In this episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey reviews a bespoke six‑frame observation hive made by Hyde Hives from a UK‑felled Lebanese cedar tree. He explains that he purchased the hive at full price during a sale and received it early for the season. Edwards walks through every feature: the cedar construction and its provenance, the oiled finish, integrated ventilation, solid clamps, glass panels, entrance reducer, landing board, queen excluder, removable varroa‑mesh floor, and the tight millimetre‑precise frame spacing. He describes how the hive is designed for short‑term observation, transport to schools, farm‑shops, and events, and how a single frame can be showcased while the rest of the colony remains in a standard five‑frame nuc beneath. Edwards contrasts this hive with cheaper, mass‑produced observation hives (often from China or Slovenia), noting the superior craftsmanship, aesthetic appeal, and comparable price (only ~10 % higher). He highlights the bespoke nature of the product, the possibility of branding, and the need to order well in advance due to hand‑delivery. The review ends with a strong recommendation, noting the hive’s durability, visual impact, and suitability for both educational outreach and personal beekeeping “toys.”
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Hi, I'm Lawrence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Today I'm going to review this purpose-built Lebanese cedar observation hive that was built for me by Hyde Hives. So I paid full price for this hive, I bought it off them during their mega sale, and they've got it to me way before I need it in the season, which is really good. In this video, I'm going to go through all of the features of this hive. It's not available on their website. This is a special order bespoke-made hive. So if you want one of these, you need to go direct to Hyde Hives and ask them for a 6-frame observation hive. But in this video, we'll go through all of the key features. So we'll talk about the shielding, we'll talk about the glass, we'll talk about the, the latches, we'll talk about the entrance reducers, the landing boards, how it's all put together, how it works, and the quality of the materials. So this weekend has been a bit crazy for me. I got myself a long hive, I got myself an observation hive, I got myself 3 Abelo poly hives. Like, it's been absolutely fantastic. I love getting new beekeeping toys, playing with them, talking to you guys about it. Like, I really am in my element. I'm like a little boy at Christmas. Excuse the giddiness. Again, I'm a really massive fan of this. They've even branded it up with Black Mountain Honey. What we're going to do with this is we're going to take it to some schools, we're going to take it to some farm shops when we take it to some events. And we'll just do kind of like an hour, 2 hours with the bees in there, and then we'll go and put the nucs back into place. Right, straight on with the review then. So if you've not seen one of these before, this is called a 6-frame observation hive. Now I was doing a lot of research last year because I've not had an observation hive before, and I was looking at the ones for on eBay. I think they come from Slovenia, and they're kind of like a big suitcase style. And I was really fond of getting one of those because I thought they looked cool, and I thought that you could see a lot more than you could see on one of these. And I spoke to a few bee farmers and they really did put me off them, and they just said they don't work. And this is the style that you want to go for because it gives you the ability to completely section off that one single frame, and it means that you can see everything that you want to see. So as long as you pick out a frame that's got a little bit of honey on it as well, a little bit of stores, you can see everything you want on that single frame. So I've gone for this style and I'm really, really happy that I did. It makes it so much easier in terms of the management. I can just go and pick up a 6-frame nuc. Doesn't even need to be the full 6 frames, as long as it's 3 or 4 frames. Put 5 frames downstairs, and you've got a queen excluder to block it off, and then you've got a frame upstairs. So that's the format. This is what it looks like. It comes with these 2 slides here. So these are just made of like 6mm ply with a piece of pine batten on there. You get one either side, and then hopefully this is something that you'll recognize here. Now this hive was built from a tree that was felled in the UK not too far from here, I think within about 150 miles. And this is made with Lebanese cedar, so it was an ornamental cedar tree. And I just love that story, like how nice to be able to say this tree was felled in the UK. Chatting to the guys at Hyde Hives, they knew the person who owned this tree before it felled. There's a story behind it, so it's not something that's kind of imported over from China. It's not western red cedar that's coming in from Canada that's already planed, all ready to go. They've done all of this themselves. This was a couple of years ago a tree in someone's garden, and they felled it, they've planed it, they've ripped it, they've worked it into good usable material, and then they fashioned it into, in my opinion, an absolutely exquisite looking observation hive. And that's what this is all about, an observation hive. It's the functionality aspect of it goes kind of a little bit out of the window. I'm bringing this to show to people and I want them to go, wow, that looks really good. This is going to bring people who love bees and this is going to bring people who love woodwork over to me to come and have a chat. I just love looking at this. I love the finish. It's got such a nice oiled finish. The grain pattern, a lovely wide grain cedar pattern, is just so nice. I'm a little bit in awe of this. So as I said, it's a really simple design. You've effectively got a wooden box at the bottom with With an entrance reducer on the front, so it is just a completely bog-standard 5-frame nuc. And then you've got this top piece that comes on. So in the middle there, you've got a queen excluder, and then at the top here, you've got 2 latches. These just come off like that, and then you've got 2 nice thick pieces of glass, and then you can pop your frame in there like that. So the first thing that I'm going to do when I get this set up is I'm going to go and get a nuc. I'm going to go and find the best frame, Make sure that the queen's on it, and then I'm just going to pop that frame in there like that. And of course, I'm going to do you a video when I put this on just to show you how well it works and also just to show you the process a little bit better. This piece of wood here, nice integrated vents on there, chamfered down so it's completely smooth, gives the bees ventilation. That's the really important thing with these hives is the bees do need adequate ventilation, especially if you're keeping them in a warm environment, so a shop. Do need to be a little bit careful and obviously don't want to inflict any harm on the bees. So I will limit these observation viewings to about an hour or so. So that piece of wood just sits directly back on the top and then you clip it back on. And what's really nice to hear, and I don't know if you can hear this, you get a really good positive seal. These are not cheap clamps. These are good quality, solid clamps. And as you can see, there's no wiggle room whatsoever. I'm confident that I can put bees in here. I can transport them somewhere. I can move them around. and these are going to be really, really solid. So there's a good amount of tension in the clamps, and that's something that's really important. So then the same, you can hear that click. You've got 2 on each side here, and then you can lift that whole piece off. Now underneath you've got your queen excluder. So what I would do in this instance here, if I've got the queen in there, just pop her on the board like that, and then whatever I put in that frame, so queens, bees, anything, are completely sealed in there. While I work on the rest of the box here. So like I said, this is just a standard 5-frame nuc now, but it's like a diamond-encrusted gold and platinum one because it's just so well made. Like, I love it. This is my new favorite toy. It's got integrated wooden runners similar to a Maysmore Super or a Maysmore Brood Box. There's no plastic in here. That's all you need. The bees aren't going to be in here for very long, so an integrated wooden runner is perfectly fine. It's a top bee space design, so nice and easy. Hopefully it should reduce any chance of crushing bees when you go to put this top bit back on. It's got a floor that you can take out that's just made of 4mm ply. Doesn't need to be the most durable material here because this isn't going to go outside. This is going to kind of live in my garage and inside most of the time, so it's not going to get wet. That just slides right out, and then underneath you've got your varroa mesh floor. And that's really important— big wide varroa mesh floor. That means that the bees are going to be able to really regulate their temperature really well. So although they say it is a 5-frame nuc, you can just about squeeze your 6 frames in there, and that is probably what I'll do. It's a good one, this, because you're going to be transiting this around quite a lot. So I think what I'll do is I'll pop in my 5 frames down here, and then I'll just pop in an extra frame of foundation just to keep everything nice and tight. And it is really, really tight. It's done to the millimeter. And the reason they've done that is It's a good design, that is, because normally you want a little bit of extra space in these boxes so it's not difficult getting them in, getting them out. But these boxes here, if you think about their actual use, you're going to be taking a nuc from a different box, putting it in here, sealing it all up, and then it's going to go in the car and you're going to drive somewhere and then take it back out again. So you're not going to get that chance for them to propolise it down. So a really nice tight fit actually gives you what you want, which means the frames aren't going to be shaking around in transit. So at the back you've just got solid piece of wood there, one entrance only at the front, little mini entrance there. Obviously you've got your queen excluder, all your different variants that you get on a normal standard disc excluder, and then you've got a nice, really good-looking landing board as well. And again, landing board for something like this, really, really nice because it just makes it look a little bit nicer as well. Obviously you're not going to have the bees kind of coming in and out of this entrance when people are looking at it. But it just makes it look a lot nicer. So there you go, that's the end of the review. Going to do a couple of videos on this one later on in the year. I'm going to show you how I stock it, and I'm just going to show you how well it lasts as well. Might do a little one when we go to, I don't know, a farm shop or something and get a video of people's views on it as well. But I have to say, this is exquisite. I paid for this with my own money. I paid full price. This wasn't a freebie. And what good value. Like, I compared the price of this to other manufacturers on the market, ones that are maybe bringing them in from China, and there literally wasn't even that much price difference, maybe 10% more. And I've got a product that is mass-produced in China and then is shipped over here using probably not very good materials and definitely nowhere near as good workmanship versus this piece of art, because it is a piece of art that has that whole story behind it of the fact that it was felled in the person that they know's garden, they milled it all down, Took it into wood and then put it together so nicely like this. Obviously done all the branding with it as well. And I would expect to pay double for something like that, and it really wasn't that expensive. So they do have issues sending these in the post. It's not something that if you want it, say, on, on the weekend, you can't order it on a Monday, Tuesday. They're not going to have these sitting in stock. They're very much a bespoke order made for, for you and you only. So if you want one, give them plenty of notice. In advance because they delivered this by hand. So they drove to my house and delivered me this. It's great, but obviously because of the glass and the fragile nature of it, it needs to be a little bit more careful with the transit. But as always, I can highly, highly recommend this product if you are in the market for an observation hive and you want something that not only is going to be really good and effective, but you want something that's going to look really, really nice and potentially have some bespoke spoke details on the front, maybe your logo, maybe a gift to someone else, then you cannot go wrong with Hyde Hives. Really happy with the customer service, but even more happy with the, the quality of the material and the products coming out. So I hope you enjoyed the video, something a little bit different for No Nonsense Beekeeping. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
