eco-beehive, lets get you started in just three easy steps

SO you would like a little honey , but you still want your summers?

Now you can , and you can be a beekeeper. With the ANNE-X system of honey harvesting you only have to have two visits to the hive a year , unlike normal beekeeping where where you have to suit up and get inside every 10 days all summer!

Now with the ANNE-X System  (big Honey Box) you only need to put the honey box on in spring and take it off in autumn.

But you might not get any honey! So this is the only self regulating honey harvesting system in the world! Developed by me KEVIN HANCOCK. so it is self regulating as it is weather dependant. so some times you get and some times you don't. This to me is supper cool.

If this is a problem have a look at OPTION 3

Additional Information

The BLA BLA BLA as to why and how it works: 

Conventional beekeeping changes the honeybees brood area, volume. (the Space where they will over winter and have babies)

They do this by adding boxes above or below the brood area, or in the case of Top Bar hives to the side.

This then puts the bees into a panic survival mode. They have to fill this space before winter! This is especially prevalent in the case where space is added above the brood. That is because hot air rises and for the bees to survive winter they need to occupy this area. Beekeepers of old understood this and the result was the  framed box hive, that is a very good farming machine for making honey. 

But the downside is, this puts the bees under great stress.

Now with the bees constantly in panic mode, year after year. This makes them sick and susceptible to getting diseases and over run by pests.

That is only one of a number of problems arising from changing the brood area volume.

My system is totally different taking advantage of a completely different quirk. 

 We NEVER change the brood area volume! 

This results is no stress to the bees from you, the beekeeper. This then allowed them to be stronger and healthier. 

So how do we get Honey if we do not change the brood area ??!!

This is how:

Bees though summer will squirrel way honey in all the side nooks and crannies, inside a trees stump.

This is not the quirk I take advantage of but this is part of the story.

The quirk is this. In winter they will not retrieve this honey no matter how desperate they may become . I know weird, and because of this and only this strange behaviour and the fact that removing this honey has absolutely not impact on their ability to over winter. This is the only reason I advocate my completely unique honey harvesting system. the ANNE-X HONEY BOX.

Studies have show they will not retrieve honey inside the nest regardless how desperate they may become.

Yes , honey production from this system is unreliable, but that is not the point, it’s just a cool, funky thing to do, that has little to no impact on the bees.

Because of this little odd quirk that bees have , you and I  can now enjoy honey, knowing full well, you did not create any havoc or disruption  in the lives of your colony of bees .

They are free to come and go if they choose, and they choose you. That is so special.

This is a truly unique system of beekeeping. Derived from my unique exposure and study of honey bees. Studying them in their natural setting. I have done this, all over the world. From Cuba to Poland, from Switzerland to Africa, from Africa to Essex.

 These are My bee ethics and My story, but most importantly of all my GARDENERS BEEHIVE. ECO-BEEHIVE
This is the only system that I know of or have ever heard of that uses the NOOK AND CRANNY system to harvest honey. With the ANNE-X HONEY BOX on the side. The premise is this: in the wild, a tree stump is never perfect but always has little hide holes. So  bees will allocate an area for winter honey , and area for rearing babies and then all the other spaces as honey buffer areas. We take advantage of this natural function, and then uniquely. Removing this buffer honey. This then has no impact on the winter stock of honey. This makes this completely self regulating! and is totally remarkable and unique to the Gardeners Beehive, ECO-BEEHIVE.
So the back story. I had a colony that dies over winter , well it was in spring really.. it had been a long winter, and then a wet spring and there were few flying days and as the cavity in the tree was quite small to start with, and they died. This was very sad, but on investigating I found that there was still honey in all the nooks and crannie, This raised alarm bells as I thought this wild colony had died from disease.. But a friend in Canada said this was common and sent me some research. The research showed that bees will not retrieve honey that is off to the side or below even as close as 2 1/2" !! This set the wheel in motion as I then started investigating how I could take advantage of this quirk without taking advantage of the bees. From this and after many years and many trials I have developed the Nook and Cranny honey harvesting system.
These are only a few of the most obvious differences between my system of "hosting" bees and all other systems of "beekeeping". 

Small Honey Box

So if you really, really, really want some honey But still do not want to be to disrespectful and to disruptive to the honeybees, this is for you, O ! and you want your summers back, because normal beekeeping you have to suit up and open the hive every ten days though summer, yes every ten days.

Now we can get your summers back with only two visits a year. One to put it on and one to take it off.

Same as the ANNE-X Big HONEY BOX, you just put it on , then take it off. once at the beginning of summer and once at the end.

This again is a system that was developed by me, KEVIN HANCOCK! nothing like it in the world!

Additional Information

OK SO HERE IS THE BLA BLA BLA BA on how it works.

Around the end of winter the queen moved down and starts to lay eggs like crazy, but around the brood area they have a layer of honey, if we can get a box in just the rite spot , just at the top of the brood area, a spot where the bees would have used the honey over winter.

I call this the Transitional Zone,  but now will be restocking as it is a protective area for the brood, we can take a little honey with out shocking the colony or having to have a queen excluder, or frames with no weekly visits, not even top-bars  and so on.

You don't have to worry about that , I have done all the work, to figure out exactly where to put it and how big is should be.

SO the positioning is very specific and the volume is very specific. you just follow the instructions.

Unlike the honey box, with the S Cubed system, you will get honey. BUT you will not be stressing the colony as devastatingly as with a large brood area change because the area that you are adding is quite small and in a specific place.