The Basic Components of the Honey Bee Hive
The honey bee hive consists of several boxes that are named after their colony use versus simply the size.
The most common naming convention among beginning beekeepers is simply a brood box and a super. The brood box is the box where the queen lays her eggs (the “brood”) and the super box is where the remaining worker bees place the honey stores. So, you may also hear them called honey supers.
The more experience beekeepers tend to use the size and function in their names, so you may a “deep box” or “deep brood box”, which refers to the box as before where the queen lays her eggs.
Super boxes for the Langstroth hive come in 3 sizes:
- shallow ask known as
- medium also known as an Illinois Super
- or the no longer commonly use Wisconsin Super
Then we have top and bottom boards that also come in different variations:
Top boards with inner and outer covers, used mostly up north and Migratory Top boards more commonly used in Florida since we don’t have a huge temperature differential that causes condensation inside the hive.
Bottom boards can be solid or screened. The screened bottom board is known to be used in the control of the varroa destructor mite.
Then we have frames and sometimes we have foundation.
The Cutts Better Beetle Blaster - Small hive beetle trap. The disposable small hive beetle trap that is guaranteed to control this beekeeping pest. No poisons, no pesticides, a passive system to remove Small Hive Beetles. About two per hive should be sufficient.
The Better Beetle Blaster is a small hive beetle trap, which was developed by Laurence Cutts. Laurence is a lifetime beekeeper, a retired Florida state apiary inspector, and a member of the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame since 2012. Laurence developed this trap to control this pesky beetle, also known as Aethina tumida, which has become quite a nuisance to beekeepers far and wide.
The Small hive beetle, originally from the sub-Saharan regions of Africa, was first confirmed in an apiary in Florida, in 1998. Since then, this pest has spread throughout the United States, appeared in Australia, and now Aethina tumida have begun to surface in parts of Europe.
Laurence Cutts relied on his lifetime of beekeeping experience and his passion for the beekeeping industry to create an affordable and disposable small hive beetle trap, which is easy-to-use and extremely effective. The Better Beetle Blaster small hive beetle trap is completely manufactured in America, but is now being used by beekeepers world-wide to combat the small hive beetle.
Get the best small hive beetle trap on the market, the Laurence Cutts’ Better Beetle Blaster.
How to Use Beetle Blaster:
1. Add Oil. Fill each Better Beetle Blaster with a small amount of vegetable oil.
2. Instert into Hive. Put the Better Beetle Blaster in between the top bar frames.
3. Dispose of the Trap: Discard when the Better Beetle Blaster is full of dead small hive beetles.
Quantity: One (1) beetle blaster
Farm Pick Up cost: Free
Farm Pick Up by Appt: Curbside | by Appointment | Thurs-Fri 11am-7pm and Sat 9am-12:30pm (In-Store Coming Soon)
Pick Up at Gulf Coast Beekeeper Meetings | Charlotte, Collier or Lee: Free
Charlotte: 1st SATURDAY of each month
Collier: 2nd TUESDAY of each month
Lee: 3rd TUESDAY of each month
Other options:
Learn more: How to Select a Bee Smoker
