wesleyn wrote:
Hi, my name is Neil, I'm a product design student in Brighton. I'm
looking into possibly doing a home beehive design, and yourselves as
gardeners have probably encountered the odd bee or two. I have a quick
question for you then, are you;

a/ completely unafraid of bees.
b/ very frightened of them - you may even be a confirmed apiphobic
(fear of bees) or cnidophobic (fear of stings).
c/ somewhere in between:
c1/ you are able to keep calm and ignore them, but wont go too
close
c2/ you'll move away / go indoors until they're gone
c3/ you'll try to get rid of them using bug spray etc.

Any replies will be of great value to me, thankyou for taking the time
to read and respond.

Neil






Question is how much do you know about bee keeping to fathom the idea of
making a "home beehive" design. It's not like keeping bees is anywhere
near the same as putting up a bird house. You'd have more chance of
being hit in the head with a bird than a swarm moving into an empty box
on its own.

You need to buy a queen and a starter colony, then acclimate them to the
hive. Not exactly a hands off process by any means.

Most home owners will cringe at the idea of having to handle bees to get
the setup done and then for gathering the honey.

Tie that in with the fact that so many people who get started in this
have a tendency of over collecting of the honey and not leaving enough
for the bees to survive the winter, killing off the whole colony.

At any rate: a/