Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
  • A01K57/00—Appliances for providing, preventing or catching swarms; Drone-catching devices
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
  • A01K29/00—Other apparatus for animal husbandry
  • A01K29/005—Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
  • A01K47/00—Beehives
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
  • A01K47/00—Beehives
  • A01K47/06—Other details of beehives, e.g. ventilating devices, entrances to hives, guards, partitions or bee escapes

Definitions

• the device to manage honey bee's swarming is a beekeeping device equally suitable for controlling the whole swarming process, quickly terminating the swarming fever, detecting swarming and capturing swarms. Scope of application
• the device to manage swarming can make natural increase easy and reliable. With the device to manage swarming a large number of the labour-intensive manipulations to prevent swarming will become unnecessary, beekeeping can become easier and operations more efficient. The losses arising from absconding swarms and prolonged swarming can be avoided.
• the device to manage swarming also makes it possible to efficiently protect the bees against varroa mites.
• swarms carrying and spreading various bee diseases for example American foulbrood, could be prevented from leaving the hive.
• swarming is one of the most important capabilities of honey bees ⁇ Apis mellifera).
• the bee colony ensures race preservation by swarming.
• Swarming is a complex process. As a first step, days before swarming, the 'swarming fever' occurs. This swarming fever can be triggered by several factors, the most important of which is that the colony gets congested in the hive, but the swarming fever may also be triggered by dearth or disease.
• the approaching swarming fever is indicated by the bees' starting to build swarm cell for the queen to lay eggs in. The amount of open brood decreases. The bees hardly carry pollen or nectar.
• the colony will release the first swarm.
• the old already mated egg-laying queen will generally leave the hive.
• the swarming fever will usually not stop after the first swarm is cast, but will continue as long as the population of the parent bee colony sufficiently reduces in number.
• Swarming is a natural process that is also biologically desirable for the bees. During swarming, many of the worker bees of varied ages in the colony will leave the original beehive, hive or hollow tree with the queen in a short time and, in the majority of the cases, will never return.
• the bees in the swarm are able to start a new colony right away.
• virgin queens may leave with the swarm.
• Virgin queens usually leave the hive after the first swarm, but may also be present in the first swarm if the old queen perishes for some reason.
• the swarming bees fly in circles in the air for a while and in a few minutes' will temporarily settle down in a good place, generally not far from the apiary.
• the swarm will have sent out scout bees to find a new home for the swarm to settle in. Based on the information received from the scout bees, the swarm will make a decision and start out for its new home. Should the queen leaving the hive with the swarm perish for any reason, the swarming bees will shortly feel queenless and return to the parent hive to swarm out again with the virgin queen emerging next.
• the size of the swarm is highly varied, it generally weighs between one and five kilograms, but there are also very small or even huge swarms that consist of several joint swarms.
• the bee colony has a relatively congested nest, in the subsequent one or two months, it will cast several swarms. Usually the first swarm is the largest and it usually leaves the hive with the old queen. If the bee colony is still strong enough after the first swarming, some days later, a second swarm will leave the hive. This swarm is already significantly smaller and usually flies away with a freshly emerged virgin queen. The swarms following the second swarm are afterswarms that usually fly out with a virgin queen and are much smaller than the first swarm. The swarms flying out at the end of the beekeeping season are considered less valuable by beekeepers, since they are unable to start a colony independently that would be capable of wintering.
• the period of swarming generally coincides with the bee colony's height of development. Under moderate climate, in the north hemisphere, this period generally lasts from May until the end of June. Swarming is only possible under weather conditions suitable for swarming, not when it is cold or rainy. Swarming usually takes place from the late morning to the early afternoon hours.
• the first and more efficient group of swarming related initiatives consists of manipulations to prevent the approaching swarming fever.
• Beekeepers aim to prevent the approaching swarming fever since they are afraid of the losses resulting from swarming, of losing swarms and production.
• the loss of swarms mainly results from absconding.
• the swarm is often visible, but settles in places inaccessible to the beekeeper.
• the swarming fever can last several weeks and the colony not abandoning swarming will not forage for a long time, neither will it rear brood, which can result in a highly considerable loss in honey production or even in the deterioration of the bee colony.
• There are many types of methods to prevent the approaching swarming fever are expanding the beehive, ensuring better ventilation, encouraging bees to draw cells, checkerboarding the brood with frames for egg- laying or removing capped brood.
• the second main group of swarming related beekeeping manipulations aims to prevent swarming already during swarming.
• the bees have already drawn swarm cells and the queen has laid eggs in them, removing capped brood, dividing the colony, or in the last resort, regularly destroying swarm cells can be more or less efficient swarm prevention techniques.
• the above-described techniques are often highly labour-intensive and have only a limited scope under adverse weather conditions in reliably preventing the swarming fever or swarming. Since the approaching swarming fever is determined by very important factors, such as congestion, little open brood in the nest and no foraging.
• a workable solution can be to place hives suitable to lure cast or stray swarms near the apiary. Their efficiency can be increased if we introduce brood combs or pheromone traps. Still these procedures are less efficient and, to make matters worse, require the beekeeper to be with his or her bees in the swarming season.
• the device to manage swarming When the device to manage swarming is used, it is not necessary and not even recommended to prevent swarming, since natural swarms consist of bees of the right age composition in every case. With our device, the swarming process can be controlled to make inducing swarming a highly favourable and controllable reproduction method both for biological and beekeeping considerations. With the device to manage swarming, the parent colony can be forced to stop further swarming after the first swarm leaves. The device to manage swarming also functions as a device to divide the colony. After swarming is completed, the foraging bees still leaving the hive can be forced to join the swarm captured by the device for the desired time.
• the device to manage swarming will make capturing swarms more reliable.
• the techniques applied so far have not always allowed this aim to be realised.
• the application of the device to manage swarming can localise diseases that have so far been impossible to be localised by beekeepers.
• both the captured swarms and the parent colonies can be efficiently treated against varroa and other diseases. Efficient treatment is guaranteed by that the swarms have no capped brood for days, and consequently a single treatment can destruct the majority of the mites.
• all capped brood will emerge by the second week following swarming. Since the new queen will only start egg-laying this time, all the mites in the parent colony are on the emerged bees and can be easily destroyed by a single treatment. Swarms intensively draw cells. Therefore the device to manage swarming we can also indirectly increase wax production. The regular renewal of honeycomb will also be vital for preventing the damage caused by bee poisoning.
• the first group of tools consists of the devices to divide colonies by which beekeepers prevent swarming. With them, they weaken strong colonies with a swarming impulse so that they would abandon swarming.
• the second group of tools comprises the devices by which beekeepers try to prevent the swarm leaving the bee colonies and the queen escaping the hive in general.
• the third group contains devices by which absconding swarms can be captured.
• the tools to divide colonies belonging to the first group have so far been used in apiaries to prevent swarming.
• This method could not be applied to prevent afterswarms in parent colonies since, after natural swarming, no egg-laying queen would be present in the parent colony that would make division possible and keep the swarming bees together by producing pheromone. It is because the egg-laying queen will leave with the first swarm and at least one week must pass before the young emerging queen can mate. Division can, however, be only performed from the nest because foraging bees will return to the hive they have oriented themselves towards.
• the snelgrove frame can divide the bee colony before swarming.
• the essence of its operation involves that the beekeeper divides the hive including a strong colony with a swarming impulse in two with this device.
• the beekeeper will open or close gates in alternating directions.
• the beekeeper can deceive foragers coming from the nest and the part of the parent colony to be divided and which have oriented themselves towards the entrances, so that they would return to join the part of the hive inhabited by the weaker colony.
• the nest of the stronger bee colony can be weakened and the colony will abandon its swarming impulse.
• a disadvantage of the method is that the bee colony must be inspected before division, often the queen must be detected, the nest rearranged with hard toil and the queen cells in the queenless part destroyed to avoid its swarming.
• the division of the colony is achieved by using a dividing tunnel with a perforated wall and a moving end and of a flexible geometry and can achieve the desired result by repeatedly changing its position.
• the bee colony does not need to be checked before using our invention due to swarming, nor should the nest be manipulated or cells relocated or destroyed. With the application of the device to manage swarming, the bees leaving the hive after swarming will reinforce the first swarm clustered about the device and will not create an independent bee colony.
• the Dadant hive which is currently commercially available in the US.
• An essential characteristic of the above-referenced hive is that it prevents the queen wishing to swarm from leaving the hive and therefore the bee colony will not swarm. The queen's egress from the hive is prevented by queen excluders.
• the undisturbed passage of worker bees from the hive is ensured by the aggregate large surface of several entrances and queen excluders.
• the solution is not suitable for preventing the approaching swarming fever. Whenever the bee colony is congested, swarming fever will develop, and swarming may take place. Any resulting swarm will, however, return to the hive since the swarming bees will feel the absence of the queen trapped in the hive, and will cluster about the parent hive. Therefore no swarm is generated. The swarming fever is, however, not over with the swarming, but will become prolonged, since the bee colony will wish to swarm repeatedly.
• the device to manage swarming will not allow the queen to leave the device, but a difference is that with the application of our invention, the device to manage swarming, the queen will leave the hive during swarming.
• the device to manage swarming has no bearing on the natural swarming process and separates the swarm and the parent colony after swarming. The device to manage swarming can terminate the swarming fever in two or three days and prevent further swarming by colony division after swarming.
• Patent description US1410444 describes a nonswarming beehive.
• the hive is essentially made up of two compartments, in the upper, queenless compartment an independent entrance is created through which the bees can freely enter and exit the hive. Between the two compartments a controller board is placed through which worker bees can pass but only in one direction, upwards from below, while the drones and the queen cannot pass through this controller board. Neither can the drones or the queen leave the lower compartment.
• the relatively simple antiswarming measure to place a queen excluder in the hive's entrance can be contested from many aspects apart from the above-mentioned ones, and can only be applied for a limited time. It is because worker bees can pass through the queen excluder with a relatively small surface in a limited number, which will limit the bee colony's foraging and biological activities, and will therefore cause the weakening of the bee colony.
• Patent description US1462933 describes a collapsible queen and drone trap.
• the trap can be mounted on the front wall of the hive, in front of its entrance.
• the queen or the drones cannot leave the device since it is limited by a queen excluder.
• the queen and drones leaving the hive will be caught up in the trap of the device.
• Worker bees can pass through the device.
• an advantage of the structure is that it can be hung in front of hives of various dimensions.
• the device can be folded and unfolded, and the bees caught up in the trap can be transported.
• This device is essentially suitable for trapping drones and the queen escaping the hive, but it is not suitable for reliably capturing swarms since it will not prevent the return of the swarming bees to the hive.
• This device is not suitable for dividing the bee colony or controlling swarming either.
• the device to manage swarming the description does not offer a procedure for accurately determining the date of swarming.
• the device described in the patent description is similar to our invention, the device to manage swarming, in that it is also capable of trapping the queen. Still, as it is described in the patent description, also drones can get into the queen trap, which highly hinders the efficient operation of the trap, the removal of the queen and exact detection of the time of swarming.
• Patent description US1896925 describes a trapper and retainer for bee swarms. According to the inventor of the described device, the device automatically detects swarming bees and prevents their egress. The swarming bees leaving the hive will pass through a pivotally supported trip chamber. The tilt of the trip chamber will prevent the bees from leaving the device and the bees will be trapped in the retainer. So the device can detect the high number of bees swarming out of the hive and will retain them in a chamber. The trip chamber is tilted by the large weight of egressing bees. A similarity between the above- referenced patent and our invention is that both detect the approaching swarming by measuring the accumulation of bees.
• Patent description US2644175 describes a queen and drone trap.
• the trap consists of two parts, the lower and upper compartments, to prevent the escape of the queen and the drones. Between the two compartments a bee-escape is placed that guides the queen from the lower to the upper compartment.
• This device has limitations in capturing swarms, since the swarm feeling queenless will usually return to the hive.
• the device is not suitable for controlling swarming either.
• Patent description US2607053 describes a beehive with automatic swarm control.
• the device passively forces the emerging queen and drones into a trap.
• the description presents a drone and queen trap that will not allow the queen and the drones to leave the device based on the above-described principle, but will guide them upwards.
• the trapped queen and drones will get into an upper trap chamber through a tunnel.
• swarming worker bees realise that they are queenless, they will return to the device.
• a major problem, however, is that in the device described in this specific patent description the worker bees can only enter and exit the hive through a very narrow bee-escape, which will highly upset their foraging activities and will cause constant congestion.
• a further problem with the device registered under the above-referenced number is that the whole of the prospective swarm will not or just partly cluster about the queen trapped in the trap, since the swarming bees will want to return to the original nest in the hive, so the device has a rather limited efficiency in capturing the swarm.
• the device does not measure the accumulation of the bees, neither it is capable of detecting the swarming. This device is not suitable for dividing the bee colony further or for controlling swarming.
• Patent description US2578634 also presents a queen and drone trap by which the emerging drones and the queen can be trapped.
• the trap has a removable glass cover that the apiarist can look through.
• the trap is not suitable for capturing the swarm or controlling swarming for the above-described reasons.
• Patent description GB235135 also describes a device invented to capture swarms.
• the device detects the weight of swarming bees. If, as a result of the bees leaving the hive, a valve built in right next to the opening tilts, the entrance board will detect the weight of the egressing bees. As a result of the detected weight, the bees will be guided towards the swarm trap whose gate will close. Therefore, essentially, it is also about detecting the weight of egressing bees. However, this weight is measured near the entrance board where bees regularly accumulate anyway for reasons unrelated to swarming. This will then lead to the serious problems presented earlier. The device is therefore not suitable for capturing the swarm.
• the device is not suitable for controlling the strength of the parent colony or preventing further swarming either, since it will not divide the colony after swarming.
• the main difference lies in the fact that our invention is capable of inducing the bees to accumulate in a way specific to swarming and to measure their accumulation where it typically occurs upon swarming.
• Patent description GB2445861 describes a trap.
• the trap consists of two screens both of which will allow the passage of worker bees but prevent the passage of drones and the queen.
• In the first screen there is a one-way funnel that will allow the passage of the queen and drone bees, which then will get trapped between the two screens.
• the device is fundamentally unsuitable for capturing swarms or controlling swarming.
• Patent description 6B 578919 describes a device, which, according to the inventor, is suitable for capturing swarms.
• the device detects the queen bee previously marked with radioactive or optically detectable materials and when detected, will guide the queen and the bees through gates.
• the lifetime of the queen marked with a radioactive material will get shorter, and, in addition, the application of the radioactive material is harmful for the environment and it is furthermore hazardous and prohibited.
• With the optically marked queen it is a major drawback that the accumulation of swarming bees makes the detection of the optical marking highly difficult. It is a real challenge to efficiently shield the area partly lit by the sun outside the entrance.
• the device described in the patent description of the above-referenced number will guide the bees out of the hive through an entrance in a completely opposite direction to the original one.
• the tunnel leading to the original entrance will close down and for this reason the young bees producing royal jelly that would become indispensable later in rearing brood and wish to leave with the swarm but have not yet oriented themselves towards the original entrance will get trapped in the hive.
• the problem is that through the new entrance only middle-aged bees will fly out upon swarming and afterwards. Communication between the swarm and the bees trapped in the hive, which would ensure proper swarming, will cease.
• the age composition of the swarm will be unfavourable and the resulting swarm will be small.
• the above description does not offer a solution to further divide the parent colony.
• the parent colony is expected to issue a swarm again.
• the device to induce swarming ensures that the young bees wishing to leave with the swarm would be free to leave the hive through the original entrance during the whole swarming process and to spatially communicate with their swarming mates. Consequently, their egress from the hive is fully guaranteed.
• a significant difference as compared to the above-referenced description is that with our invention, the device to manage swarming, the whole swarming process can be regulated, the period of the swarming fever can be shortened, afterswarms induced and division of the required extent performed with the help of dividing outlets of a flexible geometry.
• Another major difference is that, as opposed to the operation of the device described in patent description GB578919, queens are not necessary to be marked for our invention to work. Our invention is therefore also suitable for capturing unmarked freshly emerged queens wishing to swarm. We primarily mark queens beforehand to help the beekeeper decide whether the queen is in the device, and if so, in which section of the device it is.
• Patent description DE1288356 describes a swarm capturing device.
• the queen leaving the hive during swarming is forced into a far away queen trap via a long tunnel.
• the swarm will cluster about this trap section.
• this description does not include moving gates, a procedure to detect swarming, or a method to prevent the return of the swarm to the hive.
• the narrow entrance of the device causes significant congestion for the bees exiting and entering the hive.
• a further problem can occur if the drones block the entrance to the queen trap since they are free to enter this section.
• the swarms cannot be captured efficiently as the queen probably fighting her way to the queen trap will lure only a part of the swarm to the trap.
• Patent description DE602410 describes a swarm and drone catching device that can be attached to the hive's entrance.
• the device guides the queen to a trap that is closed for the drones. It is possible to let the drones out of the part of the device where they may gather.
• This device fails to measure the bees' accumulation upon swarming, neither does it operate moving gates. By merely separating and trapping the queen, the swarm cannot be efficiently captured for the above-mentioned reasons.
• the above- referenced device fails to measure the bees' accumulation, neither it is able to further divide the colony after swarming.
• Patent description DE2264601 describes a device designed to be placed in front of the entrance, the rear wall of which will fit the hive's entrance and only worker bees can pass through its front wall. It is possible to let out the drones caught in the device.
• the device guides the emerging queen and drones forward due to its trapezoid shape, and the queen is trapped in the trap chamber.
• the swarm is also captured here with the help of the trapped queen.
• the device is not suitable for colony division after swarming though. Another major difference is that our invention is capable of detecting the swarming by measuring the bees' accumulation and will block the passage of the bees wishing to get back into the hive when swarming is detected. In diversion from the solution presented in this patent description, our device is furthermore capable of shortening the swarming fever.
• the third group of devices aimed at preventing damage arising from swarming contains devices suitable to capture swarms that have already left the hive and settled down outside.
• the device to manage swarming allows for the swarm to fly out of the hive, but because the swarm will become queenless, it will voluntarily return in the direction of the original hive where it will remain due to the captured queen and become easily managed.
• the parent colony can be weakened to the desired extent and dividing the colony can be carried out efficiently after capturing the swarm.
• An advantage of dividing the colony after swarming is that, by doing so, we can shorten the period of the swarming fever and for this reason, the swarming bee colony will stop foraging for only a short time.
• a further benefit of dividing the colony is that we can avoid the often pointless late afterswarms, which are undesirable since weak swarms or those emerging late will no longer be able to develop a bee colony that is able to winter.
• the device to manage swarming is able to capture swarms in a reliable and efficient way.
• the steps to create the device to manage swarming can be summarised in four main points as described below: A.
• A. By creating the device to manage swarming, we were looking for and have identified signs easily detectable by sensors that only occur upon swarming and are therefore specific to swarming. Such are the worker bees' accumulation in certain sections of the device or the detection of the formerly marked queen when it leaves the hive.
• the accumulation of worker bees can be caused by honey flow, orientation, a sudden thunderstorm, robbing or intensive scouting too. Since the worker bees' egress along the ancillary routes is cumbersome, the worker bees that have already left the hive will not orient themselves towards them in great numbers. Worker bees will almost entirely orient themselves towards the entrances of the main egress route and therefore want to get back into the device through them and then to the hive. Therefore the accumulation of the worker bees upon orientation, during intensive honey flow or in times of robbing will only occur along the main egress route.
• a further problem might arise from the accumulation of drones in front of the grids that would result in congestion and narrow down or even entirely block the passage of worker bees, which would be a serious limitation on the bee colony's activities.
• congestion can be avoided by letting the drones accumulating in the hive out of the hive at times other than the time of swarming. ⁇ .
• Upon the detection of swarming-specific signs we have guided the swarming bees in a timed manner through a moving gate.
• By the timed movement of the gate we have allowed all the worker bees wanting to swarm to leave though the device and the swarm to be complete.
• moving the gate we have furthermore prevented the bees flying back onto the device from returning to the hive.
• Figure 1 gives the side view of such an embodiment of the device to manage swarming which is mainly recommended to be used in moveable frame hives.
• One element of the device to manage swarming is to be mounted under the hive and the other on the front of the hive.
• Figure 2 gives the side view of an embodiment that can be applied in horizontal hives.
• the device is fitted to the front wall of the hive and the inlet of the device directly joins the hive's entrance.
• Figure 3 gives the side view of such an embodiment of the device to manage swarming that can equally be used for moveable frame hives and horizontal hives, by mounting the device directly at the hive's entrance.
• the device includes several types of sensors. Drones are allowed to pass through the queen trap periodically. Detailed description of some possible embodiments
• the device (1) It is advised to fit the device (1) on the hive well before the intensive honey flow and the swarming season so that the worker bees can get used to it, orientate to it and it should not hinder the bees' foraging activities. For the efficient operation of the device (1), it is important to ensure that the bees exiting the hive and returning to it could avoid the device (1), and that the swarming bees leaving the hive could leave through the device (1) only. In order to ensure the above-described, the device (1) must fit tightly and the hive should have no further entrances through which the bees could leave the hive.
• the device (1) can be mounted on the hive in several ways depending on the type of hive the device (1) is mounted on.
• the device (1) may have several structural designs. Below, we are describing two specifically favourable embodiments. According to the embodiment illustrated in Figure 1, the device (1) consists of two main components that can be fitted to one another, and one of them can be mounted to the bottom of the hive, to the lower box, while the other component of the device (1) can be mounted to the hive's front wall too.
• This design is highly recommended for moveable frame hives. With this design, the worker bees wanting to leave the hive will get to the component of device (1) in front of the hive through the component fitted to the hive and leave through it.
• a high surface grid (11) that prevents the passage of the drones is integrated in the component fitted to the bottom of the hive.
• the grid (11) to prevent the passage of drones can prevent the possibly high number of drones from getting into the component fitted to the front of the hive without causing congestion for the worker bees.
• the component of the device (1) fitted to the front of the hive can be detached from the hive and the other component of the device (1) easily, and can be removed with the swarm without having to lift the hive.
• the device (1) is not made up of components but can be installed on the hive's front wall, to the entrance, as one unit.
• the device (1) can be mounted tightly in such a case by using filler piece to fill any space between the hive's front wall and the external wall (16) of the device (1) facing the hive.
• This filler piece is advised to be installed on the hive before the device (1) is suspended on the hive.
• the easy installation and removal of the device (1) is . furthermore ensured by hooks mounted on the hive or the filler piece, onto which the device (1) can be mounted with a single movement of the hands.
• the device (1) After installing the device (1) on the hive, it is advised to slightly dislocate the plate blocking the arching path of the main egress route (19) of worker bees leaving the device (1) to make the passage of worker bees through the device (1) considerably easier.
• the two plates containing entrances designed to cross the arching path of the worker bees' main egress route (19) can be installed.
• the roof of the device (1) protruding far from the hive will protect the bees accumulated in front of the device (1) against precipitation and will also serve as a sun shade in the full glare of the sun.
• the various colours of the devices installed on neighbouring hives will reduce the chance of disorientation.
• the drones can be prevented from getting to the sections of the device (1) where the accumulation of worker bees occurs in a way specific to swarming, since it would disturb the operation of the integrated sensors (5).
• Such areas are the queen traps (4) and their neighbourhood.
• Another possibility to let drones leave the hive is to guide the accumulated drones towards the dividing opening (15) in the sections of the day not typical for swarming by making the inlet of the dividing tunnel (13) free by operating the moving gate (7).
• the moving gate (7) we can close the inlet of the dividing tunnel (13).
• the queen leaving the hive with the swarm will first push herself through the grid (11) to prevent the passage of drones, whose holes are the right size to allow the passage of the queen but not of the drones. Then the queen will get into the queen trap (4) through the guiding tunnel (3) along the ancillary egress route (20).
• the first of such reasons is that the swarming worker bees leaving the hive through the device (1) will perceive the absence of the queen in a short time and their instincts urge them to fly back to the hive. Meanwhile a part of the worker bees in flight back to the hive will perceive the queen's pheromones and other signals emitted by the queen, land on the queen trap (4) and cluster about it.
• the second reason to facilitate the worker bees' accumulation specific to swarming around the queen trap (4) is that the swarming worker bees leave the hive in a short time in vast crowds.
• the number of bees leaving the hive per unit of time may increase even tenfold upon swarming as compared with the orientation stage or the main honey flow.
• the worker bees ending up crowding in the device (1) during swarming cannot leave the device (1) without congestion through the main egress route (19) or leave through the entrances (2) in the device (1) falling in line with the main flight path. For this reason, a part of the bees will be guided towards the ancillary egress routes (20) and be forced to move in the direction of the queen trap (4) through the guiding tunnel (8).
• the number of worker bees per time unit ending up in the queen trap (4) positioned along the ancillary egress routes (20) is high. Worker bees accumulate in the queen traps (4), the large number of worker bees can pass through the queen traps' walls slowly, and the size of the queen traps is relatively small too.
• the high-scale accumulation of worker bees on the queen traps occurring upon swarming can be intensified by setting the entrances (2) of the device (1) in the queen traps (4) narrower by the component to control passage through the entrances (18), and consequently the worker bees can only slowly or at times not at all push their way through them.
• the accumulation of swarming worker bees only occurring upon swarming and generated by the device (1) is different from the accumulation of bees occurring for other reasons, since it occurs in a separate space. Therefore, with the device (1), we can induce the accumulation of bees specific to swarming, which we can use to detect the exact time of swarming.
• sensors (5) integrated in the device (1) in the direction of the ancillary egress routes (20).
• sensors (5) can be weight, heat, motion or optical sensors (5) too.
• the sensors (5) Upon detection, the sensors (5) will emit a signal to the control unit (6), which will operate the moving gate (7) with the help of an integrated actuator (17) in a timed way.
• the change in weight can be perceived by integrated springs (10) too; if such springs are used, the total weight of the bees clustering about the queen trap (4) will compress the springs (10) and they will close a circuit integrated in device (1) that will put the control unit (6) into operation.
• an integrated lever will tilt and as a result, the control unit (6) will switch on.
• the moving gate (7) is operated by a lever sensing the weight of the queen traps (4) and moved through mechanical transmission triggered by the change in weight.
• the device (1) can be operated even without a power source.
• the application of a control unit (6) is favourable for several reasons.
• the device (1) is also capable of analysing the signals coming from the sensors (5). In the event the effect triggering the sensors (5) is permanent and lasts for a large part of the time specific to swarming, the control unit (6) will put the moving gate (7) into operation. In the event the impact affecting the sensors lasts for only a short time, the moving gate (7) operated by the control unit (6) will not move.
• the sensors (5) can integrate some of the sensors (5) in the sections of the device (1) that are beyond the areas where the accumulation of bees specific to swarming can be observed. These sensors will detect the accumulation of bees not arising out of swarming at times of the main honey flow, orientation or robbing. The signals coming from these sensors (5) will be compared by the control unit (6) with the signals coming from the sensors (5) measuring the bees' swarming-specific accumulation. It will also allow for analysing the disturbing signals the sensors pick up that do not arise from swarming.
• the control unit (6) can start the integrated actuator (17) as soon as the swarming-specific impact starts to trigger the sensors (5) or even at times.
• the integrated actuator (17) will * narrow down the entrances (2) of the queen trap (4) by shifting the component to control passage through the entrances (18). Thereby it will further slow down the passage of worker bees through the queen trap's (4) walls or shut it down for a certain period in a controlled way.
• the control unit (6) Upon the accumulation of worker bees specific to swarming, in answer to the signals received from the sensors (5), the control unit (6) will put the moving gate (7) into operation and prevent the bees' return to the hive.
• the embodiment illustrated in Figure 3 shows a device (1) that also makes use of the detection of the formerly marked swarming queen.
• a device (1) in which a sensor (5) matched to the queen's marking is integrated.
• Queens can be marked in advance in several ways. Of them, attaching magnetic markings or RFID tags to the queen's thorax are preferable, since they are not interfered with by the incoming light or the bees present in the sensors' (5) detection zones.
• One of the advantages of the embodiment illustrated in Figure 3 is that device (1) also operates a moving gate (7) that will at the same time allow the drones to pass through in periods out of swarming.
• One of the main aims to be realised through the application of the device (1) is to capture the whole swarm, whether the queen leaves the hive at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the swarming. Should the queen leave the hive only at the end of the swarming and the sensors (5) emit signals to controls unit (6) already at the beginning of the swarming due to the bees' accumulation, and the moving gate (7) of the device (1) close even before the whole swarming process is completed, the queen and a part of the swarm may be caught in the hive.
• the control unit (6) is programmed to operate the moving gate (7) with some minutes' delay.
• the perforated walls and opening the inlet (13) of the dividing tunnel (12) integrated in the device (1) will ensure that the middle-aged worker bees and drones will get out through the outlet of the dividing tunnel (15) and join the captured swarm.
• the youngest worker bees of the swarm can get back into the hive only slowly and, for that reason, they are often trapped outside even if the moving gate (7) is closed with a delay.
• the queen trapped in the queen trap (4) is the guarantee for capturing the swarm efficiently.
• the device (1) is not only capable of capturing the bees constituting the swarm.
• the device can also prevent afterswarms and shorten the period of the swarming fever.
• the dividing tunnel (12) will guide the middle-aged bees of the bee colony to a new flight path.
• the inlet (13) of the dividing tunnel (12) integrated in the device (1) will become passable upon swarming for the bees wishing to fly out of the hive after the movement of the moving gate (7).
• the egressing bees may follow the path curving upward in the body (14) of the dividing tunnel (12) and get outside through the outlet (15) of the dividing tunnel (12).
• the bees leaving the hive will wish to return to the hive after swarming through the original flight path they had followed before swarming, and no passage is granted this way, the bees will strengthen the already captured swarm clustering on the device (1).
• the outlet of the dividing tunnel (15) can be positioned horizontally.
• the device (1) can be attached to the hive again. Furthermore, a pneumatic feeder can also be attached to the device (1) to feed the swarm.
• drones can fly out and the accumulation of drones in the sections of the device (1) fitted with sensors (5) and in the hive can be avoided.
• the drones leaving the hive and unable to return to the hive through the entrances (2) will request to join other bee colonies.
• the proper ventilation of the hive is ensured by the large aggregate surface of the entrances (2) of device (1). This will also ensure that bees would not congest in the device (1) even during the main honey flow.
• the device (1) if fitted with a pollen grid, can also be used as an external pollen collector out of the -swarming season. In that case, after falling through a horizontal grid placed in the bottom of the device (1), the collected pollen will gather in a box placed below.
• the device (1) is highly efficient to ensure protection against varroa disease for several reasons.
• the swarm can be treated with high efficiency since no brood is present.
• In the parent colony by the end of the second week following swarming, all brood emerges and only young open brood can be seen at most, which is an excellent opportunity to perform an effective anti-mite treatment.
• the control unit (6) if fitted with the necessary transmitter, can transmit information to the beekeeper about swarming and colony division even when the beekeeper is away from the apiary.

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• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• Animal Husbandry (AREA)
• Biodiversity & Conservation Biology (AREA)
• Biophysics (AREA)
• Catching Or Destruction (AREA)

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• 2015
  • 2015-01-29 HU HU1500030A patent/HU231081B1/hu not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2016
  • 2016-01-20 WO PCT/HU2016/000005 patent/WO2016120649A2/en active Application Filing
  • 2016-01-20 EP EP16742838.2A patent/EP3250028A4/de not_active Withdrawn

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