'Eco' Tree Hives or disease-bombs in waiting?

[Erichalfbee]

There is a thread here from 2013 with a post from Tom Bick which is almost complete (and a shorter read!).

Tom used to have a wonderful woodworking shop in London suburbs? He made me a little cedar wbc hive model years ago. I still have it.
He’s an RBI now.

 

[pargyle]

Tom Bick, best advice on being foundationless that anyone ever provided ...

 

[oxnatbees]

MInd you, looking at the box ... might be yet another outfit looking to jump on the bandwagon of 'endangered honey bees' and make a quick buck ...

https://www.justbeeecohives.com/shop

I know him. He's not in it for the money.

 

[pargyle]

I know him. He's not in it for the money.

I can believe that ... the boxes look very well made ... it's a lot of money to spend on wildlife so I suspect it's a niche market.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Here’s mine
It’s been up for a number of years. Colonies last couple of years.
Last year the bees were repairing a hole in the floor. I suspect the whole thing has been thoroughly excavated by wax moth.
They haven’t made it through the winter so we plan to get the box down this spring.

 

[warsaw_hive]

Why the negativity? We are all beekeepers. Small hobbyist, large hobbyist, semi commercial and commercial. All the above are acceptable. One thing to consider, commercial beekeepers provide a service to hobbyists. So it could be considered that hobbyists are exploiting commercial beekeepers for, beesuits, hives and bees.

I must admit to being taken aback by the number of likes your post has got because I don't understand it all.

I have not been negative about the tree hive except one sentence. I would have preferred something like 'the wild honey bee population has been struggling' on the information board. But I have no issue with the product, or trying to change the public's perception of the honeybee from livestock to a wild animal. A bee swarm is an awesome spectacle, a real show of the power of nature, it is a pity more people don't see this. There was a sweet piece in the guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/culture...e-national-trust-house-in-wales-gets-new-roof , wouldn't it be great if more people are tolerant of sharing their home/garden with animals like this?

I am similarly not being negative about all commercial beekeepers. What I meant by commercial beekeepers were beekeepers who sell their honey, whether they have 2 hives, 200, or are backed by a primetime TV commercial. I include myself in that category. I was being negative about a subset of beekeepers who exploit the "save the bees" narrative to flog their products.

Expanding on one of the examples I gave, if you put in "adopt a beehive" into Google the first result that comes up is:

Adopt a Beehive with us today to help Save The Bees

The cost of adopting a beehive is 360 pounds a year.

Is anybody on the forum prepared to defend this? If the advert was "adopt a pigeon loft to save the birds" I think most people would say it was a load of rubbish. Clearly increasing the pigeon population doesn't increase the Curlew population etc. So why do we tolerate this nonsense about saving the bees?

As beekeepers we should be educating the public. Particularly because beekeepers have partly enabled the spread of monoculture farming.

The 360 pounds would be better spent by the company/organisation on something that actually delivers an environmental benefit. We are not going to stop climate change/reverse destruction of the natural world if grifters keep taking the money for no public benefit in return. There is not a limitless pot of money to tackle this.

 

[Moobee]

I'm not sure I have an issue with this ... perhaps not for the 'bees are threatened' reasons but there are so few hollow trees and traditional places where bees could set up home that I can see that it would/could be a benefit for swarms looking for a home. I can't say that I would put one in my apiary but for people with suitable trees in their garden and no bees ... it's not a bad thing. Bear in mind that I'm treatment free and I'm a bit NIMBY about it - there's a difference between being TF and just neglecting kept bees. But, if they are feral colonies or escapees that a beekeeper has 'lost' .. giving them somewhere to live ...I can accept that.

MInd you, looking at the box ... might be yet another outfit looking to jump on the bandwagon of 'endangered honey bees' and make a quick buck ...

https://www.justbeeecohives.com/shop

Blimey! You need a good wodge of cash to pay for that little lot! Greenwashing comes to mind…..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Blimey! You need a good wodge of cash to pay for that little lot! Greenwashing comes to mind…..

cashing in on the gullible who have more money than sense

 

[Beelosser]

My parents, who are not beekeepers, just excitedly sent me pictures of a 'tree hive' which is supposedly for rewilding honeybees. An immediate red flag was the claim that 'the honey bee population has been struggling', which is patently untrue, but I'm also wondering if this is actually going to do more harm than good.

While the idea of the UK having truly wild honeybees (or at least healthy feral colonies again?) is great, I feel like this colony is either going to dwindle and die off from mite load, spreading mites through robbing and drifting as they go, or if they do miraculously become mite-resistant through neglect, they're going to cast swarms every year that will land in chimneys and compost bins because there truly aren't many natural habitats for honeybees... And what happens if they get AFB??

Perhaps my scepticism over something that is clearly well-meant is a sign that I'm prematurely becoming a grumpy old git...

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[Beelosser]

This is a proper tree hive in the grounds of University of Galway

 

[warsaw_hive]

A tip for anyone who has one like this: make sure you anchor the legs well as mine blew over.

 

[Anduril]

I must admit to being taken aback by the number of likes your post has got because I don't understand it all.

I have not been negative about the tree hive except one sentence. I would have preferred something like 'the wild honey bee population has been struggling' on the information board. But I have no issue with the product, or trying to change the public's perception of the honeybee from livestock to a wild animal. A bee swarm is an awesome spectacle, a real show of the power of nature, it is a pity more people don't see this. There was a sweet piece in the guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/culture...e-national-trust-house-in-wales-gets-new-roof , wouldn't it be great if more people are tolerant of sharing their home/garden with animals like this?

I am similarly not being negative about all commercial beekeepers. What I meant by commercial beekeepers were beekeepers who sell their honey, whether they have 2 hives, 200, or are backed by a primetime TV commercial. I include myself in that category. I was being negative about a subset of beekeepers who exploit the "save the bees" narrative to flog their products.

Expanding on one of the examples I gave, if you put in "adopt a beehive" into Google the first result that comes up is:

Adopt a Beehive with us today to help Save The Bees

The cost of adopting a beehive is 360 pounds a year.

Is anybody on the forum prepared to defend this? If the advert was "adopt a pigeon loft to save the birds" I think most people would say it was a load of rubbish. Clearly increasing the pigeon population doesn't increase the Curlew population etc. So why do we tolerate this nonsense about saving the bees?

As beekeepers we should be educating the public. Particularly because beekeepers have partly enabled the spread of monoculture farming.

The 360 pounds would be better spent by the company/organisation on something that actually delivers an environmental benefit. We are not going to stop climate change/reverse destruction of the natural world if grifters keep taking the money for no public benefit in return. There is not a limitless pot of money to tackle this.

There is no real issue with the tree hive or the honeybee it is just down to marketing and size. Our other bee species such as bumbles and solitary bees are more fragile and at risk. There is also the transference of disease between honeybee and bumbles, which moves both ways.

The idea of adopt a beehive, probably started in the US, which I can see started as far back as 2012 if not further and then went global. The driving force for the idea goes both ways, between beekeeper and company for green credentials if there is a corner for the market, a company will approach whoever is offering the idea, so it depends on who approaches who. “He who dares Rodney”.

As far as monoculture farming is concerned the beekeeper doesn't really have a say in the matter. The almond growers prevent other flora from growing, while almond pollen is nutritionally good, blueberry pollen is nutritionally poor.

Then hives on rooves, 2 examples. First, back in the 1970's there were hives on top of Cardiff University, all done on a budget of £0, done for research using sliding wooden cabinets, each box slid out.

Second, I found out about by accident nine years ago. Hives on the rooves of a charity in Cardiff that helped with the rehabilitation of drug users, it gave them focus and a purpose. These examples are probably more prevalent around the country than you think. The latter with the help of a commercial bee company, the former with a hobbyist.

 

[Mint Bee]

I must admit to being taken aback by the number of likes your post has got because I don't understand it all.

I have not been negative about the tree hive except one sentence. I would have preferred something like 'the wild honey bee population has been struggling' on the information board. But I have no issue with the product, or trying to change the public's perception of the honeybee from livestock to a wild animal. A bee swarm is an awesome spectacle, a real show of the power of nature, it is a pity more people don't see this. There was a sweet piece in the guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/culture...e-national-trust-house-in-wales-gets-new-roof , wouldn't it be great if more people are tolerant of sharing their home/garden with animals like this?

I am similarly not being negative about all commercial beekeepers. What I meant by commercial beekeepers were beekeepers who sell their honey, whether they have 2 hives, 200, or are backed by a primetime TV commercial. I include myself in that category. I was being negative about a subset of beekeepers who exploit the "save the bees" narrative to flog their products.

Expanding on one of the examples I gave, if you put in "adopt a beehive" into Google the first result that comes up is:

Adopt a Beehive with us today to help Save The Bees

The cost of adopting a beehive is 360 pounds a year.

Is anybody on the forum prepared to defend this? If the advert was "adopt a pigeon loft to save the birds" I think most people would say it was a load of rubbish. Clearly increasing the pigeon population doesn't increase the Curlew population etc. So why do we tolerate this nonsense about saving the bees?

As beekeepers we should be educating the public. Particularly because beekeepers have partly enabled the spread of monoculture farming.

The 360 pounds would be better spent by the company/organisation on something that actually delivers an environmental benefit. We are not going to stop climate change/reverse destruction of the natural world if grifters keep taking the money for no public benefit in return. There is not a limitless pot of money to tackle this.

Ok. Whether you intend to or do not, your recent posts come across as if you don't appear to like anyone trying to make money out of bees, beekeeping or beekeepers. That's fine, but this forum contains people who carry out a wide range of beekeeping practices many of whom probably don't align with your own beekeeping preference from what I can infer.

We can educate and many try, but the evidence is that Jo Public is generally stupid. who's the mug here?

 

[rossbyjove]

We have an almost identical one on the allotments over the road.
Not been a problem for the beekeepers around here.
Someone has two hives in their garden about 100 foot away.

 

[warsaw_hive]

Ok. Whether you intend to or do not, your recent posts come across as if you don't appear to like anyone trying to make money out of bees, beekeeping or beekeepers. That's fine, but this forum contains people who carry out a wide range of beekeeping practices many of whom probably don't align with your own beekeeping preference from what I can infer.

We can educate and many try, but the evidence is that Jo Public is generally stupid. who's the mug here?

If Jo Public is repeatedly told by the media that honeybees are in decline, beekeepers infer that honeybees are in decline, then if Jo Public thinks honeybees are in decline it is not because of stupidity. It is because there is some shyster beekeeper feeding this narrative which the media laps up unquestioningly.

The problem with the general public is not stupidity. It is because - and this seems odd saying this - they are too nice. A significant percentage of the population believe everything that they are told. They don't seem to realise that there are people who blatantly lie for their own benefit.

This is then compounded by an unwillingness to accept that they have been deceived or that their initial position on something was wrong. This leads to ludicrous positions on things. For example, if a person points out that Mr X has been misleading, it is often not Mr X who is cast as the bad guy, but the person who has pointed out the truth. You see this all the time.

My fear with this honeybees are in decline narrative will be that it will be another stick for the climate deniers to wave when they realise that honeybees are not in decline.

To return to the eco tree hive. Personally I think they are selling their products too cheaply.

 

[Mint Bee]

If Jo Public is repeatedly told by the media that honeybees are in decline, beekeepers infer that honeybees are in decline, then if Jo Public thinks honeybees are in decline it is not because of stupidity. It is because there is some shyster beekeeper feeding this narrative which the media laps up unquestioningly.

The problem with the general public is not stupidity. It is because - and this seems odd saying this - they are too nice. A significant percentage of the population believe everything that they are told. They don't seem to realise that there are people who blatantly lie for their own benefit.

This is then compounded by an unwillingness to accept that they have been deceived or that their initial position on something was wrong. This leads to ludicrous positions on things. For example, if a person points out that Mr X has been misleading, it is often not Mr X who is cast as the bad guy, but the person who has pointed out the truth. You see this all the time.

My fear with this honeybees are in decline narrative will be that it will be another stick for the climate deniers to wave when they realise that honeybees are not in decline.

To return to the eco tree hive. Personally I think they are selling their products too cheaply.

Watch Idiocracy and tell me that we are not already well progressed along the road to a towards a grim future


As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species