The Beehaus
The Beehaus is a new kind of beehive specially designed for keeping bees in your garden or on your rooftop. Developed to provide your bees with a safe, modern home in which to live it makes beekeeping straightforward and fun. The Beehaus comes complete with everything your bees need.
Three months in, and the Beehaus seems to be just the right solution for beekeeping on the roof of a small terraced house in London. Good kit, good manual, and even the bees seem well behaved. - Tom
From £499.00
A Complete Package
The Beehaus from Omlet makes keeping bees and collecting your own honey fun and rewarding. Bees are probably the most fascinating and certainly the smallest food producing animals you can keep at home. Now you can enjoy the amazing experience of beekeeping in your own garden or even on your rooftop. The Beehaus comes complete with everything you need to get started, you'll receive all the extras such as frames and wax foundation that you need before your bees arrive.
Inspired by the way bees live in the wild and building on the classic principles of beekeeping, you will find the Beehaus a delight to use. Omlet's service and support will give you all the confidence you need to keep bees in your garden.
Beekeeping is a fun, social and rewarding hobby..
The Beehaus has two entrances, a central divider and space for two colonies.
Two Hives in One!
The brood box has two entrances - one at either end. There is enough space to accommodate 22 frames, which is double the number of frames in a traditional National hive. In spring when the queen is laying at her maximum rate your bees will be rapidly expanding in number. The extra space in the Beehaus allows you to either a) expand the hive as a single colony or b) divide the hive in two and start a second colony. This is an effective method of managing your bees’ natural urge to swarm.
Space For The Whole Colony
Modern bees need more space than they did in the past because queens have been bred to be more prolific egg layers. The Beehaus uses deep National frames (14”x12”) that allow the whole colony to live in a single brood box. This simplifies inspecting your bees and is less disruptive to the bees compared to being housed in a double brood box system. Your bees will be calmer and easier to work with.
Light and Easy To Move
The Beehaus comes with four ‘supers’ for the bees to store honey. You place these boxes on top of the hive in the spring when the bees start collecting nectar. The supers use a standard National super frame. However for easy handling, the Beehaus’ super boxes are half the size and therefore half the weight of a traditional super box.
The supers are easier to lift and handle than traditional super. No more bad backs from lifting!
Protected Entrance
The Beehaus comes with a stainless steel entrance block useful for temporarily closing the hive. The wasp guard turns your hive into a fortress that the bees find easy to defend.
Secure & Weather Proof
The lid and honeyboxes are held securely to the base of the Beehaus by a strong cord which is quickly fastened at each end of the hive.
Inspection Tray
This is located under the mesh floor of the house. It catches any mites or debris that fall from the hive which you can then examine to learn about the health of your bees.
How Does The Beehaus Work?
Bees need a warm, secure and dry place to live. In the wild, bees make their nest in a variety of places such as hollow trees and holes in rocks. Beehives were developed to make it easier to manage a colony of bees and collect honey. The diagram below explains the different parts of the Beehaus and their function.
Twin Wall Insulation
The innovative all-round double layer insulation helps keep your bees warm in the winter and cool in the summer. This is important as bees need to maintain a stable 35°C in the hive. They control variations in temperature by vibrating their bodies to generate heat or by using their wings as fans to circulate cool air.
Good Ventilation
The mesh floor ensures your bees have good air flow within the hive. It also allows debris and mites to fall out and this helps keep your bees healthy.
Mesh floor and inspection tray.
Twin Wall Insulation keeps your bees cool in the summer, and warm in the winter!
Pick the colour which suits your garden.
Looks Great in your Garden or on your Rooftop
The Beehaus will bring your garden to life. Its compact shape means that finding a suitable spot is easy and the large range of attractive colours will suit any garden. You can keep bees whether you live in a town or the country. Bees are kept very successfully in urban gardens and rooftops where they forage in gardens and parks. Urban honey has a delicious flavour from the wide variety of plants available. In the country bees can collect nectar from crops, orchards and wild flowers.
Five Great Colours
You can make a statement in red, be sunny in yellow or keep it subtle with a Beehaus in green. Whichever colour you choose, you can be sure that it will look great in your garden or on your rooftop now and in years to come.
Free extras with every Beehaus
The Beehaus comes as a complete hive ready for you to keep bees. Not only that, we’re so confident you’ll love everything about the Beehaus and your new bees we offer a 30-day, no-quibble money-back guarantee.
4 Supers
Each super holds 5 frames - enough to store approximately 7-8 kgs of honey.
4 Cover Boards
These fit on top of the supers and the hive to seal the bees in.
2 Clearer Boards
These are used to empty bees from the supers or feed the bees.
Frames
10 deep National brood frames and 10 National super frames - including wax foundation.
4 Queen Excluders
Stops the queen laying eggs in the honey supers.
Hive Divider
Converts your Beehaus into two separate hives.
2 Hive Blockers
Use to shut the entrance or provide protection against wasps.
Mesh Floor
This ensures your bees have fresh air all year round.
Inspection Tray
Shows up anything that drops out of the hive.
Guide To Beekeeping
A complete guide to keeping bees packed with useful advice. Download Now For Free!
4 Honey Jars
Still taking wine to dinner parties? Your own honey is much more exclusive.
30 Day Guarantee
If you are not entirely satisfied with your Beehaus, you can send it back for a full refund.
Comfortable Height
The Beehaus is raised off the ground on sturdy legs. You don’t have to bend to lift heavy boxes as you do with traditional hives. Having the top of the hive at a convenient height and with space alongside to rest tools makes the job much easier.
The image above shows an illustration of the Beehaus next to a national and WBC hive. You can see that the Beehaus is more spacious and set at a better working height than traditional hives
Positioning Your Beehaus
An ideal spot in a garden is against a hedge or fence to protect flying bees from the wind and rain. You should position the hive entrance so that the bees can fly in and out in a straight line. A quiet spot in the garden away from frequently used paths is best.
Garden Positioning
If you have neighbours then you can encourage your bees to reach their normal flying height quickly by planting a hedge or placing a fence approximately 2m in front of the hive. Bees normally fly above head height at about 5m above the ground.
Bees normally fly above 5m high
If you live in a town and have a flat rooftop this can make a great spot to keep your bees. They can fly in and out of the hive undisturbed and will have a great view.
Rooftop positioning
Transferring your bees to the Beehaus.
We supply bees too!
Omlet can supply you with a colony of bees. Bees are typically supplied on six frames which you can put straight into your beehaus. There will be around 10,000 worker bees, a queen and sealed brood (new bees not yet hatched) on the frames. Bees are available between April and September. We will match your requirements with our list of locally available colonies.
Bees are subject to availability, so order early to avoid disappointment.
The Queen Bee
Collecting Honey!
Naturally, your bees wouldn’t expect to be able to live in such magnificent accommodation as the Beehaus rent free. You can collect an average of 50 jars of honey per year - although in a good year a colony may produce up to 100kg of honey! The amount depends on the size of the colony, the weather and the quantity and quality of the nectar near the bees. You’ll need to leave your bees with between 10 and 15kg of supplies to see them through the winter.
How to Harvest Honey
The simplest way of harvesting the honey is to uncap the comb and then scrape the honey into a colander which is sitting over a large container. The honey will drain from the wax into the container below. You can further strain the mush of wax by wrapping it in muslin cloth and the beeswax can then be used to make soap, candles, furniture polish, and a whole range of other useful things!
As the old beekeepers' saying goes, "There's nothing better than spreading thick, delicious honey onto a slice of piping hot toast - except when it's been collected by your very own bees!"
Starter Pack - Only £30 Extra
Every beekeeper needs a beesuit with sturdy gloves, a hive tool and a smoker. Omlet has the best available and you can order them as part of the Beehaus Starter Kit package for only £30! This saves you £90 over the cost of buying them separately. You can purchase additional beesuits, gloves, smoker and tools in our beekeepers supply shop.
The full-length professional Beekeeper’s suit with veil will mean you can get close to your bees in safety. It can even be washed in a normal washing machine.
Our top-quality rubber gloves with gauntlets are just the thing to give you confidence when working with your bees and can be washed clean.
No need to use a hot, dangerous smoker to calm your bees - we supply a modern liquid smoke atomiser. You receive 50ml of concentrated liquid smoke and a 600ml atomiser. Simply fill the atomiser up with water and you’re ready to go.
Our heavy-duty steel hive tool makes opening the hive and lifting frames a doddle and give you years of reliable use.
Buy Now
Beehaus Green
£499.00
Beehaus Yellow
£499.00
Beehaus Red
£499.00
Beehaus Purple
£499.00
Beehaus White
£499.00
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Hot Off the Press - Read All About It!
This really is a well thought out product aimed at enticing apprehensive people to keep bees...
The judges (of the Horner's Award) were greatly impressed by the Beehaus not only because of its innovative design, but also that it addresses a topical issue the decline in bee population.
Omlet are makers of the world famous Eglu chicken house. So you can expect an innovative design, and in this respect the new beehive doesn't disappoint. When it comes to honey, the Beehaus doesn't come unstuck...a modern, easy to use beehive that has been designed together with leading bee-keepers to be a 21st century home for bee.
- 5 Star: (31)
- 4 Star: (9)
- 3 Star: (3)
- 2 Star: (0)
- 1 Star: (1)
Beehaus red
- Robert, 26 May 2013
Very good easy to put together and very very good to see the Bees . would be nice to have something on side to hang frames on when you take one out instead of putting on top of hive two hooks made of plastic or molded on Beehaus would be nice.BUT over all very good for the money.
Another great omlet addition to the garden
- Penny, 27 August 2012
Took a while to set up and make frames etc, but very straightforward. The frames the colony is delivered on are shorter than standard national frames, so advice on placing short, long, short, long would be a good idea in the guide (sorry if I have missed this). It is easy to watch the bees coming and going. You can put your ear flat on the top and listen to their quiet hum. We have yet to figure out how we put in extra food for the bees, we know they'll need it after the rain this. We know there is an Omlet helpline, but we haven't needed to use it yet. Thanks Omlet!
Just the job for the urban beekeeper
- Tom, 27 August 2012
So far so good. Three months in, and the Beehaus seems to be just the right solution for beekeeping on the roof of a small terraced house in London. Good kit, good manual, and even the bees seem well behaved. Some delays with delivery because 2012 has not been the greatest year for queen rearing - and all my local beekeeping association newbies have had the same experience. A small nigge re delivery of bits for the hive, but these were solved quickly and without fuss by the team at Omlet.
The Bees and I are pleased.
- Clive, 26 August 2012
Easy to put together and it feels sturdy. The hive entrances are well designed, with a partly sheltered landing ledge for the bees, and it enables the entrance to be varied easily by the beekeeper, to open it fully, close it, or partly restrict it to help the bees to repel interest from wasps. I find the working hiegth to be excellent - as a bee-keeper of average height. I have run a few polystyrene National hives, with the same sized frames 14" x 12", as used in the Beehaus. From a wear and tear perspective, both types will last many years, but the Beehaus, with no signs of damage from regular use, looks set to last much longer. A pleasing addition to the garden.
Recent purchase of Beehaus
- Carole, 05 June 2012
As we already have an Eglu for our chickens it was a natural decision when we decided to keep bees to go with the Beehaus, (we have yet to find some bees!!), but the Beehaus went together very well along with all the frames and seems very sturdy and easy to access - can't wait to get some bees!
Customer Images - The Beehaus - (10 of 10)
Frequently Asked Questions
Need Help? Call Us: 0845 450 2056
Where can I download the instruction manual for the Beehaus?
You can download the instruction manual for the Beehaus here.
The beehaus seems longer than a national hive - do bees like building horizontally or vertically?
Bee mostly like to be build circular nests and store the honey above the brood. The beehaus is not a horizontal hive (like a top bar hive). The beehaus is twice the width of a national hive to allow the brood to grow to its natural peak circular size without being crammed in. The honey is still stored above the brood above the nest. The extra length allows the beehaus to be used as two hives or one large colony.
Does the type of hive affect the swarming of the bees?
The most common reason that bees swarm is because they have been very successful at reproducing and build up a strong colony. The factors that govern this behavior are to do with the rate that the queen builds up the colony, the bees temperament (some bees are more "swarmy"), the weather and also the space available in the beehive. The beehaus can be used to manage a colony and reduce the chances of it swarming. It is exactly twice the size as a standard National hive and can be used to provide the bees with extra space or used to divide the colony in two.
Will I get more or less honey from a beehaus?
The type of hive rarely affects the amount of honey produced by the bees. The amount of honey produced depends on the size of the colony, the strain of bee (some strains of honeybee are better at collecting honey but may not be as well suited to our climate, for example Italian bees) and the weather. For example, if it is too hot then the plants do not produce much nectar, if it is too wet then the nectar can be quite diluted and for the same amount of effort the bees will not produce as much honey from the nectar.
Will the beehaus get condensation?
The beehaus is raised off the ground and has a full length mesh floor to provide the bees with all year round fresh air so condensation isn't a problem.
Will I get stung?
Bees don't want to sting you! They only sting if they feel they are being attacked. For example is someone kicks a ball at a beehive, the vibrations will make the bees inside think they are being attacked and some will come out to investigate. Therefore putting the hive inside a fenced off area - such as a wildlife garden is a great idea. The children can be involved in all aspects of bee keeping provided they are wearing the proper protective clothing - beesuits for children cost around £25 each. A bee sting does hurt but usually only for about 10 minutes, after that the area may swell and this swelling can last around 24 hours. In a very small number of people a bee sting can cause a more severe reaction and this will have to be dealt with by the medical services.
Is it safe to keep bees at school?
Keeping bees at your school will not substantially increase the number bees flying in your school buildings. This is because bees normally fly up to 3 miles from the hive. The only area that you need to control is directly in front of the hive where the bees are flying in and out. Once they have left the hive they quickly disperse.
Can you keep bees in a school?
Bees make an excellent addition to the learning resources at a school. They can be incorporated into many types of teaching including, maths, art and science.
Will the bees be okay in high temperatures?
The beehaus is triple wall insulated and works well in both low and high temperatures. If it is very hot weather you should check that you bees have a source of water nearby. If you live in a very hot country with lots of sun, it can bee a good idea to locate the hive somewhere with a bit of shade.
Why does the price of bees fluctuate?
The price of bees varies simply because there are sometimes less bee colonies available and then the price of the colonies goes up.
Does the honey have to be pasteurised?
The honey doesn't have to be pasteurised, it's sterile and completely safe.
Where do the bees come from?
Most of the bees will come from local breeders and you will be able to collect them either from Omlet or a breeder near you. If you would like to have bees from Omlet you can pre-order them and we will match you with a colony as soon as possible.
Do I need to go on a beekeeping course?
It's a really good idea to go on a beekeeping course to learn the basic skills of beekeeping. These include recognising the queen, assessing how well she is laying and the amount of food the bees have stored. You can then build on this with guides and your own experience. If you are interested in a beekeeping courses visit our courses area here.
How high can I keep my bees?
Bees can fly up to 1 mile high, so you can keep bees on most rooftops. If you have a sheltered spot on the roof that would be ideal because it's better that they don't have to battle with a cross wind in order to land.
How often do I have to check the beehaus?
In the spring and summer you should check your bees once a week to make sure they have enough food, the queen is laying and they are healthy. This is more important in May, June and July when you want to avoid your bees swarming and may need to act if you see the signs. Later on you can leave them for 2 or 3 weeks without inspecting them. In the winter you don't have to do anything because your bees are hibernating.
Where should you put the beehaus?
An ideal spot is against a hedge or fence. This will protect flying bees from the wind and rain. You should position the hive entrance so that the bees can fly in and out in a straight line. A spot away from frequently used paths is best. Bees normally fly above head height at about 5m above the ground. You can encourage your bees to reach this height quickly by placing a hedge or fence a couple of meters in front of the hive.
Object of desire - This Beehaus has to be the perfect present for a budding beekeeper