Bee hives for honey production

Mike Schmolke, PO Box BW 153, Borrowdale, Harare, Zimbabwe

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.

Hollow log – fixed comb hive (vertical)

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).

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.

Figure 2. Skep hive with fixed combs

Greek basket hives with movable 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, 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.

Figure 3. Greek basket hive with movable combs

DIAGRAMS © MIKE SCHMOLKE

Frame hives with movable combs

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.

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.

Top-bar hives with movable combs

This hive is gaining in popularity in a number of different countries but it is not expected that it will replace the versatile frame hive, particularly when the hives have to be moved either for the bees to collect nectar for honey production from a different source, or for the bees to pollinate the flowers of different crops. The top-bar hive can be seen as an extension of the Greek basket top-bar hive but it is much easier for the beekeeper to use than the basket hive and it is just as acceptable to the bees. The combs are built by the bees to fit the shape of the hive body and they are seldom firmly attached to the sloping sides of the hive, even when heavy with honey. The bees will use a number of adjacent combs for brood rearing. These combs will have a small crown of honey above the brood with some cells containing stored pollen between the brood and the honey crown. With a little bit of manipulation of top-bars with combs attached, it is quite easy to induce the bees to fill some combs completely with honey only – this makes cropping the honey easy – and to have the bees use other combs mostly for brood rearing. The dimensions of the top-bar hive can be varied to suit circumstances; for example, they can be made longer to accommodate more top-bars and combs where big crops of honey are expected. Experience of beekeeping in a particular area will indicate if hives are of a suitable size for the local bees and conditions. None of the dimensions of the hive body are critical although a reasonable slope to the sides will minimise comb attachment. The top-bars need only to be thick enough so that they do not bend with the weight of honey on them. They must however be the correct width to meet the requirements of the bees that are to occupy the hives.

Width of top-bars

The honey bee Apis mellifera scutellata that is commonly found in Zimbabwe builds combs in natural nests with the centres of the combs 32 mm apart. This leaves enough space between the combs, when they have been fully built out, for the bees to move between the combs. We use top-bars 32-33 mm wide to satisfy the bees and have them build one comb only on each top-bar. A different race of honey bees Apis mellifera litorea is found along the eastern coastal areas of Africa and these bees are smaller than Apis mellifera scutellata bees. The distance between the centres of their adjacent combs are thus less than the distance between the centres of combs built by Apis mellifera scutellata. Apis mellifera litorea bees therefore need narrower top-bars, 30-31 mm wide, if they are to build combs straight on each top-bar. (Bees tend to build straight combs when left to their own devices but they do not invariably do so – beekeepers must be prepared to correct any deviations from the straight and narrow!)

Guidelines on top-bars

Using beeswax down the centre of each top-bar to ‘encourage’ the bees to build a straight comb on each top-bar is an important step as straight combs are easy to lift out of the hive while it is not possible to lift out crooked combs that are built across the bars or built from one bar to the next.

Which hive to use

When people decide that they want to keep bees, they must decide what hive to use. The decisions they make will be influenced by what they see established beekeepers in their areas using. They might know about the many hollow log hives used by beekeepers in their areas. Many tons of honeycombs are cropped annually in Zimbabwe from such hives and potential beekeepers may be impressed by the amount of honey brought in. They may not know that it could be easier and more productive for them to use other types of hives. Alternatively, potential beekeepers may be persuaded by agents from aid agencies who, for various reasons, introduce frame hives without delivering the necessary but costly and lengthy training that should follow the delivery of frame hives.

Removing comb from a log hive

ALL PHOTOS © MIKE SCHMOLKE

Plastering a basket hive with cowdung and mud mix

Inspecting brood frame

Advantages and disadvantages of different hive types

Hive type: Hollow log – fixed comb hives (vertical)

Advantages:

• Cheap to acquire in forest area

• Can give fair to good amounts of broken honeycombs

Disadvantages:

• Difficult to control the bees while cropping

• Combs difficult to remove and honey and brood are on same combs

• Hives cannot easily be moved to different areas

• Beekeeper cannot provide more space for bees

Hive type: Hollow log or bark – fixed comb hives (horizontal)

Advantages:

• Well known to beekeepers in Africa

• Many hives can be set up for little or no monetary cost

• Much honey can be collected

• Not much technical knowledge is required

• Can be placed up in trees away from fires and honey badgers

Disadvantages:

•Trees which are sources of pollen and nectar for the bees may be cut down, or ring barked (the trees die)

• Difficult to control the bees and it is sometimes dangerous to climb up the trees to reach them

• Care is needed to produce good quality, clean honeycombs and it is impossible to inspect combs for diseases

• Women are excluded from becoming beekeepers although they may handle the honey crop.

Hive type: Miscellaneous fixed comb hives

In many cases impoverished rural people do not have cash resources to purchase even cheap hives or the materials to construct them. They have no option but to use log or bark hives. It must be realised that the total amount of honey produced in log and bark hives in Africa is considerable. Producers can be taught to grade honeycombs properly so that they realise the best prices for their produce. While honeycombs (complete with the wax used by the bees to construct the combs) can be sold to a central processing unit where the honey is separated from the wax. A lot more beeswax could be recovered fairly easily if beekeepers themselves can be taught to process old or empty combs. Traditional beekeepers are proud of their skills, handed down to them by their forefathers, and they should not be condemned for following familiar methods of beekeeping. They will gain much if taught to grade honeycombs properly and so obtain better prices.

Hive type: Greek basket hives with movable combs

Advantages:

• Basket making is a common practice in many rural areas and the hives can easily be acquired cheaply

• Baskets can be made using split bamboo or reeds, or thin, flexible plant stems

• Combs can be inspected and many good management practices are possible

• Disease and pest control measures can be implemented, and old brood combs can be replaced

• Top-bars of the correct width are the only parts of the hives which need to be cut accurately

• The bees readily build new combs to replace those removed by the beekeeper who can recover the beeswax from the honeycombs and from old combs

Disadvantages:

• Top-bars vary in length and the combs built on them will also vary in size; therefore they cannot be swapped around easily

• Some larger combs will contain honey in the top half and brood in the bottom half making cropping the honey difficult

• Larger honeycombs will be heavy and difficult to handle without breakages occurring

• Basket hives can be suspended in trees but this can be difficult

• Baskets cannot be extended in size to accommodate all the bees of strong colonies

Hive type: Frame hives with movable combs

Advantages:

• These hives are used universally because they can be managed to produce the maximum crop of honey. (A good knowledge of hive management practices is necessary, which takes a long time to acquire.)

• Knowledge of the local conditions and the changes which occur with the seasons, which affect the development and decline of colonies is necessary

• Honey can be extracted from the combs which can be returned to the bees for reuse

• Hives can be increased in size to accommodate large colonies of bees for maximum production

• Hives are compact enough to allow easy transport to different areas

• Many publications covering the use and management of these hives are available

• Advantages are many, but listing all of them would entail describing various management practices and this is not the place to consider all of them

Disadvantages:

• Hives are costly to acquire because expensive good quality timber is used in their construction

• Hive parts must all be accurately machined to ‘respect’ the ‘bee space’.

• Foundation wax sheets for fixing in the frames are costly and not always available

• Special wire for the frames, and queen excluders, also need to be sourced

• Honey extractors (centrifuges) are necessary but costly and difficult to obtain

• Not feasible for village carpenters to make all frame hive parts properly and to exact specifications

• After a basic hive (floor, brood box, queen excluder, honey box, inner cover and roof) has been acquired, a beekeeper will still have to purchase extra supers

• Beekeepers can take years to learn how to use frame hives properly. Badly managed frame hives can be considerably less productive than a well managed Greek basket hive or top-bar hive

Hive type: Top-bar hives with movable combs

Advantages:

• These hives can easily be constructed even by village carpenters without woodworking machines

• Only one measurement of importance ie the width of the top-bars

• Comb size is uniform and manipulations involving the movement of combs from one place in the hive to another are easy

• Combs and top-bars can be moved from one place to another in the hive so that only some combs are used for brood rearing, while other combs are used solely for honey storage

• Examinations to check the health and wellbeing of the bees are quick and easy

Disadvantages:

• If NONE is entered here no-one will believe it, and that would expose the writer's liking for these hives! So some disadvantages have to be written:

• Top-bar hives cannot be increased in size by adding extra hive bodies to accommodate extra large colonies

• Cannot easily be transported safely when fully occupied because the combs hang freely and are not supported by wire or frames

Combs with honey above and brood below

Apiary with top-bar hives

Mike Schmolke started beekeeping in 1965 with Langstroth frame hives, which were the only ones he knew about. Later he had a few Greek basket top-bar hives and in 1975 started keeping bees with top-bar hives. Mike was Government Apiculturist for nearly 20 years up to 1991 and has taught many beekeepers. He has organised beekeeping conferences, field days and meetings and has visited beekeepers in Botswana, Canada, Germany, Romania, South Africa and the UK. He has been involved with beekeeping development projects for rural beekeepers in Zimbabwe with assistance from USAID, NZAID and worked as a consultant on projects in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique. Mike hires out 600 hives for crop pollination, harvests honey from 300 hives, purchases honeycombs from rural beekeepers who mostly use log or bark hives (up to 50 tonnes per annum ). He has taught village carpenters to construct top-bar hives, tinsmiths to make bellows smokers and rural women to sew simple bee veils.

Mike Schmolke

This article continues the Modern Hives or Modern Ideas? debate from BfD Journals 90 and 91 – These, and an extended edition of this article are available on the Information Portal of the Bf D website. Mike Schmolke’s article first published in the Southern African Regional Honey Council Newsletter, September 2009