BINDERBOARD®

patent # 5,372,535 and  # 5,618,220

loose cell management systems for solitary bees.

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What is binderboard?

Advantages?

Processing boards

Advantages?

Processing boards

Developers and promoters.

Currently available?

What is BINDERBOARD®?

Binderboard® is a simple, efficient, automated system for managing leafcutting bees.  It utilizes a stack of laminates attached at the back with dark PVC cloth. The laminate layers open like a book, hence the name Binderboard®.

The simple addition of a permanent backing allows for rotary movement in a processing machine.  The board opens, bee cells are safely removed, and the board closes in one smooth motion on the machine.  The backing keeps laminates in place and insures proper fit between laminates with minimum effort. This reduces the time required to process bee cells, reducing the cost of bee management.  Cell breaking and cleaning features can be added to the system in one automated process. 

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Loose cells at bee emergence, male leafcutting bee resting.

What are the advantages of BINDERBOARD®

The Binderboard® bee management system has all of the advantages of plain laminates and loose cell management in general, and more.  Binderboard® laminates fit more snugly than traditional laminates, reducing the risk from parasites.  As with laminates alone, and polystyrene nesting materials, bee cells can be removed from the Binderboard® in the fall or winter so that predators and dead larvae are eliminated, and cells can be assessed for diseases and parasites by x-ray analysis.  In addition, Binderboard® and bee cells can be treated yearly with fumigants, hypochlorite or fungicides to control chalkbrood and other diseases. 

 Where appropriate, Binderboard® and cells can be treated simultaneously, and with the minimum active concentration of hypochlorite.  The Binderboard® system avoids the problem of dilution of hypochlorite when nests and cells are dipped.  Less concentrated hypochlorite is used than when boards are dipped in a large vat, so vapors are minimized.  

By treating the nests and cells with liquid as the cells are extracted,  the dispersal of chalkbrood spores in dust and debris is minimized.  This dispersal of spores from the cell processing equipment is one of the most important sources of the spread of chalkbrood disease, but it is little understood and not controlled in current management techniques.

Tumbling and breaking of cells is incorporated into the Binderboard® production line to separate predators, parasites and dead larvae from the cells containing live prepupae.  Tumbling and breaking takes place continuously with small numbers of cells as they are stripped from the laminates, rather than as a separate process on a large scale after cell striping. At the end of processing we envision that the boards will be ready to stack for reuse the following year, and bee cells are loaded into trays ready for winter cold-storage.

Tunnel depths of 4 or 5 inches can be used with Binderboard® because the nests are easy to open for cell removal.  Deep tunnels have been shown to have more female offspring than shallow tunnels.  Bee managers who have been using tunnel diameters of 3 - 3.5 inches may see an increase in female bee yields.

In summary, the Binderboard® system improves the efficiency of traditional loose cell management, which allows for easy storage of cells during the winter and incubation in the spring so bee emergence can be synchronized with alfalfa bloom.

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Processing boards

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What is needed?

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Processing machine

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How is BINDERBOARD® processed?

Processing is accomplished by feeding the Binderboard® into the machine, entrance holes up. The board advances into a rotating carousel.  The first laminate is opened and pulled down, and the first of four combs (similar to the rods used in other bee harvesters) on the carousel, above the laminate, will remove (strip) the cells from the exposed tunnels.  A push bar under the first laminate will move the Binderboard® ahead one laminate and begin again with the second comb on the carrousel.  One rotation of the carousel cleans four laminates. A typical four foot long Binderboard® has about 120 laminates, and the machine can extract these in about one minute.

The diameter of the carousel is determined by the angle at which the machine opens the laminates like a book, one page at a time. This allows the comb to travel relatively flat along the two exposed laminates:  top and bottom of one tunnel. The machine can be adjusted to clean Binderboard® with laminates 3.5 to 6 inches deep, 5 -12 inches wide, and with a variety of tunnel diameters.   

Where wet treatment for chalkbrood is desirable, nozzles can be situated on the sides of the machine to spray directly into the laminates as they are opened, sterilizing the board.  Additional nozzles can wash the bee cells down their path.

The bee cells will fall into a cell breaker and tumbler from which they can be spread into incubation trays.  The boards will come out of the processing machine empty and clean, or ready to fumigate, and go back to work.  Clean bee cells tumble out into incubation trays. 

Photos of processing machine

Advantages?

Processing boards

Developers and promoters.

Currently available?

Who developed BINDERBOARD®?

For the past 9 years, inventor Jerry Mills has been working with grower Lawrence Whitsell, both from Emmett, ID,  to develop the Binderboard® management system.  Mills holds the patents on Binderboard®.    Pollinator Paradise is facilitating research on and promotion of the system, and is developing a similar management routine for orchard mason bees, including the blue orchard bee, Osmia lignaria and the hornfaced bee, Osmia cornifrons.

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Prototype Processing Machine

Photos of processing machine

What is binderboard?

Advantages?

Processing boards

Developers and promoters.

Currently available?

Is this system available now?

Jerry Mills has purchased the laminate business and machinery from Ustick Bee Boards and now has the ability to make Binderboard® rapidly and in large quantities.  The boards themselves are now  ready for field testing on a small scale for trial or for research.  Hand scrapers are available for small scale processing.

Purchase Binderboard from Pollinator Paradise (see price list).

Photos of processing machine

An improved prototype of the processing equipment is under construction. A sequential drive mechanism that coordinates all the essential operations of the machine has been developed.

We seek advice, encouragement, and funding from producers and industry representatives with an understanding of leafcutting bee management, and from individuals with engineering expertise, to help us complete a working model of the processing equipment, and to develop low cost laminates as an alternative to wood.  

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Board entering prototype machine

Laminates open, combs positioned to strip bee cells. 

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What is needed for a working prototype of the equipment?

The features that the processing machine requires are: 1) a sequential drive mechanism that turns four times faster than the carrousel.  Levers can be easily attached to the drive system  that will run through a series of steps to rapidly move the board forward one laminate at a time, to open the tunnels formed by the laminates, and to strip them out of the tunnels.  2) a carousel with four spring-loaded combs; 3) an advance bar; 4) a set of laminate flipper arms; 5) a set of support arms to maintain laminate position while they are combed; 6) a toothed laminate separator for opening each laminate as they move forward; 7) a set of stop arms for catching the board as it moves forward; 8) a motor and drive train; 9) linkage to go from the drive train to the operating arms; 10) the structure that holds these devices, guides for the Binderboard®, and a conveyance for the bee cells.         

Photos of processing machine

The current prototype machine has a mock-up of these features assembled in such a way as to simulate these functions by hand. The construction is sufficient to continue fabrication in making a working model.  Our goal is to be able to butt boards end to end through the machine so that it runs continuously, stripping the cells and preparing them for cold storage.

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