Beesfor Development Journal 93
PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING
BEE HIVES FOR HONEY PRODUCTION Keywords: Africa, Apis mellifera litorea, Apis mellifera scutellata, basket hive, frame hive, honey production, local-style hive, top-bar hive, Zimbabwe
Wherever honey bees occur, the honey that they store in their honeycombs has been taken from them by people who enjoy eating honey. This practice is called honey hunting and it often results in the destruction of the bee colony. Long ago people started putting out various containers (bee hives) into which the bees were enticed. Bee hives vary in size and shape; some provide better homes for the bees than others and some make it easier for people to get at the honey while other hives did not help much. Beekeepers who want to manage their bees and encourage them to store more honey than the bees need for their own use also want to open the hives and see what is going on inside. Some beekeepers want to take out a comb, examine it, and then replace it undamaged. What the beekeeper sees can tell her/him what management steps to follow next.
Figure 3. Greek basket hive with movable combs
Frame hives with movable combs
Hollow log – fixed comb hive (vertical)
The search for a hive that suited the bees as well as the beekeepers continued for many years in many countries. In the mid-1800s, the Reverend Langstroth in the USA constructed rectangular frames of thin, narrow planks and fixed pieces of comb into the frames. The top-bars of the frames projected beyond the side bars and rested on rebates in the edges of the wooden box, which made the hive. The only places where the bees attached the frames to the hive body were the narrow projections of the frames. It was thus quite easy to break the ‘bee glue’ and lift the frames with their undamaged combs from the hives and to return them to the hives after the inspection. Frames with combs full of honey could easily be harvested, or cropped.
In Europe beekeepers used to cut sections of hollow trees, place them on end, put a roof on the hive and wait for bees to take up residence. The bees built comb hanging down from the roofs and attached the combs to the sides of the hollow logs (Figure 1).
Hollow log or bark – fixed comb hives (horizontal)
In Africa, hollow logs or cylinders of bark were and are still used as hives by many beekeepers. The hives are suspended horizontally in trees for safety against honey badgers and grass fires. The bees may build the combs lengthways down the hive, or they may follow the rudimentary guidelines made by the beekeeper and build round combs across the hive – this makes it easier for the beekeeper when the full honeycombs are to be removed. Again, these hives are acceptable to the bees, but the combs cannot be removed unless they are cut or broken out, and they cannot then be returned to the hive (Figure 1).
The top or cover of the hive was placed so that there was a passage way or ‘bee space’ above the frames and the bees did not then glue the lid to the frames although they did glue it to the top of the hive body. The lid could be prised loose without too much disturbance to the bees. The frames were spaced evenly apart in the hive body so that the combs within them were separated from each other with, again, a passage way for the bees to pass in and to work on their combs. Today we use thin sheets of beeswax, called foundation, carefully fixed in the centre of each frame to guide the bees to construct their combs straight on the wax foundation so that an even space is left between each pair of combs. The bottom bars of the frames are held a bee space or more above the floors of the hives so that the bees are not so likely to stick them to the floor boards. Frame hives can be constructed so that they hold as many frames as the beekeeper wants, all on one level in a long hive body. The most common arrangement today, however, is to have an open ended hive body, holding perhaps ten frames, and to place a second or more hive bodies on top of the first when the bees need more room to live and work. Of course, a bee space is left between the top bars of the frames in the lower boxes and the bottom bars of the upper boxes. Frames can be made to any size and shape and the hive bodies must be constructed to match the frames and to leave the correct bee space where required. Incorrect construction can lead to all the frames being stuck firmly; for instance to the inside of the hive bodies, and the frames, therefore, become virtually immovable. Expensive machinery is needed if hive parts are to be made accurately. Frame hives are today used in many countries and have proved to be highly adaptable. Frame hives are probably the best to use for largescale enterprises but only when beekeepers can undergo lengthy training in theoretical and practical hive management. Small-scale beekeepers can also use frame hives.
Figure 1. Vertical and horizontal log hives with fixed combs
Skeps – fixed comb hives
In Europe, hives fashioned out of coils of grass or straw were woven into the shape of upside-down, round baskets called skeps (Figure 2). The bees attached the combs to the roof and the sides of the hives.
Greek basket hives with movable combs
or top-bars as they are now called, could each be lifted out with an undamaged comb attached, and could be replaced after examination. A grass roof was used to keep out the rain. These movable comb hives were, unfortunately, not recognised as particularly useful and were not brought into wider use although the Greeks used them for hundreds of years.
DIAGRAMS © MIKE SCHMOLKE
Mike Schmolke, PO Box BW 153, Borrowdale, Harare, Zimbabwe
Figure 2. Skep hive with fixed combs
The Greeks were perhaps the first people to use movable comb hives. The hive bodies were round, open topped baskets, which were plastered with a mixture of cow dung and mud and were covered with narrow planks under which the bees built their combs (Figure 3). The planks, 6
