Hive Parts

This was the second subject I taught at the Mount Vernon Nazarene University, in 2024 (to see the other subjects I’ve taught click a link here: Hive Placement, Queen Cells)

To start out, this is the beehive or, to be specific, this is a Langstroth Hive. I want to be clear here, a colony is a mass of bees with a queen bee, lots of worker bees, and some drones, while the hive is a man made container used to house a colony.

To start off, lets list things you need in your house.

-Bees need a good house with a good foundation, so do we.

-Bees need a way to get out of their house, so do we.

-Bees need rooms, so do we.

-Bees need pantries, they don’t have a grocery store, if we didn’t have grocery stores we would need pantries.

-Bees need ventilation, if there wasn’t any air flow in your house you would suffocate.

-Bees need a water tight roof, if you’ve ever been camping and had water dripping on your head as you sleep you know that you would want a water tight roof too.

-And most of all, bees need someone to provide this. As a beekeeper, it is your responsibility to provide a good house for your bees, you are their landlord.

I am going to start at the bottom of the hive, the foundation, and work my way to the top, the roof.

1-Hive stand and level, this is the “foundation” of the hive,

The hive stand should be solid, if it were your house, would you want it to be built on quicksand? It should be about 16 inches tall to help keep out raccoons and skunks who will be looking to eat the bees from the bottom board. The height will also make it more comfortable to work because you don’t have to bend down too much.

-Level,

When first setting up a new hive you will want a level to make sure the hive is tipping slightly forward so that the rain doesn’t stay on the outer cover. You also want the hive level side to side because the bees draw frames out by gravity and if the side to side is off that may cause the bees to draw comb off center.

2-Bottom board and entrance reducer, this is the “doorway” of the hive,

There are two types of bottom boards

-Solid bottom board,

-Screen bottom board,

With a screen bottom board you can quickly and easily check for Varroa Mites by examining the metal tray that sides under the wire mesh but with a solid bottom board you can only use an alcohol wash to check for mites.

-Entrance reducer,

The bottom board is just a doorway, there is no door. If your house had no door you would probably guard the doorway to your house so that not just anyone could walk into your house but if your doorway was very big you might have trouble guarding it. This is the same with the bees, if the “doorway” is too big for a smaller colony to guard they will struggle so don’t hesitate to use an entrance reducer.

3-Hive supers, Nuc, 8 frame, or 10 frame, these are the “rooms”

This is a lot of math. You have three different types of supers, times two different sizes.

Nuc-A nuc is five frames, in my opinion a nuc is too small, there isn’t enough space to work but it is nice that they don’t get too heavy when they are full of honey.

-Frames that fit in deep supers are about 9 inches tall and have 7,000 cells per frame (counting both sides).

-Frames that fit in medium supers are about 6 inches tall and have 3,100 cells per frame (counting both sides).

There are also two different types of handles on boxes.

-Cleats

-Scoops

I prefer cleats because then you don’t have all the weight in the box on your fingertips.

4-Brood chamber, these are the “bedrooms” or the “nursery”

These are usually a deep due to the fact that deeps are very heavy and this gives your queen more space to lay eggs.

-Honey supers, these are the “pantries”

These can be put above a queen excluder so that the queen cannot lay eggs in the honey. You want your honey supers well drawn out so that the bees can focus on bringing in honey not drawing comb.

5-Frames and foundation,

The frame is the wooden part, The foundation is the plastic board that snaps into the frame. Frames are a key to the Langstroth hive’s success. They allow you to exchange other frames and with bee space they keep the comb on one frame from sticking to other frames and breaking when the frames are pulled apart. There are also a few different styles of frames for a Langstroth hive,

-Just the frame or wired frames, This is good because the bees can draw their own size of cells but that also creates the problem that the comb can get really funky. Sometimes the comb can fall out if you are extracting from that frame. I have experience with this.

-Wood frames with wax foundation, These are good for making comb honey but the wax foundation can break and fall out easily. Also, the wooden frame can get stuck in the hive and sometimes can break.

-Wood frames with plastic foundation, These are the most common frame type. Very easy to assemble, same as Wood frames with wax foundation, the frame can get stuck in the hive and sometimes can break.

-All plastic, Doesn’t get stuck in the hive as much. Won’t break.

6-Inner cover, this is the “ceiling” of the hive,

These keep the bees from drawing comb in the lid. Helps if the outer cover is stuck and can help when mountain candy feeding and feeding with a plastic bag. Sometimes the inner covers have a notch in the top to use as an upper entrance though if you had three boxes on your hive and the bottom two where completely full, if there wasn’t any top entrance then the bees would have to crawl through the other two boxes to get to the top box. The advantage of a top entrance is then the bees can save time by not walking so far.

7-Hive Topper/Vent Box

This handy contraption is quite versatile. In the winter it can be put right-side up and filled with wood chips this acts as insulation, and in the summer you can flip it over without the wood chips and it will ventilate your hive to help reduce overheating.

8-Outer covers, this is the roof of the hive

There are two types of outer covers,

-Telescoping top, The telescoping top is bigger than the boxes, that way you are able to shift the top frontwards or backwards. The tin on top keeps the rain off. You can use the upper entrance on the inner covers. Can be flipped over and the edges used to hold boxes during an inspection.

-Migratory top, Nice when moving hives because you can line the hives beside each other and ratchet strap them together. You don’t need an inner cover but there isn’t any tin on the top and water can tend to rot it.

Beekeeping Accessories and Tools

-Queen excluders

These are not recommended with undrawn honey supers. You may need to put brood above the queen excluder to get the bees to go above. This also will keep drones from going to and fro so if you are using a queen excluder you will want an upper entrance so that the drones in the top can get out.

-Feeders

There are many different ways to feed your bees.

-Boardman,

-Division board feeder, this looks like a frame and goes in place of a frame.

-Plastic zip lock bag,

-Wood hive top feeder with a float,

-Beemax Poly feeders,

-Mann lake feeder, I have used these before and they work very well for me.

All of these feeders you fill with a mix of sugar and water (sugar to water 1:1 in spring, in fall 2;1) and they allow the bees to drink the sugar water without drowning.

-Smokers

You need to learn how to light a smoker. Make sure it is a cool fireless smoke. Most people think that smokers calm the bees, this isn’t true. Smoke breaks the bees’ pheromones, which is their way of communicating, so they get confused and try to get away from the smoke. This is helpful when you want to move bees off of a box or frame, and if the bees are attacking you or someone else the smoke will drive the bees away.

-Hive tools

A hive tool is a very helpful tool in beekeeping. The bees like to glue the hive parts together with Propolis and you will need a hive tool to get the pieces apart. There are three types of hive tools, straight, J-hook, and mixed.

Straight hive tool – This is a small, very thin and sharp version of a pry bar. The flat, straight end of the tool is used to pry boxes apart while the bent side is used to separate frames.

J-hook hive tool – This one is very helpful for pulling out stuck frames. The “J” end of the tool can be slid under the lip of a frame which then can be easily pulled up. The other end is almost exactly the same as the flat end on a straight hive tool but it isn’t as thin and doesn’t work as well as the straight hive tool when prying apart boxes.

Mixed hive tool – This tool is a mix of the straight hive tool and the J-hook hive tool, it has both of their unique parts put together. The only problem with that is it isn’t as easily carried around in your pocket.

-Protective clothing

When it comes to protective clothing everyone has their own opinions on what is best and what should be avoided, full suit, jacket, veil, yes or no gloves, its just personal preference so I’m just going to define what each one is and their pros and cons.

Full Suits – These cover you from head to foot, all you need are shoes and gloves to be completely covered. Pros – It is near impossible to be stung in a full suit (with shoes and gloves) which is very helpful when you find that one mean hive. Cons – Since you are completely covered and in the sun you will get hot very fast. Tip: If you decide to get a full suit get on that is made out of mesh fabric, this will ventilate your suit better than a cloth suit will while still protecting you the same.

Jackets – These cover you from head to waist. If you get in a mean hive while wearing a jacket, thick jeans, lace-up boots, and gloves (gloves are optional) will be about the same level of protection as a full suit offers. Pros – Doesn’t take as long as a full suit takes to get on. You also can wear shorts with a jacket to help you not get too hot. Cons – Takes more extra equipment to be safe around mean hives, and if you use the extra equipment (jeans and lace-up boots) you will get more hot than in a full suit.

Veils – These cover your head and neck while preventing bees from climbing through the neckhole in your shirt. Pros – Very fast to get on and there isn’t any difference in temperature between that and wearing a sun hat in the sun. Cons – Can be difficult to learn how to correctly wear one and if used incorrectly bees will be able to get to your face (which isn’t fun, trust me). It also takes practice to get used to having so little protection around stinging insects.

Then concerning gloves: there are two main types of gloves, leather beekeeping gloves, and disposable rubber gloves.

Leather beekeeping gloves – These are made of leather around your hands and fabric from your wrist to halfway up your forearms, this allows you to tuck in the sleeves of a full suit or jacket (some newer versions aren’t leather and are completely fabric. Pros – While no glove completely keeps out stings these gloves keep out almost all. Cons – After a while you have to replace them because they get too sticky, and they aren’t cheap compared to disposable rubber gloves. Also, it is really hard to feel anything outside of the gloves which means you will accidentally squish some bees.

Disposable rubber gloves – If you get these you want to find some that are thick enough that they don’t pull apart when they get stuck on things like propolis. Pros – Cheaper than the leather gloves. You can also feel the bees and won’t squish them. They can also be used to keep your hands cleaner while Extracting. Cons – Stings go right through these, and if you get a thinner type of glove they will pull apart.

-Bee brush

The bee brush, while it should never completely replace a smoker, can be used alternatively to that when you are moving bees off of a box or frame. You can also use a bee brush when you are catching a Swarm on something that isn’t able to be shaken. The bees don’t like being rolled so use quick, short strokes on the bees you are trying to move.

-Recording book

You should always have a record of what is happening in your hives. A calendar is good to have on your refrigerator so that you can write down dates, like when a flow is starting or when you need to inspect next.

-Frame Uncappers

A frame uncapper looks like a big fork with a lot more thin, round, sharp tines. These are usually used for extracting but they do have one other main purpose.

To see the uncapper in extracting so to Extracting to learn more.

The other use of a frame uncapper is to check for varroa mites. To do this find some capped drone brood and uncap it. Since the mites lay their eggs on bee eggs if you have a bad mite infestation you will see baby mites (when the drone brood is capped the mites look exactly like they usually do, round, shiny, dark red pepper flakes) on the drones in the cells.

-Frame Holders

There are two main types of Frame holders:

Metal frame holder – These usually hang on the side of a Box to keep the frames close to the hive.

Wooden frame holder – These are usually home-built and since everyone has their own unique way of making things no two will be the same design but for the most part they are just boxes with legs on them to keep the frames off the ground.

-Conclusion

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a system as

“A regularly interacting yet independent group of items that form a whole.”

They also define modular as

“Constructed with standardized units for flexibility and variety in use.”

That basically sums up a Langstroth hive. You have all these different pieces that all fit together, like frames and boxes, and they form a whole. That is why the Langstroth hive is so successful, because it is modular.

This is a lot of information, don’t worry if you are feeling overwhelmed, the important thing is that you understand what the bees need. A roof over their head, solid walls, good foundation. Again, as I have already said, for the bees, you are their landlord and it is your job to provide these things for them.