Omlet Beehaus is a plastic beehive for the urban conservationist

Natural England needs you, dear urbanite, to put on your conservationist hat -- and beesuit, by the looks of it -- and start taking care of a small bee colony. Because, as you already know, you can't have healthy plant life without healthy insect populations to sustain it. At this point, a lot of us might be intrigued -- after all, who doesn't find the idea of homemade honey and a houseful of killer bees appealing? And all would indeed be well, but for the £465 ($790) price of the beekeeping unit, which renders the entire idea the exclusive preserve of the very wealthy and very bored and leaves us poor nature lovers looking on helplessly. Like a bee trying to fly through a window.

[Via PhysOrg]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 7th 2009 4:59AM]

So, I used to keep bees in Arizona, and there are a few reasons I can think of why the plastic hive would be useful. I have no idea if it is an issue in the UK, but we actually have mites that get into the wood of the normal type of hives here, and kill off entire colonies. They are hard to get out of the wood, but I can see sanitizing one of these as a bit easier, of course how you would do that with the bees still in it I can't imagine. :) The wooden ones do also start to fall apart over the years as well, so if you really wanted ONE hive as a long term thing this could be useful. These guys also make little chicken coops that are highly sought after for the main reason that they are extremely easy to sanitize to get rid of pathogens that make the chickens sick and it is easy to spot mites in there as well. Also, if you've ever been around regular bee hives or chicken coops, it's a lot easier to talk an uncertain spouse into one of these other than a dirty wooden one (other than the price of course.)

Oh, and as for mike's question about the spinner, that's really only necessary for high production. We didn't buy one of those until we had about 15 fully stacked hives, it makes it easier in the long run. You can just do a cut off the wax tops, let strain into a jar thing and it works just the same way. then heat up the leftover wax, let the honey and wax separate, and get the remainder that way. Also less dead bees in your honey. Also - yes, you can leave the honey for the bees, they just make extra normally. Taking one slab at a time is no problem. When certain hives weren't doing well we would just leave all the honey for them that winter.

Regardless of the price I think these are awesome and if they'll get people to set up hives all the better. The bees are dying, trying to help them any way we can is admirable, whether Omlet is making a killing or not.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 7th 2009 8:19AM]

Overpriced trendy rubbish that aren't in the least environmentally friendly - far better to build your own top -bar hive for "as little as a dollar" and practice natural beekeeping without non -biodegradeable plastic hives and chemically contaminated foundation - http://www.biobees.com

[John Stracke Posted Aug 7th 2009 9:57AM]

Hear, hear. I'm surprised to hear "as little as a dollar", but my wife built a top bar hive, and I'm certain she didn't spend $790 on it, or even $100. It's a box, people. This is not high-end carpentry. Get some boards, a hammer and nails, and a saw.

[soren121 Posted Aug 7th 2009 6:03AM]

Dear god, that guy doesn't have gloves on him. I predict his death.

[MacroEQ Posted Aug 7th 2009 10:11AM]

Bees in the UK are not killer bees and will only sting if provoked. As for the price, you could easily get others to chip in to the cost and get one that way.