Beehive - University design project.

[Nic Rhodes]

Bee Hive Supplies do an Eke that they say folds flat, I suspect it just dissassembles but I suspect many would like that concept as it is used only for a small part of the year.

 

[bobster]

Chris,

I notice you've posted on "another" forum as well. My two cents worth.

I guess you're off to a fairly good start by

a) Having a project goal so early,
b) Finding this forum,
c) Posting a reasonable question,
d) Managing not to start a flame war (yet!).

However, whilst the suggestions you get here may be helpful don't let them be a substitute for doing your own research on current beehive types, of which there are many.

I assume that this project will be marked by a written assesment ie a project report. If so I'd start off by doing a review of beehive types. Have these enumerated in a table. On the one axis have the beehive types and on the other axis have the hive attributes eg, cost, size, material, colour, weight, ease of honey extraction, inspection qualities, frame/no frame, ease of feeding, overwintering ability etc etc. Then fill in this table with your research findings. I think this will help you to think about your design goals. You can then try and pick off the desirable attributes from the different hive types.

And of course you'll need to add your new design to this table (at the end of course for that Eureka moment!) and see how yours compares.

I see many final year projects from students that are ill conceived and badly thought through. Do your research early, write it up, and make sure your (project) foundations are solid.

Regards,

Dr Bobster

 

[MuswellMetro]

What would I want in a hive if materials were no problem?

1) I'd like it to be collapsible. A 14x12 brood should be 4 components, flat pack, lock them together and deploy. At the end of the season you have a dense stack of panels, rather than a shed full of boxes.

2) I'd like it to be modular. So I can take a single wall side, and that will be a super. Stick three together, and I have a 14x12 panel. Two would be a nat brood.

3)


Give me something compatible with nationals but with those characteristics and I'd be a buyer...

agree with 1 & 2, or as two supers are almost a 14x12, perhaps a module system based on supers with a deeper upstand on the floor to create the 14x12 size out of two supers plus the deeper upstand (I often use an api eke plus two supers as an emergency 14x12 brood box)

but even just collapsible supers would be nice...my garage looks like a thornes store, i can only get the car in in summer, which defeats the objective of having a garage

 

[Erichalfbee]

but even just collapsible supers would be nice...my garage looks like a Th**nes store, i can only get the car in in summer, which defeats the objective of having a garage

If you don't glue them you can take them apart.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

...my garage looks like a Th**nes store, i can only get the car in in summer, which defeats the objective of having a garage

I'm the opposite - during the summer my garage looks like Th**rnes after a sale and minor hurricane has hit it, with boxes and frames hanging off any available space. Going through the very time consuming task of packing things away so I can try and squeeze a car in as well. Bleedin Giordan spinner isn't going to help matters either.

 

[drstitson]

"Love the idea of electronic gizmos for monitoring too, perhaps that could be retro-fitted to existing hives?"

these are what i use: Fleabay 250748477149

cheap and simple - just attach sensor to underside of crownboard and feed wire out the frame edge leaving display unit under roof.

 

[drstitson]

"but even just collapsible supers would be nice...my garage looks like a Th**nes store, i can only get the car in in summer, which defeats the objective of having a garage"

MM - you're missing a trick if you use garage for cars nowadays:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3873783/Slumdogs-of-Southall.html

 

[Chris Weir]

Thank you very much for this feedback guys, I didn't think I would get such detailed responses.
And I shall certainly keep you up to date with my progress during this project and my ask for your views once again at the evaluation stage.
Many thanks.
Chris.

 

[Headnavigator]

"Love the idea of electronic gizmos for monitoring too, perhaps that could be retro-fitted to existing hives?"

these are what i use: Fleabay 250748477149

cheap and simple - just attach sensor to underside of crownboard and feed wire out the frame edge leaving display unit under roof.

Looks interesting - many thanks, I shall explore that

 

[TBRNoTB]

agree with 1 & 2, or as two supers are almost a 14x12, perhaps a module system based on supers with a deeper upstand on the floor to create the 14x12 size out of two supers plus the deeper upstand (I often use an api eke plus two supers as an emergency 14x12 brood box)

but even just collapsible supers would be nice...my garage looks like a Th**nes store, i can only get the car in in summer, which defeats the objective of having a garage

Aaah! That's what my storeroom was meant for!

 

[hedgerow pete]

I am currently a student at Loughborough University, studying Industrial Design & Technology. For my final year project I am thinking about designing a innovative beehive that is aimed at the urban/suburban environment, with the intention of making the activity less daunting and more attractive to novices.
I would appreciate your views and any suggestions you may have regarding my project.
Many thanks
Chris.

heres a couple of old threads I played around with.
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1497
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1528

there are three main problems you will encounter, with your idea

the first and biggest is that it is a unwriten law that ALL BEEKEEPERS must design and make at least three hive designs per year without fail or we send around the bee boogie man to you.

second anyone that anounces that they have just reinvented the bee hive is then has sent round the boogie man for doing so

and finialy even if you were to invent the worlds greatest ever designed hive that fullfills all requirements for everyone and has noo downsides, everyone will just ignore it anyway because we are all stick in the muds when we want to, lol


but where you can make a difference is that the fact is you are not poluted with any of this dribble so go for it big style.

there are only a few basic rules to designing a bee hive and they are listed below for you.

every part in the hive must have a bee space betwen it and the next part, (6 to 8mm)

try to standardise as much as posible to either two or one size frames.

every queen bee needs so much particular room to lay her eggs, ( this is why there are such a variaty of hive styles) try to aim for or around the 75,000 to 90,000 cell mark in the brood areas, each cell is a nominal size so what we do is then work out how many cells per frame we want and then from there we then can work out how many frames we need.

when you read the other two threads you will see that myself and a fantastic gentleman called JCBRUM (John) start to talk cell volumes, since this is the basic starting point and from there we work out the size of the ideal bee frame for them, still with me ?

the construction of the hive and its shape and size is realy erelevant untill the insides are sorted, from then onwards you can talk style, practicality, colours , poly or wood, vented or not.

there are now two many schools of thought here, for want of better words we shall call then the "traditionalists" and wooden hives and the free thinking " modernists" and there poly national hives. sorry everyone for sticking you into a box.


now what you could do is design an inside that will work within your figures of internal design and then simply make a poly version and a wooden version to aplease both camps, i am thinking of the basics ideas behind the wooden national hive and the poly hive version, both designed on the inside requirements but differant on the outer construction.

try not to worry about the timber type or method of construction, but do the mock up in cedeer as it looks good and is the part, ten minites after seeing it someone will make it out of marine ply and when i see it , it will get made in cheap shuttering ply, sorry!!

I would also take up or rather rip the arm off polyhive as a guru to work with, this guy has worked with just about every hive style and type you could think of, belive me poly hive is the man you need to go and see.

apart from that keep flogging away with your questions on the forum we have hundreds of designers and phd beehive scientific/designers here ( Phd Practicaly horrific Design)

 

[For want of a better word]

Don't forget to add some useful adornments .. like an automatic varroa floor, a swarm catching net .....an automatic feeder.. and an auto weighing device... a beecounting entry exit monitor would be nice and wheels with an auto lock at 3 feet, as per a supermarket trolley !
There was I believe a swarm warning monitor pitch of hum device... worth development
All this of course would need to be monitored via the Bankers mobile phone as they maybee would be the only one able to afford the "Tech"
Good Luck
... keep us informed with developments!

 

[Luminos]

heres a couple of old threads I played around with.
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1497
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1528

there are three main problems you will encounter, with your idea

the first and biggest is that it is a unwriten law that ALL BEEKEEPERS must design and make at least three hive designs per year without fail or we send around the bee boogie man to you.

second anyone that anounces that they have just reinvented the bee hive is then has sent round the boogie man for doing so

and finialy even if you were to invent the worlds greatest ever designed hive that fullfills all requirements for everyone and has noo downsides, everyone will just ignore it anyway because we are all stick in the muds when we want to, lol


but where you can make a difference is that the fact is you are not poluted with any of this dribble so go for it big style.

there are only a few basic rules to designing a bee hive and they are listed below for you.

every part in the hive must have a bee space betwen it and the next part, (6 to 8mm)

try to standardise as much as posible to either two or one size frames.

every queen bee needs so much particular room to lay her eggs, ( this is why there are such a variaty of hive styles) try to aim for or around the 75,000 to 90,000 cell mark in the brood areas, each cell is a nominal size so what we do is then work out how many cells per frame we want and then from there we then can work out how many frames we need.

when you read the other two threads you will see that myself and a fantastic gentleman called JCBRUM (John) start to talk cell volumes, since this is the basic starting point and from there we work out the size of the ideal bee frame for them, still with me ?

the construction of the hive and its shape and size is realy erelevant untill the insides are sorted, from then onwards you can talk style, practicality, colours , poly or wood, vented or not.

there are now two many schools of thought here, for want of better words we shall call then the "traditionalists" and wooden hives and the free thinking " modernists" and there poly national hives. sorry everyone for sticking you into a box.


now what you could do is design an inside that will work within your figures of internal design and then simply make a poly version and a wooden version to aplease both camps, i am thinking of the basics ideas behind the wooden national hive and the poly hive version, both designed on the inside requirements but differant on the outer construction.

try not to worry about the timber type or method of construction, but do the mock up in cedeer as it looks good and is the part, ten minites after seeing it someone will make it out of marine ply and when i see it , it will get made in cheap shuttering ply, sorry!!

I would also take up or rather rip the arm off polyhive as a guru to work with, this guy has worked with just about every hive style and type you could think of, belive me poly hive is the man you need to go and see.

apart from that keep flogging away with your questions on the forum we have hundreds of designers and phd beehive scientific/designers here ( Phd Practicaly horrific Design)

 

[jakethedog]

I am thinking about designing a innovative beehive that is aimed at the urban/suburban environment, with the intention of making the activity less daunting and more attractive to novices.

Hi Chris,

I don't really understand this. Do novices really find bee hives daunting? Surely it's the bees which create any initial trepidation and no matter how much of your time you waste on redesigning the wheel, that's not going to change.

If you really want to concentrate your focus on apiculture then you might be better off designing a low cost instrumental insemination device (yeah, I know there are a few on the market but not as many as there are types of hives) or a new postal traveling cage, maybe a new queen introduction cage or a new hive carrier, anything but another new hive, please.

 

[DanBee]

Read A Case of Hives by Len Heath.

 

[Chris58]

Weight is another factor - with a full super the weight of the hive is often something that requires two to lift - a full brood box can be quite daunting. When sorting out the varroea floor, to lift the whole hive to change floorbaords, so perhaps a slide out system would be good - such as the French plastic Dadant bases use. They are easy and more hygenic to use, they have a mousegard in built in with a simple swop, that's a good feature as well.
A way of opening up the crown board, section by section so that not all the frames are open - this can cause a lot of angry bees to buzz in your face. There are cloths etc., on the market but a sectional board that could be peeled back (with bee gloves on) might be another thought.

 

[Hombre]

With a collapsible 14x12 all you would need would be a big box to hold the frames.

@DrStitson, Nice device at a glance. If logging is required, PICAXE and DS18B20 (singly or multiply) once again.

 

[Hombre]

@Chris,
A very cheap, simple and robust means of actively weighing each hive in an apiary, in order to detect the departure of a foraging force in the morning and return in the evening, monitor net gain and in the winter variance of weight due to stores consumption. With a guess at rain or snow loading too.

It's the suitable sensor that's the difficult part.

 

[user 6228]

design a hive where during routine inspection where both the bee keeper cant be stung(no need for bee suit) and the bees dont get cold... there a challenge

 

[nikca]

The inflatible log hive. Maybe not as daft as it sounds. I'd try one.

Filled with hydrogen. Explodes if attacked by a woodpecker. Loss of 1 colony would be worth it.

This really made me laugh out loud

What about a hive with a miniature Phalanx (radar gattling gun) system to take out raiding hornets? Ok - thats just silly - Ill settle for an electric version of MJBee's badminton racket that swats the little buggers.

If you do go for a complete hive can is suggest 14x12 format or a dual format tat uses national and/or 14x12 - this gets around most of the "too many types already" arguments. Frames, foundation, extractors etc can still be used.