The Hive
The hive as everyone knows is the home of the honeybee, but how is it constructed? and what goes on inside?
In historical times bees were traditionally kept in 'skeps'. These were basically upturned baskets that the bees could build their comb inside. Sadly the only way to get the honey out at the end of the season was to kill the bees and remove the naturally formed comb…. Understandably today skeps are usually used just for collecting swarms.
Skeps at a beekeeping demonstration
Our own skep, we only use this for catching swarms. The sacking is to
cover caught swarms
During the last century a great invention was made to separate the honeycomb from the comb used to raise brood…. The queen excluder… But more of that later. Removable frames of comb could now be placed inside protective boxes in which the bees were hived, the honeycomb could be removed separately without disturbing the brood. Many many different types of hive were designed, but most follow this principle… Langstroth, WBC, National, smith, commercial etc…. but don't worry about all that they all work on the same principle.
The most popular hive early this century was one called the WBC hive… It is the one we traditionally associate with bees and its picture adorns many a jar of honey. Its big drawback was it was double walled. The inner boxes were surrounded by a second box, traditionally painted white. The gap between could be packed with straw for Winter protection. The bees stood a good chance of surviving the winter but there is a lot of work using these types of hive particularly for commercial beekeepers.
(***Insert wbc.jpg***)
The single walled hives have now become most popular….. We use a hive called the 'National' hive. The most popular type in the U.K.
Here we
have the hive floor. It is changed and cleaned every Spring. We inspect
the debris that we collect to look for the dreaded Varroa and other parasites.
Behind the floor is the brood-box, In here 'frames' of comb are placed
for the workers to make cells for rearing brood: More bees!
Here
we see the brood box positioned on the hive floor, notice the narrow entrance
at the bottom just tall enough for bees to enter. On top of the brood
box is the 'queen excluder' the vital piece of hive equipment that mentioned
earlier. Slots in this metal sheet are only just wide enough for worker
bees to pass through. The queen bee is too large to fit through so no
eggs or brood can be laid in boxes above this…. Hence the name queen
excluder… Therefore only honey is stored above this….
An
excluder in position on one of our hives, notice the frames of comb below
The
upper smaller boxes are called 'supers', don't ask us why they are called
supers as we don't know! In September these boxes are removed. Remember
that the queen excluder has stopped any brood being reared in these upper
chambers which now should just contain stored honey.
On top of these boxes is the 'crown board'. For most of the year this
is on top of the supers. Note the small openings on which 'feeders' can
be put, (these feeders are useful for us to give the bees feeds of sugar
syrup if they look as if their stores are getting low). The main use of
the crown board however is in September when it replaces the queen excluder.
(Giving rise to its other name of clearer board). One way bee escapes
called 'porter escapes' are fitted into the slots in the clearer board
and these allow the bees down into the brood box but not back into the
supers. Thus the honey supers are emptied of bees and we can sneak off
with the honey crop.
Porter
escapes. (Some opened-up to show how they work).
At
the very top is the roof. We've made sloping roofs as it makes the hives
look more like the prettier wbc hives, but most National hives have flat
roofs…
So that is the bits that go together to make up a bee hive
A beehive and a beekeper.