So what do you do when your wife asks you to start a beehive? You use it as an excuse to build a custom beehive/camera and release a copy of the plans of course (ADD Note: video/plans below)!
Towards the end of summer in 2013 my wife had started to develop an interest in keeping bees after we helped rescue a hive from our water meter. Before this rescue my experience was practically zilch and while the rescue was quite amazing I still was apprehensive about us having our own hive. It took a bit of convincing but after a while I signed on to build my wife a hive as long as I could build a custom camera into the hive to film the bees.
I started the project by researching and learning about the types of hives available, eventually settling on a top-bar because I liked the aesthetic and it would allow me to move the camera down the length of the hive. At first I didn’t know too much about top-bar hives. I just found some rough dimensions and a few pictures of completed hives which I used as a framework to begin building and I continued to read and research as the build was under way.
It wasn’t until I was about 80% of the way through the build that I found Les Crowder’s book Top-bar Beekeeping which became my bible. Because of his book I decided to rebuild the hive, changing dimensions and angles in order to increase the hives capacity and to conform to the natural angles of the honeycomb cells. I also decided to create the hive as organically as possible making my own finish for the final hive.
After completing the build I moved on to putting together the camera. I wanted a reasonably inexpensive but quality solution and eventually settled on a GoPro Hero 3 White, Cam-Do Time Lapse Controller, BlurFix3 filter adapter, Agfa magnification filters, external batteries and some external LED light strips. I programmed the Cam-do controller to only turn on when it was light outside so I wouldn’t disturb the bees too much. The camera was set to take about four to five photos a day.
It has now been around eight months with the bees. I am no longer apprehensive about beekeeping after I quickly learned how magical and misunderstood they really are. We now have two beehives in the back yard and while the project started for my wife, I am now the one who takes care of the bees. I have even given a lecture on beekeeping/bees!
While we haven’t tasted our honey yet, we look forward to our first harvest next year and in the mean time I have been working on perfecting my recipe for mead (which is becoming quite good). I hope you enjoy the video and if you have any questions feel free to email or leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!
It is truly amazing how much these little creatures have changed my thinking and have become such a major part of our lives.
To download a copy of the plans please click here.
To learn more or see a 360 view of the hive click here.
Nick The Beekeeper
I just wanted to thank you for making the great video. I was searching for photos of bees in Santa Barbara and found your site. How are your bees doing in the drought?
ahydle
Hi Nick,
Sorry for the late reply but have been keeping way to busy with a new house. We ended up selling our bees to a local bee store in North Hills and moved to Colorado. It was hard giving them up but the good news is we have a much larger property in Colorado now so I am hoping to get started again this year.
Andrew