first :)

[@JoelFortmann]

​@@PracticalPrimateI was more concerned about the plastic being safe for the bees. 😊 Great idea to use expanding foam for the insulation. It would be interesting to see how effective 3D printed insulation would be. Looking forward to the release of the files. I'd better get my 3D printer unclogged.

[@VagabondTE]

Looks like excellent designs to me. I don't know anything about bees but I've watched a lot of hive creation videos. Like that guy who uses bottles. Your designs are brilliant in their simplicity. And the best part about 3D printing is you can add more features. Like a mount for hanging or something to latch them together if getting knocked over is a problem. You could also print yourself a cutter template for the clear plastic sheets. One idea I have is you could print a temporary lid for installing the spray foam. Maybe mold release or Vaseline would keep it from sticking. Or you could print a partial roof in your design so that less spray foam comes out the top. Just to make it easier to cut or snap off the extra that comes out. I don't know how dense it needs to be so maybe the open top is best. One thing I'm curious about. I notice that where you have the entrance or exit the print itself goes all the way up to the top. Do you not want insulation there? Would filling that in have too much insulation?

[@PracticalPrimate]

@@VagabondTE thank you. That is a great idea about the temporary lid! I could make a jig to lock it in while the foam cures. I am going to try that, thanks! As for the plastic ribs I found I needed some to prevent the shell from warping and to provide a bit more surface area for a good plastic weld at the top. The internal structure of the 3D print is similar to a hallow honeycomb and in testing it actually wasn’t too bad an insulator by itself (similar to timber - not as good as foam) so it was a compromise I made. The current ones have thinner ‘ribs than the ones pictured but definitely something I will keep working on/experimenting with. Thank you for the great comment and ideas :)

[@VagabondTE]

​@@PracticalPrimateOh awesome. Yeah, that warping will get ya.

[@justabandsaw]

Is there any chance these could be adapted for use with western honey bees?

[@PracticalPrimate]

@@justabandsaw great question. Honeybee management and their requirements are very different to stingless bees. While they could technically live in a larger version of these it wouldn’t be practical and would make their management much more difficult.

[@justabandsaw]

@@PracticalPrimate My neighbor keeps honeybees and asked if I'd like to try keeping some this year. The pre-maid, boxy beehives are around $70 where I am. That is a lot for something that doesn't imitate nature.

[@PracticalPrimate]

@ fantastic that your neighbour is going to mentor :) You might try looking up top bar beehives, they are a bit more ‘natural’ than the normal Langstroth hive. Back when I kept honeybees I always wanted to try one (but never did). They would be fairly easy/cheap to make too if you have access to some tools and materials.

[@justabandsaw]

@ Thank you new friend. I will do some reading about top bar beehives.

[@rosseling3630]

Great design a lot of thought has gone into it but the only downfall could I make this without a 3-D printer

[@PracticalPrimate]

@@rosseling3630 thank you, that is great point and I do struggle with that a little. This design is for me and anyone interested. I wouldn’t ever pass on this style of hive to anyone unless they didn’t have plans to split (eductions are fine). I plan to open source everything (hence the video) but I’ll wait until I publish the data logger temp data - looks pretty good so far!

[@rosseling3630]

@ hi Ross again from my previous comment awesome design extremely jealous. My downfall is no 3-D printer.

[@PracticalPrimate]

Bees aren’t picky, quality wooden hives (thick wood) would be just as good :)

[@AuditorsUnited]

wana protip ; make your system adapt to a 5 gallon blue clear water cooler jug. people have been using them, u suspect you could make it to fit a 5 gallon bucket

[@jazzy1871]

looks like water is wicking into your square hive. Consider blocking or sheltering the connection

[@lucycassidy2709]

Hey!! i had a curiosity, as to if you can collect honey from this species of bees? if not, do you keep them as a pollinator only? if so, how do you harvest?

[@PracticalPrimate]

Hi Lucy I keep my hives for pollination but many do collect honey. At the moment there are a few designs in the works for honey collection with most encouraging the bees to make one layer of honey pots per level which are removed from the hive and then opened/cut and the level drained. Those are much shallower supers than mine - mine are not designed for honey collection as the main goal. I hope that makes sense!

[@jseaz]

those are TINY bees

[@PracticalPrimate]

@@jseaz very! :)

[@jasonkarey8546]

Nice design, but I don't think I'd fancy living in an ABS house. Plastics aren't as safe as they'd have you believe.