Jar Hive
A beehive designed for the suburban environment with a user friendly maintaining and harvesting process.
Fall 2023
3 month project
The goal for this project was to create a way for people in suburban environments to keep bees. Whether the user wants to harvest honey, improve the yield of their garden, or to have a new hobby.
Problems
Interactions:
Create a way to inspect the hive without disturbing the bees
Aesthetics:
Create a modern form that is functional and beneficial to the bees.
Expense of Tools:
Harvesting honey can require lots of equipment which can be expansive for hobbyists.
Suburban Environments:
It is difficult to keep bees in a suburban environment due to the small confined spaces.
Harvesting Honey:
Disturbing bees during honey harvesting can lead to defensive behavior and stinging.
Design Objectives
Hive Activity:
Reduces entrance hive activity where people are likely to be.
Harvesting:
Make harvesting honey clean, efficient and require simple tools.
Design a system that allows suburban environments to keep bees which enables minimal disturbance of the hive.
Final Design
Lid
The lid can be lifted to reveal the jars underneath which can be removed and replaced when harvesting honey.
Window
The window enables quick visual inspection of the hive which reduces the amount of inspections the bee keeper needs to make which reduces the stress of the hive.
Screen
The bottom screen collects the bits of waste produced by bee hives for easy cleaning.
Entrance
The entrance peaks over the fence. moving the activity from the front of the hive to the back and away from the users outdoor activities.
Maintenance
The Jars can be lifted simultaneously with the separator and set aside while maintenance is conducted. Where frames are easly moveable to examine.
Shoe
The shoes can be filled with water or oil to prevent ants or other non flying insects from climbing up and attacking the hive
Harvesting
Separating the comb and honey does not require large tools. It only needs cheese cloth and a sieve to separate the wax and honey. The wax can further be refined to make candles or other useful crafts.
Extracting
The jar hive is designed to ship as compact as possible by nesting parts within the main super bodies.
The box is 23”x 23” x 36
Packaging
Interactions:
The window into the hive gives the user a fast way to inspect the hive without opening it.
Aesthetics:
The form speaks to its function as well as providing a modern astatic to the bee hive construction.
Hive Activity:
The entrance can be adjusted to reduce activity from where the user interacts with the hive.
Harvesting:
The Jars reduce the tools needed to harvest honey and makes the process efficient.
Design Objectives
Insights
Habitat Improvement:
Bee keeping can benefit the ecosystem and wildlife in the local area.
Honey Production:
Many people are drawn to beekeeping by the prospect of producing their own honey.
Food Security:
The increased crop yields resulting from bee pollination can enhance food security by ensuring a stable supply of fruits and vegetables.
Personal Health:
Honey and other bee products are healthy for people. Bee Keeping also a fulfilling hobby which promotes an outdoor lifestyle.
Process and Ideation
User
-
Name: Sarah
Age: 38
Occupation: Marketing Manager
Location: Suburban neighborhood
-
Sarah is a marketing professional who has always been drawn to sustainable and eco-friendly practices. Living in the suburbs, she appreciates the convenience of city life but also yearns for a more meaningful connection to nature. She believes that keeping honey bees in her small yard could be a fulfilling and environmentally responsible hobby.
-
Sarah is environmentally conscious, patient, and eager to learn. She is also considerate of her community and values collaboration and communication with her neighbors. Her enthusiasm for sustainable living drives her to take on the challenge of beekeeping in her limited suburban space.
-
Space Constraints: Her small yard limits the number of hives she can maintain and may require creative solutions for hive placement and bee foraging opportunities.
Neighbor Relations: Sarah needs to be considerate of her neighbors' concerns regarding stinging incidents, so she'll need to take precautions and communicate with them effectively.
Learning Curve: Beekeeping is a complex hobby that requires knowledge and practical skills. Sarah will need to invest time in learning how to manage bees responsibly.
-
To establish and maintain a thriving hive of honey bees in her small yard.
To produce and share honey with friends and family.
To educate herself and her family about the importance of pollinators and sustainability.
To foster positive relations with her neighbors by ensuring responsible beekeeping practices.
Ideation
Research
The bees can construct comb in jars. To encourage this behavior a small amount of melted beeswax gives the bees the instinctual signal to construct a comb and fill it with honey.
In a wild hive the outer combs typically contain smaller cells used for rearing worker bees. The central combs feature larger cells intended for drone rearing and honey storage.
Hives are divided into sections. The brood chamber is located at the bottom and contains developing bees, while honey supers are positioned above to store surplus honey.
What I Learned
-
This project has many interacting problems to solve. Creating a wholistic experience. Each design aspect needs to work together to improve the bee keeping experience for the user and the bees especially for new bee keepers
-
Bee keeping can be a complex hobby. I wanted to not only simplify the process but optimize the experience for both the bees and the user. Reconnecting people with their natural surroundings and creating a healthier ecosystem.
-
Bee keeping involves invasive inspections and harvesting which is very stressful to the bees. This design creates a more suitable and natural enviornment for the bees.