Bees
Bees are fascinating creatures, just to watch their mesmerizing dances and work. They are always busy (which must be why we have the phrase ‘busy little bee’).
Although our blog will mention the goings on of our bees, this page is more for the details, the why and hows and just for fun – showing how much honey we’ve managed to get.
There will be some detail on this page showing you the different areas of the hive, the different bees and what they all do. This is so, when you read our blogs, you know what we’re talking about when we mention Brood boxes, Supers, workers, drones etc etc.
Lin & Chris
The Hive Explained
Bee Hive
The hive is fairly easy to understand and is simply divided.
On the picture you will see 4 areas labelled, the entrance, the brood box, the super and the lid. This is the general make-up of the hive, there are of course more items inside the hive, but from the outside, this is what we see.
The entrance is simply that, the bees way in and out of the hive. This can have a small block of wood inserted to make the entrance gap much smaller – fine size for bees but difficult for other animals wanting access. keeping or removing the block in the entrance also helps with ventilation. In sunnier, warmer times, it is best to remove this block to allow a better air circulation and make sure things don’t get too warm. In chillier times you can put the block in to reduce the air’s chill coming into the hive.
The brood box is usually the largest single item of the hive, it contains multiple frames. Frames are simple structures that the bees will build their comb onto. Comb has many uses, storage, sleeping and egg laying. The bees will store nectar, pollen and honey into the comb spaces, they will occasionally get a quick nap in there too. And the queen (who is confined to the brood box) will lay eggs into these. Because the queen cannot move between the brood box and any of the upper floors, the brood box is the only section that contains eggs (hence its name).
The super is the name given to all the extra layers you place onto of the brood box. Usually slightly smaller in height, but you can have many supers on top of one hive. Each super has frames in them, like the brood box, and like the brood box these are used to build comb onto and them purely for storage of nectar, pollon and honey. The super is where bee keepers get their supply of honey from, leaving enough for the bees to use in the lowest super and the brood box.
The lid is simply that, a lid. Simply stops the bees from leaving via the top and stops any chilly drafts coming down and harming our bees and their home.
Frame in Use
The Picture of the frame above is from the brood box of our own hive.
You can see in the bottom left, the white, fresh, un-used comb. Comb is made of bees-wax and this is collected from frames along with the honey.
When a cell is filled, whether with honey, pollen or a new bee larvae, it is capped – i.e. closed off. On the frame picture you can see the capped cells amoungst the bees.
The last item on the frame picture are the unfilled cells on the top right. A you can see the darker colour because these are in the middle of used cells and may indeed have some stuff already inside, but as they are not full, they are not capped.
Bees are very clever when it comes to these cells. They will fill a single cell with only 1 product, so honey or a bee larvae (egg) or pollen. In many cases they may even put only a single type of that product in each cell, so pollen from different plants goes into seperate cells.
