This campaign will allow a short run of 10,000 CombForms™ to be produced. This includes the production costs such as mold design, tool & die manufacture of the injection mold, overhead, Indiegogo and other fees as well as shipping and handling of 1,400 sets of seven CombForms™ per set as perks. By using CombForms™ as perks for experienced beekeepers, we hope to get independent testing as well as feedback.
Each contribution of $60 will result in a set of seven CombForms™ to be shipped as a perk within the United States (International shipment of perks is extra). In order for this project to succeed we must raise a minimum of $65,000.
This campaign has a strict deadline! This means that all contributions must be made through PayPal. You can use your own PayPal account or a credit card. Your contribution will be processed and the money held by PayPal until our campaign's deadline. If we do not reach our goal, PayPal promises to refund all contributions within 3-5 business days of the campaign's deadline.
We are counting on this project funding and moving forward according to the following schedule:
June 15, 2015 - Indiegogo Crowd Funding Campaign begins.
August 14, 2015 - Indiegogo Campaign closes. Injection Mold Design & Manufacture begins.
October 2015 - CombForm™ Fabrication.
November 2015 - Final shipment of perks. It is our goal to have the first 1,400 sets of CombForms™ perks in beekeepers hands so they can be used to test overwintering hives in many areas in the Northern Hemisphere. This time-frame will hopefully allow some production season testing in the Southern Hemisphere to begin in the 2015 season.
By contributing you are accepting some risks - we are required to notify you that we will make a best effort to provide the reward but delivery is not guaranteed. We do not anticipate it, but unanticipated delays may also occur.
Overages
More About the Use of CombForms™
When bees draw comb naturally they fill all available areas of their hive until the space in the hive has been used. The combs are often curved and interlocked. This makes it impossible to easily inspect the hives for disease or harvest excess honey without causing severe damage to the comb and frequently killing quantities of bees. Although there are many variations on the beehive, all modern types of hives used throughout the world for bee culture have removable frames. Many beekeepers provide beeswax or artificial foundation which acts as a template for the cell pattern and cell base construction of wax comb in frames. CombForms™ are constructed so that bees are encouraged to construct wax in the frames into straight even combs with or without the use of foundation. They allow the workers, queen and drones to move through the hexagonal opening to other parts of the hive.
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Relative size of hexagon openings (queen - top, worker - left, drone - right) from CombForms™ provisional patent application
Brood comb for raising new generations of bees is typically uniform in depth; whereas, honeycomb is frequently either over or under-built. Whenever one frame of honeycomb is overbuilt, it protrudes or bulges into the adjoining frame resulting in the adjacent frame being under-built, thin and convex or curved and locked into the next frame or even missing. Although not as severe a problem as curved comb, over-built and under-built comb can also result in frames being locked together. These irregularities on honeycomb may require repeated trimming until the comb irregularities have been reduced and the adjoining thin or missing frames of comb have been filled with a balanced amount of comb that completely fills the frame. When beekeepers have to deal with misshapen or irregular comb it requires extra time for trimming and can interfere or slow down the honey harvest by requiring extra labor for uncapping the under-built sections of the comb by hand. Trimming the over-built sections of the comb to the proper size means that the removed sections will require extra handling to separate the honey from the wax. After trimming the adjacent frame will have a void or under-built area of wax. The bees may continue to over-build the one side instead of completing the under -built area. CombForms™ guides the bees to fill the entire frame and helps establish the space between combs which is used by bees to move about the hive. Once this spacing is established the CombForm™ can be removed for use elsewhere and after sliding the frames together the bees do not construct additional comb into this "bee space".
When beekeepers allow hived bees to construct their comb without the use of foundation as a template they typically use a starter strip at the top of the frame for the bees to begin their comb construction. In order to begin the construction of comb in an open cavity the bees will join together in an interlocking group that hangs from the top of the hive in a festoon. Combs constructed this way are quickly built - but the bees will sometimes deviate from the starter strip and build crooked combs. In a worst case scenario the bees will build cross comb which is perpendicular to the direction desired by the beekeeper. This effectively locks the frames together so that separating the frames can substantially damage the comb and may consequently kill many bees. Constructing comb is an energy intensive activity with the bees having to use substantial amounts of carbohydrates in the form of nectar or supplied sugar water to make the wax. It has been reported that production of one pound of beeswax requires at least eight pounds of honey. This means that when the beekeeper must remove misshapen comb there will be a loss of honey since the bees will have to reconstruct the missing comb instead of having the excess honey available for storage. Using CombForms™ can mean the bees waste less energy on false starts that end up having to be destroyed by the beekeeper.
Six possible methods of using CombForms™
Past Inventions Leading to CombForms™
CombForms™ has benefited from a study of the designs and practices of historical
methods.
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In his 1873 patent David Latchaw wrote:
As a means of causing the bees to build comb with regularity, and to confine them to one frame til they have nearly or quite filled it, the guide R may be advantageously applied between the comb-frames. It is formed of muslin or other similar fabric, dipped in melted bees-wax. It has apertures like the wire gauze plate P, to permit the bees to pass through from one frame to the other, and support themselves during the commencement of the comb-building. When the comb has been commenced the plate R may be removed.
When bees experience overcrowding within the hive they will respond by swarming. This is the natural way that honeybee colonies reproduce. Approximately half the bees in the hive will leave the hive along with the existing queen bee. This relieves the overcrowding and is the way that bees propagate new hives. When apiary hives swarm it results in a reduction in the amount of honey that can be harvested. The bees put their energy into making a new hive instead of producing honey. Recapturing the swarm is additional work for the beekeeper and may result in the swarm invading a populated area causing people to panic. There is a delicate balance that must be achieved by beekeepers that hope to harvest surplus honey from their bees. Strong hives are necessary to bring in enough nectar to make extra honey that can be harvested, but strong hives are more likely to swarm due to overcrowding of the brood box.
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Lewis Aspinwall - 1908 Swarm Prevention Frame, Patent Number 891,584
In 1897 Lewis Agustus Aspinwall patented a method of making bees feel like they had adequate room so they would focus their attention on honey production instead of swarming. Aspinwall's principle encouraged the bees to expand their hive upward into the empty honey supers that were place on top of the hive.
In my present hive I employ similar brood or comb frames, and I prefer to arrange the same alternately with dummy frames that are filled in with a series of similar or parallel strips or slats. These slats may be placed in any desired direction and so close to one another as to leave between them about a bee-space, and the slats are preferably as wide as the dummy frames, and they are so close as to prevent the bees building comb in the frames, but yet at the same time allowing room for the bees to travel through the dummy frames from one comb frame to the next and in this way providing ample room for all the bees and for the increase of the bees, so as to overcome the tendency of the bees to swarm at certain periods.
Placing three CombForms™ side-by-side at the edge of the brood ball creates the appropriate spacing and is hypothesized as another way to utilize the Aspinwall method for swarm prevention. Preliminary testing appears favorable; however, controlled trials supported by this crowd funding project are needed.
How You Can Help With Our Research
Shortly after we begin shipping CombForms™ as perks, we
intend to add to our web-site a number of Crowd Science Projects to ask your help to figure out best practices. We fully expect that some ways of using CombForms™
may end up sending bees the wrong message. By participating in our Crowd Source
research project we hope to learn even more about communicating our desires to
the bees and understanding when the bees tell us Yes and No!
This section of our web-site and the research project
proposal synopsis are under development, but you can help us right now by going
to the Research section of our website www.combforms.com and letting us know your thoughts on
what types of Combforms™ questions you would like to see studied.
FAQs
How Can I Order A Set Of CombForms™?
Right now, the only way to get CombForms™ is through our
Indiegogo page. People who contribute to the project on Indiegogo, will get the
first CombForms's as perks.
When Will I Receive My Perk?
When you make your contributions it is time stamped by
Indiegogo. Your perk will be shipped on a first come, first served basis. This
means that the first backers will get their CombForms™ perk first,
according to when the orders were received. We anticipate that we may get some
perks out by the end of October but some of the first fourteen hundred orders will
ship at the beginning of November 2015. If more than fourteen hundred persons contribute those perks
may take longer - but will continue to be shipped in order. Approximate shipping
date information will also be posted on our web-site at www.combforms.com.
How do I know CombForms™ will work?
CombForms™ are a new tool based on past beekeeping methods. You should think of them as being in Beta testing. Although the results using CombForms™ has been favorable - their testing continues. Honeybee management practices vary and each hive has its own personality. Results using CombForms™ may vary. Users of CombForms™ do so at their own risk. If you are using CombForms™ it is important you monitor your hives to be sure it's working and communicating the message you intend to the bees. Additional information about using CombForms™ can be found on our website. We also encourage you to share your experiences on our blog.
What If I Have a Problem With My Order?
Just go to the top right of the Indiegogo page and click on
"Your Name" and "Contact User". This is how you notify us about changes to
your orders, such as address changes. If your problem requires Indiegogo or
PayPal involvement we will send you to their customer service.
Please
be aware that PayPal has certain limits on the amount of money that you can
send. If you're paying as a guest in PayPal, you will not be able to
contribute more than $500 (USD). You will also only be able to use PayPal's
guest checkout process up to 15 times with a total spending limit of $4,000.
Once you reach PayPal's maximum, you will be prompted to upgrade to a full
PayPal account.
How Do I Get Help Or Support?
Send us a message on our contact page we will work with you to take care of your
issue!
What Is The Cost For Shipping?
Shipping perks within the United States is included with
your $60 contribution. International shipments of perks to most parts of the world will require a contribution of $75. If you are not in the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Australia or New Zealand please check with us regarding shipping costs first by sending us a message. International contributors will also need to pay any customs, taxes and other fees required by their country.
Has CombForms™ been Patented?
CombForms™ is patent pending and trademarked.
What CombForms™ Made Out Of?
CombForms will be made of Food safe BPA and phthalate
free nylon.
