The BeePod (3D Printed Bee Feeder)

Description

Yes, more love for our little stripy friends!

I already have two bee feeders in my range (The BeeBar & BeeBar XL), and although I’m still very happy with both of them you can never give the bees enough love. Aww, look at their little fluffy, stripy faces, how can you not want to take care of them? And since without them our ecosystem would collapse and we’d all die, they do kind of deserve it. Originally this wasn’t going to be another bee feeder; I’d just worked out how to make a sphere which locked together around the middle and I thought I’d be using it for another gift box. But then, while I was drawing it, I thought it looked a little like The FoodPod even though it was about half the size. What could I feed with that, I wondered. The answer of course was… Bees!

The BeePod is the result of that. It consists of two half-spheres, the bottom with the feeder platforms in it and the top with the bee holes in the side, which twist-lock in the middle. There’s also the hanger ring at the top which you can fit over a branch etc, to hang it around your flower beds. You can fill the bottom section with water (or nectar, if you REALLY want to spoil our little buzzy friends) then lock the top section on. As you turn the bottom section clockwise to lock it, the little platforms for the bees to stand on move round to the holes meaning that they can drink and not get wet in the rain!

Size: 70mm spherical. The BeePod will be delivered fully assembled, and you can order it with or without the optional filler cup.

Addendum – Drop Test:
I recently had a message from a very nice man asking if the BeePod could survive a 6′ fall onto soil without breaking. I was pretty sure it could, but rather than just give a theoretical answer I decided to test it. I dropped it from a height of just about 6′ (I’m 6’1″ tall so I held it at about the level of the top of my head) onto four different surfaces. The results were, in order of performing the tests:

1) Laminate Flooring – BeePod hit the floor and bounced once. No damage to the BeePod, tiny dent in the floor.
2) Grass – BeePod hit the floor, no damage at all. I then extended my arm up as high as it could go (about 8 – 8.5′) and dropped it again. No damage, again.
3) Soil – BeePod hit the ground, no damage at all. I repeated the hand above my head and dropped it again, still with no damage.
And finally…
4) Concrete – BeePod hit the ground, bounced once and rolled a little. No damage at all (not even a scratch to the base, which I was quite surprised about to be honest)

That’s because the base of the BeePod, the lower hemisphere, is essentially a double layer; to make sure the bottom is watertight the whole section is printed in one piece and then the yellow cap is glued on with a generous coating of superglue. That basically means there’s two distinct shells with the tiniest gap between them to allow the yellow shell to flex slightly.

This might have been a bit of an overkill on the information but now you can buy with confidence that your BeePod will be able to take whatever nature can throw at it!

Many thanks to Joanna of We Love Our Bees! in Florida (www.weloveourbees.com) for the photos and the video of her very happy (and adorably cute) orchid bees enjoying their BeePod!

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE!!!: if you’re wanting to use the BeePod with clove oil, to attract Orchid Bees, please contact me BEFORE YOU ORDER – It seems, from field-testing, that clove oil absolutely DESTROYS ABS plastic, which is what I print the BeePod with. If you’re wanting to use clove oil I can print it in either PLA biopolymer or PETG, both of which are safe to use with clove oil. I take no responsibility for dissolved BeePods if I’m not informed prior to ordering and production!