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Bee.Watch is a trading name of uWatch Ltd. Bee.Watch is well known for it’s award-winning Upstairs Downstairs (UD) Kit that deters wasps and small mammals from entering hives and is making bees and beekeepers happy across the nation. Our reporting apps – Beekeeper+ (hive management), Bystander (for the public who would like to map and report environmental observations and receive pesticide alerts) and the Non-beekeeper enables communities to work together to keep hives healthy and beekeepers happy. A bit about our how and why we started doing what we do… In the only country in Europe where Beekeepers do not have to be registered, it is hard for pesticide users to know where hives are, let alone efficiently communicate all types of planned treatments with hive owners. uWatch Ltd staff keep bees in the centre of an agricultural area and local bee keepers, alongside staff had been experiencing growing colony losses since 2015 and virtually no swarms. This needed a resolution and the team got to work developing a reporting system named Bee.Watch. The system was approved by Red Tractor and local pesticide users were able to record what they were spraying on our app and other users could report Swarm collecting and apiary records. In 2019 the system was extended to keep records for individual hives using QR Codes. Working with the University of Hertfordshire, we introduced Pesticide Eco toxicity reports, which illustrate the impact of pesticides’ active ingredients on the surrounding flora and fauna via a traffic lights system. The associated alerts warn beekeepers if some form of protection is required for their hives. We signed up for the BeeConnected system for reporting pesticides and in 2019 used Bee.Watch alongside it. We had 2 alerts from BeeConnected and 179 from Bee.Watch. Our data showed that of all commercial treatments, 50% included Glyphosate. The Bee.Watch system has now been years in development during which time it has become an effective hive and apiary management system with an efficient swarm management feature; invasive species tracking feature and a mentor system. The Bee.Watch UD Hive Kit, QR codes and the three apps are now being used by a range of users, from bee farmers to pest controllers, all data is securely stored on an ISO27001 approved host, the swarm management system does not publish swarm collectors contact details on the internet and pesticide notifications qualify users under their Red Tractor obligations.
Mill Brook House, Caps Lane, Cholsey, OX10 9HF, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Good service from the company .I like the product. It is easy to fit and versatile to use .The bees do seen calmer when using this system.
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Ken, thank you for your review and great to hear that you are enjoying the Upstairs Downstairs Intrances!
Haven’t had a single wasp robber since using these, and robber bees much deterred. I use simple one size boxes which I make myself on the Rose hive system, and I put an intrance on every box which makes them very versatile whether using them as honey supers, brood boxes or making splits, and also for keeping a top entrance for winter ventilation when I wrap the hives. I even found that I’d put a hole in the wrong place on one box (I’m not a great carpenter!) but it didn’t matter because I can just block it with a bung. So even I can’t go wrong!
Kathy Wilkinson
Excellent products, invaluable to beekeepers, just testing out the new entrance in one of my hives looks to be working well feel a few more may be required.
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Simon, great to hear that you are enjoying the entrances! We would love to see any images you may have of your hive (bee.watch@uwatch.co.uk). Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review.
Top quality product. Bees love it. A lecture from Filipe introduced me to these and I’ve now installed them on all my hives. Simple to install. Bees seem a lot more relaxed. Great product and communication from Bee.Watch would highly recommend
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Alex, thank you very much for your review. Great to hear that you (and your bees) are enjoying the upstairs downstairs intrances!
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Kim, we're delighted to hear you are happy with our service! We look forward to hearing how you get on with the intrances. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review.
The help desk at Bee.Watch are always available and ready to help. Thanks very much for all your support.
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Yvonne, we are very pleased to hear you are happy with our service, always happy to help! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review.
Very pleased with the ease of managing my hives now with this new entrance. I love the Intrances and so do my bees. From watching the bees I've seen I don't need to worry about wasps at all. And have started using the hive configuration as suggested by Bee.Watch, with the solid floor and basement box, it just seemed to make sense. I've not had to use my QE yet, but as I'm new to beekeeping this may change. But doing a split was really easy.
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Andrea, thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review. Great to hear that you are benefiting from 'no wasps'! Best of luck with your beekeeping journey.
The Upstairs Downstairs Intrances are working really well at our apiary. The bees seem a lot calmer, we can easily treat for varroa and can close up the hives when we are alerted of a nearby pesticide spray on my Bee.Watch Beekeeper app. A very effective system!
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Vicky, we are delighted to hear that you are happy with the combination of the Bee.Watch Beekeeper app and intrances to better manage your hives. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review.
Not a fair star since I have not installed the system. But
since we have bottom opening at the base of bottom brood hive and as I understand the system under UD there is no bottom entrance how do the bees remove the dead bees. When I can physically install the UD I will. I had no problem purchasing the system and was clear where it was coming from. I have ordered Bee Jackets from UK and the were mailed at 10:00 am Monday and were at my door Wednesday Morning. The exchange rate is killing. The products were great.
Illinois, USA
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Jerry, I would like to answer your question for you: If there is a strong hive and there are a low level of dead bees, even with the UD hive hole entrances, the worker bees will throw the dead bees out, the same as with a bottom entrance. If there is a large wipe out inside the hive, then whether it is a bottom entrance or not, there likely wont be any worker bees to throw the dead ones out anyway as there will be too many dead bees, so in that circumstance, you will need to lift off the hive to clean out the bottom anyway.
In a normal bottom entrance hive, there is a cold draft coming in the bottom and going up through the hive, this cold air means that the brood box ends up being higher and so the bees may end up ignoring the bottom of the hive altogether.
But with our hive configuration, you don't get this cold draft coming in and so we have found that the brood box can happen at the bottom and we have then found the floor of the hive to be spotless because the bees are happy cleaning it up.
It would be great to hear from you once you have installed and used the product.
Kind regards,
The Bee.Watch team.
Brilliant product. We have this installed in 15 hives in our office apiary and have seen significant improvements regarding pests since installation e.g. less varroa, no rodent attacks, no wasp attacks.
It's only when you come to fit these entrances that the clever design becomes apparent and it's the part you put inside the box that is the innovation. I set up one hive with UD "intrances" late in the 2020 season and was soon able to compare how those bees calmly 'locked down' their home in the face of wasp attack, compared to panicked neighbours who fought a pitched battle at the entrance reducer. As the weather has cooled this system seem to provide draught protection too, which is an added bonus. I obviously can not comment on any wider benefits as yet, but I'm optimistic for what I may find when inspections resume in the new season.
Reply from Bee.Watch
Thank you for your review Dave, extremely glad to hear that you are enjoying the UD Intrances! We look forward to hearing how you get on in the new season.
All the best,
The Bee.Watch Team
I thought using Upstairs
Downstairs Hive Intrance system was fun and different though I didn't really see anything that told me it was any better.
It took forever to get my order placed. I wouldn't have bothered, but I used the product on another hive and I was impressed. There is ample space for the bees, easy to defend and the entrance ways will keep bad guys out. The shipping fees will knock you over, so wait till the USA branch is open. Hopefully they'll be cheaper. Not worth the money if you pay the same for shipping as the product costs, I was shocked and disappointed. The second shipment was less the drill bit so it was 1/3 the weight.. I placed the order thinking it was shipping from Florida. All in all a great product..!!
Reply from Bee.Watch
Hi Michael, thank you for your review. Glad to hear you like the product and apologies for the unexpected shipping costs. I am pleased to say that we are now able to serve the US market with our US Distributor. The links to the US website is: https://bee-watch-usa.weebly.com/. Alternatively, please contact: bee.watch.usa@gmail.com.
Kind regards,
The Bee.Watch Team
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