“Over the past decade, honeybee health has been in serious decline and the situation is getting dire,” says Dustin Betz, the founder of the Green Towers startup launching their latest living design on Kickstarter. “We wanted to reconnect people with food systems in a super tangible and intimate way.”
BEEcosystem represents some of the most progressive and pragmatic design I’ve seen in my many years writing for Inhabitat.
Recognizing that most people who have not had any training as a beekeeper would be intimidated by starting their own hive, they made it easy with modular designs – which can be used indoors or outdoors – that come complete with a healthy colony and all sorts of safety devices. Dustin told Inhabitat the setup is typically the hardest part of beekeeping. Once the hive is established, then the hexagonal wall pieces become something of a conversation starter that also beautifies your interior space.
Related: Incredible video shows the first 21 days of a bee’s life
The hives will produce honey, but the company makes no claim that their observation hive will become a honey factory. Instead, this design was conceived to bring people and bees closer together. To create a relationship. And to get people talking about bees and their how absolutely essential they are to pollinating our food supply.
Betz says most indoor observation beehives are expensive, don’t come with the glass, and require users to drill a hole in the wall in order to allow the bees to venture outside to forage for pollen and nectar. BEEcosystem, by contrast, comes with a simple wall mounting bracket and a plug-in tube. And, unlike other indoor systems, they are flexible and scalable. As the hive grows, you can add extra hive bodies that have magnetic side vents which convert to passageways for the bees to crawl through.
This is an all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign but it’s definitely worth your support. Who wouldn’t want to be able to observe what Betz calls “the art and science of beekeeping” right from their couch? And help save us – and the bees – with only a very small amount of effort and money. And by the way, you don’t have to worry about your indoor lighting having a detrimental affect on the hive. A plexiglass cover filters only red colored light. Bees don’t see as much red light as we do, so they won’t become confused about what time of day it is.
+ BEEcosystem on Kickstarter
+ Green Towers
Images via Christian John
