Urban Beekeeping has been experiencing a true revival over the last couple of years, with alarming news about declining bee populations and the catastrophic consequences of this trend. The Beepod, a collaboration between the head beekeeper from Milwaukee's Growing Power Urban Farm and the Industrial Designer behind a computerized milling machine for a family business that produced beautiful wooden quilt-making machines. Instead of typical stacking beehives (Langstroth hives) that are designed to maximize honey production, the beepod is a modified top-bar hive design, a beekeeping technique that has been used for thousands of years. Benefits of top-bar design include higher quality honey and easy inspection and maintenance of the hives. This means pest control and inspection can be targeted. When checking honey combs in a top-bar configuration, the hive itself is not compromised because only parts of the hives are exposed at a single time making for more docile and happy bees.
