ES1076593U - Beehive for non-invasive beekeeping (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Hive for non-invasive beekeeping composed of a breeding chamber (8) and a series of melarian hikes (9) characterized in that the breeding chamber (8) consists of a cubic container of internal dimensions 57 x 57 x 57 cm, arranging in its upper part of three movable melares (9) of dimensions 57 x 57 x 10 cm, and disposed between said rises (9) perone grids (7) which will be formed by crossbars (13) of 24 mm in width arranged in parallel with a separation of 33 mm between longitudinal axes, and said crosspieces (13) being joined by a frame (14) so that the volume ratio of the breeding chamber (8) with respect to the volume in the set formed by the hikes melarias (9) is coincident with the golden ratio. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

BEE FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, as indicated in the title of this report, refers to a new type of hive whose structure and dimensions have been designed to create a space as close as possible to a natural hive, thus creating a technical tool that allows Bees develop properly. The characteristics of the present hive make unnecessary a lot of usual techniques traditionally used in the breeding of bees that are harmful to their development and limit their production, in addition to assuming significant production costs that reduce the profit ratios of the final production of honey. The present invention describes a hive model that does not require any type of maintenance, since at no time the interior of the hive has to be accessed, hence the term non-invasive, since it minimizes the usual diseases that occur in beekeeping and also greatly simplifies the construction and installation of the hive itself.

More specifically, the hive that is recommended consists of a framework that will be divided into two main parts, one dedicated to breeding and another dedicated to harvesting. This framework will be composed of modules of different dimensions, and will include among these modules the arrangement of devices that will be called Perone gratings, which allow bees to develop their honeycombs in a similar way to what they do in wild hives, to the while limiting access to other predators and preventing the development of disease-transmitting parasites within the colony.

Thus, the present invention is configured as a hive of novel characteristics which solves a multitude of problems existing in current beekeeping work and allows to obtain higher quality honey when it is free from any contact with any kind of chemical elements from the usual treatments against diseases of the bees, in addition to favoring the development of the colonies, since during the honey harvesting the death of the bees is not caused, and as it has been indicated previously, it greatly reduces the costs of production with respect to the hives existing within the current state of the art.

SCOPE

The present invention will have its field of application within the beehive manufacturing industry for beekeeping and, by extension, within beekeeping in general.

BACKGROUND

Within the current state of the art, many types of hives are known, which in a first classification can be distinguished between fixed honeycomb hives and mobile frame hives. The natural hive (also called rustic, the one that bees create by themselves in the hollow of a tree for example) logically belongs to the first type, the hives of mobile frames being an artifice created to facilitate the work of collection, and handling of the inside the hive by the beekeeper.

Within the hives of honeycombs or moving boxes we can mention the following types as the most common:

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Hive Layens: at present it is the most used type in Spain, especially in the southeast area. It consists of a single box that includes 12, 14, 16 or 24 moving frames, depending on the manufacturing model. It also consists of a hinged ceiling that, when opened, allows access to the interior and a central slat that can be closed. It is usually used in transhumance (transport of the hive following the flowering of the plants) given its small size, although it presents two important problems: it does not differentiate a breeding area from a honey zone, and does not allow its expansion, so its capacity cannot be increased as the size of the colony increases. The yield of such a beehive is around 17 kg of honey per year

•

Langstroth beehive: it is a vertical hive, formed by a lower box, called a breeding chamber, where the queen, pollen and bee breeding nuclei are found; and on these a multiplicity of rises of smaller size than the breeding chamber (denominated melarias rises), where the bees have the honeycombs with honey. There are several sizes of rises, which arise from the division of the standard increase, which usually produces about 22 kg of honey per year. This type of hive has the advantage of being able to expand the hive as the colony grows simply by incorporating a greater number of rises to increase the volume of the breeding chamber. In each melaria hike 10 mobile boxes are arranged, which once the time of collection is collected, they are removed one by one to remove the honey and return the intact honeycomb so that the bees can fill it again. The piquera is located at the bottom of the breeding chamber, consisting of a rectangle about 15 cm wide by 2 high. Among the most commented defects of this type of hives is its high cost, which implies a higher price of the final product or the impossibility of its installation in less developed countries, and the difficulty for its transport in transhumance. In this type of hive, the dimensions of the brood chamber are 53.5 x 38 x 24 cm, while the standard rises are 46.5 x 38 x 24 cm, being able to use half rises or rises of three quarters of height .

•

Dadant hive: it is a type of hive that arises from the Langstroth hive, where the most significant difference is that the height of the breeding chamber is increased to reduce the height of the molar rises making them more manageable by containing less honey and , in areas with

Short blooms, facilitates the filling of the boxes. Given the few differences with respect to the Langstroth, its advantages and disadvantages are practically the same. Here, the dimensions of the breeding chamber are 46.5 x 38 x 31 cm, while the rises are 46.5 x 38 x 17 cm.

•

Hive Smith and Lusitana hive: similar to the previous two, where the dimensions of the breeding chamber and melarial rises are modified, as well as the layout and size of the piquera, which is available in different orientations depending on the climate of the area where It will be installed. The Lusitana stands out for the small size of the hikes, which facilitate its handling. The measures of the Lusitanian hive are 37 x 38 x 31 cm for the breeding chamber and 37 x 38 x 16 cm for the molar rises.

•

Top Bar Hive: it is a horizontal hive (like the Layens, it does not allow rises) formed by a drawer that contains up to 40 frames. Separating grilles and panels are arranged to increase or decrease the useful size of the drawer and allow techniques such as the arrangement of two queens, one at each end of the drawer, to be entered into competition by the intermediate breeding zone between the two. Within this type of hives we can differentiate the so-called Tanzanian, consisting of a straight drawer with moving frames, and the Kenyan, where the drawer is a trapeze and does not have frames, but only the upper structures of the frames are arranged for leave the honeycomb to be in charge of the bees. The inclination of the sides fulfills the function of preventing bees from sticking the honeycomb to them. This type of horizontal hives are designed for use in few developed countries given the ease of construction, although they have the disadvantages of any horizontal hive, especially the low yield.

Each of these types of beehive is characterized by having certain dimensions, which are those that its creators have considered optimal for the activity of beekeeping, each having its own advantages and disadvantages that will make them suitable for a type of beekeeping and a certain environment so that their characteristics make them preferable to the rest.

All these types of beehive traditionally used for beekeeping, however, are configured based on a series of knowledge that despite being taken for granted by the vast majority of beekeepers, scientific works have periodically emerged that have shown that many of the techniques used do not result in the benefit of production, even being harmful to it, as may be the case of the grid excluding queens, which has been shown to reduce the longevity of bees by 45%, assuming an important cost in replacement of individuals for the colony. Based on these studies, the hive proposed in the following invention lacks said element.

Another common mistake in the design of the hives is the fact that they must be small in size to facilitate their heating by the cluster created by the bees. The creation of breeding chambers whose volume can be modified by supplementing or eliminating increases is a direct consequence of this assumption. It is intended to have small breeding chambers in winter which will be expanded with the arrival of good weather and the consequent growth of the colony. With the same intention of maintaining the temperature inside the hive, unfortunate techniques are used such as the provision of a “poncho” or plastic cover on the heads of the nest boxes or the use of a cover with a small hole between the cluster of bees and honey reserves.

Investigations carried out on the winter cluster conclude that said cluster is not intended to heat the interior of the hive, but that it forms an insulating shell made from bees that are very tight to each other, in a thickness that varies between 3 and 7 cm. Said insulating shell protects the heat produced by bees from the inner zone closest to the center. In prolonged periods of cold it has been found that the temperature inside the hive, whether double or single wall and regardless of its size, gradually approaches to match the outside temperature. On the other hand, it has been found that what is highly damaging to the cluster are air currents, which cause a significantly lower thermal sensation, thus forcing bees to produce more heat inside and thus spend energy which in winter they have in limited quantities. Thus, the fact of opening the breeding chamber in winter to change its volume results in serious damage to the cluster. From all this it follows that a fixed volume breeding chamber is much more suitable for the purpose of maximizing the hive's performance.

It is known that the size of the colony varies throughout the year, being its largest size just before the time when more food will be found (called "honeydew") so that there are the largest number of individuals to store food .

Progressively the colony will decrease in size until it reaches its minimum expression in the cold season, where the cluster is formed. Said cluster consumes energy for heat generation, and replenishes said energy by consuming operculated honey arranged in the honeycombs, so that the cluster is advancing as it consumes said honey. Therefore, limiting the space of the breeding chamber actually means depriving bees of the reserves they have for winter. In addition, honeycombs with honey reserves fulfill an aid function in heating the cluster, since thanks to their high thermal inertia they are able to store the sun's heat during the day and later release it at night. It is therefore necessary to have a breeding chamber that has enough space for bees to create the necessary reserves, and that is also positioned so that during the winter it receives as much solar radiation as possible.

A small size of the piquera, just to allow the access of the bee inside the honeycomb, will protect the latter from the penetration of air currents and the access of predators or larger bees to that of the colony that inhabits said hive , so that it is desirable to have a size of as small as possible, and with an orientation that makes it difficult to access air currents as much as possible.

Another commonly accepted belief is that bees are not able to lift large honeycombs without the help of the wires that we find in the mobile boxes commonly used, since if these were missing, the headsets would be deformed by the weight or the honeycombs themselves would break. There are a multitude of graphic testimonies that show that bees can easily create honeycombs that are much larger than the same mobile frames, as can be seen when a wild hive is found in a large hole (in a large tree , for example) and where they do not suffer discomfort. On the other hand, it is considered that on the honeycombs residues left by the bees are lodged, which progressively shrink the space of the cells, so that the older a honeycomb is, the less space there will be for beekeeping, there will be a point in which the same queen rejects the cell because of its small size. This is why the honeycombs two or three years old are replaced by new honeycombs periodically. However, the bees perform periodic cleaning of the honeycombs, so the fact that the wax has darkened (traditional signal for removal) does not imply the need for replacement, considering that the life of a honeycomb may be around ten years, and knowing cases of well-taken apiaries who have wax paintings of more than thirty years, referred to in the book "Practical beekeeping" by Moisés Katzenelson. What is indicated in this paragraph therefore makes a hive without moving frames preferable, only with supports that allow bees to make their own honeycombs, which also results in a lower production cost of a hive.

The use of wire frames with stamped wax for beekeeping with cells larger than usual is another typical mistake. By having large cells, large bees are obtained, with the assumption that they will produce more honey than the same number of smaller bees. However, this practice has resulted in a common parasite of bees, the varroa, which formerly only affected drones, which are larger and raised on the periphery of the nest, now affect all of the the colony. This mite, due to the larger size of the bee, has the possibility of entering through the first thoracic spiracle, obtaining access to the lungs (which is impossible in wild colonies with smaller bees), thus causing endless concomitant diseases. On the other hand, the larger size of the cell forces the honeycombs to be more separated, so there is a greater loss of heat inside the nest, with heat being a natural limiting factor of the varroa. Thus, a beehive that allows bees to make cells “of their choice” allows to naturally control a pest that currently represents one of the main problems for beekeeping and that imposes a significant expense on insecticides and treatments against said parasite, which they involve adding unwanted chemical ingredients to the resulting honey in addition to the cost of the treatment and the labor required to perform it.

Since the separation between panels is an important factor in controlling varroa, it would therefore be desirable to have an arrangement of elements that would allow bees to create honeycombs at the appropriate distance to naturally control varroa, such as the Perone grid described below, which is incorporated into the hive object of the present specification.

A small beehive is manageable when performing all the treatments usually used, modify the volume of the hive, remove frames, etc. However, various studies show that honey production grows exponentially in relation to the size of the colony, so that a hive twice as large as another will actually produce four times as much honey as that. Therefore, the larger the size of the hive, the greater the cost savings. It is therefore desirable a hive that has a large internal volume, but at the same time avoid problems that would result from that size (difficulty in maintenance and in the work of collection).

At this point the problem to be solved is to achieve the best ratio between the breeding chamber and the melarial rises. The solution provided by the hive that is recommended herein is described below.

It is not known by the owner of this report any type of hive that solves the problems cited in the way that is done as recommended in this report.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The configuration of the hive that is recommended is of vertical type, with a breeding chamber on which the molar rises are stacked, which are arranged so as to facilitate their removal and assembly. The hive is designed in order to allow bees to always have enough space to store all the reserves they need to survive without mishaps in times of cold or water shortage, so honey production will be differentiated in two parts: honey produced in the breeding chamber, which will not be accessible to the beekeeper and will always be available to the bees themselves; and the honey produced in the molar rises, which will be the one harvested.

As indicated, the breeding chamber is designed not to be opened at any time in the production cycle, so it is constituted as a closed container whose only access point for bees will be the piquera, arranged in the part bottom of the chamber itself, on a face opposite to that of the prevailing winds in the area. Access by the beekeeper will only be possible through the removal of the molar rises and the disassembly of an inclusive grid arranged in the upper part of the breeding chamber. In any case, it will not be necessary to carry out this disassembly except in very exceptional cases, which could be considered “catastrophic” situations as in the case of floods, for example, where the entire colony died and that would force the opening to clean the interior of the hive and reuse it under normal conditions.

The breeding chamber must have a volume such that the proportion with respect to the volume of the molar rises closely resembles the urea ratio, that is, that for every 5 volumes in the breeding chamber 3 volumes are arranged in The rising melarias. This proportionality is what allows maximizing the hive's performance, since a higher volume of hikes is hardly filled by bees and a smaller volume prevents bees from producing everything they could.

The performance of each hike will be, calculating this as the storage capacity available to it, since research on the model has shown that the bees complete it without difficulty, it will be a little more than 33 kg of honey.

Based on this, the recommended hive will be made by a breeding chamber that will be a hollow cube, of internal dimensions of 57 x 57 x 57 cm, the external dimensions being a function of the type of material used for its construction and its thickness.

The most common material for the construction of the hive that is recommended will be untreated wood, since it is easy to obtain, easy to work and is not excessively expensive if acquired in standard measures. In any case, it will be possible to manufacture the hive in any type of material and even using combinations of different materials, such as mud and stone or by using artificial materials.

On said cube the three melarial rises will be arranged, which will be drawers 57 x 57 cm in height and 10 cm high. On the lower rise and the central one a Perone grid is arranged, which will offer bees the possibility of manufacturing the honeycombs without using any other attachment, however making said panels at the appropriate distance that allows the varroa's natural control and allowing the passage of bees from one hike to another without impediments. The upper rise will be covered by a roof formed simply by several boards attached to each other to cover the surface of the rise plant, giving the bees the possibility of forming their honeycombs from those boards, acting analogously to a Perone grid .

Perone grilles may be embedded in the rises, in which case their outer dimensions would be coincident with the inside dimensions of the boost; or have the same internal and external measures as the hike in which case they would be arranged right at the top of it. Depending on the option chosen, it will be important to adapt the measures of the set of rises so that their volume, including the grids, always maintains the? Urea ratio with respect to the volume of the breeding chamber.

The Perone grilles consist of a series of crossbars 24 mm wide, all of them arranged in parallel, leaving a gap of 33 mm between the central axes of each crossbar, so that a free gap of 9 mm is left between each pair of crossbars. Depending on the configuration adopted, the hive will have 17 crossbars 24 mm wide, always taking into account that the free space of 9 mm between each of them must be respected, achieving with this arrangement the automatic control of varroa such as it is exercised by wild populations from whom this same model is copied.

The soil or floor of the brood chamber will fly a few centimeters in the area of the piquera, so that the bees can perch, thus facilitating their access to the interior of the hive.

The corners of the breeding chamber should incorporate bevelled vertical slats at 45º, so that they convert the right angle of the corner into two obtuse angles of 135º that result in a more habitable cabin for bees by allowing them to take advantage of this space, which It is more like a wild hive in which the right angles are non-existent.

In the case of the need to transport the hives, it is foreseen the possibility of having a bar in the breeding chamber that allows bees to take said bar as an integral part of their honeycombs, which will make the series of honeycombs unbreakable . Such bars are necessary only in the event that the hive will be moved. Since the breeding chamber once the hive has been put into use will become a closed and inaccessible space, it will be advisable to incorporate said bar in the event that there is a possibility that the need to move the hive arises.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1. A perspective view of the hive is presented, where the brood chamber can be seen in the lower part and the collection area formed by three logs in the upper part.

Fig. 2. An exploded view of the previous figure can be seen, with a brood chamber with Perone grating on its upper part and three looms, two with Perone grating on the top and another with the roof of the hive.

Fig. 3. A detail of the Perone grid is shown separated from the rest of the hive.

Fig. 4. A perspective view of the hive described in the preferred embodiment example is observed, manufactured from several stacked rises and with a minialza to adjust to the proportions between indicated chamber volumes and collection area.

Fig. 5. A new view of the breeding chamber is shown, where it is possible to observe the beveled vertical crossbars at 45 ° that are arranged in the inner corners.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention is illustrated by the following example, this being done by way of illustration and not intended to limit its scope at all. A preferred embodiment of the hive described herein is presented below, along which possible design alternatives will also be indicated that give rise to adaptations to various situations that may arise in the hive placement environment.

For the realization of the present example, the use of precut wood in standard measures one inch thick and four inches wide, preferably without brushing, is taken into account, since one of the main objectives of the present invention is to reduce costs to the extent of the possible. In this way it will be possible to make the hive with a single table measurement. In any case, depending on the most common measures in each country, it will be possible to adapt the construction of a hive as the proposal always respecting the dimensions and proportions referred to in the description of the invention.

In the present example a hive is configured as described above from several stacked hikes, so that the lower hikes will form the breeding chamber and the rest will be molar hikes. This facilitates the hive manufacturing, although a breeding chamber made as a single element would offer identical results.

Initially a floor (4) or floor will be formed consisting of 5 tables four inches wide (11) and a table more than six inches wide (12) that will protrude from the hive plant and whose flight will be arranged under the boardwalk (3), thus creating a platform for the bees perched (2). The piquera must be one centimeter high and five centimeters long, which allows bees to better protect and control the interior climate of their hive in an appropriate way, taking advantage, as they do in nature, the principles of Joule-Tomphson and the one of Venturi tube.

The hive (1), as indicated, will be made from several equal rises (5) formed by 4 boards four inches (11) wide which join at their ends forming a square of 57 x 57 cm interior dimensions

For the formation of the breeding chamber five rises (5) will be stacked alternating the joints between frames so as to avoid giving continuity to the joints between boards, to give greater structural resistance to the whole. In the upper part there will be a mini-rise (6) made with 7 cm wide boards (13). On this mini-hike (6) an inclusive grid (7) will be arranged, which will crown the whole of the breeding chamber (8).

The melaria rises (9) will also be configured from rises (5) such as those of the breeding chamber (8), providing the first and second melaria rises

(9) a Perone grid (7), and crowning this set with the last hike (9) which will support the roof (10) of the hive.

The roof (10) will be formed from 6 four-inch boards (11), so that they cover the entire floor of the hive, without needing to protrude in any way.

The Perone gratings (7) will be all the same, and will be made from one inch thick boards. There will be 17 parallel crossbars (13) of 575 mm. in length, which will be separated from each adjacent crossbar a distance of 9 mm. The crossbars (13) will be 24 mm wide. All the crossbars (13) will be joined by a frame (14) that will fix the assembly and will have a width of 15 mm, so that the ends of the crossbars rest on the frame, thus preventing the support of said crossbars be performed only by mechanical union with the frame.

5 An alternative for the manufacture of Perone grilles (7) would be the arrangement of the crossbars (13) inside the rises where they are to be placed, so that the frame (14) becomes unnecessary. Finally, in the inner corners of the breeding chamber (8), four vertical beams (15) beveled at 45 ° are arranged, said crossbars attached to each of the rises (5 and 6) that

10 make up the chamber, thus giving greater rigidity to the assembly and softening the pronounced concave angles that these corners caused and which hardly appear in a natural environment. In case of carrying out the breeding chamber

(8) as a single drawer, the vertical crossbars (15) will be attached to all possible elements that make up said drawer.

15 Describing sufficiently the nature of the present invention, as well as the way of putting it into practice, it is not considered necessary to broaden its explanation so that any expert in the field understands its scope and the advantages that derive from it, stating that , within its essentiality,

20 may be put into practice in other embodiments that differ in detail from that indicated by way of example, and which will also achieve the protection that is sought as long as it is not altered, changed or modified its fundamental principle.

Claims (11)

 RE I V I N D I C A C I O N E S 1. HONEY FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING composed of a breeding chamber (8) and a series of melarial rises (9) characterized in that the breeding chamber (8) consists of a cubic container of internal dimensions 57 x 57 x 57 cm, providing in its upper part of three detachable molar risers (9) of dimensions 57 x 57 x 10 cm, and between these risers (9) being arranged Perone grilles (7) that will be formed by crossbars (13) 24 mm wide arranged in parallel with a separation of 33 mm between longitudinal axes, and said crossbars (13) being joined by a frame (14) so that the proportion of the volume of the breeding chamber (8) with respect to the volume in the set formed by the molar rises (9) is coincident with the proportion �? Urea.

2.

BEEKEEPING FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claim 1, characterized in that a Perone grid is also arranged between the breeding chamber (8) and the risers (9).

3.

BEEKEEPING FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the upper melaria (9) has a fixed roof (10) formed from tables attached to each other so that they cover the hive plant.

Four.

HONEY FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the runner (3) has dimensions of one centimeter high and 5 centimeters long.

5.

HONEY FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claim 4, characterized in that the runner (3) is arranged on the hive face less exposed to the prevailing winds of the area in which the hive has been implanted.

6.

BEEKEEPING FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claims 1 to 5 characterized in that the floor (4) of the hive has a flight that forms an area of perching (2) for the bees, said area of perching (2) being under the piquera (3) , said floor being formed by boards nailed upwards next to each other.

7.

BEEKEEPER FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claims 1 to 6 characterized in that the breeding chamber is formed from 5 rises

(5)

internal dimensions 57 x 57 cm and 10 cm high and a mini-rise

(6)

internal dimensions 57 x 57 cm and 7 cm high.

8.

HONEY FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claim 1, characterized in that the crossbars (13) that make up the Perone grid (7) are attached to the melaria hike (9) in its upper part, which acts as a frame in this case.

9.

HONEY FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claim 1, characterized in that between the breeding chamber (8) and the rise (9) immediately

a Perone grid (7) is arranged on top. 10. BEEKEEPING FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claims 1 to 9 characterized in that the breeding chamber (8) has in its corners 5 interior, vertical beams (15) beveled at 45 ° arranged so that the right angle of the corner becomes two obtuse angles of 135 ° each. 11.COLMENA FOR NON-INVASIVE BEEKEEPING according to claim 10, 10 characterized in that the vertical crossbars (15) are connected to all the rises (5 and 6) that make up the breeding chamber (8).