This article is about hives for bees. For other uses of the term, see Beehive (disambiguation).

A beehive is, in a general sense, an enclosed structure in which some species of honey bees (genus Apis) live and raise their young. This article refers collectively to all true honey bees for the "common" domesticated honey bee see European honey bee Honey bees Natural beehives (typically referred to simply as "nests") are naturally-occurring structures occupied by honey bee colonies, while domesticated honey bees are kept in man-made beehives in a location known as an apiary; it is these man-made structures that are most typically referred to as "beehives". Domestication (from Latin domesticus) refers to the process whereby a Population of Animals Only species of the subgenus Apis live in hives, and, of these, only the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and the Eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) are kept in domestication. In Biology, a subgenus is a Taxonomic rank directly below Genus.

The internal structures of the hive comprise a densely packed matrix of hexagonal cells made of beeswax, called a honeycomb. Stripeikiai is the oldest village in Aukštaitija National Park, Ignalina district. Regular hexagon The internal Angles of a regular hexagon (one where all sides and all angles are equal are all 120 ° and the hexagon has 720 degrees For the rock song by Nirvana see Beeswax (song. Beeswax is a natural Wax produced in the bee hive of Honey bees of the genus A honeycomb is a mass of Hexagonal Wax cells built by Honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of Honey and The cells are used for storage, and for housing the brood.

Contents 1 Natural bee nests 2 Artificial beehives 2.1 Ancient beehives 2.2 Traditional beehives 2.2.1 Tile hives 2.2.2 Skeps 2.2.3 Bee gums 2.3 Modern beehives 2.3.1 Langstroth hives 2.3.2 Top-bar hives 2.4 Patents 2.4.1 Parts Of The Modern Beehive 3 Beehive symbolism 4 See also 5 External links and references 6 References

Natural bee nests

The natural nesting sites of honey bees in the subgenus Apis are caves, rock cavities and hollow trees (members of other subgenera have exposed aerial combs). The nests are composed of multiple honeycombs, parallel to each other, with a relatively uniform bee space. The nest usually has a single entrance. Western honey bees prefer nest cavities of about 45 litres in volume and avoid those smaller than 10, or larger than 100, litres. The litre or liter (see spelling differences) is a unit of Volume. ^[1] Western honey bees exhibit preferences with regard to several nest site properties: the height above ground is usually between 1 and 5 metres, entrance positions tend to face downward, south-facing entrances are favoured, and nest sites over 300 meters away from the parent colony are preferred. The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International ^[2] Nests are often occupied over the course of several years. No one tree genus is strongly preferred. A genus (plural genera from Γένος Latin genus "descent family type gender" is a low-level Taxonomic

The bark surrounding the hive entrance is often smoothed by the bees, and the cavity walls are coated with a thin layer of hardened plant resin (propolis). Propolis is a resinous mixture that bees collect from tree buds sap flows or other botanical sources Honeycombs are attached to the walls along the cavity tops and sides, but small passageways are left along the comb edges. ^[3] The basic nest architecture among all honeybees is similar: honey is stored in the upper part of the comb; beneath it are rows of pollen-storage cells, worker-brood cells, and drone-brood cells, in that order. The peanut-shaped queen cells are normally built at the lower edge of the comb. The peanut, or Groundnut ( Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the Legume family Fabaceae native to South America, Mexico The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult mated female that lives in a Honey bee colony or hive she is usually the mother of all the bees in the hive ^[1]

Artificial beehives

Beehives are created artificially to house bees for the purpose of producing honey, and to encourage the pollination of nearby crops. Honey is a sweet and Viscous fluid produced by Honey bees (and some other species and derived from the nectar of Flowers According to the Pollination in angiosperms and Gymnosperms is the process that transfers pollen grains, which contain the male Gametes (sperm to where the female These hives are now frequently transported so that the colony may pollinate crops in other areas. ^[4] A number of patents have been issued for beehive designs. A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an

Ancient beehives

Archaeologist Amihai Mazar of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said that findings in the ruins of the city of Rehov (with 2,000 residents at that time, Israelites and Canaanites) include 30 intact hives, 900 B. Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos Amihai "Ami" Mazar (born 1942 is an Israeli archaeologist. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים الجامعة العبرية في القدس abbreviated HUJI) is This article is about ruins in Architecture; for other meanings see Ruins (disambiguation. Rehob redirects here it can also mean "to fit new Hobnails to a boot" See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. C. , evidence that an advanced honey industry existed in the Holy Land at the time of the Bible or 3,000 years ago. Evidence in its broadest sense includes anything that is used to determine or demonstrate the Truth of an assertion Honey is a sweet and Viscous fluid produced by Honey bees (and some other species and derived from the nectar of Flowers According to the For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" The Holy Land ( Arabic: الأرض المقدسة al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah;Ancient Aramaic: ארעא קדישא Ar'a Qaddisha; Hebrew: ארץ_הקודש Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin The beehives, made of straw and unbaked clay were found in orderly rows, with 100 hives. Straw is an agricultural By-product, the dry stalk of a Cereal plant after the Grain or Seed has been removed Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and Ezra Marcus, expert of Haifa University, said the finding was a glimpse of ancient beekeeping seen in texts and ancient art from the Near East. An "expert" ( is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or Skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly justly The University of Haifa (אוניברסיטת חיפה is a University in Haifa, Israel. "Ancient" redirects here For other uses see Ancient_(disambiguation. Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual B Syria - Belka Woman from Damascus Arab from Baghdadjpg|thumb|Inhabitants of the Near East late nineteenth century Religious practice was evidenced by an altar decorated with fertility figurines found alongside the hives. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos An altar is any structure upon which Sacrifices or other offerings are made for religious purposes or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place Fertility is the natural capability of giving life As a measure "Fertility Rate" is the number of children born per couple person or population You may be looking for Figurine or Figurine (band Figurines is an Indie rock band from Denmark, formed in Beekeeping as a practice is known to predate these ruins, but this is the oldest actual apiary ever found. ^[5]

Traditional beehives

Traditional beehives provided an enclosure for the bee colony but little more was needed. Because there is no internal structure provided for the bees to start from, the bees fill the space in the hive with honeycomb. A honeycomb is a mass of Hexagonal Wax cells built by Honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of Honey and The comb is often cross-attached and cannot be moved without destroying it. This is sometimes called a 'fixed-frame' hive to differentiate it from the modern 'movable-frame' hives. Harvest generally destroyed the hives, though there were some adaptations with extra top baskets which could be removed when the bees filled them with honey. Honey is a sweet and Viscous fluid produced by Honey bees (and some other species and derived from the nectar of Flowers According to the These were gradually supplanted with box hives of varying dimensions, with or without frames, and finally replaced by newer modern equipment.

Honey from traditional hives was typically extracted by pressing - crushing the wax honeycomb to squeeze out the honey. Because of this harvest method, they typically provided more beeswax but far less honey than a modern hive. For the rock song by Nirvana see Beeswax (song. Beeswax is a natural Wax produced in the bee hive of Honey bees of the genus

Skeps and other fixed-frame hives are no longer in wide use (and are illegal in many countries) because the bees and the comb cannot be inspected for disease or parasites without destruction of the honeycomb and usually the colony. Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between Organisms of different Species.

There are three basic styles of traditional beehive; Tile hives, Skeps and Bee gums.

Tile hives

Clay tiles were the customary homes of the bees around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and Long cylinders of baked clay were used in ancient Egypt, the Middle East and to some extent in Greece and Italy and Malta. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Malta, officially the Republic of Malta (Repubblika ta' Malta is a European Microstate, comprising an Archipelago of three islands They sometimes were used singly, but more often stacked in rows to provide some shade, at least for those not on top. Keepers could smoke one end to drive the bees to the other end while they harvested honey.

Skeps

In northern and western Europe, baskets made of coils of grass or straw, called skeps, were used. Poaceae or Gramineae is a family in the Class Liliopsida of the flowering plants. In the simplest form, there is a single entrance at the bottom of the skep. There is no internal structure except what the bees build themselves. Aside from the fact that it is not possible to inspect the interior of skeps for diseases and pests, the removal of honey often necessitated the destruction of the entire hive. Beekeepers often either drove the bees out of the skep, or killed them, and subsequently squeezed the entire skep in a vise of sorts in order to extract its honey.

Later designs included a smaller woven basket on top with a small hole to the main skep. This acted as a crude super, allowing the harvesting of some honey with less destruction of brood and bees.

Bee gums

In Eastern, particularly southeastern USA, sections of hollow trees were used up until the 20th century. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the They were called "gums" because they often were from red gum trees.

Sections of the hollow trees were set upright in "bee yards" or apiaries. Sometimes sticks or crossed sticks were placed under a board cover to give an attachment for the honeycomb. As with skeps, harvest of honey from these destroyed the colony. Often the human bee "robber" would sulphur the bees, killing them all, before even opening their nest. Sulfur or sulphur (ˈsʌlfɚ see spelling below) is the Chemical element that has the Atomic number 16 This was done by inserting a metal container of burning sulphur into the gum.

Modern beehives

One of the very first beehive frames was invented by the founder of rational beekeeping in Ukraine, Petro Prokopovych in 1814. A frame in a beehive is the structural element that holds the Honeycomb or Brood comb within the hive body (or "super" Petro Prokopovych (1775–1850 Петро Прокопович) was the founder of commercial Beekeeping. However for easy operations in beehives the spaces between elements need to be correct. The correct distance between combs had been described in 1845 by Jan Dzierżon as 1½ inches from the center of one top bar to the center of the next one. Jan Dzierżon sometimes Germanised into Johann(es Dzierzon (Jan Dzierżon ( 16 January 1811 &ndash 26 October 1906) was a In 1848 Dzierzon introduced grooves into the hive’s side walls replacing the strips of wood for moving top bars. The grooves had been 8 x 8 mm – exact average between 1/4 and 3/8 of an inch, which is range recently called bee space. The Langstroth bee hive is the standard beehive used in many parts of the world for Bee keeping. The Langstroth hive was the first successful top-opened hive with movable frames. The Langstroth bee hive is the standard beehive used in many parts of the world for Bee keeping. Langstroth hive was however direct descendant of Dzierzon’s hive designs. Jan Dzierżon sometimes Germanised into Johann(es Dzierzon (Jan Dzierżon ( 16 January 1811 &ndash 26 October 1906) was a

There are two basic types of modern or movable hive in common use, the "Langstroth hive" (including all the size variants) which has enclosed frames to hold the comb and the top-bar or Kenya-hives which, as the name implies, have only a top-bar to support the comb. Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country A frame in a beehive is the structural element that holds the Honeycomb or Brood comb within the hive body (or "super" These hives are typified by removable frames which allow the apiarist to inspect for diseases and parasites. Movable frames also allow a beekeeper to more easily split the hive to make new colonies.

Langstroth hives

Main article: Langstroth hive

Named for their inventor, Rev. The Langstroth bee hive is the standard beehive used in many parts of the world for Bee keeping. A honeycomb is a mass of Hexagonal Wax cells built by Honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of Honey and Honey is a sweet and Viscous fluid produced by Honey bees (and some other species and derived from the nectar of Flowers According to the Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of microgametophytes ( pollen grains) which produce the male Gametes (sperm cells of Lorenzo Langstroth, these hives are not the only hives of this style, but they are the most common. Rev Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth ( 25 December, 1810 &ndash October 6, 1895) apiarian, clergyman and teacher is considered Langstroth presented his design in 1860 and it has become the standard style hive for 75% of the world's beekeeping. This class of hives includes other styles differing mainly in size and number of frames used. Types include Smith, Segeberger Beute (German), Frankenbeute (German), Normalmass (German), Langstroth hive, Modified Commercial and Modified Dadant, plus regional variations such as the British Modified National Hive. Jay Smith may be Jay Smith (footballer born September 1981 Jay Smith (footballer born December 1981 Jay Smith (musician The Langstroth bee hive is the standard beehive used in many parts of the world for Bee keeping. Charles Dadant ( 1817-05-20 - 1902-07-26) was a French-American Beekeeper.

Langstroth hives make use of the discovery of bee space, a characteristic of Western honey bees which causes them to propolize small spaces (less than 1/4 inch), gluing wooden parts together and to fill larger spaces (more than about 3/8 inch) with wax comb but to hold the intermediate space open for traffic channels for the bees. Propolis is a resinous mixture that bees collect from tree buds sap flows or other botanical sources His cleverly designed hive makes use of this bee space so that frames are neither glued together nor jammed up with burr comb - comb joining adjacent frames. The Langstroth bee hive is the standard beehive used in many parts of the world for Bee keeping.

Langstroth hives make use of standardized sizes of hive bodies (rectangular boxes without tops or bottoms placed one on top of another) and frames to ensure that parts are interchangeable and that the frames will remain relatively easy to remove, inspect, and replace without killing the bees. Langstroth hive bodies are rectangular wooden or styrofoam boxes that can be stacked to expand the usable space for the bees. Inside the boxes, frames are hung in parallel. The minimum size of the hive is dependent on outside air temperature and potential food sources in the winter months. The colder the winter, the larger the winter cluster and food stores need to be. In Beekeeping, a winter cluster is a well-defined cluster of Honey bees that forms inside a beehive when the air temperature dips below 54 to 57 °F (12 In the regions with severe winter weather, a basketball shaped cluster typically survives in a "double-deep" box. In temperate and equatorial regions, a winter cluster will survive in a single box or in a nuc (short for nucleus colony). Nucs, or Nucleus Colonies are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies

Langstroth frames are thin rectangular structures made of wood or plastic and which have a wax or plastic foundation on which the bees draw out the comb. The frames hold the beeswax honeycomb formed by the bees. For the rock song by Nirvana see Beeswax (song. Beeswax is a natural Wax produced in the bee hive of Honey bees of the genus A honeycomb is a mass of Hexagonal Wax cells built by Honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of Honey and Ten frames side-to-side will fill the hive body and leave the right amount of bee space between each frame and between the end frames and the hive body.

Langstroth frames are often reinforced with wire which makes it possible to extract honey in centrifuges which spin the honey out of the frames. The empty frames can be returned to the beehive for use next season. Since bees are estimated to use as much food to make one kilogram of beeswax as they would to make eight kilograms of honey, the ability to reuse comb can significantly increase honey production.

Top-bar hives

Main article: Top-bar hive

The top-bar or Kenya-hives were developed as a lower-cost alternative to the standard Langstroth hives and equipment. Top-bar hives are a style of beehive used for Beekeeping. They are especially useful in areas where resources are limited but are also increasingly popular among They are used by some devotees in the US, but are much more popular, due to their simplicity and low cost, in developing countries. Top-bar hives also have movable frames and make use of the concept of bee space.

The top-bar hive gets its name because the frames of the hive have only a top bar, not sides or a bottom bar. The beekeeper does not provide a foundation (or provides only a fractional foundation) for the bees to build from. The bees build the comb so it hangs down from the top bar. The hive body is often shaped as an inverted trapezoid in order to reduce the tendency of bees to attach the comb to the hive-body walls. Unlike the Langstroth design, a top-bar hive is generally expanded horizontally, not vertically. The top-bar design is a single, much longer box with all the frames hanging in parallel.

Unlike the Langstroth hive, the honey cannot be extracted by centrifuging because a top-bar frame does not have reinforced foundation or a full frame. Because the bees have to rebuild the comb after each harvest, a top-bar hive will yield more beeswax but less honey.

However, like the Langstroth hive, the bees can be induced to store the honey separately from the areas where they are raising the brood so that bees are less likely to be killed when harvesting from a top-bar hive than when harvesting from a skep or other traditional hive design.

Patents

• U.S. Patent 9,300  (also here) -- L. L. Langstroth's patent for a Bee hive from Oct. 5, 1852

Parts Of The Modern Beehive

Bottom board - this has an entrance for the bees to get into the hive.

Brood box - is the most bottom box of the hive and is were the queen bee lays her larva.

Honey Super - same as Brood box but is upper most box where honey is stored.

Frames & Foundation - wooden frame and plastic sheet with honey comb impression where bees put wax honey combs.

Inner and Outer Cover - As name implies.

Beehive symbolism

The beehive (usually as an iconified skep) is one of the symbols of the US state of Utah. An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn, "image" is a religious work of art most commonly a painting from Eastern Christianity. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. It is associated with the honey bee, an early symbol of Mormon pioneer industry and resourcefulness. This article refers collectively to all true honey bees for the "common" domesticated honey bee see European honey bee Honey bees The Mormon pioneers were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated across the United (See Deseret)

The beehive is an important symbol in Freemasonry, holding a prominent place in the lecture of the Master Mason degree, and is a symbol of industry and cooperation.

Likewise, the beehive is considered a symbol of industry in heraldry. Heraldry in its most general sense encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms.

In Wellington, New Zealand, the round building used for Parliamentary offices is known as the "Beehive". Wellington (ˈwælɪŋtən is the Capital of New Zealand, the country's second largest urban area, the New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The Beehive is the common name for the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings, located at the corner of Molesworth Street and Lambton Quay, Wellington

See also

• Apidictor
• Bee bole

External links and references

• John's Beekeeping Notebook, American Beekeeping History -- The Bee Hive
• John's Beekeeping Notebook, Top Bar Hive Beekeeping
• Beehives -- Woodworking plans. A bee bole is a cavity or alcove in a wall or a separate free-standing structure set against a wall (the Scots word 'bole' means a recess in a wall BeeSource. Com, 2004.
• top bar hive -- illustrated instructions
• hot wax dipping of beehives components - instructions and photoes

References

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