Summers The Zest Hive

History shows that it is difficult to persuade the established order to accept revolutionary design change. 

We accept that there is a crisis in bee husbandry in which considerable numbers of colonies do not survive the winter. 

Until now, no one has dared to suggest that the wood hives which we all use to keep them in are the principle cause of this crisis and that they are neither conducive to bee health, nor very productive. 

The ZEST hive design, however, is conducive to making healthy bees that survive winters with less material, expenditure and energy input. To "do more with less" it follows the legacy of traditional straw skep design where the external envelope is insulated and ventilated. A straw skep aided the bees in their principle ambition to thermo-regulate the brood nest, and so it is with the ZEST. ....... but there is much, much more.