Every single beehive storage unit we produce is designed and handcrafted by our founder, Nick Redman. Nick brings 26 years of specialised expertise in timber construction, spending nearly three decades building traditional, heavy-duty green oak frames using time-honoured mortise and tenon joinery.
The inspiration for this business began at home. Nick owned a traditional storage hive for over twenty years and appreciated its timeless look, but knew that modern manufacturing methods were cutting corners. He decided to channel his structural carpentry expertise into engineering his own version.
As a true perfectionist, Nick spent a rigorous two-year testing period developing, building, and refining a series of prototypes. Each experimental hive was placed outdoors and used through relentless daily testing, exposed directly to the harsh British elements to monitor exactly how the wood moved, shifted, and aged over seasons of rain, frost, and sun.
Nick tested a vast array of timber types, finishes and thicknesses, immediately discounting any materials that warped, curled, or failed under environmental pressure.
Traditional Green-Oak Joinery Skills, Handcrafted into Every Hive.
Through this exhaustive process, Nick perfected our signature design: the mitred-cornered hive. It proved to be the most structurally successful design on the market — incredibly strong, exceptionally durable, and visually seamless.
Confidence in the perfected design led to the formation of Bee Tidy in 2025. Today, every single hive is individually handmade by Nick inside an authentic oak-framed barn nestled in the heart of Kent.
Nick is supported by his wife Zoe, who handles all sales and marketing, while their eldest son James (eighteen) built and designed the online storefront. Three more sons (sixteen, fourteen and thirteen respectively) are already in the shadows learning their father's carpentry and woodworking skills, making Bee Tidy very much a passionate family affair.
These master-crafted storage solutions are now available to purchase directly online, as well as in select farm shops and premium garden centres across the Weald. When you buy from Bee Tidy, you are investing in 26 years of absolute woodworking precision, two full years of dedicated field testing, and a dedicated eco family business.
