GB2082886A - Keeping bees - Google Patents

Abstract

Bees are kept and bred within a bees' compound unit which comprises several compartments 2-5 each of which houses a swarm of bees with one queen. One assembly chamber 14 is provided for all compartments, preferably four compartments, and all compartments have access to the assembly chamber, but the individual compartments do not have direct access between each other, but only can be reached via the assembly chamber. From the assembly chamber the bees can enter the feeding chamber. Since the bees are able to move from one compartment to another, only one compartment requires treatment, whereas the remaining compartments do not require caring for. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A method for keeping and breeding bees and a device for carrying out such method This invention relates to the keeping and feeding of bees.

In the field of bee breeding up to now, individual swarms of bees are kept separately within a bee-house and each swarm of bees is treated individually by the bee-keeper (fed, cared for, split up and so on). This is a considerable amount of work for the beekeeper and is substantially the same for each individual swarm of bees. The hobby beekeeper is generally fond of doing this job, but for the professional beekeeper, any saving of work is of advantage to him since he is interested in obtaining maximum honey output or success in breeding with a minimum or work and time involved.

It is known that the best results are obtained from those swarms of bees which develop best and which do not have the urge to swarm, because a swarm of bees does not work properly if it is preparing to swarm. \\however, it is the nursing bees (1 0-12 days old) which cause the bees to swarm, if there are too many of them. The beekeeper knows how to prevent the swarming of the bees, e.g. by taking away three or four closed breeding combs with as many of these young bees as possible as soon as the swarm of bees starts swarming; in this manner the swarm of bees loses its urge to swarm. However, such measures require a lot of time, because they have to be carried out separately for each swarm of bees: furthermore, the swarms of bees are considerably disturbed by such measures.

It is an object of this invention to provide a method and a device which will enable the breeding of bees and the gaining of honey to be by far more economic. Another object of this invention is to prevent the swarming of bees with a minimum of effort and work.

According to the invention, there is provided a method for keeping and breeding bees economically within a bee compound unit with several queens separated completely from each other, wherein the bees' compound unit includes several compartments, each of which includes a partial unit and accordingly a swarm of bees with a single queen, the bees of the individual compartments are given the opportunity to meet each other within an assembly chamber, the feeding of the bees is carried out via this assembly chamber in a feeding chamber common to all the bees of the bees' compound unit, only one of the compartments being chosen for treating the bees, from which compartment, especially when swarming is about to start, occupied breeding combs will be removed, and into which empty combs will be inserted so that nursing bees from the remaining compartments will be made to move into the compartment with the empty breeding combs. In order to make the queen of a compartment stay in her area, the openings are closed by a screen the meshes of which are so close that the queen cannot slip through.

Furthermore, according to the invention, there is provided a device for carrying out said method, comprising several adjacent compartments which will accommodate a partial unit including one queen and accordingly a swarm of bees from the large bees' compound unit, a central assembly chamber to which the bees in each of the compartments have access in such a manner that the bees from one compartment will be able to move via the assembly chamber to any of the other compartments, and closed walls between each two adjacent compartments so that the bees from one compartment cannot move directly into another compartment.

Preferably, injection-moulded plastic centrewall combs with cells at both sides of the centre wall are used in the device; the cells have cell walls of full height and with continuously slotted cell walls.

The device according to the invention makes provision for a central feeding place for the plurality of compartments so that all the bees from all the compartments meet each other to take up food at the feeding place and thus will get used to each other, and furthermore, makes provision for feeding the bees from a central place, to guarantee extremely good heat regulation within the entire system by arranging the central assembly chamber in a special manner; furthermore, only one compartment or alternatively one swarm of bees requires attention during the whole summer; e.g. in order to prevent the urge to swarm, occupied breeding combs only will be taken from one (preferably the same) compartment and corresponding empty combs, which are to be occupied again, will be inserted into this compartment so that a continuous flow of nursing bees from the remaining compartments into said partly emptied compartment will be obtained and, therefore, the beekeeper only has to work on this compartment.

If combs occupied with bees are taken away from the compartment to be treated when the bees are preparing to swarm and empty combs are inserted, the bees fly from the remaining compartments via the assembly chamber into this nearly empty compartment, which includes the queen with a smaller number of bees, so that this compartment will be filled very rapidly. This procedure can be repeated several times. The removed portions are then part of a unit which is to be newly built up; for instance four of these portions will form a new bees' compound unit which during the summer of the same year will grow to a full bees' compound unit. The number of four partial units for a bee compound unit is considered to be the most useful both from the breeding and the structural points of view.

The central assembly chamber to which all compartments have access, (preferably four compartments are provided at an angle of 900 to each other), is connected by means of slots, passages or the like with the individual compartments. Below this assembly chamber the feeding chamber is provided from which the bees of all four compartments fetch their food.Because the bees are prevented from moving from one compartment directly into another compartment -- the slots or the like are separated from each other by means of closing elements in order to prevent direct movement from one opening of a compartment into the opening of the next compartment -- the bees are forced to move to the feeding chamber via a common assembly chamber, and this has the effect that the bees from different compartments get used to each other so that an optimum delegation of work for the bees is obtained.Because the method according to this invention makes it possible to treat only one compartment and basically to leave the other compartments without any treatment, the bees within the other compartment are not disturbed in their natural behaviour and work, which is an advantage of the invention, because the harmony between the bees in the individual compartments will not be influenced or disturbed, but rather the bees will be able to maintain their daily rhythm without being disturbed from outside.

Within the other three non-treated compartments the bees will not develop the urge to swarm, because as soon as the urge to swarm sets in within the individual compartments, the bees within the treated compartment are controlled by taking away breeding combs with bees in such a manner that these bees, which according to their nature would start swarming, are given another job. Basically one third of the nursing bees are busy feeding the breed, whereas two thirds of the nursing bees prepare themselves for swarming. This group of nursing bees determined to swarm will be guided into the emptied compartment and will be given a job which the nursing bees would only perform if swarming was completed.In this manner the nursing bees do not get the feeding juice, so they are thus given continuous or useful work; this task will be given to them in the substantially emptied compartment, within which the queen has remained together with a few bees only.

According to the method of the invention the bees' desire to swarm will be prevented and the energy used for swarming will no longer wasted be but used for a more useful purpose, namely the breeding of young bees and for other useful jobs; e.g. the bees which are prevented from swarming are prepared to produce wax in a continuous manner and to close the slots within the plastic combs used for this device with wax. With known plastics combs which are coated with wax, the bees build up the decreased height of the cell walls of the combs to the full height of the cell walls, however, only over a limited time period. If the bees are offered wax by means of a wax coating used for plastic combs, they maintain their own wax until swarming is possible, at which opportunity they can use their wax for building up further cells.This problem does not arise in the method of the invention because swarming is prevented. With the combs used according to this invention, coating with wax is no longer necessary because the bees will use their own wax for completing the combs.

Furthermore, the large bees' compound unit according to the invention allows the breeding of the queens to start early. Whereas with usual swarms of bees early breeding of the queens is prevented, because the number of nursing bees available is not sufficient, the use of a bees' compound unit according to the invention with four partial units allows one to obtain four times the number of nursing bees.

The plastic comb which preferably is used for the device according to the invention is sufficiently stiff in itself to such an extend that it can be injection moulded from plastic material to its full cell wall height so that a stiffening frame is not required. In order to increase the stability of the plastic combs, the cells at both sides of the centre wall are staggered in relation to each other. The individual plastic combs of the device according to the invention are suspended from means, which are also made from plastic material and which are provided on the corresponding walls, in such a way as to be interchangeable.

Only such plastic cells can be used in connection with the device according to the invention, because the throughgoing slots, which are provided in the individual cells, would not be continuously completed by the bees in any other way. Using such plastic combs with usual swarms of bees would have the result that the slots would be closed by the bees with wax about twice within a season, but not continuously, which means at least eight to ten times as is the case with the device according to the invention. The shape of the combs used in these devices is preferably square.An extended rectangular shape of the combs has the result that the bees choose their feeding place within the combs on one of the short sides whereas they crowd together in a circular manner over the remaining part and remain in this part at the temperature of 340C even if the temperature outside of this area may be e.g.

200 C. Because the bees when leaving this warm area choose a path which does not lead to the combs through the feeding place the movement of the bees with extending, rectangular combs will be upward or downward and not in the direction of the openings to the assembly chamber.

However, if the combs are made substantially square-shaped, deposition of the food - as has been proven by practice -- is obtained in the upper area of the comb so if the bees move laterally they will directly come to the openings into the assembly chamber A further advantage of this invention is that the losses of bees during the winter in view of low temperatures and the like, which losses with normal treatment of the bees are about 30% per swarm of bees, can be completely or nearly completely avoided because within a bees' compound unit according to this invention an automatic exchange of bees within the individual compartments is obtained, and because the bees of the compound swarm of bees thus prevent the losses, which would otherwise results.This is an extremely important technical advance for the professional beekeeper.

The method according to the invention is performed in such a manner that early in spring, which means as long as the swarms of bees are developing, a compartment will be emptied. The bees from each comb will be swept into a collecting box. Only the queen with some hundred bees remain in their compartment. Within the compartment which has been emptied, the surplus nursing bees from the other compartments enter through the openings so that after a few minutes this compartment is occupied by bees.

This measure will be repeated every fortnight over a period of about three months. With the bees swept into the collecting box, initially small units with freshly batched young queens (which have been bred beforehand) are formed. During the subsequent measures (emptying the corresponding compartment of bees) new swarms of bees are formed with the young queens (which in the meantime have been fertilized), and the honey area is immediately free for these bees. The so-formed strong swarms of bees with young queens can be sold immediately as fresh swarms.

Altogether, by using the method and device according to the invention about 75% of working time can be saved, in addition 5070% more bees (which can be sold or can be used for producing honey) will be produced, and the bees will be able to do twice the amount of work, because the bees will not swarm.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 shows a schematic plan view of the device according to the invention, Figure 2 shows a cross-section, on an enlarged scale through the device on the line I-I of Figure 1, Figure 3 shows the comb according to Figure 1 in a plan view on an enlarged scale, and Figure 4 shows part of the comb of Figure 2 on an enlarged scale.

The entire beehive compound unit 1 consists of four identical or symmetricaliy identical compartments 2, 3, 4, 5, which join each other and have one corner in common, each compartment being restricted by the lateral walls 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and which together form a unitary structure of square shape. The individual compartments 2, 3, 4, and 5 are built in such a manner that they abut each other on one side and are arranged around an assembly chamber 14, which chamber is formed by the inner walls 8, 9.

Between the assembly chamber 14 and the walls 8, 9 a continuous gap 1 5 is provided, which is connected with the interior of the compartments 2 to 5 by means of openings or slots 1 6. The bees move from the compartments 2 to 5 through the slots 1 6 and the gap 15 into the assembly chamber 14 into another compartment, e.g. 3, 4, 5, the path between two adjacent compartments being closed by a closing element 1 6a or the like, which extends in a vertical position from the top to the assembly chamber. The slots 1 6 can be closed by simple bars 1 7 or the like so that if an individual compartment is to be removed from the entire unit 1, the corresponding compartment is closed by the bar 17, preventing the bees from escaping.At the openings 16, e.g. on their outer sides, a closing screen 1 7a is provided, the meshes of which are chosen in such a manner that the bees can slip through without any difficulty but the queen is not able to slip through. On the inner and the outer walls, which extend parallel to each other, latches 1 8 or alternatively latch-like elements are provided, from which the plastic combs 22 are suspended. A central tube 19, which leads into a feeding container 20, extends through the assembly chamber; the feeding container 20 is intended to be used by all the bees from the entire unit as the feeding area. This feeding container 20 is supplied with food through the tube 1 9 from above. The openings or slots 1 6 are provided in the walls 8, 9 of the individual compartments around the assembly chamber.The inner walls 8, 10 of the individual compartments are kept thin in order to obtain optimum heat insulation between the compartments and the assembly chamber 14. The further inner walls 7, 9 are also kept thin, however, e.g. have latches, in order to support the plastic combs; alternatively, as shown in figure 2, these walls can also be made somewhat thicker and can be provided at the upper end with recesses 18', from which the supporting elements 21 of the combs 22 are suspended. The outer walls 6, 13, 12, 11 of each compartment are made of good heat insulating material and have a relatively large diameter in order to prevent heat from escaping as far as possible.The material, e.g. foam plastic material, is covered with metal sheet on the inner and the outer surface in order to prevent the bees from eating the plastic material; the intermediate walls of the compartments, e.g. 10, are made of a material which has a low resistance against heat balance between the individual compartments, e.g. is made from plywood.

The described unit 1 is a breeding unit. At the top of this breeding unit a honey unit is arranged, which corresponds to the dimensions of the breeding unit, but which is removable and is separated by a closing floor from the breeding area.

The plastic combs 22 themselves are centre wall combs with full cell wall height, which are injection-moulded from plastic material. Cells 24 with full cell wall height start from the centre wall 23. Because producing plastic combs with full cell wall height by injection moulding is not possible from a practical point of view (or is at least extremely difficult), two walls each of the cells, which walls are in series and opposite to each other, are slotted (as shown at 26) in figure 4, so that the combs can be injection-moulded without any difficulty. The bees build up the slots 26 within the walls with their own wax. Furthermore, for reasons of stability, in the case of the centre wall combs, the cells on the one side are staggered with respect to the cells on the other side. However, other types of combs can be used for the device, though the above-described comb in view of its durability, ease of use and practicality, is especially suitable.

Claims (16)

1. A method of keeping and breeding bees in a bees' compound unit housing several queens separated from each other, wherein the bees' compound unit is subdivided into several compartments housing one queen each, the bees of the individual compartments are able to meet each other in or via a single assembly chamber which has access to all compartments, feeding the bees is carried out via said assembly chamber within a single feeding chamber common to all the bees, and only one of the compartments is chosen for caring for the bees.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein within the chosen compartment at the beginning of swarming of the bees, occupied breeding combs are removed and empty combs are inserted, and the activity of the bees is guided in such a manner that the urge of the bees to swarm is cancelled by passing those nursing bees, which do not have sufficient work, from the remaining compartments into the emptied compartment within which the queen with a small number of bees has remained.

3. Device for a bees' compound unit with several bees for carrying out the method according to claims 1 and 2, comprising several adjacent compartments, each forming part of the bees' compound unit and each housing a queen, a central assembly chamber formed with passages for the bees to each of the compartments in such a manner that the bees are able to move from one compartment via the assembly chamber into any other of the compartments, and closed walls between each two adjacent compartments in such a manner that the bees are prevented from moving from one compartment into another compartment directly.

4. Device according to claim 3, wherein four compartments are combined into one compound unit, which together enclose the assembly chamber.

5. Device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the compartments are identical or symmetrically identical.

6. Device according to claims 3-5, wherein a feeding chamber is provided underneath the assembly chamber.

7. Device according to claim 6, wherein between the walls of the compartments and the assembly chamber a ring chamber is provided, which is arranged as a continuous path and is connected to the feeding chamber.

8. Device according to claim 7, wherein the walls of the individual compartments are interrupted by slot-like openings which can be closed by locking means.

9. Device according to claims 3-8, wherein the assembly chamber is provided with a filling tube extending into the feeding chamber.

1 0. Device according to claim 3, wherein two opposite walls of each compartment have a constant distance from each other for all compartments and the walls are provided with extensions, latches, recesses or the like for taking up combs.

11. Device according to claim 3, wherein the outer walls of the compartments have a relatively large thickness to improve insulation, and the inner walls have an essentially smaller thickness than the other walls for obtaining a good heat exchange.

12. Device according to claims 3-11, wherein the walls of the device (inclusive bottom and top wall) are made of plastic material.

13. Device according to claims 3-12, wherein the combs-are injection-moulded centre wall combs made from plastic material having cells of full cell wall height at both sides of the centre wall.

14. Device according to claim 13, wherein one pair of opposite cell walls of each of said cells in one line have a through-going slot, which will be closed by the bees with their own wax.

1 5. Device according to claim 13, wherein the cells on one side of a centre wall opposite to the cells on the other side of the centre wall are staggered, preferably half the distance of two adjacent cells.

16. A method of keeping and breeding bees and a device for carrying out said method substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.