[bambinoMember]

…anyone used one/got views on it?

[ThePathKeymaster]

Well the term if it aint broke dont fix it springs to mind…..also the fact that they are £465 certainly puts me off trying them!!

I mean seriously who in their right mind is going to spend that amount on a hive? The benefits dont seem to be anything to huge, I cant see that its going to be any easier to manage than say a National or Smith?

I love what they say on the website though:

“Inspired by the way bees live in the willd”

What a load of tosh…if it was inspired by how bees live in the wild it would be a rotten hollow tree or similar!

Im sure it will appeal to the fashionistas who want a colour co-ordinated hive matching their swanky pad!!

I welcome anybody from Omlet on this forum to discuss why the extra money spent is worth it. I'll be surprised if you can convince me though.

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[bambinoMember]

Ha ha!!  i have one!  But its not my main hive type.

They are based on the Dartington, as you probably know.  The main aim (..apart from money in the coiffers of the manufacturer!) is for city usage, and to encourage beekeeping in urban areas.

So far though, Ive no colony in it, but am bringing on a Nuc for it.  It will be interesting to see how it goes…..

[ThePathKeymaster]

Wow you must be loaded..haha.

Well thats good that someone here has one because you can road test it and maybe write a review on it, so we have an educated opinion on whether its a good thing or not. I guess you never really know what the practicalities and such like will be until you try one out.

Looking forward to the review next year then!

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[barrypatonMember]

I'll stick to timber hives for now!

The beehaus uses 14 x 12's I think – something I am considering myself.

[bambinoMember]

…what are you on currently then Adam?

My main hive type is Langstroth.

[barrypatonMember]

I've got one WBC hive with a 14 x 12 brood. The other hives are either WBC's or Nationals.

I also have a 16 frame national which I made up for fun (!) this summer. This gives a good sized brood area but means that I can exchange / sell / buy frames with the most common size that most everyone else uses. I THINK I recall seeing that someone else uses these but I can't remember where I saw it. I need to make a queen excluder for it sometime this winter. I'm still pondering the best way of making one! I have somehow finished up with a slotted steel Smith excluder which I might frame to fit the large hive.

I do try to stick to 11 frames in a WBC and 12 in a National so that they are all tight together and I have the maximum available brood area. Some beeks use one less plus a dummy board. However the frames tend to grow to the space available unless squeezed together to the hoffman spacing after each inspection.

[ThePathKeymaster]

Im in Scotland so I prefer Smith hives, a bit smaller with a smaller yield but more suited to the Scottish climate. However I do know a few people in my area who use WBC (because they think they look nice…sigh) and Nationals.

Smith hives seem to be the hive of choice in Scotland however I think more and more people may be leaning towards the Nationals as we seem to be having milder, wetter Winters. I think the Commercial and Langstroth might still be too big for the bees to cope with in Scotland, with the lower temperatures (climate change might change that however).

However you can also get jumbo brood body options for National, WBC, Smith and Langstroth, if required.

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[broandyMember]

Hi Hawthorne, any update with ho wyou are getting on with your Bauhaus?

[bambinoMember]

its still too cold to open up – we had snow flurries at the weekend! (..I hate snow!)

[WBC]

ThePath said:

Im in Scotland so I prefer Smith hives, a bit smaller with a smaller yield but more suited to the Scottish climate. However I do know a few people in my area who use WBC (because they think they look nice…sigh) and Nationals.

Smith hives seem to be the hive of choice in Scotland however I think more and more people may be leaning towards the Nationals as we seem to be having milder, wetter Winters. I think the Commercial and Langstroth might still be too big for the bees to cope with in Scotland, with the lower temperatures (climate change might change that however).

However you can also get jumbo brood body options for National, WBC, Smith and Langstroth, if required.

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I am in Scotland too and have WBC hives. The double walls contribute to the warmth of the hive during the winter months. Having come through the worst winter in 30 years the colonies survived fantastically well. I do not subscribe to the doom mongers that tell that it will be getting warmer – it is in fact getting colder.

The Beehaus in my view is a great piece of engineering………..but the price is a complete rip-off. No doubt it will have a patent and, therefore, the price will never come down – which is a pity. I am searching the web for a resale one, with no success so far.

[ThePathKeymaster]

I guess the fact that you cant find one for resale suggests they are pretty good and nobody wants to get rid.

Yes global warming is an outdated idea. Climate change is more accurate. I would predict that Northern Europe may suffer another ice age at some point!!

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[bambinoMember]

just to keep you in the picture – we had a fire in our apiary, and the Beehaus, although melted, did help save the bees – if it had been a wooden hive, it would have burnt and all the bees die.

[ThePathKeymaster]

Jeeez, howd that start? Did you lose a lot of hives? Im surprised the bees would survive even if the hive did as I thought the temperature would be to high in the hive almost like a cooker.

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[bambinoMember]

Smoker started it – we now use liquid smoke, as its safer!

We lost a couple of hives and a handful of Apideas – melted and a right state! I have some pics, so might get round to posting them…

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