Abstract:
A bottom board for supporting a honey bee hive which has a board, three vertical walls extending above and below the board, with a first groove opening that extends between two parallel vertical walls wherein a screen covers the first groove opening and an aperture extends thru the one of the two vertical walls that is in communication with the first groove opening and whereby one end of a tray extends thru the aperture so that a beekeeper has access to the tray without disturbing the remainder of the hive.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention concerns a honey bee hive and specifically a bottom board for supporting the honey bee hive. Traditionally, bottom boards for honey bee hives are either solid or have a screen opening and may be constructed of wood or plastic. The present invention provides a built-in trap for small hive beetles that have become a real problem in recent years for beekeepers. The advantage of the present invention is that the trap can be accessed outside the hive, without opening any portion of the hive. The trap includes a tray which can be extracted from the bottom board exterior, can be cleaned and refilled with a small hive beetle attractant, or a liquid which causes the small hive beetle to drown. 
       PRIOR ART 
       [0002]    The simplest structure of the hive for honey bees generally consists of a bottom board, a hive body with frames where the bees live, an inner cover, and an overlapping outer cover. This simple description of a hive for honey bees is the minimum needed, but it can be much more involved with additional hive bodies, queen excluders, honey supers, feeders, etc. 
         [0003]    In recent years, the small hive beetle has spread across the Unites States and become a potential problem for a colony of honey bees. The small hive beetle, if it gains control of the hive, can lay eggs therein, and the larvae of the small hive beetle will consume baby brood, pollen, honey, beeswax, etc. In short, small hive beetles can totally destroy a colony of honey bees and cause them to swarm to find a new home. 
         [0004]    No chemicals have been identified which are capable of preventing an infestation of the small hive beetle in a colony of honey bees. However, there are some measures that can be taken to control an infestation of small hive beetles. It is known that small hive beetles can not swim. Setting up traps within the hive such that the honey bees can chase the small hive beetles into the traps is one way to control the small hive beetle especially when the trap has liquid therein that causes the small hive beetle to drown. The problem with these types of traps is that the beekeeper must regularly enter the hive, clean out the traps, introduce more liquid, and re-insert or replace the traps. This is inconvenient for the beekeeper as well as an interruption of the colony of bees performing their daily chores. Thus a need exists for a trap for the small hive beetle that entails less disruption for the colony of bees, and is more convenient for the beekeeper. It is an object of the present invention to provide a small hive beetle trap in the bottom board that is convenient for the beekeeper and causes significantly less disruption for the colony of honey bees. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    Because small hive beetles can fly, they frequently enter a hive of honey bees by the same method as honey bees themselves—they simple fly to the opening and walk in. Honey bees recognize the invasive nature of small hive beetles and what they are capable of doing to the hive, namely consume beeswax, honey, nectar, pollen, and more particularly brood of the honey bees. Accordingly, honey bees frequently chase small hive beetles around the hive and have been known to imprison them in walls of wax. If the beekeeper has small hive beetle traps position throughout the interior of the hive, it is known that honey bees frequently chase the small hive beetle into these traps where they drown if the trap contains liquid. 
         [0006]    The inventor of the present invention has invented a bottom board having at least one or more small hive beetle traps. These traps are easily accessible from outside the hive, thereby causing less disruption to the daily life of the colony of bees and thereby being more convenient for the beekeeper. 
         [0007]    In the broadest sense, the present invention concerns a bottom board for supporting a hive of honey bees comprising a flat surface, three vertical walls attached to an extending above and below said flat surface, wherein two of said vertical walls are parallel and the third vertical wall extends between said two parallel vertical walls, said board having a first groove opening that extends across said flat surface between said two parallel vertical walls, one of said two vertical walls having an aperture there through, in alignment with said first groove opening, said first groove opening covered over with screen wire of a size that easily permits honeybees to walk across the top without falling through said screen wire, but small hive beetles can fit through said screen wire, and a tray that fits within said first groove opening wherein said tray opens upward, toward said screen wire, said tray having one end that extends out through said aperture, said tray being capable of siding into and out of said aperture and said first groove opening thereby allowing access to the interior of said tray. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIGS. 1-5  illustrate, according to the aspects of the present invention, the subject matter thereof. 
           [0009]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the bottom board of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a partial view of the bottom board of the present invention illustrating the tray sliding in/out of the bottom board. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a top or plan view of the bottom board of the present invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a cut-away view along line  4 - 4  shown in  FIG. 3 , thereby illustrating the bottom board, screen and tray. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the bottom board of the present invention with a solid surface designed to fit within the grooves, and a dotted outline of a hive positioned on said bottom board. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0014]    Hives and particularly the bottom board of hives may be made from wood or plastic and is known in the industry. 
         [0015]    As illustrated in  FIGS. 1-5 , the bottom board of the present invention has a board  10  with a flat upper surface  15  and three vertical walls  20 ,  25  and  30  which extend above and below the board  10  and the flat surface  15 . Vertical wall  20  and  25  are parallel to one another and vertical wall  30  extends between these two parallel walls all as clearly illustrated in  FIG. 1 . Note that the height of vertical walls  20 ,  25  and  30  extend the same distance above the flat upper surface  15  as well as the same distance below board  10 , thus acting as an edge support for the hive illustrated in phantom in  FIG. 5  by reference number  35 . The details of the hive  35  are known to those skilled in the art and do not affect the present invention. 
         [0016]    As illustrated in  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and particularly  4 , board  10  has a first groove opening  40  which extends thru flat upper surface  15  but does not extend thru board  10  as illustrated more accurately in  FIG. 4 . The first groove opening  40  extends into board  10 , as shown in  FIG. 4 , or it may extend entirely through board  10 , from vertical parallel wall  20  to vertical parallel wall  25 . Vertical parallel wall  25  has an aperture  45  extending entirely thru the thickness of the wall  25  and is in alignment with the first groove opening  40  as illustrated in  FIG. 2 . Covering the top of the first groove opening  40  is screen wire  50  which extends from vertical parallel wall  20  to vertical parallel wall  25  as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . The screen wire  50  is of a size that permits the honey bee to easily walk across the screen wire. However, the screen wire is also of a size that it permits the much smaller hive beetle to easily pass thru screen wire  50  thus falling into the first groove opening  40 . Typically, screen wire  50  is #8 mesh meaning that the screen wire has 8 openings per inch is both directions of the screen. Typically it is agreed that bee space is 5/16 to ⅜ inch. Bee space is the space that is sufficient to allow bees to pass thru the space. Accordingly, this means that #6 mesh and #4 mesh may also be employed, as these meshes have 6 openings per inch and 4 openings per inch, respectively, in each direction of the screen. In the industry, it is believed that #4 mesh may very well allow newly adult bees, which may be smaller than a full grown adult (at least for a couple of days) to squeeze thru #4 mesh screen. 
         [0017]    Within the first groove opening  40  is a tray  55  more clearly shown in  FIGS. 2 and 4 . The tray may be made from wood, metal, or plastic. Preferably, the tray is made from metal and is fully capable of holding liquid therein. The opening of the tray  55  faces upward toward the screen wire  50 . One end of tray  55  has a handle  60  which can take any shape so long as it aids the beekeeper to extract the tray  55  from the first groove opening  40 , thru the aperture  45  of the vertical wall  25 . The tray  55  may contain a liquid or solid, that aids in eliminating or reducing the number of small hive beetles. If the tray, for example, contains liquid, small hive beetles can enter thru the screen wire  50 , fall into the first groove opening  40  and into tray  55 , thereby drowning in the liquid. The beekeeper may then easily and frequently check the tray  55  by merely pulling it out and seeing if it needs more liquid or if it is full of small hive beetles. The small hive beetles can be simply dumped on the ground and the tray refilled with liquid and re-inserted into the hive. 
         [0018]    Optionally, a second groove opening  70  (See  FIG. 1 ) can be positioned between vertical parallel wall  20  and vertical parallel wall  25 , include a screen wire covering  75 , and a second tray  80 . This second groove opening  70  with screen wire  75  and tray  80  would basically be identical to the first groove opening  40  with its screen wire  50  and tray  55 , however, it would be positioned further within the interior of the bottom board, such as near or along the third vertical wall  30 . 
         [0019]    While the bottom board discussed so far can easily be a solid board, it is more popular to have screen bottom boards. Thus, the bottom board  10 , illustrated in  FIG. 1  has a rectangular hole  85  which is covered by screen wire  90  to allow good ventilation to occur thru the bee hive. Air entering thru the screen  90  of the bottom board  10  will have a chimney effect throughout the hive and will exit thru the overlapping outer cover as is known. The screen opening allows air to flow through the hive. The screen wire  90  is such that small hive beetles may or may not drop out through the openings of the screen wire. On the other hand honey bees cannot. What is known as ⅛ inch screen wire is suitable for this purpose (⅛ inch screen wire is generally an opening in the screen that is ⅛ inch by ⅛ inch such that approximately 8 of these openings comprise a linear inch in the screen wire). Preferably the screen wire  90  is a smaller size than screen wire  50  and  75 , in that it will retain both the honey bee and the small hive beetle. In this sense, it is different from the screen wire  50  and  75 . Thus, in this embodiment the only place for the small hive beetle to enter the hive would be the normal entrance on the flat surface  15  of the bottom board. The entrance is created due to the lack of a vertical wall, across from the third vertical wall  30 . 
         [0020]    As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the entrance is between the flat surface  15  and the bottom of a hive body shown in dotted line. Guard honey bees are typically stationed along the entrance and thus any small hive beetle which lands on the flat surface  15  would then immediately be chased out of the hive or into and thru screen wire  50  into tray  55 . Should small hive beetles make it into the hive, it is very typical that they go to the back of the hive along the third vertical wall  30 . Thus, when bees chase them at this point, they will quickly run thru screen  75  and into tray  80  where their death should be imminent due to the liquid contained within the tray. 
         [0021]    As shown in  FIG. 5 , a pair of channels  100  are positioned below the board  10  in parallel vertical wall  20  and  25 . These channels  100  are designed to hold either a white cardboard employed to count varroa mites or a solid surface  110  which can be inserted into the channels  100  thereby blocking the air flow thru the screen bottom board. The solid surface  110  may typically used in winter to permit the hive to retain more heat. Even in winter, it is necessary for some ventilation to enter the hive to eliminate moisture via the chimney effect by transporting hot moist air from the bottom of the hive thru and out the top of the hive as in known to those skilled in the art. Thus, the solid surface  110  may have one or more slit openings  115  therein to allow a minor amount of air to flow into the hive as illustrated in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0022]    Thus it is apparent, that there has been provided, in accordance with the invention, a bottom board that fully satisfies the objects, aims and advantages set forth above. While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations as fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.