Urban Beehive Brings Bees Indoors

Because your house is woefully lacking in flying, stinging insects.

Electronics giant Philips wants to bring the beekeeping experience to the inner-city masses. Keeping a hive cozy inside a stack of boxes is fine if you own a farm and one of those ominous suits, but what if you live in a major metropolis yet still crave delicious honey and the warm companionship of a few million drones? “No problem,” says Philips, presumably while stroking a fluffy white cat.

The firm’s website explains what the eff this thing is:

The design of the beehive is unconventional, appealing, and respects the natural behavior of the bees. It consists of two parts: entry passage and flower pot outside, and glass vessel containing an array of honeycomb frames, inside. The glass shell filters light to let through the orange wavelength which bees use for sight. The frames are provided with a honeycomb texture for bees to build their wax cells on. Smoke can be released into the hive to calm the bees before it is opened, in keeping with established practice.

So it’s essentially a birdhouse, except instead of a small wooden box, it’s a giant glass bubble jutting through the wall of your home, and instead of a charmingly melodic family of robins, it’s full of bugs that will literally murder themselves in an attempt to sting you into submission. That sounds lovely.

And why would we want to install one of these things in our breakfast nook? Again, Philips explains:

This is a sustainable, environmentally friendly product concept that has direct educational effects. The city benefits from the pollination, and humans benefit from the honey and the therapeutic value of observing these fascinating creatures in action. As global bee colonies are in decline, this design contributes to the preservation of the species and encourages the return of the urban bee.

Alright, I suppose that’s a valid point. Honey is delicious and as one of our most awesome flying insects, we should do everything in our power to save bees from the mysterious extinction level event that seems to be wiping them out.

On the other hand, why does the creation of this urban beehive fall to Philips? This is a company more readily associated with DVD players than ominous, widescale entomological preservation. If Philips was going to cook up a world domination plan, I would have expected at least one moon laser.

Source: Philips