Building a wild Bee hive in Shipley, Sussex.

Designed and built by Padstone Homes.

A wild Bee hive in Shipley, near Horsham, Sussex. We initially designed and built this Bee hive without it’s final place in mind. Using reclaimed wood for the roof and legs, the body of the hive is built with oak from Willows sawmill near Uckfield. It is flat timber on the outside with the rounded bark edge on the inside, the body of the hive is shaped as a hexagon, if looked at from above, a design feature to reflect the shape of a Bee hive comb.

We’ve put this out for Winter, to see how the roof materials fair in the English weather. Because this was made before finding it’s place we made the best roof design with the materials available and we wanted to avoid plastics. We left an open roof for birds to use that space if that’s what they want to do. Where it sits now is near to a corrugated iron roofed barn, so it is likely that we will use some of the waste sheeting already on site to change the roof before encouraging a swarm of bees to move in. Come spring we will melt some beeswax around the holes and use lemongrass oil to act as pheromones for the scout Bees.

Note : This is not a hive for honey harvest, it’s a safe home for them to be.

We are looking forward to studying the hive over time to see how wildlife interacts with it, to make changes in the design with each hive built. These are available to buy (here) and will likely be made to be in-keeping with the landscape in which it is intended.

Completed and installed 17/12/2024