Increasing efficiency of honey extracting through innovative technology as exemplified by a small agricultural producer

Abstract

Honey and wax production in Russia is considered a traditional branch of agriculture, which enables to produce valuable biologically active food for the population and raw materials for the industry. Many sources speak for a rapid annual decrease in the number of bees. One of the factors in reducing the number of bees is a somewhat tough way of collecting honey, in which a small percentage of the hive dies. The paper discusses the possibility of using innovative Australian FlowHive technology designed to allow honey to flow down freely. With this technology, honey is extracted without disturbing the bees as in normal extraction. The pivotal technological secret of a FlowHive beehive is durable plastic mobile honeycombs. By turning a special knob, the vertical gaps are offset by one half of a cell, allowing the honey to flow down through the cells into a channel at the base of each frame and out into a collection vessel. The paper presents a set of data for calculating the effectiveness of innovative beehives in small agricultural production. It establishes that, once applied, innovative hives not only increase profits, but also decrease costs for basic production.