Bee culture – Method – Honeybee
Patent
1997-03-18
1998-11-03
Swiatek, Robert P.
Bee culture
Method
Honeybee
449 44, A01K 4700
Patent
active
058300392
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for the harvesting of royal jelly and, in particular, a method and apparatus related to the use of interchangeable artificial cells for the collection of royal jelly.
Royal jelly is a natural product produced by bees in a hive to feed larvae and queen bees. All larvae in the hive receive a quantity of royal jelly for sustenance in their early stages. Subsequently, the royal jelly is withheld from all but queen bees. Therefore, although the largest single quantities of royal jelly can be found in queen cell hives, the largest quantity of cells receiving royal jelly are in fact those of the normal worker bee.
On this basis, the normal method of harvesting royal jelly is to remove the larvae and the small quantities of royal jelly produced into each of the numerous larvae cells from these cells. Each of these small quantities of royal jelly may be removed from the worker bee cell and placed into a much larger cell which would normally house the larva for a queen bee. When this larger cell is placed into a queenless hive, the bees will concentrate on filling this queen cell with royal jelly for the production of a queen bee.
Naturally, such a process requires considerable manual input in the removal of each of the minute quantities of royal jelly from the proportionally smaller normal cells and transplanting into larger queen cells. To assist in this, previous apparatus has been provided including a matrix suitable for implementation into a hive which may include a number of small cells in which the bees will place small quantities of royal jelly. Each of these individual cells is removable from the matrix and has an extended outlet at a distil end of the cell so that, when turned upside down, each cell now assumes the proportions of a queen cell with the small quantity of royal jelly already placed at a distil end. Each of these cells may then be placed into a queenless hive for the greater production of royal jelly.
The difficulty with such apparatus is that the matrix cannot be fully utilised to the same spacing as normal worker bee cells. The extended ends of the cells contained on the reverse side of the matrix when assuming the appearance of normal cells keep these cells well spaced apart and a number of smaller cells provided in between to assume the normal appearance of the hive are merely blind holes and not used in the production of the royal jelly.
Therefore, although this method assists in the production of royal jelly, the spacing of the calls usable in the further production of royal jelly is not as close as it may be and the apparatus still requires the removal of each of these larger plugs and individual placement of these in a hive for the further production of royal jelly.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which may overcome some of these disadvantages or at least provide the public with a useful choice.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in a first aspect, the invention may broadly be said to consist in a method for the harvesting of royal jelly comprising:
providing a first matrix of cell like structures for insertion into a beehive;
providing sets of interconnected plugs adapted to fit into the rear of the cells of the first matrix such that each set of plugs provides plugs for fitment into alternate cells on a portion of a said first matrix;
removing said plugs from said first matrix after the production of a larvae in the cells;
placing at least one set of plugs in a second line or matrix of cells and wherein the volume of each cell in said second line or matrix of cells is larger than the cells of the first matrix and the spacing of the cells within the second line or matrix is approximately equal to the spacing of alternate cells in the first matrix; and,
placing said second line or matrix of cells into a queenless hive.
Accordingly, in a second aspect, the invention may broadly be said to consist in apparatus for the harvesting of royal jelly comprising
REFERENCES:
patent: 4651372 (1987-03-01), Schmidt
patent: 4672704 (1987-06-01), Hong et al.
patent: 4992073 (1991-02-01), Levy et al.
Royal Jelly New Zealand Limited
Swiatek Robert P.
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