Alternat Beehive , a hive for Honey bees and not people

Hi every one.

I have been working on a beehive using the permaculture ethics.

I was going to call it a " Natural Habitat Hive"  but then I thought NHHa that doesn't make a good acronym, even though it explains it better , so settled for HAH, a Hancock Alternat Hive.

this is my concept for the build
1. Quick to build
2. no critical dimensions
3. most basic of tool
4. cheep
5. off the shelf lumber

This is my concept as a bee hive
1. tall vertical hive , like a hollow tree
2. Must have beneficial bugs
3. bees must be free to build twisted comb
4. non intrusive queen quarters
5. honey comb is removed by removing external boxes
6. no inspection's
7. at honey harvesting a endoscopic camera can be inserted
8. bees are left to swarm and do their own thing
9. honey removal, only once the big nectar flow has started and the queen is laying
10. this hive only requires one visit a year, and no additional anything.  
11. Hive of about 24.5 litres this is to encourage smaller colonies and encouraging swarming.


The Rationale

Conventional Beekeeping  is:
few expensive hives
concentrated
with reduced and controlled diversity.

HAH Beekeeping is:
for the same money 10 times as many hives  
dispersed all over
with a natural uncontrolled diversity.


My Ethos

Bee hives for bees, not for people or honey.

However I am a realist and to entice the average JOE in deprived parts of the world, and even in non deprived parts to consider spending money and time to build and install and bait and all the other things to get a hive going there would have to be some incentive.


http://ecape1820.tripod.com/alternativebeehive/

thanks guys , please let me know what you think.

ps my hive is treatment and dezzes and bad bug free.

Hi Kevin , welcome to Permies some interesting ideas and philosophy for the bees .
Have you looked at the stuff from the natural Beekeeping trust http://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/
Also have you incorporated some ideas based on the work of Oscar Perone? Or Byodynamic beekeepers ?
I practice minimal invasive techniques myself and would be interested in what you think..

David

Hi David L

thank you for your response, Yes I have had a look at both these hives, however they are still built for people not bees. well that is debatable I suppose.

big differences in my style:
I designed myne around the bees then only  added a method of removing honey. with the idea of having no control over the shape of comb they build.. both these hives have some sort of bars for the bees to build on. I have non.
in addition the entire thing is screwed shut once the bees are in. so only access is with an endoscope.

compared to the sun hive , my training only requires one day, and is a 1/5 of the price, and you also get to go home with your hive! and a bait hive!! (just kidding , I don't do courses , yet  ( training and teaching seems to very much be part of the permaculture ethic so I had better start learning how to teach!!

I have never had any formal training on bees, only hands on. so I suppose it gave me a slightly slanted look at how they work.. and what I was endeavoring to to here was to give them what they needed , well two mane things.

one is the ability to build twisted comb, or a maize typ com .. ( this I think is part of their defence )
an to build cell size of thier cheesing ( a defence thing as well as more productive rearing process..)

just what I have observed , probably completely wrong , but then maybe not so much?

then from the MAN side of things.. if you look at time and effort and money put in , If you where to want to produce honey, realising my hives are 1/10 the price, you would end up with 10 times as many hive , but realising you only have to visit them two times a your maybe three, the labour is the same..

then my hives yield less, but there are 10 times as many!!

so I have not had the results in yet, as I have not hives to compare in a season to , but in the same location in the same year I would thing for the same input, I would at worst get the same honey yield from the side boxes.

seculation at the moment, but this is based on natural permaculture ideas, so should be viable..

time will tell.

Ps I had a look, your hives look great, how did you get on with them this year??

Kevin H

Hi this year has been mixed
My Dadant is looking good and I hope to have my first harvest next week . That's one box in three years the other years they were not interested in giving any honey ( dadant hives are the French equiverlent of nationals )
My perone does not  look strong  enough to think about harvesting I am having doubts about the basic concept although Oscar Perone has some nice ideas
My log hive looks weak As they are a late cast , we shall see.
None of my hives has foundation and I am sure they all have wavy comb , nor do I treat