Meet the Hive Architect, the Carpenter Independently Installing Homes for Honeybees

""Wherever I go, bees come," says Matt Somerville. A carpenter by trade, Somerville is also a committed conservationist, having spent the last 14 years building and installing approximately 800 homes for the dwindling insect populations around the English countryside. "The Hive Architect," a film directed by Max Weston and released by the outdoor clothing brand Fera, follows the scrappy, pipe-smoking woodworker as he carves out a log, builds a conical roof, and finally ventures out into a meadow to erect his construction."

""There is a widely held theory that our British honey bee couldn't exist without being domesticated by beekeepers," says Fera. "However, for bee conservationists like Matt Somerville, this theory is ludicrous. Somerville typically spends his winters in his woodshop, creating as many hives as he can during the cold months. Just as the first flowers spring from the ground, he heads out to bucolic locations, where he rigs up a contraption that allows him to install the heavy builds all on his own."

Matt Somerville is a carpenter and conservationist who has spent 14 years building and installing about 800 bee homes across the English countryside. The Hive Architect, a film directed by Max Weston and released by outdoor clothing brand Fera, follows Somerville as he carves logs, builds conical roofs, and installs his hives in meadows. Fera states a widely held theory claims British honey bees could not exist without domestication, a claim that conservationists like Somerville find ludicrous. Somerville builds hives in his woodshop during winter and travels to bucolic locations in spring, using a contraption to erect heavy structures by himself. Additional information and Somerville's process are available on the Bee Kind Hives website.

Read at Colossal