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Starting with Bees

Sample from the book Starting with Bees by Peter Gordon.
Published by Broad Leys Publishing Ltd. 2004

Details of the hive

Although hives are essentially just boxes to provide a safe environment for the bees, they have several sections that cater for different activities. Let us start at the bottom and work our way up.

Diagram © Copyright Broad Leys Publishing Ltd. 2004.

Stand

Some hives, such as the WBC, come complete with legs. Most other hives need to be provided with a stand to keep them clear of the ground, away from rising damp and less accessible to intruders such as mice. Breeze blocks with wooden planks on top make perfectly good supports. It is also possible to buy purpose-made stands from suppliers.

Floor

This is a board on which the bottom section or brood box of the hive sits. It has an entrance through which bees enter, and an entrance block which can be used to reduce or close off the entrance. In winter it is advisable to add a mouse guard to stop mice over-wintering in the hive. Some hives also have an alighting board projecting outwards from the front of the floor.
Open mesh floors (OMFs) are also available for National hives. These have a plastic tray that slides under the galvanised wire mesh. The advantage of them is that they help to monitor and control the Varroa mite which is parasitic on bees. The mites fall through the screen but cannot climb back up again. The number on the tray is an indicator of the level of infestation. For further details of the Varroa mite see page 70. OMFs are also said to improve ventilation by allowing water vapour to escape through the floor.

Brood box

Placed on the floor is a brood box, sometimes referred to as the brood body or brood chamber. This has a series of vertically hanging frames on which the queen bee lays her eggs. Here may be found workers going about their various tasks of feeding and looking after the larvae, queen and drones. Further details of the frames are given below.

Queen excluder

Placed on top of the brood box is a queen excluder. Made of wire, slotted steel or plastic, this stops the queen from going up into the super above and laying her eggs there. Drones are also too big to go through. Only the smaller workers can pass through the apertures so that they are able to make honey and store it in the frames of the super. An excluder is not required in winter but should be in place by mid-April.

Super

On top of the queen excluder is a box called the super (from the Latin meaning above). It also has vertically hanging frames but these are shallower than those of the brood box. It is here that the worker bees make and store most of the honey. Several supers can be placed one on top of the other, allowing extra space for the honey, if necessary. In a good year, three or four supers may be needed.

Crown board

Placed on top of the supers is a crown board. This provides insulation, to stop too much warmth escaping upwards. An aperture on the board allows a feeder to be placed on top when supplementary feeding is required.
The crown board can also be fitted with one or more Porter bee escapes which allow worker bees to go out but not to come back. This is useful when the honey crop is to be taken and it is advisable to have as few bees on the supers as possible.

Roof

Finally, a roof is placed over the crown board. This is waterproof so that the hive is protected against the vagaries of the weather. There are ventilation holes at the sides, with metal gauze to prevent insects such as wasps and robber bees getting in.

Frames

There are two kinds of frame: those that are designed to fit into a brood box where eggs are laid by the queen, and those that go into a super where the honey is stored. Brood frames are deeper than honey frames to allow for the maximum amount of breeding.

Each frame hangs vertically by its lugs (supporting end bars) within its box and has a bee space of 8mm at each end. This is the critical space referred to earlier which ensures that a frame can be lifted out of the box. A smaller space would be filled with propolis gum by the bees, while a larger one would have wax comb built in it. The frames also need to have a bee space between each other. Metal end spacers which fit over the lugs have traditionally been used, but plastic spacers are now available. There are also Hoffman self-spacing frames which, as the name indicates, do not need end spacers. They are usually found as standard in the Modified Dadant, Langstroth and Modified Commercial hives, or as options for the WBC, National and Smith hives.

© Copyright 2004. Peter Gordon. Broad Leys Publishing Ltd.

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