Archive for NEEPS North East Eco-friendly People's Site          NEEPS Forum Index -> Bee Keeping Diana Beehaus For thsoe with more money than sense? http://www.omlet.co.uk/products_s...s/products_services.php?view=Bees Martin sound of a nail being hit firmly on the head there! Grossly overpriced placcy rubbish for the monied middle classes ....... you can knock up an infinitely superior top bar hive for around a quid using old pallet wood......... Diana I'm guessing it might have the same effect as the Omlet - in that it could make beekeeping "trendy". This could be good, in that it could increase the bee population. However, I can't help thinking (especially with all the foul brood that's causing problems up here this year) that there's rather more to beekeeping than chicken keeping (chickens don't sting for a start) and it may have the opposite effect, especially if you get unscrupulous beekeepers with disease selling off nucs to unsuspecting beginners to try and recoup some of their losses. Martin I'd worry more about that with the placcy jobs - they rely on "nucs", which as you say, could be any old diseased rubbish - the easy way to populate a TBH is with a natural swarm, which will hopefully have emanated from a healthy colony - again, there's "emphasis" - the Beehaus is sold with the exhortation that a pot of your own honey is a more acceptable gift when going out to dinner than a bottle of plonk.......... whereas makers of top bar hives tend to be far more conservation minded, honey being a nice by-product, and not the bee and end all of the exercise. Taking my tongue out of my cheek for a second, I think they're unutterably ghastly, and aimed at those with a total taste bypass, BUT, if it helps restock us with bees, and it helps build up a population of "escaped" feral bees that will develop their own natural immunity to diseases, I can only (wincingly) welcome the blessed things........ Diana Yes, I did think one of the benefits might be an increase in "survival of the fittest" healthy feral bees - self breading for strength against pest and disease it should only take a few years to come up with some really nice bees.   JoH Re: Beehaus Diana wrote: For thsoe with more money than sense? http://www.omlet.co.uk/products_s...s/products_services.php?view=Bees Oddly, one of my customers was telling me about this this very morning! I envisioned something more 'cartoon hive' shaped in keeping with Omlets plasticy happy thang - something like this.. I might have gone for one then Diana You could always try a skep   Martin As to whether it's the best thing to hit beekeeping for years, or a cynical overpriced con is a matter for debate, but I'm getting heartily sick of the blatant "plugging" being given by the BBC for this damned product - just switched the goggle on for the 6 o'clock news, what's one of the first things....... a brief preamble about shortage of bees, and then they launch into a sales pitch for this blasted superannuated cool box........ this, of course, being the same BBC that decided not to broadcast humanitarian appeals lest they appeared "biased and political"........ Utter disgrace, they've had free plugs on nearly every programme and bit of web content put out by what is supposed to be OUR broadcasting service. Bet there's certain BBC execs shaking some Omlet managements' hands..... (large theatrical nudge and wink!) nina They were showing one on ITV news at lunch time being demonstrated by an"urban beekeeping expert"His spiel sounded so polished it came over like a sales demo rather than giving an insight to keeping bees on a balcony. JoH Diana wrote: You could always try a skep   Only if they have the cute ceramic bee on top <removes tongue from cheek> Diana JoH wrote: Diana wrote: You could always try a skep   Only if they have the cute ceramic bee on top <removes tongue from cheek> Could be arranged              NEEPS Forum Index -> Bee Keeping Page 1 of 1