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Beekeeping for the 21st century Begins in Britain

11th August, 2009

A new, contemporary beehive for the urban beekeeper, has just been launched by Omlet, that will make it easy for anyone - from amateurs to seasoned apiarists - to help bees find a home in urban gardens up and down the country.

The strikingly designed hive - called the ‘Beehaus’ -  is developed with the help of leading beekeepers to be a 21st century home for bees and has urban spaces very much in mind. Beehaus has twice the room of a traditional hive (measuring about 1m wide and 0.5m high) and with plenty of space for the colony to grow, the likelihood of the bees swarming is greatly reduced.  Bees will travel up to 3 miles to collect nectar, so even the most unpromising gardens can still support viable colonies and produce their own honey.  With proper care and access to local sources of nectar it's quite possible to collect over 20kg of honey from a Beehaus hive in a good year.

Credit: Omlet - The New Beehaus

Omlet co-founder James Tuthill said “Bees provide a wonderful service pollinating plants and providing us with honey. The BeehausTM is a brilliant new way to keep bees in a garden or even on a rooftop. It's new design simplifies the principles of beekeeping so that anyone can enjoy this fascinating hobby. With the help of urban gardeners, bees can have access to a wonderfully diverse source of plants, resulting in fantastic flavorsome honey.”

The first Beehaus will be installed on Natural England’s office roof in Victoria, London, overlooking Westminster Cathedral. Dr Tom Tew, Chief Scientist for Natural England, said: “Bees provide us with honey but also play a vital role in pollinating plants - from farmland crops to trees, flowers and garden vegetables – bringing critical benefits to people and to the natural environment. We need to recognise that if we want plants to flourish, we need healthy populations of insects to sustain them. There is no reason why our towns and cities should exist as wildlife deserts - wildlife can thrive when we design our urban areas with nature in mind and the Beehaus is a great example of how easy it is for anyone to bring the natural world closer to their doorstep.”

The latest in luxury living for the city slicker bee

Bees make honey from the nectar that they collect from flowers.  They fly up to 3 miles from the hive and when there is a good flow the bees will need extra storage space .

The Beehaus has twice the room of a traditional hive; with plenty of space for the colony to grow the likelihood of the bees swarming is greatly reduced.  It comes with four honey boxes, each can store up to 7kg of honey at a time. 

The Beehaus comes with legs to keep the bees out of the coldest air in winter when they are hibernating; the legs raise the hive to a comfortable height for the beekeeper, which makes inspecting the hive much easier. It has a mesh floor that provides year round ventilation helping the bees to maintain a hygienic home; the mesh floor assists the beekeeper in controlling the varroa mite by allowing fallen mite to drop away from the hive. 

The Beehaus is 1m long, 0.9m high and 0.5m wide.  The complete BeehausTM kit is available to order from £495 online at www.omlet.co.uk 

 

 

omlet beehaus

0191 2094161