Indoor Beekeeping

“People were experimenting with indoor beekeeping for longer than 100 years, ” states Tim Tucker, president associated with American Beekeeping Federation. “But whether you’d evaluate these techniques effective actually is based on what you want from them.” He highlights that interior observational hives—used in university and museum displays to teach people about beekeeping—serve their purpose. You can see bees in action without the responsibility of looking after the hive, picking honey, and maintaining a whole colony.

But for the hobbyist or small-scale beekeeper, experts have concerns about housing bees in. “I wonder if the constant warmth to be inside would affect the dormancy phase and affect the life period of bees, ” states Mike Schmaeling, a beekeeper at Rodale Institute. He additionally believes the bees in the hive might be less hardy than those in the open, making all of them more prone to infection. “I’d be concerned that they would try to travel from the hot hive inside cold temperatures simply to die immediately after they hit very cold environment, ” adds Tucker.

From the results of BEEcosystem’s Kickstarter campaign (which did not attain its funding goal), it looks like beekeeping lovers are skeptical too. BEEcosystem designer Dustin Betz, however, doesn’t believe these problems will cause difficulty, but he’s nonetheless waiting for proof. Betz has had the product put in in his house since May, and current winter weather will put his concepts toward test.