The first example of the new plastic beehive from Omlet, called the beehaus, has now joined the eight hives in the BuzzWorks apiary. A nuc from BuzzWorks was lent to Omlet to provide flying bees for the Press Launch in the Royal Parks allotment in St James Park and that hive was then filmed on Omlet’s roof. The picture has flown round the world, as far as Bejing and San Francisco. Now the bees have returned, still in their new home.
The Omlet beehaus at BuzzWorks
The beehaus is being promoted as a hive for urban gardens and roof-tops. It is modeled on the Dartington Long Deep hive, which was developed around 1975 when I was keeping bees on the roof of a London house. National boxes blew off too easily, in particular spare supers and the spare brood boxes needed for artificial swaming – so I fixed two brood boxes together and then knocked out the dividing walls.
Neither I nor BuzzWorks is involved in marketing the new hive and it is displayed for educational purposes. Anyone who would like to try it for themselves is welcome to get in touch. The bees seem to have no problem with the moulded plastic and may use much less proplis as they seem to ‘read’ the hard plastic as already hygienic and not in need of varnishing over. The hive is certainly lighter and easier to operate, and looks very good if you like ‘modern’. Omlet’s Eglu chicken coup has brought home produced eggs into many families – hopefully the beehaus will lead to more home-produced honey. The one problem may be the difficulty newbies may find in getting training on using a beehaus as courses run by associations tend to stick to what tutors are used to. We will do what we can at BuzzWorks.
The beehaus is being promoted as a hive for urban gardens and roof-tops. It is modeled on the Dartington Long Deep hive, which was developed around 1975 when I was keeping bees on the roof of a London house. National boxes blew off too easily, in particular spare supers and the spare brood boxes needed for artificial swaming – so I fixed two brood boxes together and then knocked out the dividing walls.
Neither I nor BuzzWorks is involved in marketing the new hive and it is displayed for educational purposes. Anyone who would like to try it for themselves is welcome to get in touch. The bees seem to have no problem with the moulded plastic and may use much less proplis as they seem to ‘read’ the hard plastic as already hygienic and not in need of varnishing over. The hive is certainly lighter and easier to operate, and looks very good if you like ‘modern’. Omlet’s Eglu chicken coup has brought home produced eggs into many families – hopefully the beehaus will lead to more home-produced honey. The one problem may be the difficulty newbies may find in getting training on using a beehaus as courses run by associations tend to stick to what tutors are used to. We will do what we can at BuzzWorks.
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