Welcome to the Bait Hive Project!

This is a passion project in its early stages with long term goals, so if you like the project and decide to back then its fantastic to have you on board helping to get it off the ground.

Its been a huge amount of fun so far, from bees escaping in my university bedroom to pushing 30,000 live bees along on a skateboard under a blanket through central London. Its fast attracting attention, exhibiting at London Design Festival, New Designers 2016 and more.

If you are a fan of wildly optimistic entrepreneurship, then please back the project! I hope you enjoy the campaign page, and thank you. (Please share this page if you can)

What does bait hive do?

Swarming bees are looking for a new home. They frequently cause mischief settling in unusual public places, and are often lost or killed as a result (give bee swarm a google search). Bait Hive attracts swarms of honey bees using a scented / pheromone lure. The bait hives can be located on roofs, on a lamp-post, in your garden, on trees - pretty much anywhere out of the way. Once inside the hive the rotating doorway is used to trap the queen. These bees can then be left in the bait hive, re-homed, sold, collected by beekeepers and more. The below photo is of one of the first swarms I caught in one of my bait hives.

Are you a beekeeper?

Hi, me too! You can use a bait hive to capture swarms of bees to add to your apiary. Or, by having one or two bait hives up, you can capture your own colonies when they swarm, instead of losing your bees. You an also just keep the hive as a normal nuc. The hives are compatible with both British National Frames & Langstroth Frames - but you don't need them for the hive to function, so whatever style hive you have at home you can still use the bait hive to catch swarms.

What if you’re not a Beekeeper?!

No worries, if you put up a bait hive then you can help prevent the problem of swarms of bees in public places. If you capture a swarm you could either keep the bees, leave them to do their thing, or call a local beekeeper to collect and look after them. I have three bait hives up on trees in my parents garden, and had one on the roof of my house in Brighton. The hive arrives with lots of information regarding swarms.

How does it work?

A combination of ideal living conditions and a scented / pheromone lure are utilized to capture the swarms. The Hives are optically opaque with a tunneled “tree hollow-like” entrance, can be located at height really easily, have a landing pad, are suitable for frames - (old frames also help attract swarms), they are weather proof, and well ventilated. (see features section). They have a queen excluder entrance, with spacing that is too small for the queen to fit through - whilst allowing the other bees to pass.

What do you have to do?

Not too much! Insert the swarm lure, strap it in a tree or tether it to something - and wait! The hive arrives with information on what to do when you catch a swarm! The hives are really simple to fold up!

How does it fold together?

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How does it arrive?

The hives arrive flat packed, with all the components inside and instruction manual. The rotating door is already attached to the hive. For first time assembly the user must peel and stick the two self adhesive foam pads inside the hive and thread the nylon straps / buckles round the hive. Frames are not included, but are not necessary to catch swarms and can be purchased on the web if desired.

Color Options:

The hives are available in black, green and light grey / silver. Grey and green are recommended for hot climates, or direct sunlight. If you purchase a bait hive, you will be sent a form after the funding period and can select your preferred color and frame style.



National or Langstroth Frames:

If you already keep bees there are two compatible versions of the hive. One to fit British National Frames and one to fit Langstroth Frames. If you purchase a bait hive, you will be sent a form after the funding period and can select your preferred color and frame style.

Long Term Goals.

Eventually I’d like to be able to begin installing these hives in public spaces. In doing so I am hoping to catch swarms before they settle somewhere unsuitable. Once captured they can be offered to beekeepers for collection. I’d like to be able to help eliminate allot of the bad press honey bees get when they swarm in public spaces. Honey bees are at their most docile when swarming and don’t pose a threat. More swarm boxes means less swarms of bees ending up in places where they are dealt with in-appropriately! (give bee swarm a news search for examples!)

Stretch Goals:

Our funding threshold is the minimum needed to get this project started. We would love this project to gather momentum, so that our minimum order quantities drop and we can make hive production cheap enough to begin installing them in public places that have frequent swarm problems. If we hit £60,000 then the nylon strapping on the hives will be printed with the bait hive logo, and the hives can increase in width by an inch or two (so you can catch mammoth swarms). If we go over and above 100,000 we can begin to start achieving our long term goals.

Hive Features:

TECH SPECS

6mm Black, Green or Grey Fluted Plastic Board

Queen Excluder with Open/Closed/Ventilation & Excluder

Nylon Straps with Clips & Buckles

X2 Yellow Bungees

Pheramone Lure (Lemongrass Oil or NASANOV - or combination of both, mixed with bees wax),

Varroa Mesh Floor

Pop Out Base

Enough crawl space for bees.

Interior Volume 31.4Ltrs

Fits National or Langstroth Frames

Rewards:

The Story So Far Booklet £8

YOU'RE AWESOME. You'll receive a full color 45 page booklet detailing the bait hive journey so far. Inside are details of prototype development, drawings, exhibitions, photos and some fun stories about getting stung, skateboarding bees and escaping bees. There's also a section on my research - testing - interviews with beekeepers my apiary at home and lots of other goodies!

Limited Edition Hive Logbook £16

A limited backers edition hive logbook. An A5 Hardcover Beekeeping Hive Logbook, Space to Log Over 500 Hive Checks, 80gsm Cream Pages. more details on the logbooks - www.baithive.com

A Bait Hive Pack £37

£37 gets you a limited edition baithive, including everything you need to catch swarms. Included is a Swarm Lure, Varroa Mesh Floor, Queen Excluder, Pop Out Base & Fastening Straps. These hives will be from the first ever bait hive production run. If you purchase a bait hive, you will be sent a form after the funding period and can select your preferred color and frame style.





Pack of Three Baithives £108

You stand a greater chance catching swarms with more boxes! £108 gets you three limited edition baithives, including everything you need to catch swarms. Included is a Swarm Lure, Varroa Mesh Floor, Queen Excluder, Pop Out Base & Fastening Straps. These hives will be from the first ever bait hive production run. With three bait hives you can really easily have two bait hives up with lures in, and one flat packed in storage. Then if you catch swarms you can bring down the hives with bees in and replace them with the spare. I have three hives up in my parents garden all summer. If you purchase a bait hive, you will be sent a form after the funding period and can select your preferred color and frame style.

Pack of Nine Baithives £315

You stand a greater chance catching swarms with more boxes! £315 gets you nine limited edition baithives, including everything you need to catch swarms. Included is a Swarm Lure, Varroa Mesh Floor, Queen Excluder, Pop Out Base & Fastening Straps. These hives will be from the first ever bait hive production run. With nine bait hives you can really easily have six bait hives up with lures in, and three flat packed in storage. Then if you catch swarms you can bring down the hives with bees in and replace them with the spares. Or you can just use them all to spread over a large area! If you purchase a bait hive, you will be sent a form after the funding period and can select your preferred color and frame style.

Who are we?

I first started getting interested in beekeeping when my father began to keep hives around seven years ago. When I began the Bait Hive project I was studying product design at the University of Brighton. At the time I was also working full time as a packaging designer. I was making boxes to use as swarm lures at home, and began running off samples of an improved design at work. The Bait Hive project then became the focus of my studies, and following unpredictable success catching swarms,it has been slowly developed to the point where it is now ready to be shared.

What is the crowdfunding for?

I need your support to make this project a reality. For the last year I have been financing the Bait Hive project independently. Having funded and tested the prototype development, I want to begin manufacture of the hives for others to enjoy. I am hoping this campaign will allow me to purchase the required tooling and complete a production run.

Durability

The hives are made from 6mm thick plastic board. I’ve put allot of thought into how they go together, and they are seriously durable. So you can store your hive flat, and fold it back up whenever you want, and it should last year after year. This was an early prototype - which lived very happily on the roof of my student flat in Brighton!

Designed, and Proudly Made in the United Kingdom.

This year, for me, has been spent making sure the hives are as cheap as possible. A big driving factor for me was cost - as beekeeping equipment is generally very overpriced! I'm incredibly proud that we are able to offer the bait hives at their current price -at such an early stage for a product. I'm also incredibly proud that we are manufacturing in the UK.