Is This The Future of Beekeeping?

A new beehive design may start a global revolution in beekeeping. A father and son team from Australia has invented a new honey frame that allows you to harvest honey directly from the hive, without even disturbing the bees. Essentially, their ingenious plastic frames line up columns of deep honey cells, with each cell split into two halves, and slanted at a downward angle. By cranking a handle, the two cell halves split apart just slightly, allowing the honey to drain out the back, into to a center column, and then outside the hive through tubes. It is an amazing design and invention, which can be used by both backyard beekeepers and commercial beekeepers who can connect tubing to hundreds of hives, and then pull the honey with a vacuum, much like what is done with maple trees to make maple syrup.

The father-son duo put their invention on Indiegogo, the crowd funding site, with a goal of raising $70,000. By March 1st, they had raised over $3.8 million, proving the adage that if you build a better mousetrap, then people will beat a path to your door.