AU2006100847A4

AU2006100847A4 - Artificial beehive

Info

Publication number: AU2006100847A4
Application number: AU2006100847A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Joseph Hines
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-10-06
Filing date: 2006-10-06
Publication date: 2006-11-09
Anticipated expiration: 2014-10-06
Also published as: WO2008061286A1

Description

O1 _ARTIFICIAL BEEHIVE

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FIELD OF INVENTION This invention relates to beehives and beekeeping, in particular, but not exclusively to a S beehive or bee-box of tubular configuration and construction.

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_BACKGROUND ART 0 Beekeeping is both a hobby and an industry of great commercial significance worldwide.

Prior art, beehives, or bee-boxes come in a multitude of shapes and designs but are generally of a modular and demountable configuration to provide the ready access and extraction of the honey produced within without too much disturbance or annoyance to the bees.

In all types of beekeeping apparatus, cleanliness is a priority, not only to ensure the quality of the honey produced, but also for the health and survival of the bees. The cleaning of artificial beehives is therefore a regular and important task, and usually involves washing the beehives with detergent and antibiotics to prevent the cultivation of bacteria, viruses and 0 parasites detrimental to the bees.

As most of the prior art construction of beehives is of timber and possibly plastics of usually a rectangular or square configuration, cleaning is difficult, especially in corners and the durability of the beehive is often compromised by the repeated wetting of the cleaning cycle.

Prior art beehives or bee-boxes, such as those disclosed by US 4459715, US 4199832, US 5035668 generally follow fairly traditional patterns of construction of square or rectangular shape.

These bee-boxes are usually assembled into sections to form a stack wherein one or more box sections can be removed for cleaning and maintenance purposes. Inside the bee-boxes are usually suspended removal racks or frames for the bees to build honeycombs and on which to secrete their honey.

OBJECTION OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to seek to ameliorate some of the disadvantages of the prior art artificial beehives or bee-boxes or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

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_SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

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0 C Accordingly, in one aspect therefore, the invention resides in an artificial beehive, including in combination, at least a pair of elongate tubular chambers, 00 _the chambers each having end walls and removable end caps, Sthe end caps having entry and exit means for the ingress and egress of bees into and from the chambers, the end walls in rotatable connection with one another, the end walls having one or more alignable apertures to permit passage of bees between the chambers, and the chambers adapted to house one or more removable frames for the production of ?O honey.

Preferably, the tubular chambers are of a circular cross section and are typically fabricated from PVC pipe of 30 cm diameter or more.

Preferably, the end walls and end caps are plastic covers normally used to cap or cover the pipes.

Preferably, the entry and exit means are holes in the end caps covered with a removable cap or hinged flap.

Preferably, the end caps and end walls are screw fitted or interference fitted to the ends of the chambers.

Preferably, the apertures in the end walls are of a size or are meshed with a mesh size to permit only bees of a certain size to pass between the chambers. Typically, this is to confine the IND 3 queen bee in one of the chambers while allowing the passage of the drones and worker bees O between the chambers.

Preferably, the end caps each have a handle to facilitate the rotation of the chambers with respect to one another.

00 Preferably, there are detent means between the end walls to align the chambers between an aperture open and an aperture closed position. Typically this can be a slot and pin mechanism IN 10 wherein there is one or more curved slots in one end wall that engages one or more pins in the end wall of the adjoining chamber whereby the rotation of the chambers are limited between a first position where the apertures are aligned and open and a second position where they are not aligned and are closed off.

Preferably, there are markings on the outside of each chamber to facilitate the alignment or non alignment of the apertures in their respective end walls.

Suitably, the one or more removable frames are circular in configuration and adapted to snugly fit into the cylindrical chambers.

?0 Preferably, the frames are supported on a rack in the chambers.

Preferably, the chambers are split longitudinally into semi-circular half sections that are hinged along one edge whereby the chambers can be opened to enable removal of the one or more frames.

In the alternative, by removing the end caps, the rack supporting the frames can be withdrawn from the chambers to facilitate removal and replacement of the frames.

Preferably, the end walls are connected by a centrally located rotatable fastening means, for example a central bolt and locknut to allow the end walls to rotate against each other.

Preferably, there may be water resistant gasket means between the end walls to prevent the entry of water and any foreign material between the rotatable adjacent end walls.

IND 4 Preferably, the beehive is mounted in a horizontal position elevated above ground level on O a frame or stand.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION THE DRAWINGS In order that the invention be better understood and put into practical effect, reference will

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0 now be made to the accompanying illustrations wherein; Figure 1 shows a preferred embodiment according to the invention, (-i Figure 2 shows use of the invention of Figure 1, Figure 3 shows partially exploded view of the invention of Figures 1 and 2, Figure 4 shows a cross sectional elevation of the invention, Figure 5 shows detail of the rotatable end walls of the invention, Figure 6 shows detail of the exit means of the invention, Figure 7 shows detail of the rack supporting removable frames of the invention, and Figure 8 shows detail of a removable frame.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Referring now to Figure 1 there is shown a preferred artificial beehive 10 according to the invention.

The beehive 10 is preferably mounted in a horizontal position elevated above ground level on a stand 12. The beehive is preferably constructed of PVC pipe of 30cm diameter and proprietary covers acting as end caps 14, 16 and end walls 18, 20 which are interference fitted over the circumference of the tubular chambers 10 a, IND The chambers 10 a, 10 Ob are shown preferably strapped to the stand by means of bands o 22, 24 however they may be located under their own weight.

O 5 The end caps 14, 16 have apertures 14a, 16a with hinged flaps 14b or caps to cover the apertures for the ingress and egress of bees in and out of the beehive.

00 Referring now to Figure 2 there is shown a beekeeper 30 removing end cap 16 wherein one or more removable frames 32, 34, 36 supported by the rack 40 can be withdrawn by ID 10 withdrawing the rack from the chamber 1 Ob on removal of the end cap 16.

Figure 3 shows a partially exploded view of the invention of Figure 1 and Figure 2 wherein detail of the rack 40 with the removable frames 32, 34, 36 is shown with the rack having handles 40b for withdrawing the rack from the chamber 10 Oa on the removal end cap 16. The end cap has an exit hole 16a for bees which can be covered with a hinged flap or removable cap 16b. To rotate the chambers whereby the apertures in the end walls of chambers are aligned or misaligned, there is provided a lever 1 Oc to turn one of the chambers.

The entry for bees in chamber is shown by broken line 14c.

_?0 Figure 4 shows a side cross section of the invention according to the preferred embodiment.

The invention comprises two circular chambers 10 Oa, 1 Ob of PVC pipe of 30cm in diameter with end caps 14, 16 and end walls 18, 20. The end walls are bolted together with a centrally located bolt 42 and lock nut with washers whereby the adjacent end walls 18, can be rotated against each other. The apertures 18b, 18c and 20b, 20c in the end walls 18,20 can be aligned and misaligned in order to open or close off the passage between the chambers Oa, 10 Ob shown by arrows 44, 46, respectively.

The removable frames 32, 34, 36 are supported by a rack 40 which can be removed on removing end cap 16. The egress of the bees from the hive is via the exit 16a which is a flanged hole which can be capped for transportation purposes. Bees enter the hive by means of a slotted aperture 14a which has a hinge flap 14b at the other end of the hive.

C) 6 A lever 1 Oc on one of the end walls can be provided to facilitate the rotation of the S chambers 10 a, 10 Ob with respect to one another.

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IND Figure 5 shows detail of the end wall 18 wherein the end walls 18, 20 have meshed apertures 18b, 18c, 20b, 20c which can be aligned with one another to permit the passage of bees between both chambers (not shown). By rotating the end wall 20 of one chamber about the central pivoting bolt 42, the pins 20d, 20e on one end wall engage the slots 18d, 18e in the end 00 wall 18 to limit the movement so that the apertures 18b, 20b and 18c, 20c are aligned.

By counter rotating the end wall 20 the pins engage the other end of the slots wherein the end walls 18, 20 are now misaligned so that the passage of bees between the chambers is blocked off.

Referring now to Figure 6 there is shown detail of the exit 16a for the egress of bees on end cap 16.

An internal view of the exit 16a shows details wherein there is a V-shaped entrance 17 behind the exit to further protect the exit aperture from weather.

Figures 7A and 7B show an end elevation and a side elevation respectively of detail of the rack 40 supporting one of the removable frames 32. The rack has handles 40a, 40b to allow withdrawal of the rack from the chambers and preferably runs on guides 10 d, 10 e located in the chambers to provide a smooth withdrawal and replacement of the rack and the supported frames.

Figures 8A and 8B show detail of a circular frame 32 wherein the frame comprises an external band 32a with equal distance spaced wires 32b, 32c, 32d suspended across the diameter of the frame to divide the frame up into six equal sections. The wires support a wax base 35 on which the bees 37 form their honeycombs 39 as shown in Figure 8B.

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VARIATIONS

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ND It will of course be realised that while the foregoing has been given by way of illustrative O 5 example of this invention, all such and other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as is herein set forth.

00 Throughout the description and claims this specification the word "comprise" and variations of that word such as "comprises" and "comprising", are not intended to exclude other Sadditives, components, integers or steps.

Claims

2. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the tubular chambers are of a circular _0 cross section.
3. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the tubular chambers are fabricated from PVC pipe of 30 cm diameter or more.
4. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims, wherein the end walls and end caps are plastic covers used to cap or cover the pipes. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims, wherein the entry and exit means are holes in the end caps covered with a removable cap or hinged flap.
6. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the end caps and end walls are screw fitted or interference fitted to the ends of the chambers.
7. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 6, wherein, the apertures in the end walls are of a size or are covered with a mesh of a size to permit only bees of a pre determined size to IND pass between the chambers, such as to confine the queen bee in one of the chambers C.) o while allowing the passage of the drones and worker bees between the chambers.
8. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 7, wherein, the end caps each have a handle to facilitate the rotation of the chambers with respect to one another. 00
9. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims, wherein there are detent _means between the end walls to align the chambers between an aperture open and an aperture closed position. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 9, wherein the detent means is a slot and pin mechanism comprising one or more curved slots in the end wall of one chamber that engages one or more pins in the end wall of the adjoining chamber whereby the rotation of the chambers are limited between a first position where the apertures of the respective chambers are aligned and a second position where they are not aligned.
11. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims, wherein there are markings on the outside of each chamber to facilitate the alignment or non alignment of the apertures ?0 in their respective end walls.
12. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the one or more removable frames are circular in configuration and adapted to snugly fit into the cylindrical chambers.
13. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 12, wherein the chambers are split into longitudably into semi-circular half sections that are hinged along one edge whereby the chambers can be opened to enable removable of the one or more frames.
14. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims, wherein the frames are supported on a rack in the chambers. An artificial beehive as claimed in Claim 14, wherein by removing the end caps, the rack supporting the frames can be withdrawn from the chambers to facilitate removal and replacement of the frames. NO O
16. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims, wherein the end walls are O connected by a centrally located rotatable fastening means to allow the end walls to rotate O against each other.
17. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims, wherein there is water resistant gasket means between the end walls to prevent entry of water and any foreign 00 material between the adjacent end walls. IN 10 18. An artificial beehive as claimed in any of the above claims is mounted in a horizontal Sposition elevated above ground level on a frame or stand.