Beekeeping
A portal for apiarists to share what they know about keeping bees, both in commercial and residential settings.
Bee Keeping - Structure Of A Bee Hive
A bee hive is a complex home generally used by honey bees. This article is going to take a look at both artificial and natural bee hives so you can better understand their purpose and structure.
Contents of a Bee Hive
In the natural world bees inhabit many different areas. This can include caves, rock cavities and hollow trees. Some bees will make exposed aerial combs as well, but the most common kind are bee hives inside other structures.
These nests are composed of honeycombs lade out parallel to each in a uniform pattern. In addition the nest usually well contain only one single entrance, however in times of stress this can be changed. Bee hives are created for the purpose of the hive is to produce honey, birth the young, and be the basic home base of the bees.
In the wild the nest architecture is always the same. Honey is stored in the upper part of the comb, beneath that are rows of pollen storage cells, worker brood cells, and drone brood cells. Below that are the peanut shaped queen cells.
Artificial bee hives go back to at least 900 B.C. and probably before that. There does exist physical evidence supporting the fact that bee hives were present at that time. These hives provided and enclosure for the bee colony and little else. Harvest from this type of hive generally destroyed it, although there were some adaptations with extra top baskets which could be removed when bees filled them with honey.
The modern bee hive frame still holds to its traditional roots but has been significantly upgraded. The Langstroth hive is a good example of this. His designed was presented in 1860 and today has become the standard style hive for 75% of beekeepers. His hive makes clever use of the normal tendencies of the bee so that the honey can be easily extracted and the hives easily moved.
There are six main parts to the modern bee hive. The first is the bottom board. This part forms the bottom of the hive and has an entrance for the bees to get in and out. Next is the brood box. This is the very bottom of the hive and is the part where the queen lays her larva. Above that is the honey super which is very similar to the brood box except that honey is stored here. The next important part is the frames and foundation which is a wooden frame and plastic sheet where bees put wax honey combs. The last part is the inner and outer cover, which are exactly what the name implies.
Hopefully this article has helped you to understand a bit more about how a bee hive works.
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