Beehive Dispenser with Substance-Immobilizing Floor
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing bee disseminator devices, such as the side-by-side passageway dispenser (SSP) and overlapping passageway dispenser (OP), are inefficient in loading biological control agents onto bumblebees, leading to low inoculum density and poor distribution of these agents on flowers, and are sensitive to temperature changes, causing issues with bee behavior and agent consistency.
Innovation Solution
A beehive disseminator device with a unidirectional exit and entrance pathway, integrated within the hive, featuring a dispenser chamber with a substance-immobilizing floor that prevents bees from clearing a path through the agent, ensuring optimal loading and distribution while maintaining internal temperature control and minimizing disruption to the bees' foraging behavior.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If bees are allowed to move freely through the dispenser chamber, then they can efficiently pick up and carry biological control agents, but they may clear a path through the substance reducing loading effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser floor is designed to change state based on bee activity. Initially, the floor allows bee movement to stimulate foraging behavior. As bees walk, their weight compresses the substance-immobilizing floor, which then becomes restrictive to prevent path-clearing while maintaining contact with the biological control agents for loading.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical state of the dispenser floor changes from movable to restrictive based on the weight and activity of bees. This parameter change allows the system to adapt: initially permitting bee movement for behavioral activation, then restricting movement to prevent path clearance while maintaining substance contact for effective agent loading.
2Ease of operation
If the dispenser is placed outside the beehive for easy access, then refilling is convenient, but temperature changes affect agent consistency and bee behavior
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser device is nested within the beehive structure, specifically integrated into the hive body where it benefits from the natural thermal insulation and temperature regulation provided by the hive environment. This nesting arrangement protects the biological control agents from temperature fluctuations while maintaining bee access to the dispenser through the hive's normal traffic flow.
3Productivity
If the passageway is designed to separate incoming and outgoing bees, then loading efficiency improves, but the structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser chamber is segmented into distinct functional zones: an entrance area where bees enter and are exposed to the biological control agents, a central loading area with the substance-immobilizing floor, and an exit area leading to the foraging path. This segmentation allows efficient loading through spatial organization without requiring complex mechanical separation structures.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to the dissemination of biological control agents or other substances through the use of bees, in particular bumblebees. It relates to a disseminator device, installable in or in connection to the hive, and which contains biological control agents or other substances which are picked up, carried and disseminated by the bees when leaving the hive.