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 Beekeepers Homestead Hive

The Homestead Hive acts as a hollow log giving bees a more natural habitat.

The Homestead Hive Measures 24" wide, 12" High, 46" Long and weights 80 lbs. The hive is shipped unfinished, it is important that no finish is applied to the interior, recommended exterior finish is a simple coat of linseed oil and allow it to weather naturally.

My name is James Zitting, and I’ve had a 20 year fascination with bees. As a hobby beekeeper, I started out using conventional commercial hives with molded-plastic frames only to discover that these hives had a wide range of problems. They were bad for the bees, and they made my duties as a beekeeper much harder than they needed to be.

So I took to designing the Homestead beehives. I’ve been using my own hive designs for several years, and now, I’m making my hives available to you through Cottagecraftworks.com. You can now enjoy a better beehive at the same price as other hobby hives.  The space inside the homestead hive is approximately the equivalent of having 2-1/2 traditional deep box  hives.  This also saves space on small lots.  The Homestead beehive provides excellent  health benefits for the bees, which equates to $ in the long run.  This hive allows you to get intimate with the bees with minimal disturbance. It is a great educational tool.

The Homestead Hive has a vinyl top.  This makes it much lighter to move, and easier to access,  we do offer an optional gable roof in tin or copper.

You’ll always get a 100% handmade beehive built from the finest wood available. I never cut corners in my designs just to shave costs, and I always guarantee my work. That’s why you’ll enjoy a 100% money-back guarantee on all workmanship.

Homestead Hive

The Homestead Hive is the ideal beehive for the backyard beekeeper. This hive boasts a wide range of features, including:

• 100% handmade from wood that’s 2 times thicker than the competition’s
• Temperature and humidity stabilized for the bees’ health and longevity
• Designed with floating ends for fast, easy access to the hive with minimal disturbance to the brood
• Observation window for studying your bees and checking on their progress
• Built to last a lifetime…yours and the bees’
• Built to use at workbench height…easy on your back
• 100% money-back guarantee on all workmanship

Unlike other beehives, The Homestead hives make sure the bees enjoy a natural diet of their own honey – and there’s plenty left over for you.

Let’s face it: We aren’t the only company selling beehives. So, what makes our Homestead Hive different from commercial hives and hobbyist beehives?

Temperature and Humidity Stabilized

The wood we use is twice as thick as any other hive we’ve seen on the market. This creates a natural, hollow-log like environment, helping the bees stabilize the humidity and temperature swings. The bees maintain a climate with 50% humidity and 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

Why is this important? As the temperature and humidity change throughout the day and night, the thicker wood—like a hollow log—takes on humidity and heat when there is too much and releases it when there isn’t enough. This creates a healthier, more stable environment for the bees, allowing them to direct their energy toward collecting nectar and pollen, rather than maintaining the interior climate. This lets the bees stay stronger and live longer. For you, this means you’ll get more honey from your bees.

Floating Ends

Our hive has floating ends that allow you to check on either the brood at the front of the hive or the honey at the back with minimal disturbance to their work. Simply slide over either floating end to quickly and easily access the inside of your hive.

Why is this important? Other similar beehives have fixed ends, meaning if you want to access the hive you have to dig all the way through, creating a huge disturbance among the brood. This prevents them from working to produce honey, and it can lead to more nasty stings.

Commercial hives are even worse, as you have to rip the brood chamber in half just to check on the bees.
With the Homestead Hive, you can easily observe the brood or check on your honey without disturbing the bees, so they can keep working to produce quality honey for you.

Easily Divides Your Honey from the Bees’ Honey

We believe that healthy bees produce better honey and live longer lives. That’s why the Homestead Hive is specifically designed to allow the bees to feed on the honey they produce. All surplus honey can be easily accessed through the top Super, giving you your own supply of natural honey as well.

Why is this important? Commercial beekeeping practices have one purpose in mind: To harvest as much honey as possible. The bees are fed sugar, not honey, causing the colony to weaken and to be more susceptible to disease and mites.

Other similar hives make it difficult to figure out just how much honey you need to leave for the bees. As a result, there’s often barely enough honey in the hive for the bees to survive.

By allowing bees to feed on their own honey, our Homestead Hive creates stronger, healthier bees that will create high-quality honey for a long period of time. And with the addition of the Super, the guesswork is completely removed from harvesting the honey. Our unique design ensures the bees always have enough honey, with all excess honey (your honey) pushed into the Super for you to harvest whenever you want.

Bees Determine the Size of the Cell They Build

In commercial beekeeping, the keeper determines what size cell the bees make by using starter foundation, but with the Homestead Hive, we like to let the bees determine the cell size on their own.

Why is this important? One of the reasons the mite problem has devastated the bee industry is because bees are forced to build bigger cells than they build in the wild. As a result, it takes longer for the bees to cap the brood, and the mites have an extra day to lay an egg inside the cell the queen bee is using to lay her eggs. The mite latches on the new bee and eventually destroys it.

Designed to Last a Lifetime

When you order the Homestead Hive, you’ll enjoy a 100% hand-built hive that’s made from high-quality wood. I never cut corners to save a few bucks, because I believe a better-built beehive lasts longer and creates a healthier environment for the bees.

Why is this important? Many other beehives are built using cheap wood and molded plastic frames that don’t hold up to harsh outdoor conditions. The Homestead Hive, on the other hand, is built using wood that’s twice as thick as the competition’s. This means that when you order my hand-built hive, you get a hive that’s engineered to last, giving you a high return on your investment.

 Add the starter kit for $20 Includes: 

•    Entrance reducer/queen includer
•    Hive tool
•    Bee brush

For every Homestead II Hive sold 10% will be donated to the Honeybee Conservancy.
The Honeybee Conservancy is a 501c3 non-profit formed in response to the bee crisis. Their mission is to raise awareness about the importance of bees and to inspire people and communities to act as stewards and advocates for bees and their natural environment. The Honeybee Conservancy is a Project of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), a registered public charity, which provides non-profit status.


 

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