I have no garden to put a beehive in, but what about putting one in the loft with a hole for the bees to access? Crazy? Achiveable?
I was thinking like a net over the loft hatch, some sort of pipe through the roof for the bees to access from outside. This completely bonkers?
Are you in UK? My friend has his on the garage roof
Yeah I’m in the UK. I have no garden, or garage. Hmm so it is possible…
Would be good to see if this idea could really work.
However please see link above as bees like to poop on things especially your fresh washing. May need more than fresh honey to keep your neighbours happy.
If you are talking about having them inside with a tube, this is very doable right up until you have to haul the hive downstairs to inspect it and back up when you are done… Especially as it gets heavier (and stronger). This is a great place for an observation hive, but you would manage it so it doesn’t get too strong and it can’t grow more than the box it’s in or it will simply swarm…
Unless you have a room that can be sealed off and just used for the bees - but it sounds unlikely I take it?
What about a perspex boxed area you can slip into in your bee suit??
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The only other concern I would see in doing it in an attic is the temperature. Just like your car on a warm day, your attic can be significantly warmer then the outside temperature. So you might want to invest in an attic fan set to a thermostat or something like that to keep the temp down during warm summer days.
True enough, it’s probably not necessary. I’m in the desert so I am probably just more concerned about it then most people would need to be.
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Thanks for the comments so far, really interesting.
The bees don’t stay in the box when you inspect, they fly out. Then you close it up and how do they get back in? Also attics get VERY hot. Like 180 F hot on a hot sunny day.
I’ve just built a hive stand to go on my back roof. It’s a shallow pitch so is ok for accessing the hive. Is your roof suitable?
My roof is small, its a old cottage and the loft is shallow. That also means I have limited work space. It’s also a listed building so I carnt go sticking a beehive on top of the roof. I do not see it getting that hot. Summer in England is just poor.
We have a local butterfly atrium that also has a large observation hive. It’s basically just 4 standard observation hives connected together in an X formation so you can see all sides of every panel. This could be a very cool center piece type of display and allow you a large enough colony to discourage swarming so often.
I’m not certain how they do inspections on the individual frames, but it seems that as an observation hive where you can basically see every frame at all times the number of intrusions into the hive would be minimal or “non-existent”.
The attic would be fine if you had it insulated. What you could do is set up a bee escape at the window for the bees to exit the attic after you inspect the hive.