Beehaus by Omlet

[Caswell]

I would like to hear the opinion of owners of the Beehaus beehive sold by Omlet. Thank you

[Patrick]

Hi Caswell and welcome to the Forum!

I do not have a Beehaus, sorry.

Out of interest, are you interested in views because 1) you thinking of getting one 2) have one and looking for advice or 3) have one and wonder what other owners think 4) an option I haven't thought of or 5) left an unexpected item in the bagging area?

[Caswell]

Hello Patrick, I am thinking of getting one but I understand that they are not common and hence the request for feedback from users.

[DianeBees]

I have seen one in use a few times.

The height is good for some people.
The frame sizes are 14x12 and therefore you need long arms! (And you need long arms for the price tag too, I think it's expensive)
The frames are the warm way, but you have to stand either at the entrance to lift them squarely, or stand at the size and twist your back.

You can in theory move the middle board to expand the brood nest if you need to, but not if the other end is in use.

Early models had issues with rain water creeping under gaps. I know someone who used had an early model and gave it away. The person they gave it to also gave it away after a while.

A member of our group has one and his granddaughter (aged about 6) struggles to get frames out - she can manage national frames at our apiary absolutely fine though. I know children aren't the target market for it though.

It all needs lining up really carefully when you put it back together and whilst it should be easy I've seen gaps where it's not all gone back right. Not good for robbing.

If you have trouble lifting frames then you probably would be better having a helper for that bit and using an ordinary hive. If your bees are productive then you'll have to move lots of half boxes anyway.

[Caswell]

Very interesting observations, thank you Diane

[AdamD]

I too had heard of issues with early models - so beware if you are looking for a second-hand one. I have seen the Beehaus on eBay now and again. Now they have been around for a few years, there will be some knowledge of how the plastic ages - whether it gets brittle or if the colour fades for example.

We had an old Dartington (the same concept but made of wood) at our association apiary. It was used to put cups of tea on at the time and I don't believe it was in regular use - so I have not used one unfortunately. I do tend to move hives around the apiary from time to time in a slow dance of less than 3 feet a day - say - in order to combine one colony with another, this may be a problem with a big double hive; you couldn't easily move one of the two colonies to another location to unite with another stock. If you get one, let us know what you think of it!

[Caswell]

Thank you, if I get one it will be a new one

[Patrick]

Hi Caldwell

One thought. Don’t know if you already have bees or indeed other conventional hives but if you haven’t yet it is worth bearing in mind that in the event of issues or getting a bit keener, it is often handy having more than one hive.

Having bees on a mix of frame types or different hives can make life tricky, so may be worth looking forward before you choose.

[Patrick]

Sorry autocorrected, Caswell.

[Caswell]

Good point Patrick, one selling point is that it is two hives in one frame