Our hives are delivered by courier using the Yodel delivery service and are usually delivered within 3-4 working days.

No. As long as you have an outdoor space that’s big enough to accommodate the hive and space around the hive for easy harvesting and for bees to enter and exit the hive, you can place it in any outdoor space. From large countryside estates to city centre balconies and roof terraces and everything in between, if you have an outdoor space, you can have a beehive.

It isn’t essential for your hive to be painted, but if you want to keep it in top condition for as long as possible, it’s a good idea to provide it with some protection. If you do decide to paint your hive, only paint the outside of the hive as the bees will protect the inside.

When considering painting your hive, it might be useful to consider the type of wood it’s made from. Cedar wood are naturally weather-resistant. Therefore, cedar hives are less likely to need painting, especially in their first few years. However, over time, painting the hive might be useful to restore the wood quality. On the other hand, fir and pine wood is less weather-resistant, meaning it should be painted to protect it from the elements.

What colour to paint your hive is up to you. You could use a stain to keep it natural, paint it in colours to blend it into its surroundings, or you could get creative and paint your hive in bright colours, with a pretty pattern, or an intricate design. However, when choosing your hive colour, it’s important to remember that the colour you choose will affect the temperature of the hive. To keep the hive cool during the summer, paint it in light colours. On the other hand, if your summers don’t get very warm, using darker colours will help to keep your hive warmer.

Hiveology hives have everything you need to create a productive, safe, and homely environment for your bees. But what parts make up the hive and why are they needed?

Roof

This is the top section of the hive that protects it from the weather. Hiveology hives have flat wooden roofs with weather-resistant metal covers.

Crown board

The crown board is a thin layer of wood with a couple of holes. This section of the beehive can serve multiple purposes including providing a cover for the frames and making it easy to feed the bees.

Supers

Supers are where the delicious magic happens. Housing the frames and foundation sheets, bees store their honey in the supers. At Hiveology, our hives are made up of 2 supers with 11 frames and 11 foundation sheets in each, creating plenty of space for your bees to buzz up some tasty fresh honey.

Queen excluder

This part of the hive allows worker bees into the supers to produce honey. However, due to their size, the queen bee cannot pass through the queen excluder. This ensures that the queen lays her eggs in the brood box instead of the supers. Before the development of the queen excluder, harvesting honey would destroy the eggs that were laid in the same frame, ultimately damaging the size of the bee colony. Therefore, the queen excluder is an important part of the hive to ensure the bee colony is well-maintained and healthy while still allowing for the harvesting of honey.

Brood box

The queen excluder keeps the queen bee in the brood box where she lays her eggs and the larvae are reared. Like the supers, our brood boxes include 11 frames and 11 foundation sheets but these frames will have eggs towards the centre of the hive and honey towards the outer frames. However, this area is purely for housing the brood, meaning the honey stored here will not be harvested.

Floor

The floor of beehives can be made from solid wood or mesh. Hiveology hives have mesh floors which are better for ventilation and tackling the increasing problem of varroa. When varroa fall out of the brood box frames, a mesh floor means they fall out of the hive rather than a solid floor which allows them to climb back up and feast on the bee larvae.

We have a 30-day return policy, which means you have 30 days after receiving your item to request a return.

To be eligible for a return, your item must be in the same condition that you received it, unused, with tags, and in its original packaging. You’ll also need the receipt or proof of purchase.

To start a return, you can contact us at info@hiveology.org. Returns are sent at your own expense and through a service of your own choosing. Goods must be sent using a traceable service. Items sent back to us without first requesting a return will not be accepted.

If you have any questions about returning an item, just contact us at info@hiveology.org.

Damages and issues

Please inspect your order once you've received it and contact us immediately if the item is defective, damaged or if you've received the wrong item, so we can evaluate the issue and make it right.

Exceptions or non-returnable items

Unfortunately, we can't accept returns on sale items or gift cards. Please get in touch if you have questions or concerns about your specific item.

Exchanges

The fastest way to ensure you get what you want is to return the item you have, and once the return is accepted, make a separate purchase for the new item.

Refunds

We'll notify you once we’ve received and inspected your return, and let you know if the refund was approved or not. If approved, you’ll be automatically refunded on your original payment method. Please remember it can take some time for your bank or credit card company to process and post the refund too.