The Urban Beehive, Honey and Stings, All From Within the Comfort of Your Home

This is not the set of Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie Two.  This is the Urban Beehive, a far-future design concept by Philips.

Philips wants us to look to the future and leave behind the dingy bureau-esque beehives in an open field…with various colors of chipped paint and a few week’s overgrowth of Kentucky Blue Grass creeping up the sides, as if to keep the bee-bureaus warm and comfortable, in turn creating a perfect temperature for those industrious buzzers to produce and provide us with their sweet, sweet, product: honey.  They have provided a plan to give every bee a home.

Upon first glance, the Urban Beehive looks like a spaceship with, well… a flower pot.  Philips has designed a truly modern item, both in physical design and concept.  It makes you feel like you are harvesting honey in the future.

The Urban Beehive would be a part of your window, straddling each side. On the outside of your window there is a flower pot and an entry way for the bee to enter the hive.  On the inside, there is a range of honeycomb frames encased in a glass shell.

The glass shell is not only good looking, it acts as a filter that only allows the orange wavelength of light, which bees use for sight. At the bottom of the glass case there is a smoke actuator where you can release smoke into the hive to calm the bees.  To the conspirators: yes, this is the same model the government uses.

This concept, although future-esque, is incredibly relevant within the context of the enduring honey bee problem.  The Urban Beehive concept could resolve this potentially not so far-future catastrophic problem, while providing us all with a look into the life and times of these fascinating creatures… and a lifetime of honey at your window!