Tag Archives: bees

Unique embroidery mixed-media art get contribution from actual bees

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You’ve probably seen those cute videos of humans and their furry pets collaborating on paintings and other artwork. Even though I’m not much of an animal lover, I do find myself saying “aaaww” whenever I come across one of those videos or stories. Usually we see dogs, cats, maybe even a bird or two that is able to contribute to their owners’ artwork. It can be something they’re trained to do or something that is instinctive as well, if you believe that animals can have creative genes as well.

Designer: Ava Roth

But have you ever seen a human and bees collaborate? This is what Canada-based artist Ava Roth has been doing as she creates embroidery using natural materials and then she allows the bees to add their own natural flair with their honeycombs. The final result is a one-of-a-kind piece of art that will definitely look unique in your living room wall. You can have bragging rights that real-life bees actually contributed to this mixed-media collage and that not one piece is the same.

The artist first has to hand-stitch different geometric patterns onto Japanese rice paper and then adds some found materials like leaves, rocks, porcupine quills, etc. She then installs them into maple frames that actually resemble bee hives in order to attract the bees to it. Once she’s finished with her part, it’s the bees’ turn to do their magic as they add their unique golden honeycombs. There are pieces of art where the embroidery are in rows and the space for the honeycombs are in the other rows.

If you’re interested in art that mixes creativity with nature, this mixed-media art will look pretty cool in your space. You can purchase some pieces through her website. If you suffer from trypophobia or honeycombs make you feel uncomfortable, then best stay away from this. If you’re allergic to bees, maybe you also shouldn’t have these hanging on your walls just to be safe.

The post Unique embroidery mixed-media art get contribution from actual bees first appeared on Yanko Design.

This recycled concrete brick features small cavities, creating a safe nesting site for solitary bees

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The Bee Brick Bee Home is a concrete brick with built-in cavities that provide safe nesting sites for solitary bees in your garden or community park.

There’s nothing more complicated than our relationship with bees. We admire them from afar and certainly can indulge in the fruit of their labor, but all bets are off once they get too close. Once they decide that your home’s shingles provide the perfect conditions to build a nest, let terror reign.

Designer: Green&Blue

For all that they might provoke, our fear can be misguided and even unwarranted. Bees are some of the most important and hardworking caretakers of our planet’s ecosystems. Solitary bees, in particular, are known for being non-aggressive as they have no hive or queen to protect, so they won’t sting potential threats.

Creating a means for solitary bees to have a nesting site and to help our declining bee population, Green&Blue designed the Bee Brick Bee House, a concrete brick, made from 75% recycled material, with built-in cavities for red mason and leafcutter bees to have a safe nesting site.

The Cornwall-based design studio, Green&Blue devotes the bulk of its designs to wildlife and nature initiatives–the Bee Brick Bee House is no different. Designed for gardeners, and wildlife enthusiasts alike, the Bee Brick Bee House can be integrated into any garden, brick shelter, or outdoor space where bees frequent. In fact, a new planning requirement in Brighton and Hove calls for all new buildings that rise above five meters to integrate bee bricks into their build, as well as bird nesting boxes suitable for swifts.

Since the Bee Brick Bee House is a functional, concrete brick, it can be integrated into any brick structure the same way a traditional brick is used for building. The brick’s cavities provide a safe space for solitary bees to nest and populate. Speaking to this, Green&Blue designers suggest, “Bee houses can be a simple way to do something to help our declining bee population, alongside bee-friendly planting and other wildlife-friendly measures.”

The cavities vary in size to accommodate all kinds of bees. 

The concrete brick can be integrated into any building’s structure. 

The post This recycled concrete brick features small cavities, creating a safe nesting site for solitary bees first appeared on Yanko Design.

The world’s most innovative beehive makes beekeeping efficient, reduces waste & gets honey on tap!

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Bees are essential to keeping multiple ecosystems in balance as they pollinate trees and crate food for other animals – they are essential for our survival! Now coming to the little ‘sweet’ things we all love about bees is that they also produce honey. Beekeeping is an ancient practice and beehives have hardly gotten design upgrades but Flow Hive is changing the game. These beehives are good for the bees, innovative, reduce waste, and are so efficient that you actually get honey on tap…literally!

The Flow Pollinator House not only benefits bee populations in your yard, but the proceeds also support advocacy groups across the country. This bee shelter and hive is made by a father-son duo who took a different approach to honey harvesting that is less stressful to the bees and their keeper. It features a mechanism that simply releases the honey straight into jars without the hassles typically associated with the harvest.





The Flow Pollinator House not only benefits bee populations in your yard, but the proceeds also support advocacy groups across the country. This bee shelter and hive is made by a father-son duo who took a different approach to honey harvesting that is less stressful to the bees and their keeper. It features a mechanism that simply releases the honey straight into jars without the hassles typically associated with the harvest.

The process of making the Flow Hive results in cutoff waste, so the company decided it was time to make use of it. Upcycling the sustainably sourced bamboo and salvaged Araucaria timber from the production of the Flow Hive models resulted in the development of the Flow Pollinator House. The house offers protection for hard-working native solitary nesting bees. It encourages them to work nearby, pollinating gardens, flowers and other plants in the vicinity. The Flow Pollinator House comes flat-packed as a DIY kit, complete with everything you’ll need to build it. You can create a custom format by choosing how to arrange the wood tubes and design the exterior to your liking with stain or paint.

Because the house kits originate from leftover wood materials, there are a limited number of Flow Pollinator Houses for the season. They can make a great gift for the gardener, nature lover or advocate in your life. Plus, the product line is a benefit program with the company committing to donate 100% of all proceeds to U.S.-based pollinator advocacy, education, and protection groups.

“The honey bee is one of 19,000 bee species in the world that are essential to pollination and life on this planet as we know it,” said Cedar Anderson, CEO and founder of Flow Hive. “We created this upcycled pollinator home to provide a safe place for solitary bees to raise their young, while offering our customers a fun, family-friendly project to build together. By creating this habitat in your backyard, together we are building the stepping stones across the urban landscape which may just help save some of these important species from the brink of extinction.” Flow Hive is a truly bee-utiful upgrade for the bees!

Designer: Honey Flow

This cabin in the woods is actually a waterside apiary that aims at education & conservation of bees!

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This lakeside apiary in Newt, Somerset has been designed to provide a home for the bees while creating an immersive educational experience. Called Beezantium, it draws on the long tradition of pavilions that evoke a sense of whimsy and playfulness – almost like a cabin in the woods full of speaking bees! Beezantium was built with a careful range of design considerations to serve and exhibit the hive in an organic yet fun way.

Beezantium occupies a former unused wasteland that has been transformed into a natural expanse, so while this waterfront property might have been cheap with the right design and purpose it’s now prime! The wooden structure is topped by a sloping roof that is wrapped in copper shingles which creates a jewel-like effect that also acts as a beacon in the woodland surroundings, drawing visitors towards the structure. It looks like a cozy cottage right out of a storybook.

The huge picturesque window invites people to explore the internal workings of the space, while also offering views out over the lake and trees beyond. The cabin is clad in oversized timber panels which distort the sense of scale of the pavilion as you get closer. The outside walls are made up of unseasoned oak because it is perfect for bees as they can enter the hive through natural holes or via a series of copper pipes that have been built into the fabric of the structure.

When you enter the space, you realize that the traditional concept of the folly is turned on its head. The interior features polished honey oak which provides a rich and warm atmosphere to enjoy the exhibit and the bees themselves. Two oculi are set into a lofty ceiling, providing much-needed light and natural ventilation for the space below. Beezantium is different because usually apiaries are usually contained in a glass box in the middle of the room but by pushing it to the edges, it was possible to create an educational showcase in collaboration with Kossmanndejong which is an Amsterdam-based design agency that focuses on the exhibition and interior architecture.

“The Beezantium has been designed to provide a sensory, otherworldly experience. It appears jewel-like, quirky, and playful – almost like a folly in a landscape with a glowing copper roof, but instead of being only about pleasure, the Beezantium is a purposeful building designed to house bees in observation hives in the external walls, that can be viewed in a range of habitats internally. There is a huge extraordinary interactive and immersive exhibit that describes the world from the bee’s perspective, that is hung from the ceiling and contained within a honeycomb structure, enabling visitors to understand bees and their place in the world,” says Piers Taylor, Director of Invisible Studio.

All elements, shapes, and colors have been designed to represent bees. My personal favorite is the bright cocoon seating which probably makes you feel like a bee in a hive yourself! Beezantium has a whimsical vibe with a purpose – it aims to conserve and educate people through the medium of design, architecture, and interior which is all centered around bees while making humans feel welcome but also reminding them of the larger picture without the gloom-and-doom tactic.

Designer: Invisible Studio

This sustainable beehive is designed to replicates the microclimate of the bee’s natural habitat!

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Bees are essential to keep our ecosystem running as we know it, these master pollinators play a huge role in supporting the growth of trees, flowers, and other plants that serve as food + shelter for all living beings. They contribute to complex, interconnected ecosystems that allow a diverse number of different species to co-exist. HIIVE is a beehive designed to help beekeepers to keep their bees in a more natural way compared to traditional hives. It is crafted from sustainable materials and with low-energy sensors to give the beekeeping experience a much-needed upgrade since it has been 150 years since the conventional bee box design!

It supports the inherent behavior of the Apis Mellifera aka the European honeybee which is one of the most common types. “At first we just wanted to design a more ergonomic beehive. While studying design, we accompanied several beekeepers. The first time we saw the treatment against the Varroa Mite (biggest enemy of the honeybee), it was shocking. The chemical treatment had a direct effect on the bees‘ behavior. We found that there is a more serious problem to be solved than the ergonomics of beekeeping. So we spoke to scientists for advice and they repeatedly pointed out the problem with the wrong microclimate in conventional bee-boxes,” explained Potthast and that is how the concept came to bee.

HIIVE is designed to replicate the microclimate of a tree cave which is the natural habitat of the European honey bee. According to research, honey bees in tree caves live healthier lives and are better equipped to deal with parasites because of circumstantial lessons. HIIVE is essentially the first tree cave that can be produced at an industrial scale.

It offers a tree cave-like geometry without cold bridges which makes it easy for the winter bees. The frame is made from recycled plastic and a textile cover to protect against the weather. Its also insulated with natural thermo hemp wool and an additional vapor barrier film for optimum moisture control. Thanks to the insulation the animals have to use less energy to heat up or cool down the house and this “leisure time” has positive effects on their behavior which promotes grooming naturally.

Potthast spent a year researching and studying design with beekeepers to understand the demands of both animals and humans. When biologists pointed out that the microclimate is the biggest issue, the build of the first version of HIIVE was made and insulated with natural hemp wool. “For the prototyping phase, we used 3D printing for all structural components and laser cutting for the wood parts. We have tested the first prototype with a bee colony and it worked well for the microclimate. But the handling wasn’t satisfying and the volume needed to be adjusted,” explained Potthast.

The redesign was more efficient and has a two-chamber system – one honey chamber and one brood chamber – which are easily extractable. This makes it possible to harvest honey respectfully. The amount of plastic was also reduced by over 85% thanks to the use of the textile cover. It has a low manufacturing cost and therefore can be affordable for beekeepers across the globe.

Conventional bee boxes neglect the demands that honey bees actually make on a home. Bees prefer a round shape and good insulation which is naturally found in tree caves. But in conventional boxes, they need to spend a lot of energy on keeping the desired temperature during the seasons. There is also no living space for symbionts and if parasites enter then the bees get in trouble which results in beekeepers having to treat them with chemicals. In contrast, HIIVE was designed with a human-animal-centered approach. It brings beekeeping back to nature and ensures a healthy life for bees.

“At the moment we are conducting a field test with 10 prototypes of the latest version. The plan is to bring HIIVE to series production after all tests are made,” said Potthast as he spoke about the design’s future. “The next step is also the development of the campanion app, which will create a new way of keeping bees. With smart sensors we have the possibility to create not only health tracking of each colony, but also a swarm alarm combined with a swarm net. In this way beekeepers get notified when exactly to expect a swarm so they can keep bees in a very natural way without regulating their swarm behavior,” he added.

HIIVE is the perfect combination of a natural and healthy home for bees as well as ergonomic and easy to use by beekeepers. The integrated app will make beekeeping more efficient and safe while the low-cost design will make it easy to be mass-produced without adding to the plastic pollution problem. It is un-bee-lievably good for a beehive!

Designer: Philip Potthast

HIIVE is a runner-up for the James Dyson Awards 2021 and has many more notable achievements through its journey from concept to completion.

These bee-friendly living roofs on the Leicester city bus stops is part of their goal to become carbon-neutral by 2030!

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Everything from honey bee colonies to honey production is on the decline. Even walking down the street, the bees crawling on the sidewalks seem to look weaker and weaker as the days get hotter and pollution only increases. Air pollution, drought, pesticides, and global warming all contribute to the overall decline in bee populations across the world. Doing something about it, city officials of Leicester, United Kingdom have installed green roofs on top of their bus stops called Living Roofs or Bee Bus Stops to attract pollinators like bees and to make the city a little greener.

The bee roofs will cover thirty bus stops around the city of Leicester with a mix of wildflowers and sedum plants, luring in pollinators like butterflies and honey bees. Conceived as a mode of climate resilience, the Bee Bus Stops will help bring in more biodiversity into an otherwise declining cityscape and absorb rainwater that falls on the roof to produce a natural, blooming garden atop each roof. In cities across the globe, concrete can get monotonous. Integrating natural gardens into the city fabric will help break up that monotony with some greenery, birds, and insects. Introducing Bee Bus Stops to the city of Leicester will also help mitigate the effects of urban heat islands by absorbing some of the heat during the summer months, collecting air pollutants in the process.

Built on a ten-year contract with Leicester’s city council and Clear Channel UK, the Bee Bus Stops will feature solar panels once the city has the means to attach them to every bus stop for green energy and smart lighting. Leicester’s deputy city mayor councilor Adam Clarke leads the city’s environment and transportation initiatives. On the city’s future goals of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030, Clarke explains the potential of the Living Roofs to bring them there,

“The new, modern shelters will be great for passengers and the mix of solar power and living roofs is another step forward for our ambition to be a carbon-neutral and climate-adapted city by 2030. The new shelters will also be a perfect complement to our work to deliver a new, carbon-neutral bus station at St. Margaret’s.”

Designer: Leicester City Council

Thirty bus stops across the city of Leicester have tacked on wooden boxes to their roofs, attracting pollinators like butterflies and honey bees.

Leicester’s Living Roofs mark the beginning of the city’s green initiative to become carbon-neutral by 2030.

This modular habitat system was designed to save the bees – it is their Good Place neighborhood!

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Bees are essential to keep our ecosystem running as we know it, these master pollinators play a huge role in supporting the growth of trees, flowers, and other plants that serve as food + shelter for all living beings. Bees contribute to complex, interconnected ecosystems that allow a diverse number of different species to co-exist. However, majority of the 20,000 species of bees in the world face the threat of extinction. Australian designer Amelia Henderson-Pitman wanted to create something to mitigate this problem so she looked within her own country and found that there are more than 1700 species of native bee in Australia, yet only 11 species living in hives and producing honey. Keeping this in mind, she designed Pollen – a modular system that provides a range of nesting materials to support the native bee populations.

Pollen can be installed in any location and has also been optimized for small spaces to keep it city-friendly. The idea was to have a modular system that could be integrated anywhere from inner-city gardens to exterior building structures. Pollen is basically The Good Place neighborhood for bees. Each nest module contains a variety of materials like recycled hardwood, sustainable bamboo, or handmade mud brick. They also have a series of holes that vary in diameter to provide nesting locations for bees. The shell of the modules is an injection tube crafted from recycled HDPE and has been designed to be easily assembled as well as mounted without fixtures. I love that the internal modules (molded from recycled PET) are transparent because it offers us a closer look at how the bees are adapting. The transparency of the design shows us that seeing is bee-lieving.

“Many of these native bee populations are easily supported by providing nesting material and forage, but there are currently no products that provide both of those features whilst also being suitable for urban areas. The solution arose from seeing the variety of native bees that were present in my city balcony garden, and I realized there was a market for a product that provided these features as well as an educational component,” says Amelia who also made sure to include a comprehensive booklet with easy-to-follow instructions on assembly and information about native bee identification, bee behavior and the best flowering species to plant to attract the bees. This added educational component makes the product more attractive for beginners too!

Pollen stands out from its competitors because it goes beyond the purpose of just helping bees, it includes interactive elements that make the process fun for the user without disturbing the insects through clear tubes which contribute to citizen science and aid in research. It also comes with an optional planter to expand the habitat and will be located behind the assembled modules and can also be mounted to the wall. Amelia’s design has won the 2019 Frank Fisher Prize for the Most Sustainable Design – the Swinburne University of Technology, it has been named one of the 10 Most Innovative Projects of the 2020 Virtual Design Festival School Shows and has also been nominated for the Design Institute of Australia’s 2020 Graduate of the Year along with being a notable entry for the James Dyson Award 2020.

Designer: Amelia Henderson-Pitman

This McDonald’s Is Staffed by Bees

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Sweden now has the world’s smallest McDonald’s restaurant. It may be tiny but it is packed with workers called drones, and has room to serve thousands of guests. They don’t make burgers and fries though. They have just one item on the menu: honey. That’s because it is filled with bees.

This fully-functional beehive is designed to look like a McDonald’s. I mean it looks exactly like the fast food restaurant, only in miniature. The McHive has all of the details of the real deal, including the iconic Golden Arches standing on the removable miniature rooftop, glass doors, full pane windows complete with promotional posters, railings, and even a couple of drive-thru windows.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz, I’m lovin’ it.

Of course, now there’s going to be a Burger Queen beehive that opens up across the street and the competition is going to be fierce. I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about it. Then there will be a Wendy’s, and before you know it Sweden is going to be overrun with fast-food beehives. Then the fattened-up bees and their miniature restaurants will take over the world, with no humans left to eat their honey.

[via Mike Shouts]

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Insects could be extinct within a century, scientists say

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Insects are dying so rapidly, they could disappear within 100 years, according to the first global scientific review on their decline. A third of species are endangered and more than 40 percent face the threat of extinction in the next few decades, a...