Design

If You Build it, They Will Come… by Ben Faga

21 July 2010

Royal College of Art graduate Ben Faga is encouraging bees in London to swarm and set up new hives.

Top: Peckham Bait-Hive (51.47°, -0.05°)
Above: Hackney City Farm Bait-Hive (51.53°, -0.05°)

Called If You Build it, They Will Come… the project involves installing boxes Faga calls bait-hives within five kilometres of an existing hive and using a specially-developed chemical to attract the bees.

Above: Stoke Newington Bait-Hive (51.55°, -0.07°)

Faga mixed this substance from essential oils, beeswax and the pheromones of a queen bee.

Above: Freightliners Farm Bait-Hive (51.56°, -0.07°)

Here’s some more information from the designer:

If you build it, they will come…

This project interrogates the border between fear and hope of an event and the prosaic preparations surrounding the possible event. I have created a series of vessels that attract swarming bees, called bait-hives.

Above: Vauxhall City Farm Bait-Hive (51.48°, -0.09°)

The vessels contain a custom designed bee attractant that I have created by taking the queens pheromone and mixing it with various essential oils and beeswax. This mixture attracts bees from up to 5 kilometers, engaging their swarming instinct encouraging them to leave their current hive to take residence in my bait-hives.

Above and below: on the roof of Rough Luxe hotel (see our earlier story)

In attempts to expand my current apiary, I have set up a network of bait-hive hosts throughout London. The hosts were selected due to their proximity to current beehives, making it very likely that, one day, 20,000+ bees will swarm into the space to inhabit the hive.

This scenario forces the bait-hive hosts to confront their comfort level with this object. Do they want to attract a swarm to their space? Are they excited or scared of the prospect of living so close to a swarm of bees?