NZ220150A - Tubular container for transporting bees allowing flow-through of air - Google Patents

Description

220150 No.: 220150 Date; 30 April 1987 NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT, 1953 ^2 APR toco m/j COMPLETE SPECIFICATION '7°° jj A BEE CONTAINER I j We> RUSSELL ARTHUR BERRY IN TRUST FOR ARATAKI HONEY LIMITED, c/b Waiotapu, State Highway 5, Rotorua, New Zealand, a New Zealand citizen hereby declare the invention, for which I / we pray that a patent may be granted to me/us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- o 220150 O This invention relates to apparatus for containing living creatures.-More particularly it relates to apparatus for storage and/or transportation therein of living bees or other creatures.

There is an increasing demand for apparatus for use in the long distance transportation cf bees. This is due to a number of factors including the increasing demand for bee products (and thus bees) and the s»y increasing transportation of bees around the world. In this regard there is great fear in North America of the Africanised bee and Varroa which is spreading from South America and disturbing the traditional European passive bee. Thus places like Canada are increasingly resistant to the importation of bees from Central or South America. At least during 1987/88 the USA/Canada border was closed to bee transportation. Thus any apparatus which facilitates the long distance transport of bees (and thus will enable bees to be shipped by sea or air from non affected areas, eg. New Zealand) would be of great benefit to the bee keeping community.

The traditional means of packaging bees for transportation has been to use substantially rectangular boxes with gauze on two opposing sides thereof. A plurality of these boxes are stacked beside and on top of each other and several boxes of bees are transported in that way. The great difficulty with this method is that the boxes are very susceptible to the environmental conditions outside of the box. The bees themselves have little way of controlling the environment within the box. Further each box is affected by the boxes surrounding it. Thus instead of each box having access to fresh air they may instead be forced to draw heated air from a neighbouring box instead of the fresh air outside. This means of transportation has proved inadequate for long distances and unless the outside environment can be kept at a constant acceptable level may lead to a high mortality rate. 2201 It is an object of this invention to go some way towards overcoming these disadvantages or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Accordingly the present invention may be said broadly to consist in apparatus for the storage and/or transportation therein of bees or like insects comprising an elongate, substantially hollow conduit member, said member comprising means for the ingress of air at the lower end (when in use) thereof, means for the egress of air at the upper end (when in use) thereof and means for retaining storage of bees in said conduit member when in use, the construction and arrangement being such that air can be conducted from the means for the ingress of air, through the conduit member and out the means for the egress of air, and such that said member is substantially impermeable to air except at said means for the ingress of air and said means for the egress of air.

Preferably said elongate member is tubular.

Preferably said means for the ingress of air comprises at least one covered hole through the conduit.

Preferably said means for the egress of air comprises a removable gauze cap fitted over the upper end (when in use) of the conduit member.

Preferably said removable gauze cap provides a sealable removable means for the ingress and egress of the bees.

Preferably there is feeding means from which the bees can feed.

Preferably said feeding means consists in a feed sock Trij^h in use hangs from the top end of said conduit means.

Preferably the said feed sock holds approximately one - 4 - 2201 Preferably there is a queen cage for the queen bee to live in.

Preferably the conduit member Is substantially light proof so that the bees are in a dark environment.

Preferably the bees are able to restrict ventilation if they so desire.

Preferably the apparatus is as hereinafter defined.

In a further embodiment the present invention consists in a method of storing and/or transporting bees comprising placing said bees within a hollow, elongate conduit member, said member comprising means for the ingress of air substantially at one end thereof, means for the egress of air substantially at the other end thereof, and means for retaining bees in said conduit when in use. sealing said conduit so that it substantially retains the bees therein and stacking said conduit so that said end thereof including said means for the ingress of air is lower than said end thereof including said means for the egress of air.

Preferably said means for the egress of air comprises a sealable removable gauze cap, said cap providing the means for placing (and removing) said bees in (from) said conduit member.

Preferably said conduit member is as hereinbefore defined.

Preferably the method is as hereinafter described.

The invention consists in the foregoing and also envisages constructions of which the following gives examples.

The invention may be more fully understood by having reference to the accompanying drawing wherein Figure 1 shows an elevatioiT^sl-^e^^vi^w of the preferred version of the apparatus- a 220150 The apparatus generally comprises a conduit member. This conduit member is to allow for the controlled passage of air through the apparatus. For ease of air passage the conduit member is preferably elongate and a hollow tubular member (generally indicated 1 in Figure 1) has proved to be the best conduit. It is also desirable to reduce the light inside the package (whilst maintaining economy in production) and heavy weight cardboard has proved to be the most cost effective means of achieving this. The preferred embodiment (Figure 1) is manufactured from heavy weight cardboard but of course any material (so long as it will retain the bees) eg plastics or wood would be suitable. Referring to Figure 1 the conduit member is an elongate hollow tube 2. Whilst substantially any dimensions are operable with the invention it has been found that a tubular member approximately 1.4 metres high with a diameter of about 90 mm provides sufficient internal volume for storage/transportation of about one kilogram of bees (approx. 9000 bees) which is sufficient to start a new hive. Further the height is sufficient to set up a good convection flow of air.

The means of ingress of the air at the lower end (in use) of the apparatus can be any aperture in the tube. However it must be sealed against escape of the bees if the bees have access to the aperture. (The access may be sealed off from the bee retaining area by an air transmitting seal eg gauze). In the embodiment shown (Figure 1) there are four apertures 4 spaced about the lower end of the tube 2. These apertures are sealed from bee escape (but allow air transmission) by gauze 5. The bottom of the tube the embodiment shown, may be seal At the upper end (in use) of the conduit member is the means for egress of the air. Again this can be any bee proof aperture but it is preferably a gauze covered cap 3 with holes therein. In practice it has been found that it is desirable if this upper cap 3 can also operate as a means for placing and removing the bees from the conduit member. Thus preferably the cap 3 is removable, the bees are placed within the conduit member and the cap can then be sealed.

It is also desirable to provide the bees with food during storage/transportation. Any device insertable within the conduit member containing the food stock is acceptable but it has been found that in association with the elongate tube conduit a feed sock 7 which in use hangs from the upper end of the tube provides good access to food for the bees. The preferred feed stock is about one kilogram of sugar syrup, jellied with agar or candy or dry sugar.

Attached to the feed sock 7 is a queen cage 8 which protects the queen bee during storage/transportation.

In operation the conduit is prepared with the lower end 6 and apertures A sealed. The bees are loaded into the conduit through the upper end thereof with the cap 3 having been removed. Once the bees are within the conduit the feed sock 7 and queen cage 8 are slid therein and the cap 3 is sealed on the top so that the conduit is bee proof but allows he passage of air. |jln transporting the bees there will be preferably a plurality of the ' e containers standing upright and shipped as a block of units. No titular container has its air intake (lower end) above the outlet of nother container and thus each lot of bees receives "fresh" air.

The advantages of our invention are many and varied. Outlined below are some of these benefits. 7 - 220150 1. The bees have a greater control over the environment inside the container relative to the outside environment. The bees are able to draw cool, fresh air from low down and discharge warm aromatic air high up.

The bees are not forced to draw air discharged from other containers which was a problem with the traditional bee package. The bees use natural air convection. Further the bees are able to restrict the air flow (eg if the outside environment is cool) because the tube is narrow by sealing or partially sealing the tube themselves. In addition the container is substantially light proof thus reducing the stress or the bees when the tubes are shifted into an environment with different light intensity. 2. The container is relatively easily sealed to make it bee resistent and this reduces the chances of the bees escaping accidentally. 3. The container because of its cheap materials and ease of construction is cheaper and less labour intensive to manufacture than the traditional package. 4. The feeding system to sustain the bees during transportation because of its simplicity will not leak when subject to air variations or jarring and is reliable under a wide variety of conditions including when the containers are laid on their sides. This is achieved by using preferably a synthetic mesh cloth to make a long feed sock filled with the sugar syrup gelled with agar.

. A particular advantage of the invention is that due to the shape of the preferred embodiment including the long sock there is a greater surface for the bees to hold on thus lessening the stress of the bees holding onto each other during lengthy transportation. 220150 6. The package is more space efficient than traditional packaging . and thus is cheaper to transport. It has been found that with traditional packaging 432 x 2 pound packages could be transported on an airline pallet 125 inches x 88 inches. With the preferred container it is possible to transport 742 x 2 pound packages on the same sized airline pallet. 7. All packages can be watered during transportation if necessary. 8. The packages are both easier to fill with bees and easier to hive than traditional packages. The bees are removed by merely taking off the gauze cap 3 removing the feed sock with the queen attached and tipping the tube upside down when a single knock on the floor board discharges basically all the bees.

All of the above advantages allow for bees to be transported in more diverse and less environmentally acceptable surrounds such as planes with poor air conditioning and by sea transport lasting many weeks. With traditional packaging many bees, if not all, would die with this type of transport.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment but other materials may be used without departing from the scope of the invention. Further the particular dimensions of the package are not crucial.

Claims (1)

1. 22015 9 WE CLAIM IS: Apparatus for the storage and/or transportation therein of bees or like insects comprising an elongate, substantially hollow conduit member, said member comprising means for the ingress of air at the lower end (when in use) thereof, means for the egress of air at the upper end (when in use) thereof and means for retaining bees in said conduit member when in use, the construction and arrangement being such that air can be conducted from the means for the ingress of air, through the conduit member and out the means for the egress of air, and such that said member is substantially impermeable to air except at said means for the ingress of air and said means for the egress of air. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said elongate member is tubular. Apparatus as claimed in either of claims 1 and 2 wherein said means for the ingress of air comprises at least one covered hole through the conduit member. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said means for the egress of air comprises a removable gauze cap fitted over the upper end (when in use) of the conduit~"m&mb.er. ■*$s&£L: "*..V ■ • Nj ,TP^i?*e- 'EW V- .'. e> 2£0150 - 10 - V— 5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said removable gauze cap provides a sealable removable means for the ingress and egress of the bees. 1 © 6. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein there is feeding means from which the bees can feed. 7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 6 -wherein said feeding means consists in a feed sock which in use hangs from the top end of said conduit member. 8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said feed sock holds approximately one kilogram of food stock. o 9. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein there is a queen cage for the queen bee to live in. 10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 9 -wherein said queen cage is attached to said feed sock. 11. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the conduit member is substantially light proof so that the bees are in a dark environment. 12. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the 13. A method of storing and/or transporting bees comprising placing said bees within a hollow, elongate conduit member, said member comprising means for the ingress of air substantially at one end thereof, means for the egress of air substantially at the other end thereof, and means for retaining bees in said conduit member when in use^ sealing said conduit member so that it substantially retains the bees therein and stacking said conduit, member so that said end thereof including said means for the ingress of air is lower than said end thereof including said means for the egress of air. 14. A method as claimed in claim 13 wherein said means for the egress of air comprises a sealable removable gauze cap, said cap providing the means for placing (and removing) said bees in (from) said conduit member. 15. A method as claimed in claim 13 or claim 14 which uses an apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12. 16. Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing. 17. 4wiethod substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to I tfce accompanying drawing. ?90 „ 18n Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12 and 16 containing bees. 220150 - 12 - A bundle of a plurality of apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12 and 16. A bundle as claimed in claim 19 wherein said apparatus contain bees. DATED THIS 19^ DAY A. J. PARK & S0N AGENTS FOR THE APPLICANTS