John Bachman wrote:
On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:58:23 +0000, wesleyn
n.r.wesley@brightonDOTacDOTuk wrote:

Hi there,

For those that haven't seen my previous post my name is Neil, I am a
Product Design student at Brighton University.

It is very true that I know very little about beekeeping, nothing
before 2 weeks ago in fact. However, the local beekeepers I have spoken
to, and the fact that most replies on the forums I have posted have said
they are not afraid of bees leads me to think that a home beehive is not
a completely ludicrous idea.

It doesn't matter too much for the project in any case. The major
aspect of the project is the emotions a person might recieve from the
product I design. A fear of bees is not too uncommon, therefore my
design will attempt to give people a positive emotion to counteract
this negative one, it could be fun, playful, or friendly, or maybe have
a calming, soothing influence.

I have done a number of concept sketches, if you are interested follow
the link to photobucket to view them, I would be very interested to
hear what you think, particularly which design you would most like to
have in your own garden - and why if you have the time and inclination.
From this I can make a choice of which to develope further. Please try
to view each design independent of its colour, as that can be altered
easily, although any comment of colour will be very useful.

Photobucket link: http://tinyurl.com/283g8x

Thankyou very much for taking the time to read this and reply.

Many people keep bee hives on their residential property, located in
an area where people and the bees will not intermix thereby avoiding
problems. Anyone who fears the bees will not have any interest in
having them nearby but those who do not are sometimes inclined to keep
bees as they are fascinating creatures.

I am not clear on the purpose of your designs. Improvement over the
time proven rectangular box with frames hanging inside perhaps? If
so, keep in mind the bees propensity to glue everything to everything.
An enclosure with sloping sides, narrower at the top than the bottom
will make the contents inaccessible by the beekeeper.

Also, the bees will quickly glue together any component that you would
like to slide across another. Their glue is quite strong and they put
it everywhere. You should keep this in mind.

Good luck.

John


I'll agree with all the statements above. It's understandable to try and
make a designer hive for the yuppies at large, but keep function over
form in the top of your mind.. This is what makes a good designer, not
just making it pretty.

Any of the sliding designs are out. The only designs that would work are
the ones that lift off of the container below.

The only one that I really liked was the "Zoo" design as its form lends
well to the function. In fact, that is a fairly good design that can be
expanded on.. Needs handles..

The others which are narrow at the top of the sections will not work as
removal of anything inside would be too difficult.

There is another method of keeping bees that has been shown to work well
but is more difficult from my understanding which is top bar hives.

http://www2.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm

One of the more interesting sites I'd found on the matter... Even has a
few observation hives which show the bees and comb structure.

At any rate, good luck.. And keep function over form.. If it goes the
other way what ever you design will be worthless.