Roseland Eco Hive

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     As well as promoting conservation hives to help rewild bees, I also manage a number of conventional framed hives, loosely based around the design of the Rose Hive.There is no brood box used with this system. All the boxes are of equal depth and with the same floor plan area as that of a standard National hive.

     There will always be some kind of need for humans to interact with bees, mainly with the object of producing honey and other bi products of the hive such as wax, pollen and propolis.

     I believe there is a place for this if its sustainably managed but there is a great deal of work that first needs to be done to redress the balance of the bees with nature.

     One of the first priorities with sustainably managing bees is to provide a suitable home.The Roseland Eco Hive goes some way to achieving this with its much improved insulation properties. The box is clad with a cedar framework and 20mm Facade Cork.

     The boxes sit on an Eco Floor, and at the top of the hive, a Quilt Box sits just under the roof. A conventional frame system is used to hold the comb.

     Using this type of hive can help initiate an important step towards sustainable bee guardianship, but other practices will also need to be considered to help achieve this :

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• Minimal interference to the bees and opening up of the hive

• Appropriately positioned away from other hives

• No queen excluder

• No foundation in the frames so the bees can build their comb how they see fit

• No treatments to combat pests and diseases

• No supplementary feeding

• No swarm prevention

 

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