When I attend a show such as the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, it always takes me a few days to digest all of the wonders I saw there. And this year, there were a few items that are still haunting me with their cleverness. Take, for example, the HexHive:
The idea here is that man has always made square hives for production of honey…but why? In nature, the circle and hexagon are the shapes bees create. Now, there are some people using these beautiful beehives and they are finding that the bees are thriving better than standard hives.
A woman in Petaluma, CA has the patent on these hives and is building/selling them. They are expensive compared to the standard square hive, but each HexHive is custom built and they are absolutely beautiful. (That is one of her hives pictured above) You see her website HERE.
I have wanted to keep bees since filming The Bee Episode of Growing A Greener World and spending a few days with beekeeper extraordinaire Corky Luster of the Ballard Bee Co. Now…I want to do it in a HexHive.
There is an interesting study being done showcasing the advantages of such a hive. You can read about that HERE. In the meantime…a girl can dream…
UPDATE: This post prompted a discussion on Twitter about the hives. My twitter friend Backyard Wisdom found more info on the hives HERE and HERE and also told me there is a great downloadable book from Alabama Cooperative Extension on Bee Keeping. Yeah!
About the Author
Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m about to put in my first bee hive ever. Before it’s even produced it’s first drop of honey, I’ve already begun planning for adding on to it. Beekeeping is such an old profession/hobby there are many types of hives available, but I’ve never seen a hex hive in any of the books I read as part of my research. That gives new meaning to “thinking out of the box”.
Ha ha ha…Very true about “thinking outside the box”. I had never seen one either. It makes perfect sense doesn’t it?
Good luck with your new bee hive!! How exciting!
Are you sure these are patented,without one they could be just nice looking boxes
That is my understanding Tony. They had information about the hives at the show and they told me the design was patented. That is all I know. But there is a link to her site above.