The Hive

The beehive is the place where bees take shelter, make honeycomb, care for the young, and lay eggs. Today’s modern bee hive is essentially a container where a beekeeper can conveniently have access to the bee’s finished product, which is honeycomb.

Types of Bee Hives

Langstroth Hive

The Langstroth hive is the most common and widely used beehive among domestic beekeepers. The hive is particularly convenient and very expandable which makes it the hive of choice for many. This hive was originally designed by Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth back in the mid-19th century. It is the most common and most loved hive for novice beekeepers. The hive utilizes removable frames where the bees build comb and the hive boasts stackable box units making expansion easy. Each Langstroth Hive can dial up 3 different size hive boxes, including shallow, medium, and brood/deep.

Another reason why beekeepers prefer Langstroth hives is that the hive is ideal for the promotion of honey production. The variable number of boxes provide great flexibility for expansion and adding more space for the hive occupants and living quarters. This expansion capability lends itself to high honey yields relative to other hive types.

Langstroth Hives are very easy to maintain and cost-efficient. The hives can come preassembled for convenience or the beekeeper can easily put together a hive from pre-cut wood products. Typically, the beekeeper would then paint the outside of the hive to provide weathering protection. The Langstroth hive is often the most recommended hive for first time beekeepers due in part to its ease of expansion, interchangeability of boxes, price point, and honey yields.

The downside of the Langstroth hive is boxes are heavy to lift, especially if you want to check the brood or to place it elsewhere. There are also criticisms on how the production of honeycombs is done unnaturally. This is because some beekeepers use plastic for foundation, to guide the bees but alternatively, you can use beeswax strips instead.

Other draw backs might include the hive is more cumbersome relative to performing hive inspections, and for some aesthetics of the hive.

Parts of a Langstroth Hive

  • Outer Cover
    • It acts as the roof of the hive.
  • Inner Cover
    • This is the portion in between the top hive box and outer cover. It acts as insulation and prevents glued frames.
  • Honey Super
    • This is a box mainly used for honey collection.
  • Queen Excluder
    • This is a steel or plastic screen used to prevent the queen and drones from laying eggs in the honey super. Only worker bees can pass through the size restricted screen. This tool is optional for some beekeepers who prefer to allow the bees to roam where they may.
  • Frames
    • Frames are either wooden or plastic with an interior area for the production of comb and storage. Frames hold honeycomb, pollen, nectar, and honey. The frames are attended to by worker bees.
  • Foundation
    • Foundation are sheets of beeswax or plastic that serves as a guide to encourage the bees to directly build comb in the frames.
  • Brood Chamber
    • It is often called a deep super or brood box. This is where the larger frames are placed and the area where the queen lays her eggs. It acts as a maternity ward for the nurse bees residing in it.
  • Bottom Board
    • This is the base of the hive which can be available as screened bottom for enhanced air circulation or a plain solid bottom for improved insulation.

Top Bar Hive

The top bar hive unofficially holds the title for the oldest hive design in the world. The hive may also be the most commonly used hive in many parts of the world. This type of hive belongs to the long or horizontal hive line. Top bar hives can be highly customizable similar to a Langstroth, but it’s built horizontally with featured wooded bars that are spread at the top of the long box.

The top bar hive is different from the typical Langstroth design because instead of having 4-sided wooden frames, the top bar hive only has one-piece bars. This design allows the comb of honey bees to build down from the top bars in a more natural process.

The good thing about this hive is that it requires no foundation sheets, but make sure to elevate it high enough to get it off the ground by placing a stand at the bottom.

The biggest advantage of the top bar hive design is that it requires less heavy lifting for hive management and to get to honey. You can also have customizable options such as putting an observation window in so the beekeeper can check on the hive without having to actually open the hive.

The downside of this beehive is that you need to constantly inspect it to prevent the honey bees from swarming and overcrowding the hive. Overcrowding is possible because when you have a top bar hive as your beehive, you cannot use a centrifugal honey extractor if you want to remove the honey from the natural comb.

This would mean that you will have to remove the honey by removing the comb also out from the hive. This results in honey bees creating a new comb each time you remove the comb out from the hive.

Warré Hive

The Warre type of beehive was created during the ’20s and was considered by past generations one of the best hives ever invented. Unlike the top bar hive who is designed to be horizontal, the Warré hive is in a vertical top bar hive.

In this beehive, bees will build their honeycomb down from the top bars positioned within each box. This is why instead of putting several empty boxes at the top portion of the hive, these boxes are positioned at the bottom of the stack.

They made this change in position because the hive was made to allow honey bees to form their honeycombs downwards and they also aim to let the bees experience their natural life when they are out in the wild.

The hives mentioned above are the three most popular globally known hive designs that most beekeepers are familiar with and utilize. Each hive has its’ own advantages and disadvantages, so it is up to the beekeeper to determine their preference.