Roy Brewster’s Hexagonal Beehive

Edgar “Roy” Brewster was a commercial beekeeper in Taranaki who first started with bees in 1924, at the age of 19. He had a belief that beekeepers, since they get bee stings quite frequently, have a special sort of mystic insight into all sorts of the universe’s workings, that they ‘vibrate’ at a higher rate, giving beekeepers special sorts of insights.

He was well-known for a number of his interests and obsessions, many based on the 6-sided shape of the cells in a honey comb. The most significant application of his world-view would have been the hexagonal house that Roy and his second wife Nettie built in New Plymouth in the late 1940’s. Though the house is no longer there, photos and construction details describe the complexity of building such a structure – with no right angles.

Short movie of the Brewster house: https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/25350/beehive-house-1957

Brewster had a life-long belief in building things with no 90 degree angles at all. He summarised that with the saying “There are NO RIght ANgles in nature” – and he shortened it further to “NORIAN”. And that was how his beekeeping business was known, as well as appearing on the label of his honey.

His “Norian Thoughts” – a book of poetry, speculations and religious predictions – is admirable in the attempt, but I have yet to finish reading any of the tedious stanzas…

A few years after building the hexagonal house, Roy and Nettie copyrighted three songs: “Lovely Egmont“, “Welcome Queen Elizabeth II” and “The Beekeeper’s Song“. Based on my experiences with his written work, I have made no attempt to find the words to these songs. Apparently there is a 78rpm phonograph record with the songs being sung by the New Plymouth Primary and Central School choirs. I do not believe it will ever be available on Spotify.

Roy Brewster had many ideas that were not “mainstream”, and many of his activities were (and are) considered curious and eccentric, but most certainly determined.

I started my New Zealand beekeeping in Taranaki, in the middle 1970’s. Trevor Rowe, the beekeeper I worked for, still had boxes that he had bought from Brewster, and I think it was from Trevor that I first heard of Brewster having made a hexagonal bee hive.

I assumed that he had maybe added two triangular ‘extensions’ to the sides of a traditional super, but could not even guess at how he fitted frames into those triangular areas. The photo of the hexagonal Warre hive show it used several different sized frames in order to fill the space.

Some years later I read that one of his sons (most likely Grant), who did more of the actual beekeeping than Roy, found the 6-sided hives to be hard to work and seemed to have written them off as just another of his father’s follies.

A year or so ago I was going through some 33 mm slides that I had relating to NZ beekeeping and came across this photograph. Some of the slides were my own photos, but others had been given to me by Trevor Bryant, Andrew Matheson, Cliff Van Eaton, Murray Reid and Herman van Puffelen – a real hodgepodge of beekeeping. So when I finally realised that I was likely looking for the first time at a photo of one of Roy Brewster’s hexagonal hives, I had no way of really knowing from where or how I had gotten it.

The slide reveals that the overall construction was not at all as I had thought. It also shows an incredible amount of intricate woodwork. Each box of the hive consists of 15 identical frames, fitted neatly into the 6-sided box. The floorboard was part of a cable spool – Roy would not have wanted any right angles!

Some of my description is informed speculation masquerading as certainty…

Initially I thought the piece of gear being held in the photo may have been some sort of inner cover. I now realise that each of the boxes would have had that cross-hatched framework fitted into the bottom of the box and secured to the box. That lath-work would provide stability across the bottom of each box, and allow for a central ‘column’ to support the three interior frame rests.

The cross-hatched framework consists of two layers, made with 9 pieces for the inside layer, and 15 on the outside/bottom (same alignment as the top bars of the box below). This lath-work would provide a range of nailing opportunities. Overall, the lath-work would have added somewhat to the overall weight of a box, and would also reduce the size of the frames, but it allowed for important central support column.

The layout of the 15 frames, in three sets of five, is elegant from a design point of view. The frames could be moved, and even turned end-for-end – and they would still fit just the same.

The sides of the boxes are not rebated for a frame rest as is the case with a traditional Langstroth-type hive. Three of the box’s six sides will have had some sort of frame rests – metal or wood – fitted to the inside walls. Knowing Brewster’s aversion to right angles, a triangular folded metal strip may have supported one end of the frames.

There would have been three pieces of wood – the inner frame rests – meeting in the middle of the box to support the ‘inside’ lugs of the frames. These strips were fixed to three of the box’s inner corners, and met at the centre of the box. If each box had lath-work at its bottom, as proposed, a central (triangular?) column would give the necessary strength at this most critical point to support the inner frame lugs. It is not at all clear what impact all this might have had on the maintenance of any sort of beespacing. Brace comb would seem somewhat inevitable, perhaps the basis for Roy’s son referring to how difficult the hives were.

The frame end-bars may well have been of the Simplicity-style, with no ‘shoulder’ to space them apart. Even into the 1970’s Simplicity frames were common in Taranaki, sometimes using small staples to provide a degree of self-spacing. Regardless, even if Simplicity-style, the end bars would have needed some interesting saw cuts and assembly complexity!

The two hexagonal brood boxes both appear to have several sets of hand holds on opposite sides of the box. It is not apparent that the two half-depth supers have any handholds, but that might be the camera angle simply not showing them. The boxes have mitred ends where the sides meet, with pieces of galvanised iron to reinforce the corners. Look closely – the galv iron pieces were shaped to avoid any right angles. Even when it caused him extra effort he did his best to stick with his philosophy.

Photo credits

Honey tin: https://collection.pukeariki.com/objects/14093/tin
The Brewster house: https://robertleonard.org/edgar-roy-brewster-where-the-bee-sucks-there-suck-i/
6-sides Warre hive: https://www.instructables.com/Hexagonal-Beehive-Boxes-Warre-Style