The global reform of beekeeping can start from Jászberény

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 12. 18. 11:10

A multi-award-winning Hungarian development, which recently received professional manufacturing backing, has significantly automated one of the basic tasks of beekeepers. The hive frame machine stitches and drills out a hive frame in 8 seconds. Until now, the activity was performed exclusively by hand by professionals and took about 2 minutes per piece.

Depending on the circumstances, a bee colony requires an average of about 10 frames per season, and there are approximately 1 million bee colonies in Hungary. Until now, producers have assembled the hive frames needed for their maintenance by hand, taking about 2 minutes each. This multiplies to more than 330 thousand working hours each year, which can in principle be shortened to about 22 thousand working hours with the general use of the new machine family.

“The automated stapling and drilling of hive frames therefore takes one-fifteenth the time compared to manual work”

‒ István Petrovics, the machine’s inventor and prototype maker, presented the essence of the development. The specialist and the equipment have received numerous awards, including the Hungarian Industrial Special Purpose Machine Grand Prix in 2023.

The management of Konkoly Electro Kft., a company with a long history and specializing in special purpose machine manufacturing and automation, also saw a fantasy in the development, and the cooperation has now resulted in the first member of the BEEFRAME model family suitable for series production.

The device is essentially suitable for assembling frames of any size and standard, which is important because a wide variety of hive frames are used in international practice. The machine family is clearly a great help for smaller beekeepers caring for 25-50 families, but it can also be used effectively by truly large-scale beekeepers, even on American, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian or Argentine farms that are huge compared to ours.