Introduction

‘Beekeepers back’ is a common injury suffered by beekeepers(1). This results from lifting and carrying the Supers or boxes in which bees store honey or brood. A ten frame box can weigh about 35 kg when full of honey while a five frame box weighs about 15 kg. In commercial scale beekeeping, where truck mounted cranes and forklifts are commonly used, most of the lifting is automated. However, in small scale or urban beekeeping operations the lifting and transporting is usually manual. If two adults are involved in the operation, injury is unlikely. However, for a single person attempting to maintain one or several hives, injury, particularly back injury, is quite common, hence the term ‘beekeepers back’. The development outlined below arose from a project concerned with the distribution of small hive beetle(2) in hives and the necessity for one female person maintaining hives, (about ten) in a few outer urban locations. As the project would involve frequent maintenance, observation, and weighing of the hives, the development of an inexpensive Super lifter/transporter in the form of a small mobile crane capable of lifting one Super at a time onto or off a 4-wheeled cart, was commenced. The basic elements of the resulting design are a 4-wheeled, 400kg capacity garden cart, commonly available in hardware stores for about $100, and a 300kg capacity trailer winch, available in boating shops for about $40. The first stage of the development is illustrated in the photograph, Fig. 1, below. This first stage identified several practical problems which were addressed in a second stage development.

First stage of development

A three sided plywood frame is connected to the cart by the clips that usually attach walls to the garden cart. The frame has two rectangular galvanised iron loops bolted to it into which a rectangular, 70 mm x 70 mm, wooden column slides. This forms the tower of the crane. A 15 mm steel rod is inserted into the top of the tower and a stirrup post support ($8 at hardware supplies) slides over the bolt. This forms a swivel joint at the top of the tower. A nut and bolt is placed through holes in the post support to form a horizontal axis about which the slope of arm of the crane can be adjusted. The arm of the crane is a softwood plank, 20 x 70 x 2000 mm, fitted with a small metal loop that engages with the horizontal bolt in the post support. One end of the arm has a hook which allows a light chain connecting the hook to the end of the cart to be adjusted in length so as to level the arm. A plywood box with two plastic rollers in the upper side can be rolled along the arm and locked into place. A trailer winch is bolted to the bottom of roller box, the cord of which (300 kg breaking strain) extends down to a grabber designed to grab a standard size (34 cm long) super. The cart brake is a metal spike on the cart handle that can be dropped or pushed into the ground.

Two types of operation are possible. If the hives are supported on stands as in Fig. 1, the front end of the cart can be pushed under the stand and the hive. The supers can then be sequentially lifted off the hive onto the tower end of the cart to obtain access to the brood box. However, if the hive is located close to the ground, for example on bricks, a side lifting operation is required. In side lifting the cart is moved sideways to the front or back of the hive. A wooden prop is placed alongside the hive with one end extending to the ground on the other side of the hive and the other end clamped to the crane tower. The crane arm is swivelled sideways over the hive, the super grabbed and lifted. The arm is then swivelled back over the cart and the super lowered onto the cart. This is repeated with remaining supers until access to the brood box is obtained.

While the crane illustrated in Fig. 1 was moderately successful four problems became evident. (1) The manual winch is at an inconvenient height for a short person, such as the woman beekeeper in Fig. 1, to operate. (2) Having the winch, and roller mounted on the arm made the crane unstable, i.e. liable to tip, when the crane was moved over rough ground without the load of a full super on board. (3) Operating the winch while guiding the super over the hive was difficult when the super is well below the winch. (4) The combined roller, winch and arm lock is complicated to fabricate. Identifying the above problems led to the improved design outlined below.

Second stage of development

Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 illustrate the improvements. The winch and grabber are combined. The winch cord extends to a simple loop around the crane arm. The cord loop can be slid along the arm depending on far out a super has to be lifted from. This simplifies operation. For example, if the arm is to extend sideways and lift a super off a hive, the prop is positioned, the cord is shifted to the desired position on the front of the arm, the arm swivelled over the hive, the grabber attached, the super lifted, and the winch locked. The super can then be swung over the front of the cart using the handle on the grabber to guide it. The super can then be lowered onto the front of the cart. If the super is then to be moved to the rear of the cart, the winch is loosened, the cord shifted to a position toward the rear of the arm, and the winch operated to lift/slide the super along the cart to the new position. This design is simpler to use, much less expensive than the roller/ winch combination, and makes the crane more stable when moving, unloaded, on rough ground.

Fig. 3 illustrates how the winch is bolted to the grabber arm. The wood blocks provide clearance for the winch handle to rotate above frames in a super. (In Fig. 3 honey frames are replaced by 25 kg of water for testing). As mentioned above the grabber has a handle for guiding the super into position on the hive or on the cart. One end of the grabber is provided with a hinged grab and a fixed stop. The other end has a hinged grab and an adjustable stop. The grabs fit into the slots at each end of a standard 34 cm long super with the adjustable stop allowing for some leeway in the length of the super. The winch has a lock so that when the super is raised and the winch locked, the handle can be released and two hands used to guide the super  to a new position. It is important to hold the winch handle before releasing the lock as, under load, the winch unwinds fast if unrestrained. With the arrangement illustrated in Fig. 2 a lightweight prop clamped to the crane tower allows supers to be lifted to and from one side of the cart. If the load was allowed to swing to the other side of the cart the cart could tip. In principle, two props could be used for lifting to and from both sides of the crane. However, provided a super is held while being raised a second prop is unnecessary. The handle of the cart, used to pull the cart, is provided with a metal spike that can be pushed into the ground with a boot to act as a simple brake for the crane.

Road transport

The crane can be quickly broken apart or reassembled. The arm and top swivel are lifted off the tower. The tower is slid from the metal brackets on the three side frame. The frame is unclipped from the cart. The cart handle is unbolted from the cart. The cart is now very light and can be loaded into the rear of a station wagon by raising the front wheels of the cart into the wagon then lifting the rear wheels and rolling the cart into the wagon. The cart can then be flipped onto its tray for extra space if required. The other disassembled parts, the grabber, and a couple of supers can also fit into the rear of a station wagon, Fig. 4. The assembled crane can also be used for lifting supers into and out of the back of a station wagon or boot of a car and the crane is high enough to lift supers onto or off the tray of a truck.

Conclusion

The lifter/transporter described provides a lifting and transport function with convenient lifting capacity about 35 kg (one full super). As the manual winch is designed for 300 kg loads it can be easily operated, at 35 kg loads, by a small person. Use of the crane minimises the possibility of back strain or other injury when maintaining a modest number of hives, up to about 20. The lifter can be home assembled for less than $200. Further details: Ian at 07 3378 6586 or iredmonds@aapt.net.au or ian@solartran.com.au.

*Article by Ian Edmonds

References.

1. Somerville, D., Back care & bee boxes, ABK, December 2010.

2. Leemon, D. Small hive beetle, ABK, August 2017.