Hi Chris,

Thats sounds cool. I think the beehaus hives and top bar hives were trying to be innovative in the respect of design and usability. Im sure I saw hives made of polystyrene before too.

I think the core of your idea is why is it daunting to beginners. Personally I think its a general fear of things buzzing around you that can sting you and cause pain, can a hive design counteract this? Nope so you would move on to the next daunting thing……I guess its lack of knowledge.

What about a hive that makes it easy for beginners in terms of knowledge and usability. So something that takes a bit of the necessary studying away…….what about a hive that is already the required level off the ground (i.e. on legs…simple but havent seen any doing this apart from top bars etc), you could also incorporate a simple diagram (maybe ingrained in the wood) that shows the best direction to point the hive entrance etc. From a usuability point of view my experience is that the lugs of the frames can be a pain to handle and normally result in squashed bees. Perhaps clip handles or little knobs ontop of the frames (then they would have to be sunken more into the super or Bbox).

I just had a thought and it sounds a bit silly but if we look at the average age of a beekeeper they are getting on a bit its fair to say. When working with full frames they can be damn heavy, I wonder if this heavy work puts the frailer or less strong old beekeepers off continuing with their beekeeping. Perhaps creating a hive designed to create less heavy (bent over) work would benefit the older beekeeper.

Mmmm what else Ive always liked the idea of a hive that has a built in thermometer gauging inside and outside temps. Id also like the sides of a hive to be removable like an outer skin revealing a see-through (perspex perhaps) inner hive where I can examine the bees without disturbing them at all! (so I mean any side can be simply lifted out to reveal the see-through inner hive).

Im a bit of a techy so Id like atechnologically advanced hive. The temperature thing could be linked to an alarm system so if gets to hot or cold you will know. You could also have a built in (removable) feeder which could also be alarmed to alert you of low stocks! Anything that would save you time and help you manage the bees better would be a plus in my book.

Hope that gives you some ideas and you get some others, feel free to bounce some ideas off me and discuss the ones above.

Cool well if I think of anything else then I will let you know.

You should go to a local beekeeping meeting or course and ask what would make peoples lives easier. Im sure you will get loads of ideas.