I applaud Philips for the sleek design of their Urban Beehive concept, and its attempt to combat dwindling bee colonies by encouraging those living in urban areas to maintain a hive at home.
But I don’t think it’s the traditionally boxy design of your standard beehive that are keeping homeowners from adopting their own colonies. As safe as the practice can be, people are still afraid of bees, or more specifically, bee stings.
Besides the promise of fresh honey for tea or biscuits, the concept also helps to boost the number of bees cross-pollenating plants and trees which are usually in limited supply in urban areas. Consisting of an array of visible honeycomb frames inside with a flowerpot sitting below the entry passage, the tinted glass used in the Urban Beehive’s design filters orange light inside which bees use for their sight.
There’s also an access hole on the bottom that allows the bees to be smoked out in the traditional fashion when it’s time to harvest their honey. But I think the stigma behind getting stung is going to be a tough one for the average urban dweller to overcome.
[Philips via Fast Company]
MDolley
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 10:42 AMWhen I was younger I lived near a house that had bee hives. It wasn’t so much the stings, they are just really annoying. You’d be watching TV then suddenly there would be 3 bees flying around the lounge room. They also seemed to love hanging around the swimming pool. You’d have to spend 10 mins removing the half dead bees before you went for a swim.
John Hedge
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 11:11 AMWhat a great idea. Any idea of cost?
Steve
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 3:21 PMI think these people are greatly over-estimating the amount of honey usage in home and office. Even for ‘normal’ stuff like tea, crumpets etc honey outstays its welcome fast and it’s just an all-round awkward ingredient to use.
Jay
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 4:13 PMI give them twenty weeks before they realise that Urban honey is gonna taste worse than the parasite infected honey Americans are already pretending tastes good. Not to brag or anything, but Australia has the best honey in the world, and the only bee colony’s not “dwindling” as they put it.
LucasF
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 7:04 PMNew Zealand has the best honey in the world. That is why, like the apples, you can’t buy it here in Aus. Same reason Queenslanders don’t want a nationally standardised high school certificate – it would make them look bad.
BH
Monday, November 7, 2011 at 8:36 AMwell done, but urban beekeeping is cheap and easy with a top bar hive check out bio bees for free plans
Mark W
Monday, November 7, 2011 at 4:40 PMI am beekeeper and the honey comb holding the honey stores in the hive will always be built vertically as the honey would run out before it was sealed. The design shown is not true to life!
Casper
Monday, November 7, 2011 at 4:41 PMI dunno I kinda still want one… I’m sure I’d rapidly get over it but then they could just live there happily. It’s not like you have to open the cover and harvest the honey you can just let them live there and observe them through the glass.
Captain Pajama Shark
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 2:56 PM“I am beekeeper” has to be my favorite bit of internet today :)
good one MarkW, i’ll be laughing for ages, even though your comment is rather good.