The Bee Fortress USA Mission Statement:
In defense of honey bees utilizing original equipment designs and beekeeping best practices.
What happened that makes this so?
– Was it climate change that killed them?
– Was it Big Ag and their profuse usage of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and chemical fertilizers?
– Was it genetically modified organisms now ubiquitous in the environment?
– Was it cell towers?
– Was it geoengineering?
– Was it tractor-trailered honey bees by the millions trucked in over-the-road shipments to mono-cultured crops in California, Maine, Florida?
– Was it chemicals used to treat pathogens affecting honey bees?
– Was it beekeepers who were ‘just following orders’ in the way they treat honey bees?
– Was it white sugar fed to colonies in place of their honey?
– Was it black bears in search of honey bee brood and honey?
So, they are telling us that the mainstream mite treatments aren’t cutting it.
Here’s the list of treatments:
- Formic Acid
- Oxalic Acid
- Hop Beta Acids
- Amitraz
- Essential Oils (lemongrass, lavender, wintergreen, tea tree, mineral oil, etc.)
- Thymol
- Anything other chemical treatments?
With all of these so-called remedies to the vast and ever-expanding varroa problem, why is it that fifty percent of honey bees died in the United States in 2022? If the number one issue is varroa, and there are all of these chemicals available to kill them why, then, are 50% of colonies still dying at the highest rate in history?
Bee Fortress USA, Inc. has created the best thermo-therapy treatment for varroa, possibly, hive beetles and wax moths, too. We endeavor to prove that heat treatment can cure many of the listed diseases that kill honey bees and wild bees. The Fortress Beehive and its "Varroa Destructor" derivative are the best thermo-therapy, chemical-free varroa treatment yet devised.
Humans are killing honey bees, in part, due to the design characteristics of the Langstroth beehive.
Shortcomings of the Langstroth hive include: Poor ventilation. Complete lack of thermal (including insulation) and humidity control. Absence of proven home construction techniques and poor materials choice. Bees need a better home, as evidenced by the fact they often create massive colonies inside floors, walls and ceilings of human homes! They are telling us what they need!
I think Lorrenzo Lorraine Langstroth was a beekeeping genius and he made do with materials and technology of the day.
It’s 2023, and we at Bee Fortress USA believe that times, techniques and technology have changed, and so should the homes we design and construct for honey bees.
It wasn’t until humans perfected their own homes that they were finally able to overcome so many dreaded diseases of their past. Electrification of human homes provided the comforts of central heating, air conditioning and ventilation. Modern homes are a dream come true for humans. And as it turns out, honey bees know that human homes are better than the hives humans make for them, yet we remove bees for our humans homes and put them in an uninsulated pine box. Hmm, sounds like a bee coffin to me.
Electrifying a bee hive can provide the same positive life-altering conditions that enabled humans to step in from the dark ages. Beyond heating for comfort, heating a bee hive can be used for eradication of varroa mites and bringing a diminished colony back from the brink.
Control of the temperature inside a bee hive can ensure that the magic temperature of 94-96 degrees Fahrenheit can be maintained, so healthy brood can develop to maturity. The electrified Fortress Beehive prevents Chilled Brood, so the beekeeper can access the hive to monitor food and activity in cold weather, without the fear of killing brood and adult bees.
The Fortress Beehive has solar-powered ventilation, and (optional) solar-powered heating and varroa destructor mite eradication with the flip of a switch.
There is no longer a justifiable excuse to leave honey bees to fend for themselves in inadequate bee-homes such as uninsulated, unheated, unventilated Langstroth hives. Most humans’ pathogens were eliminated when central sewer, central heat, and central hygiene were made available in their homes. Now, the Fortress Beehive components can turn any Langstroth hive into a warm, cozy and safe place for honey bees to thrive.
The Fortress Beehive is the answer to most issues that are killing honey bees!
The Langstroth hive is definitely not designed to resist harsh weather.
There is no effective product that can make the Langstroth hive weather-proof. The Fortress Beehive retains the best feature of the Langstroth hive: the frame boxes and removable frames. There is nothing else about the Langstroth hive that is effective against weather - sun, rain, snow, hail, wind, etc. Only the Fortress Beehive can protect against everything that Mother Nature can throw at it!
The Fortress Beehive is the answer to most issues that are killing honey bees!
My first colony of Italian honey bees perished when the temperature in the last week of December went from the 50s and 60s to fifteen degrees below zero. I drove past the field that my single Langstroth bee hive was situated in. A master HVAC service and installation technician, and professional systems designer, I knew the colony was dead. How could any colony possibly resist the deadly effects of such weather in such a flimsy, uninsulated 3/4″ pine box?
Sure enough, I opened the ¾” pine box stack and the bees were frozen solid. Then and there, I saw exactly what a Langstroth hive truly is under those conditions: a bee coffin.
I knew that I could design a new beehive, at least, a shelter for a beehive. A successful inventor of heating systems components, I set out to change homes for honey bees. Five years later, the result of my perspiration and inspiration is the Fortress Beehive.
The Fortress Beehive is so secure, like any worthwhile fortress, that it is weather-proof, meaning no weather system can kill the colony inside a Fortress Beehive.
Solar-Powered Heating & Ventilation
The Fortress Beehive is electrically heated by either utility power, or solar. Its Hive Jacket (coming in Fall of 2023) is the best R-Value insulation system every created for a bee hive.
The Fortress Beehive is EMR-resistant, and we endeavor to make it Electro Magnetic Radiation-proof.
We are inches close to a design that will forbid entry of toxic EMR transmitted by cell phone towers. We believe this is the essence of so-called Colony Collapse Disorder.
Is Colony Collapse Disorder nothing more than errant dirty electrical frequencies, known as Electro-Magnetic Radiation? So quickly, cell towers have been installed everywhere around the world, without proper study, debate and authorization from the citizens of the world. Extremely toxic frequencies that cause cellular harm to all living systems now surround us. Is that why they call them “cell towers”?
Read The Invisible Rainbow, by Arthur Firstenberg.
There are the studies that show how toxic EMR is to honey bees and all life, in general. See this.
Are EMR frequencies driving honey bees to abscond from their home? I believe so, since I have personally witnessed beehives full of honey and no live or dead bees in the hive. They all willfully deserted the toxic hive they invested so much labor and resourcefulness in creating. They absconded and left pounds of honey behind.
Eighty percent of insects have been extinguished. Native/wild and honeybees are also affected, and many believe this the result of the saturation of cell towers that now surround all living things on land and in the air.
Is this why so many honey bee colonies die every year. “cell”-ular damage?
Please, do your own research, as we research how to make the Fortress Beehive EMR-proof.
The Fortress Beehive is absolutely bear-proof, without hurting bees, or bears!
A bear, with one swipe from its mighty paw can destroy a Langstroth beehive and a colony inside.
I love bears. They are like big dogs, and I love dogs. Like many on the Internet, there are those who have developed a personal relationship with bears – I wish that I could be them, because I have a psychic connection to bears. Bears are beautiful creatures and should be treated as such.
This is why I developed the Fortress Beehive to be impenetrable by bears.
I wish I could feed hungry bears, but there are laws against doing this, and it is not a good idea to assist in bears’ addiction to easy food. So why keep honey bees in a hive that offers zero protection for the bees, and easy access to bears? I know, an electric fence can be easily installed, but they are not bear-proof either. They are ugly, and they hurt everything and everyone who touch it.
Langstroth beehives. by design, are a bee buffet for bears.
No bear species, not even thousand-pound grizzly bears can get at a honey bee colony’s brood and honey in a Fortress Beehive. Comprised of primarily 1/8″ corrosion-proof stainless-steel, it is impossible for any bear type to get to the colony inside the hardwood boxes inside a Fortress Beehive!
The Langstroth hive is easily stolen.
There are numerous products that allow a beekeeper victim of theft to track down their missing bee hive, and nothing that prevents the hive from being stolen in the first place.
Theft of Langstroth hives is quite easy, which is why they are on the rise.
The Fortress Beehive can not be easily stolen. Not if the thief isn’t a locksmith, who, otherwise, also owns a truck and cutting torch, and who can reach the hive in an apiary with a vehicle that can get there. Yes, if there is a will there is a way. But there is no easy way to steal a Fortress Beehive, since it weighs nearly 500-pounds empty, since it is mostly comprised of 1/8” stainless steel.
A locksmith can definitely pick locks, then tear down the hive, but he better be a beekeeper too, or accompany a beekeeper who is dressed for the occasion.
Should a vandal take their aggression out on a Fortress Beehive, they will be self-defeated, and will never destroy the colony inside. Only a psychopath/sociopath would want to utterly destroy a
bee colony inside a Fortress Beehive. Then what? Set up the remains of a Fortress elsewhere? Doubtful.
All the images on this page are of a single prototype, and the first of stainless-steel design. We have made over 25 revisions to this design, and the next production run will reflect these changes that perfect the Fortress Beehive.
Practice makes perfect!
To Heat, or Not to Heat a Beehive?
The Fortress Beehive is Heated by Solar or Utility Power.
Who is the Inventor of the Fortress Beehive?
A heating system with some of John’s inventions.
