Hive Steward. Beekeeping made simple.

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I absolutely love working with bees over the last 10 plus years. During my immersion into the beekeeping craft, it’s clear there is an obvious swarming problem with keeping bees in urban settings. Splits happen several times a year. It gets sticky! Honeybees set up hives anywhere and everywhere. If the bees choose an irrigation box, it’s not costly. However, when the honeybees fly in a roof it’s expensive, invasive and attracts rodents. The eureka moment happened over 3 years ago and the development of Hive Steward © manifested in a long process of trial and error. After extensive testing, it’s ready to share with the world.  

Simply put, all reproductive functions are captured with queen catchers designed to stage splits for responsible honeybee management. With a holistic approach, Hive Steward solved some other annoying inefficiencies with new innovation and design; automated feeding and cross ventilation. During droughts and chemical contamination from garden products containing damaging chemicals such as neonicotinoids, honeybees can build their hive from automated feeding stations. Each hive has on/off valves connected to a 5-gallon dispenser of sugar and essential oils for bee health. Cross ventilation is achieved with screened bottoms and insulated screened lids designed for bees to breath and control temperature freely. 

Protection from ants, robber bees and possible future invasion from murder wasps have also been addressed. Ant barriers designed to protect the hives use diatomaceous earth or water barrier preventing access to hives. Robber bees are blocked with color coded keys, only allowing access to the bees living and working in the hive. Murder wasp are too big to gain access along with rodents.

Honeybees are not wild native bees, rather the product of thousands of years of stewardship and brought to America by pioneers. The only reason honeybees are essential in recent modern history is because the loss of habitat and use of chemicals which has destroyed native bees such as bumblebees and mason bees. Now we have the opportunity to manage honeybees correctly and also can collect pollen from them to measure contaminations levels to advocate the elimination of poisons.  

Modular design creates the freedom to expand your apiary as big as you desire. Notice nothing is mentioned about honey. Realize contaminated flowers and yards create raw honey filled with nectar from flowers treated with chemicals. Stop using chemicals now.

Only keep bees to cover your neighborhood pollination demands and provide data to advocate 100% chemicals free zones.  The goals are straight forward and achievable. Humanely capture all the honeybee hives in San Diego County and place them with well managed beekeepers.   Just as important manifest the silent majority who don’t want to be poisoned by products such as Round Up© and plant spray containing destructive chemicals. 

Stop paying to poison yourself, return your chemicals to stores to correctly dispose of them. Use alternatives with bio-degradable non -toxic products.  Help capture honeybees and place them in Hive Steward© systems. The asking price is $2500. If you have the extra cash, please use it. If not plant a pollination garden to support the movement. All pollinators need help now.