Sexy Urban Beehive Concept

[keith pierce]

If only beekeeping was that easy


http://inhabitat.com/philips-unveils-sexy-concept-bee-keeping-gadget/

 

[Hivemaker.]

...http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14518

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14570

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27642&page=3

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=388885&postcount=27

 

[oliver90owner]

November 2011, so not exactly new.

But rubbish, anyway. Just reading the comments should give the average person something to go away and realise it is carp.

Concepts should have some basis of possibility. This has none at all, whatsoever.

 

[yellowrage 53]

should that bee crap

 

[oliver90owner]

Yes, but it euphemises the sh1te so as not to upset some of the sensitive ones as much (also bypasses the filters on some fora).

 

[user 6228]

Here is another design by a student in loughborough university

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Oy5mzjYIc"]IDATER Online Conference 2012: Case Study 1 - Chris Weir | Urban Beehive - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Roola]

Love how they say you can add smoke if you 'need' to inspect inside... Yep, id love a lounge full of bees... Are they expecting the bees to all just go back in when told. Laughable.

 

[Tom Bick]

Here is another design by a student in loughborough university

IDATER Online Conference 2012: Case Study 1 - Chris Weir | Urban Beehive - YouTube

Seen worse

 

[psafloyd]

Great. All these urban beehives will mean MORE SWARMS FOR MEEEEEEEEE!

 

[user 6228]

Seen worse

All of them have very severe faults but at least for me they challenge the conventional ideas and make one concentrate on what are fundamental constraints rather than the conventional forms, which embody those constraints implicitly.

 

[Apple]

Seen worse

Not that I am in in any way experienced in beekeeping to comment, but what would be the drawbacks on a "window sill" or "balcony" beehive?

My Bristol flat is in a very built up part of the town with lots of gardens around, definitely urban compared to the wilds of Bodmin!
I would love to be able to keep bees on my balcony... previous tenant grew courgettes and tomatoes here and apparently supplied the whole block of 12 flats supplied all summer!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

But neither tomatoes or courgettes have a propensity to swarm - or sting although i must admit a surfeit of courgettes don't half make oi fahrt

 

[Nige.Coll]

just think how many laughs you could have if your neighbour had one..
especially if they had a rather antisocial colony . priceless ..

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Not that I am in in any way experienced in beekeeping to comment, but what would be the drawbacks on a "window sill" or "balcony" beehive?

My Bristol flat is in a very built up part of the town with lots of gardens around, definitely urban compared to the wilds of Bodmin!
I would love to be able to keep bees on my balcony... previous tenant grew courgettes and tomatoes here and apparently supplied the whole block of 12 flats supplied all summer!

Have a read of "The Urban Beekeeper - A Year of Bees in the City" by Steve Benbow. He now has a successful beekeeping business in London. Some of his income is from managing hives on the roofs of such places as Fortnum and Mason, Tate Modern, National Portrait Gallery, etc. - the rest comes from honey and wax sales, training and public speaking.

He did not learn his beekeeping in the city - he was pretty experienced before he moved to London. Foraging is not a problem for urban bees, as you will read in the book and as urban beekeepers on this forum will testify but whether your balcony is a good place to learn the craft is debatable due, as others have said, to the problems of swarming and stinging of neighbours. I suppose, once you learn the basics of beekeeping in Bodmin, you could use your Bristol balcony as an out apiary, outside the main swarming season.

CVB

 

[MartinL]

If only beekeeping was that easy


http://inhabitat.com/philips-unveils-sexy-concept-bee-keeping-gadget/

Wow,

And now, with over 30 months further development!!!!

I want one, just think of all that "unrefined honey". You know the healthy bits left in mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

On a slightly more serious note, some enterprising marketing chap (perhaps recently retired from RBS), could make a fortune with it!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well, P T Barnum comes to mind:

'Theres one born every minute!'​

 

[busybee53]

I am an urban beek and that seems to help in bad years. There is the urban heat island effect which keeps towns and cities a bit warmer than the countryside. People do water their gardens when it is hot which is good for the flowers and gardeners try to prolong the flowering season which gives lots of forage, and then there are the parks ... Shame I have not got a balcony tho.

 

[itma]

There's different things at play.
Urban/suburban beekeeping -- simple enough with a large garden, tall hedges, gentle bees, nice neighbours and a bit of luck!
Then Balcony beekeeping - the lack of space and the forced proximity of bees and people makes it a bit more tricky ...
... and then there's the daft idea of an observation hive actually in your lounge, never mind the daftnesses of the hive itself.

Its a design exercise, not a serious proposal.
Every year, budding artistic designers get set tasks to redesign familiar objects.
As long as it is recognised that its really 'artistic' design that is involved, there is little harm done. Just pray that the only part of an aircraft they get to 'design' is the pattern on the upholstery ...

 

[mbc]

Anything that shape would be a liability considering my sleep walking peeing history

 

[Dishmop]

Not that I am in in any way experienced in beekeeping to comment, but what would be the drawbacks on a "window sill" or "balcony" beehive?

My Bristol flat is in a very built up part of the town with lots of gardens around, definitely urban compared to the wilds of Bodmin!
I would love to be able to keep bees on my balcony... previous tenant grew courgettes and tomatoes here and apparently supplied the whole block of 12 flats supplied all summer!

Thousands of people keep them on balconies in New York since they lifted the ban on bees in the city limits.
I dont see that swarming poses any more of a problem than if they swarmed from anywhere else. I posted a pic on here a few days ago of a hive about 6ft tall on a balcony which I think was in Poland.
Would anybody who might whinge be able to see them without abseiling off the roof?

A swarm of bees doesnt really pose a threat to anybody unless they interfere with it.
I had two neighbours that said my bees went into their house and garden. I showed to the council man that by the time the bees left my garden they were 10 ft in the air and flying over the other gardens.