About

The Bee Barrel is a perfect example of literally thinking outside the box!

If you're already a beekeeper or would like to become one you are going to love what the Bee Barrel is doing for beekeeping. Nearly every aspect of the trade can benefit from this new and innovative design. Inspections are simplified, bees have an improved environment to live in and thanks to the exciting technological world we live in, science can now play a real role in backyard beekeeping as well as on the commercial side!

May 4th 2014. Day 8- Ring 5! Lovely Ladies!

In January 2014 we completed our Bee Barrel prototypes and introduced three-pound colonies of bees into them at the end of April. The bees and the bee barrels performed exceptionally well. You can learn more by visiting http://www.beescientific.net/projects/

Wooden Prototypes

The prototypes of the Bee Barrel we built are made of wood. They taught us a lot and after a little 'tweaking' we determined that the design was sound enough to move into the production phase. In the production phase the Bee Barrels will be manufactured from alternative materials which will give our customers the advantage or durability, strength, longevity, light weight, environmental friendliness, and affordability. Not to mention less stress and a better environment for the bees.

Polypropylene granules

We are raising the funds required to create the tooling and other components to mass produce the Bee Barrels using an injection molding process including engineering, machining, testing, and finalizing the injection molds.

Mold examples courtesy of globalsources.com

Once the molds are created (the process will take about four to five months) the remaining funds will be used to cover the costs of an initial order of Bee Barrels placed with our manufacturers and the operational costs associated with final construction, packaging, and shipment of the orders.

Sales and marketing will continue to attract new customers through the use of social media outlets targeting beekeeper and hobbyist groups and add placement in agricultural and hobby magazines and websites.

One of many reliable sources for advertisement. (photo courtesy of Mother Earth News)

We will also recruit regional distributors already in place across the country that have established clientele and know their markets and their customers' needs.

Apiaries in the United States. Map and photo courtesy of www.swarmpatrol.com

As a matter of perspective, Bee Culture Magazine stated in their 2012 industry survey that there are roughly 115,000 to 125,000 beekeepers in the United States and reported that 2.64 million U.S. honey bee colonies produced honey in 2013. http://storyofhoney.com/press_kit_docs/Industry%20Facts.pdf Other sources reported numbers as high as 200,000 beekeepers in the United States.

Orem Prototype 1B - Spring 2014

Our initial goal is to reach out and sell two Bee Barrels (known as a 'stack') to 10,000 individuals within the first 12 months of operation. This number represents 8% of the more conservative number of 125,000 beekeepers which equates to twenty thousand bee barrels. And if we were to replace just one box for every colony in 1% of the estimated number of 2.64 million colonies the first year, we will produce over twenty-six thousand barrels!

At the end of the day we want to produce a product in an affordable manner that generations of beekeepers can enjoy.

Our business plan outlines a strategy of producing 20,000 hives within the first year but also factors in the probability of exponential growth beyond our initial goal. The growth will be accommodated by contracting more manufacturers to produce the Bee Barrels faster and in higher quantities. This can be done through the use of remaining funds from this campaign as well as revenue from previous orders or lending institutions once we have established production trends.

To learn more about the Bee Barrel and Bee Scientific be sure to check out our website at http://www.beescientific.net