What Is the Meaning of a Bee's Hive?

Apis mellifera, the domesticated honeybee

Honeybees have existed for more than 30 million years. They are a social insect, with colonies numbering in the tens of thousands of individuals. In the wild, honeybees make their hives, or nests, in small to medium-sized cavities such as hollow trees. Humans domesticated honeybees approximately x thousand years ago, and bees and beehives have long been used in art to represent hard work and co-operation.

Bee Basics

Commercial beehives set near a field

Each colony has one queen bee, who lays eggs for the colony's reproduction. The majority of the bees are worker bees, sterile females who tend larvae, feed the queen and drones, guard the hive and gather pollen and nectar. Drones are male bees. There are usually only a handful of drones in a hive, and their sole purpose is to wait for a new queen to hatch so they can mate with her.

Why Do Bees Make Hives?

Bees in a commercial hive, the cover removed to see inside

Insects that live alone need only a tiny nest. Bee colonies, though, must house tens of thousands or a hundred thousand individuals. Not only that, but the colony needs a place for the queen to lay her eggs, room for the eggs to develop into larva and then bees, and a place to store pollen and honey. To create a structure that can do all this, honeybees build comb, a collection of hexagonal chambers which can hold larva, pollen, and honey.

Early Handmade Hives

Humans began keeping bees to collect honey and beeswax and to help pollinate their crops. The first handmade hives were approximations of what the bees found in nature---hollow logs, empty pots, and mud or dung domes. Many cultures then adopted the skep, a woven grass structure that is what most people think of as a proper beehive. Unfortunately, skeps had to be destroyed to harvest the honey and wax.

Commercial Hives

Thanks to Reverend Lorenzo Langstrom, we can now house honeybees and enjoy their products without damaging the hive. Reverend Langstrom determined that bees will build comb in any space greater than three-eighths of an inch. If the space is smaller than one-quarter inch, the bees will fill it in with propolis, a glue the bees make from local tree sap. So, Rev. Langstrom built a box with frames of the right measurement for bees to build comb on, which could then be removed for inspection or harvest without harming the colony. The Langstrom hive and others developed from his work don't have the old-fashioned look of the skeps. They are just plain boxes, but they work much better.

Construction and Destruction

In the United States, all state laws require beekeepers to use a beehive with movable frames, so that the hive can be inspected. Today, a beekeeper can build their own beehive or purchase one made out of wood or wood and plastic. Thanks to the design, a beehive can be used for years with little maintenance. However, if the hive is infected with a contagious infection, the entire hive may have to be destroyed. Most beekeepers recommend that someone just starting out purchase all new equipment, to eliminate the risk of disease being transferred from one hive to another.

References

• Outdoor Place: History: Beehives
• Flottum, Kim. The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden. Quarry Books. Beverly MA, 2005.
• Blackiston, Howland. Beekeeping for Dummies. For Dummies, 2009.

Resources

• USDA: Bee Research Products and Services