Useful Beekeeping Articles: Beehives

Equipment needs vary with the size of your operation and the type of honey you plan to produce. Over the years a wide variety of man-made hives have been developed. Today most beekeepers use the Langstroth hive or modern ten-frame hive. A typical hive consists of a hive stand, a bottom board with entrance cleat or reducer, a series of boxes or hive bodies with suspended frames containing foundation or comb, and an inner and outer cover. The hive bodies that contain the brood nest may be separated from the honey supers (where the surplus honey is stored) with a queen excluder.

Hive Stand. The hive stand, actually an optional piece of equipment, supports the floor of the hive up off the ground. In principle, this support reduces dampness in the hive, extends the life of the bottom board, and helps keep the front entrance free of grass and weeds. Colonies often are supported on concrete blocks, railroad ties, pallets or logs rather than on commercial hive stands.

Bottom Board. The bottom board serves as the floor of the colony and as a take-off and landing platform for foraging bees. Since the bottom board is open in the front, the colony should be tilted forward slightly to prevent rain water from running into the hive. Bottom boards available from many bee supply dealers are reversible, providing either a 7/8- or 3/8-inch opening in front.

Hive Bodies. The standard ten-frame hive body is available in four common depths or heights. The full-depth hive body, 9 5/8 inches high, is most often used for brood rearing. These large units provide adequate space, with minimum interruption, for large solid brood areas. They are also suitable for honey supers. However, when filled with honey, they weigh over sixty pounds and are heavy to handle.

The medium-depth super, Dadant or Illinois shallow, is 6 5/8 inches high. While this is the most convenient size for honey supers, it cannot be cut from standard lumber sizes efficiently.

The standard shallow-depth super, 5 11/16 inches high, is the lightest unit to manipulate (about 35 pounds when filled with honey). This size has the greatest cost of assembly per square inch of usable comb space.

Section comb honey production is a specialized art requiring intense management. It is not recommended for beginners. Section comb honey supers, 4 5/8 inches high, hold either basswood section boxes or plastic rings and section holders.

Different management schemes are used according to depth of hive bodies found in the brood area of the hive. One scheme is to use a single full-depth hive body, which theoretically would give the queen all the room she needs for egg laying. However, additional space is needed for food storage and maximum brood nest expansion. Normally a single full-depth brood chamber is used only to crowd the bees for comb honey production or when a package, a nucleus colony or division recently has been installed or established. Most beekeepers use either two full-depth hive bodies or a full-depth and a shallow for the brood area. Using hive bodies similar in size allows the interchange of combs between the two hive bodies. Beekeepers who wish to avoid lifting the heavy full-depth hive bodies use three shallow hive bodies for the brood nest. This approach is certainly satisfactory, but it is also the most expensive since it requires thirty frames instead of twenty.

Frames and Combs. The suspended comb is the basic structural component inside the hive. Each comb is composed of a wooden or plastic frame that supports a sheet of comb foundation. After the workers have added wax to draw out the foundation, they use the cells for storage of honey and pollen and for brood rearing. Frames come in sizes to fit the various hive-body depths. Frames are 17 5/8 inches long and either 9 1/8, 6 1/4 or 5 3/8 inches high. Each frame consists of a top bar, two end bars, and a bottom bar. Top bars may be either grooved or wedged; bottom bars are split, solid, or grooved. Top bars are suspended on ledges or rabbets in the ends of the hive body. Metal strips in the shape of an acute angle or frame spacers are often nailed on the recess for reinforcement. The shoulders on the end bars may also help hold the frames apart.

The comb foundation consists of thin sheets of beeswax imprinted on each side with patterns of worker-sized cells. There are two basic types of comb foundation, distinguished by their relative thicknesses. Thin surplus foundation is used to produce section comb honey, chunk honey, or cut-comb honey. Thick or heavy foundation should be used in the brood chamber and in frames for producing extracted honey. Thicker foundations often are reinforced with vertical wires, thin sheets of plastic, metal edges, or nylon threads. You should select a foundation according to the type of bottom bar and size of frames you have. Sheets of foundation are secured within the frame with either metal support pins, horizontal wires, and the wedge of the top bar, or with two v-shaped metal wedges. Vertically wired foundation has wire hooks on one side that fit over the wedge of the top bar. Combs may be strengthened further by embedding horizontal wires (28 or 30 gauge) into the foundation with an electric current from a small transformer or by using a spur wire embedder.

Undrawn foundations should be given to only rapidly growing colonies such as a package, swarm, or colony split or to established colonies during a major nectar flow. When foundation is given to colonies during a nectar dearth, the bees will often chew holes in the foundation. Workers build combs as they add wax to the cell base imprints on the sheet of foundation.

Wax is produced by four pairs of glands on the underside of the worker's abdomen. As wax is secreted and exposed to the air, it hardens into flat wax scales. To produce comb, the bees remove the wax scales from the underside of the abdomen with spines located on the hind leg. Then they manipulate the beeswax with their jaws until it is ready to be formed into six-sided cells.

Queen Excluder. The primary function of the queen excluder is to confine the queen, brood rearing, and pollen storage to the broodnest. It is an optional piece of equipment and is used by less than 50 percent of the beekeepers. Many beekeepers refer to queen excluders as "honey excluders," since workers are reluctant to store honey in the supers above them until all available space in the brood chambers is used up.

An excluder is constructed of a thin sheet perforated metal or plastic with openings large enough for workers to pass through. Other signs consist of welded round-wire grills supported by wooden or metal frames.

Frames of honey in the super directly above the brood chambers or comb sections act as a natural barrier to keep. the queen down. Properly timing the reversal of brood chambers in the spring with supering and a surplus nectar flow will serve the same purpose as a queen excluder. For this reason queen excluders should not be left on throughout the entire foraging season.

Keeping brood combs separate from honey combs is an important consideration, since brood combs darken with use and will darken the honey. Queen excluders also are used to separate queens in a two-queen system, to raise queens in queenright colonies, and for emergency swarm prevention. An excluder also may help in finding the queen. If you place an excluder between hive bodies, after three days you will be able to tell which hive body contains the queen.

Inner Cover. The inner cover rests on top of the uppermost super and beneath the outer telescoping cover. It prevents the bees from gluing down the outer cover to the super with propolis and wax. It also provides an air space just under the outer cover for insulation. During summer, the inner cover protects the interior of the hive from the direct rays of the sun. During winter, it prevents moisture-laden air from directly contacting cold surfaces. The center hole in the inner cove may be fitted with a Porter bee escape to aid in removing bees from full supers of honey.

Outer Cover. An outer telescoping cover protects hive parts from the weather. It fits over the inner cover and the top edge of the uppermost hive body. The top is normally covered with a sheet of metal to prevent weathering and leaking. Removal of the outer cover, with the inner cover in place disturbs few bees within the hive.

Beekeepers who routinely move hives use a simple cover, often referred to as a migratory lid. Covers of this type fit flush with the sides of the hive body and may or may not extend over the ends. In addition to being lightweight and easy to remove, these covers allow colonies to be stacked tightly together. Tight stacking is important in securing a load on a truck.

Painting the Hive Parts. All parts of the hive exposed to the weather should be protected with paint. Do not paint the inside of the hive: the bees will varnish it with propolis or plant sap. The only purpose in painting is to preserve the wood. Most beekeepers use aluminum paint or a good exterior white paint. A light color is desirable since it prevents heat buildup in the hive during summer. Various combinations of colors will reduce drift between colonies.

Plastic Equipment. The basic parts of the hive traditionally have been made out of pine, cypress, and redwood. Today all hive components are available in plastic. Plastic components are durable, strong, lightweight, and require little maintenance. Unfortunately, since plastic does not breathe, it does not allow the venting of moisture. Plastic also warps easily and lets in too much light, which makes it difficult to draw foundation.

Obtaining Equipment. New bee equipment generally is "knocked down"' or unassembled when purchased. Assembly directions furnished by bee supply dealers are usually easy to follow. It is for beginners to purchase their equipment earlier so that it will be ready to use when the bees arrive. Sheets of comb foundation should not be installed in the frames until needed. Otherwise, storage temperatures and handling may cause the wax to stretch and warp, resulting in poor combs.

Some beekeepers find they can save money by making their own equipment or purchasing used equipment. With both approaches, it is important that the equipment is a standard size. When making new equipment, use readily available construction plans, or use a commercial piece as a pattern. Many beekeepers find they can economically make covers, hive bodies, and bottom boards, but not frames.

Success depends on availability and cost of materials, proper equipment, and the beekeeper's wood-working skills.

Purchasing used equipment can present problems and is not recommended for the beginner. Initially you may have problems simply in locating a source of used equipment and determining its value or worth. In addition, secondhand equipment may be contaminated with pathogens that cause various bee diseases. Always ask for an inspection certificate indicating that the apiary inspector did not find any evidence of disease.