Other

Theodore C Barber

Donald R Cox

A device for cleaning individual grooved 'bee boards' that provide nesting for leaf-cutter bees. The device includes guides for directing successive boards along a path parallel to the grooves past cell removing tines and a rotatable drum. The tines remove cells from the grooves. Pivotable sets of bristles are mounted to the drum to protrude outwardly therefrom due to centrifugal force when the drum is rotated. The drum axis is perpendicular to the grooves and the path of the boards. It is situated adjacent to the surface of the boards so the groove walls will be engaged by the sets of bristles as the drum is rotated. The bristles are provided in sets that are spaced apart by distances equal to the spacing between adjacent grooves. The bristles will therefore engage the bee boards only within the grooves. Debris is cleaned from the groove walls as the bee boards are moved past the rotating drum.

Bee board cleaning device

The apparatus for cleaning bee culture frames of the type having slots for frames, which are formed into blocks by aligning the frames, comprises a suitable framework, an in-feed ramp, a board-breaker assembly, and a board-cleaning assembly. The infeed ramp carries the blocks to a vertically disposed channel provided on the framework, the channel controlling forward movement of the block on the ramp and conducting frames separated from the block downwardly in the apparatus. The board-breaker assembly comprises at least a blade reciprocating vertically in a channel disposed parallelly to the frames with the contact face of the blade being disposed at a pre-determined position to operate adjacently disposed frames in the block, and frame-cleaning teeth which interdigitate with slots of the frame. The board-cleaning assembly is disposed distally below the board-breaker assembly along the vertical channel, the cleaning assembly removing foreign material, larvae and the like from the frames, and a reassembly and off-feed assembly including an off-feed conveyor disposed below the cleaning assembly at the lowermost portion of the channels, the channels being provided with elements for rectilinearly aligning the frames into the block. The apparatus may also include a larvae separator.

Leaf cutter bee larvae extracting device

An assembly of a multiplicity of thin wood boards each having parallel grooves in one face from edge to edge thereof, and the opposite face being ungrooved, is held together by one or more rods extending through the several boards, the grooved face of each board facing the smooth face of an adjacent board. At the ends of the assembly, cupped spring plates engage the outermost surfaces of the boards and nuts threaded on the rod ends apply pressure on the plates to hold the board surfaces in contact. There is a flexible thin strip of adhesive covering one end of each of the grooves and adhered to the board edges at that end of the grooves and to the adjacent side edges of the boards.

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Orovada, NV, United States of America

Theodore C Barber