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New lower-cost Bee Gym Slim

Bee Gym Slim packBee Gym Slim, the enhanced and lower-cost design of the chemical-free varroa-grooming aid for honey bees, has been launched following much positive feedback from beekeepers about the original Bee Gym.

Now available through Vita Bee Health distributors, the new design of Bee Gym Slim is lower cost because it uses fewer parts and is more effective because multiple gyms can be easily inserted into hives.

The new Bee Gym Slim is available in packs of three grooming strips 170mm long, 45mmwide, <5mm high, and provides many more grooming points. The strips are placed on top of the brood frames, instead of on the floor (in contrast to the older version) and fit into bee space between brood boxes or are integrated with a queen excluder. In this position, there is a lot of bee traffic and therefore more opportunity for the bees to groom – and for the beekeeper to see the grooming in action. This positioning also enables the Bee Gym Slim to be easily removed and replaced for cleaning.

Bee Gym Slim in action:

Bee Gym Slim should be used as part of an integrated pest management control system with products such as Apiguard or Apistan. Installation is very straightforward, and the gyms can be left in place, sitting on top of the gaps between frames above the busiest parts of the brood box throughout the year. They need only occasional and brief removal for cleaning. Bees can be seen using the gym to help them dislodge mites, which usually fall to the floor damaged. Clusters of dead mites directly under Bee Gyms indicate the effectiveness of the grooming aid.

Bee Gym inventor Stuart Roweth says, “This new design – Bee Gym Slim – has proven very effective in our extensive tests. The lower cost enables more gyms to be put in each colony and that is increasing the mite drop. Now that beekeepers can see how the bees use the gyms on top of the frames each time they open the hive, I think their popularity is bound to grow. The older design of Bee Gym is still very effective and is especially good when used in conjunction with a varroa tray.”

More about the Bee Gym.

Notes on using Bee Gyms

 

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