Philips has created a plastic, urban beehive. Honey, I am home!
When I told my husband that I want to build an urban beehive on the roof, he thought I’d flown the coop. It’s enough that we have 15 chickens running around the urban homestead. Bees sting, he reminded me. I, like many other “informed” eco-ists know that there is something up with commercially-produced honey. It no longer tastes like honey. Turns out a lot of our honey no longer has anything valuable in it. Enter the new Philips invention: half flower pot, half honey pot.
When in need of some honey, the owner taps the base. To keep the bees docile when doing so, a smoking system is in place. Unless you leave the window open year-round and you don’t mind bees buzzing through your kitchen, I suggest keeping the honey farm out in the garden.
Countering colony collapse disorder? Looks like it is only a concept product at this stage. Philips writes:
“This is a sustainable, environmentally friendly product concept that has direct educational effects. The city benefits from the pollination, and humans benefit from the honey and the therapeutic value of observing these fascinating creatures in action. As global bee colonies are in decline, this design contributes to the preservation of the species and encourages the return of the urban bee.”
::Philips
Beautiful, but impracticable.
1. As Susan said; collecting the honey is messy and involved. Besides, can you imagine opening this thing in your kitchen and removing a frame covered with hundreds of bees?
2. It’s big enough for a starter colony, or maybe a colony of Asian bees (Apis cerana), but this will cause European honeybees to swarm. Even if the bees stay, there won’t be enough space for them to store honey in excess of what they need to eat during winter.
3. Bees don’t like light in their hives. Light in the hive means there’s a hole in the wall. Too much light makes the bees swarm.
4. The entrance is too small. During the summer there is very high traffic at the entrance and a little tube like that is too narrow.
5. No ventilation means overheating (especially if it’s hanging on a window) and problems with condensation (and the mold that comes along with it).
6. I’ve never heard of bees building honeycomb on a slant. They always build it vertically. I don’t know if they would accept the diagnal frames in this hive.
But, like I said, it’s beautiful.
What an operation. Thanks for sharing Ronley.
One day I get to my date field and Annas, one of my Palistinian workers from Jericho come to inform me that they had found a bee hive in the bushes very close by.
They were very excited about this.
Naturaly I was most distressed. Besides being highly allergic to bee stings. I really did not want the responsibility and potential problems of bees stinging my workers or myself.
But Annas was very happy about this bee hive. He ensured me that he and his father would remove the hive with no problems what so ever.
He took a bucket and wet the inside of the bucket and then sprinkled sugar inside the bucket to attract the bees. He then very carefully placed this bucket as close as he could to the hive.
A few hours later all the bees had settled them selves very nicely in the bucket, doing what bees do in a bucket that had sugar all over the insides of it.
He then took a piece of plastic and string. And very carefully covered the top of the bucket, tied the plastic down securely, by this time his Anas’es father Hatam, had arrived to remove the bucket and bees. They then put the hive very carefully into the trunk of his car and drove off, back to Jericho.
here in Oman honey is really valued as a food and medicinal product – and its super delicious
Ha ha. I like this idea because I think it could spark a revolution in urban farming, for honey, eggs and anything else involving animals and sentient beings.
Karin, our daughter put a beehive on our upstairs deck, it will be fine, tell your husband not to worry about stings, but. You won’t be able to make that dainty contraption work. Stealing honey from bees is laborious messy work that takes teamwork to scrape off combs, you’ll both be covered in honey, and will definitely want to be in bee suits, not evening dress.