A collaboration project to design or improve on designs for the emerging stingless bee honey industry.
Ben Fitzpatrick (president of the ANBA Hunter NSW branch) asked if I would be able to assist with development of some honey frames that would work with a honey vacuum. *Honey vacuums aren’t commonly used in Australia at the moment so this method will need further trials though the frame could also be used in a honey spinner.
The outline of the project:
- Design a frame where the bees would only create one single honey pot in height for easy access using a honey vacuum.
- Be able to stack multiple honey frames on the box, maybe five high?
- Be able to access, remove, shuffle any frame in the stack without effecting others.
- Be able to access the honey pots without damaging them.
- Option to place the frame in to a honey spinner.
After a bit of head scratching and waving pieces of wood around, I had some ideas to start off with. My own requirements for something for the industry is, it has to be simple and cheap for the industry or backyard enthusiasts to take up. People tend not to take up complicated designs or expensive products on a mass scale. Nick Powell and Doug Irvine simultaneously designed a “series super” or “slim super” a few years ago that may satisfy most of the requirements so maybe we’re not inventing anything new here, just tweaking some previous designs.
These will need testing over time. We’ve had some poor conditions for bees for the last year and their honey resources may be low so they may not be that interested in filling these frames until conditions improve. We may end up with a completely different design from what we started with.
Photos below: Two sample frames 280mm x 200mm, I made different heights, 16mm and 20mm internal height. 3mm perspex on the underside and a clear binder cover on the top side. The solid perspex provides a hard surface for the bees to attach the honey pots. The flexible binder cover isolates the frame from other frames and when the frame is removed the binder cover can be peeled off, hopefully not damaging the top side of the honey pot. The frame could be cooled down in the fridge which makes the propolis hard and the binder cover will peel off cleanly. Then the pots can be pierced and frame placed in a spinner or let drain.
Have you got a design suggestion?
If you have any design suggestions for this project let us know! There will be new prototypes made along the way so your suggestions could be included in the designs and credit given.
Nick Powell and Doug Irvine have both separately designed slim honey supers in the past. Photo shows Doug using his own frame and custom honey spinner. Read Nick Powell’s article.
Quote Nick Powell: “Series supers should be made to give you one flat sheet of honey pots. Depths from 16mm>25mm work quite nicely. Thicker supers from 25mm to 35mm will receive multiple layers of honey pots..”
Below: Doug Irvine’s frames
Below: I made these frames in 2018. The bees filled them nicely though harvesting was a bit messy as the pots where torn apart when separating the frames.
