UPDATE 2/16
The Hive Butler will be a vendor at the Indiana Beekeeping School, on Feb. 27. We are also trying to get signed up for the Tri-County Bee Conference in Wooster, Ohio on March 5. And the Michigan Spring Bee Conference in East Lansing on March 11 and 12. We will be at the Will County Spring Bee School in Joliet, IL on 4/2 and possibly the West Virginia Spring Bee School in Chapmanville, WV on 4/9.
We are still working on a prototype. The Hive Butler is a big box, beyond what a 3-d printer can do well. We are working with another prototype manufacturer currently, but will be taking $20 pre-orders at all the shows. We may end up going straight to production without ever having a prototype.
The tool to produce the Hive Butler will take around 6 weeks to be ready, and from there on we will be delivering your Hive Butlers as we visit your summer conferences.
We would love to hear from you, to let us know where you'd like us to meet up with your beek friends! Hope to see you soon!
UPDATE!
While our campaign is far from funded, our efforts are ongoing! We know there are a lot of beekeepers interested in the Hive Butler. We've heard from you, all over the globe.
We are currently working with some engineering students at Purdue University on producing a prototype on a 3D printer. We are hoping to have that with us at the Beekeepers of Indiana Bee School, on February 27, in Indianapolis.
We are also working on gathering some private funding, but will be re-running our Indiegogo campaign next month. By that time, we should have the prototype available for video, and you beekeepers should be thinking more about honey production.
THE HIVE BUTLER WILL BE COMING TO YOUR STATE CONVENTION in 2016! If you have a beeschool or club meeting that you would like to invite us to, please reach out to us at www.hivebutler.com, or on FB or Twitter.
Thank you very much to the investors who have already started with us. Your support means the world to these Queen Bees!
Tracy and Karen
Product:
The Hive Butler is a clear, food-grade storage dream-come-true for beekeepers to use bringing in honey frames, storing newly built frames and even for short-term moving of bees on the frame! There are two different lid designs: a solid lid for storage and moving, and a screen-top for use with live bees. The Hive Butler is designed to hold 10 deep frames. Obviously, it can hold mediums or shallows, as needed.
![]()
This early engineer's rendering doesn't show that the Hive Butler will be clear, so you can tell whether it is loaded or ready to go.
The Problem:
Beekeepers have been working shorthanded for too long! Bringing in honey is hot, messy, and dirty. It doesn't have to be all of those, except maybe the hot part.
As we started pulling those absolutely beautiful frames from our hives, we didn't really know how to protect them to get them home. Most beekeepers just pull the wooden "super." Early on, we did that. The problems? Finding spare supers. If we did find one, wood ware is dirty, heavy, painted, and there is NO BOTTOM in those boxes! The frames can actually fall out the bottom while you carry them. Damage, grass, filth and LEAKAGE! In the car, on the counter, everywhere. If you can't extract immediately, then what? Ants, mess, loss. T
he need for a better box became very evident.
![]()
That awful leaning means damage and loss.
![]()
Coolers are very little help. Nothing holds the frames. Lost honey fills the bottom.
We had spent a lot of money getting our bee yards established, and so every tablespoon of honey spilling anywhere was a leak from our wallets, so to speak. So, we started using coolers. That helped, some. We were able to keep the bees out, and the mess contained. But once the honey was laying in the bottom of the cooler, it was lost to us. Can't sell it. Can't really eat it. And every time we moved the coolers in the yards, the frames would fall on one another, and gouge open, spilling our "money" into the cooler. We would look at each other, and say, "There needs to be a box just for this." Every clunk we heard in the cooler was a smack on the head to come up with a better design. When we found ourselves saying, "There should be a box for this," ten times in a day, we just decided we would be the ones to do it!
![]()
Oh no! Lost honey! What a mess, and what happens to that gold on the bottom?
![]()
Is this how you store your frames?! Surely there is a better way?
The Solution:
We started discussing our ideas more seriously, and soon realized "the box" could have several uses for the beekeepers:
- 1. Honey harvest. Keeping your honey SAFE, from damage, dirt and insects, in a food-grade storage box.
- 2. Storage and toting new frames, safely, cleanly, without pulling an important (and heavy) wood hive box out of service.
- 3. Transporting frames with bees! As summer progressed and we had beekeeping to do, we had lots of frame moving that had to be done between hives. Sometimes, simple moving, sometimes more stressful searching for queens. Worrying about losing Her Royal Highness out the bottom of a box, or out the top while we're looking away. We figured "the box" could have a screen top for use during that kind of field work as well.
![]()
The Hive Butler will hold up to 10 deep frames, and is designed to carry up to 75 lbs.
As our bee yards expanded, we had to become more self-reliant with hive ware. Once we started assembling our own frames, we learned the importance of proper storage and handling of frames with wax foundation. They can't be laid flat. They shouldn't be dropped or jumbled. Because we were expanding, it seemed like we never had an empty, available wooden hive box of the proper size to hold the frames for us. We were always using fruit boxes from Costco, or storage totes and those were never quite right.
When we realized the multiple uses, no matter how big or small your beeyard, we decided it was time to really try to get it going. It was a viable, worthwhile produce for anyone who keeps bees.
Amazingly, we knew someone whose son is a plastics design engineer. Once we had a working set of drawings and a bit of education in plastics manufacture, we began to understand the level of investment, and fortitude required to bring a product to market. But our belief in the need for and value of the box hasn't wavered.
The awareness of beekeeping, and the value of bees to our food supply and economy is growing exponentially. It's on magazine covers, in newspapers, tv and even grocery store labels. Beekeeping is a necessity--and this storage box will help beekeepers, big or small, every single time they work hives. And, it will work for them, even while they sleep! Keeping frames new, or ready-to-be-extracted, safe and clean til the right time.
We call it the "HIVE BUTLER!" For clean-up, protection, storage, and transport, the ultimate storage box has your back! No more damaged frames. No more drippy mess, or honey lost in the bottom of a cardboard box.
Store your newly-built frames; tote them to the yard. Keep your heavy woodware working for you, on the hive. Fill the Hive Butler full, and you'll be able to tell at a glance which ones are ready to go. Need to move bees? Don't worry about losing HRH in transit. And don't be lugging those 10-frame deeps!
![]()
The Hive Butler.
Designed by beekeepers, for beekeepers. Working, even when you're not.
![]()
This is an early design of the screen top.
We designed the Hive Butler to hold 10 deep frames. We know most honey isn't in deep frames, but often there is more honey in the brood boxes than you would like. We didn't want to design the box for medium frames, and then have no place for deeps! We are recommending maximum weight of 75lbs.
![]()
The Plan:The quote to produce the mold for the Hive Butler, and the two lid options is just under $30,000. There will also be set-up charges each time the mold is put into production. Any additional funding monies will go toward production of the boxes, including labeling, and finally advertising.
We'd love to have your support! Even if you can't contribute financially, spreading the story of the Hive Butler on your social media sites gives us more opportunities to bring this box to a bee school near you!
![]()
About us...
![]()
Karen and I went to high school together way back when, and ran into each other about 30 years later. We were amazed to find out we lived two miles apart, and each had only daughters, and horses and dogs. We had both been active as 4H leaders, and we had both gone through breast cancer, one year apart.
Karen talked me into driving a schoolbus with her, so we saw each other every day, twice a day. I started saying we needed to go into some sort of business together, maybe even with our daughters. And then, in the summer of 2013, she saw the rapid demand on FB for the honey I had just harvested from one of my beehives. She suggested we go into "the bee business."
Having both been in and around the horse industry for many years, we understood a hobby where there is no end to learning and improving. Once Karen got into a beehive, she was on fire--and having someone to work with re-inspired me to dig in further.
We went to every bee school we could; joined organizations, read books, watched videos and even started a local beekeepers club in our area. Spring 2014, we started with one hive that had overwintered, and closed out the year with 18. We have done cut-outs, caught swarms, combined hives, found queens, requeened, done splits, grafted queens and enjoyed the glorious harvest of honey. We now have over 30 hives in several beeyards, and serve on the boards of our state beekeeping organizations.
![]()
