Components of the Honey Bee Hive

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Honey Bee Hive

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.


Increase Essentials Book | Author: Dr Larry Connor

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Increase Essentials Book | Author: Dr Larry Connor
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Delivery/Shipping/PickUp Method: Farm Pick Up, Curbside

Product details

  • Publisher ā€ : ā€Ž Wicwas Press; Second edition (June 3, 2014)
  • Language ā€ : ā€Ž English
  • Paperback ā€ : ā€Ž 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ā€ : ā€Ž 1878075357
  • ISBN-13 ā€ : ā€Ž 978-1878075352
  • Item Weight ā€ : ā€Ž 10.4 ounces

Product detailsProduct details

The essential book on making new bee colonies and using nuclei as a means of varroa mite control and keeping spare queens available for use to replace failed queens in full-sized colonies. One of the most successful and influential books at Wicwas Press, this book is widely used in introductory beekeeping courses. Emphasis on use of local queens and local bees for successful beekeeping.

This second edition contains updated materials as well as full color photos and diagrams.

This book explains why and how beekeepers can use increase nuclei to solve problems in the beeyard and use them to winter colonies and provide a reliable source of fresh bees, locally acclimatized queens, replacement hives and colonies for operational growth or sale. Connor draws on the concepts of Langstroth, Doolittle, Brother Adam, Mike Palmer and more while integrating his unique academic and commercial beekeeping experiences into this concise and thought-provoking second edition. Adding more methods of making increase colonies and recent developments in the science of bee biology, the second edition expands on its predecessor with rich, colorful photography and diagrams. In less than a decade, the beekeeping industry has made a wide-spread shift to increase nuclei colonies as a means of producing new colonies in the face of heavy losses from poor nutrition, pesticides, virus-mite interactions and general climate change.


Product Details

  • Publisher ā€ : ā€Ž Wicwas Press; Second edition (June 3, 2014)
  • Language ā€ : ā€Ž English
  • Paperback ā€ : ā€Ž 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ā€ : ā€Ž 1878075357
  • ISBN-13 ā€ : ā€Ž 978-1878075352
  • Item Weight ā€ : ā€Ž 10.4 ounces
.

About the Author

Kalamazoo, Michigan native Lawrence John Connor completed his Ph.D. dissertation on strawberry pollination before assuming the position of extension apicultural entomologist at The Ohio State University Columbus. There, his program attracted the attention of investors interested in moving the Dadant Starline and Midnite Hybrid queen programs to Florida to establish the world s first mass production facility for instrumentally inseminated honey bee queens. He later moved to Connecticut where he established the Beekeeping Educational Service, offering educational programs for beekeepers. He purchased Wicwas Press from Dr. Roger and Mary Lou Morse. Today, he operates from his hometown of Kalamazoo. He has written and edited a number of beekeeping books and is in demand at beekeeping meetings as speaker and workshop presenter.


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