Mr. Bruno Becker,
the inventor of the
NASSENHEIDER Evaporator,
writes about himself:
Born in 1928 I spent my childhood in Malchow, 100 km northern of
Berlin.
After 10 school years I
started a professional training and became an electrician.
Thereupon a decade followed,
when I worked at different assembling firms in high voltage engineering,
industrial complexes and shipbuilding. In 1958 I graduated with a master
certificate.
In 1960 I settled down in Nassenheide, 40 km northern of Berlin.
There I had lived during 4
decades. I had worked mostly at the drawing-board, at experimental
facilities and created more than 20 innovations. Testing, puzzling out has
been my life and so I am still doing nowadays.
I have been married since 1953
and I am father of two children. After 40 years in Nassenheide my wife and
I left that area and we now live with our daughter at the southern
suburban area of Berlin.
Since 1968 I have been
operating beekeeping. Reasons
for starting beekeeping were next to additional earnings sadly also of
sciatica. That is much better now. During summer at odd times I get a
helpful sting from my bees and in case I have these sciatica aches in
winter, I provoke a sting at the entrance of a hive.
Temporary I worked with 50
hives at home and in a migratory trailer. With the trailer I travelled to
fruit, rape and red clover fields in the surrounding area.
In 1982 I discovered the very
first Varroa mites at my apiary.
Then these parasites from South East Asia also reached Nassenheide.
Firstly nearly every chemical device was suitable for fighting the plague.
However shortly afterwards concerns about possible residues in honey came
up. Many people are anxious about the chemical products, which do not
exist naturally but are developed in laboratories. They are concerned that
these products could cause health risks even in a very small dose.
Indeed formic acid could
provide a way out. It has
been used in conserving fruits for a long time. Furthermore a small amount
of formic acid is already naturally in honey. Soon after its application
it disappears due to evaporation. A further advantage is it is not
expensive.
Handling with formic acid
demands conscientious precaution. Therefore the beekeeper should not only
consider the instructions for treatment from the manufacturer. He should
also pay attention to the special safety instructions at his location.
Like many others I firstly
tried the so-called beer mat method. Therefore every few days a
beer mat was soaked with 6-20 ml formic acid and put upon the floorboard.
But it was not satisfying. At
an outside temperature of 8°C the temperature at the floorboard varied
between 10°C and 32°C. Sometimes strong hives became furious and balled
the queen.
Less strong hives retreated
because of the strange odour. In that case too less formic acid evaporated.
Thereupon I started some improvised
long time experiments by applying regular doses between the top bars
of the brood combs and the hive cover. This method was already a little
better. The temperature varied less, nevertheless still too much.
Furthermore it was time consuming.
With a particular size of the
evaporating device the surrounding temperature should be almost constant.
Then the brood nest temperature presented itself.
Thereupon I developed the
first samples. They were tested many years
in the district of Oranienburg 40 km northern of Berlin and in the Freie
Universität Berlin. My good results concerning eradication of the Varroa
Mites and the wholesomeness of the bees were certificated.
Since then roughly 400.000 devices named “Nassenheider Evaporator” have been sold and many beekeepers all over the world know them now.
Especially the commercial
beekeepers often complain of the workload related to searching the right
place near the brood combs. Therefore I developed a method with good
results even if the distance to the brood nest will be increased.
After many experiments,
lasting for months with most different shaped wicks and materials, the “Horizontal
Evaporator” was found. A beekeeper who is already using the
conventional Nassenheider Evaporator can order an upgrading kit.
The combination of the
U-shaped wick with the large horizontal wick enables a much better
reaction inside the influenced environment. Fig. 1 shows the different
dependencies of both versions on the temperature.
The advanced version can be
placed in an empty brood chamber from above, fastened in a frame and then
introduced as the last frame in the brood chamber or in side-operating
hives between the window and the last comb. These opportunities will take
less working time.
Fig. 1
Formic acid evaporation (gram
per day) dependent on the temperature.
Comparison of 2 conventional wicks of the size 18 and 30 and 2 samples of U-shaped wicks in an empty heated hive.
1= conventional wick size 18
(18 cm² or 2.8 sq.in. evaporating area)
2= conventional wick size 30
(30 cm² or 4.65 sq.in. evaporation area)
3= sample of a small U-shaped
wick
4= sample of a large U-shaped wick
However in my mind the
application in late fall is much more important. At that time there are no susceptible house bees. The danger of
re-infection from the neighbourhood is very low since the bees hardly ever
fly. With a little higher dose and formic acid 85% I reached clearly
better results than in August and September.
Fig. 2 shows in which drastic way I could reduce the Varroa Mites.
