Hives consisting of a large number of buildings are unstable. The meaning of the word hive About the insulation of hives

Government building in Wellington, capital of New Zealand

The famous Parisian phalanstery of the early 20th century, created in 1902 by philanthropist and amateur sculptor Alfred Boucher

The house is very small, instead of a door and a window, only a gap at the bottom is visible

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Dal Vladimir

hive

m. (genus of beehive and beehive) beehive, housing, nest of a swarm of bees, made by man; this is b. including a dugout block, with a tire, with a manhole or tap hole, placed on a table or mat; it has many names: hollow, riser, stand, log, stump, chock, sieve hive, smolyak (coniferous); punch hive, end-to-end, Ukrainian; lying down, lying, inclined; bunch, lozobka, mortar, twist, often embroidered or hoop, tub; They are also making: tiered, detachable, retractable, complex and reversible hives, etc. Father’s hive, the old one, sent out swarms. A fallen hive, extinct, dead. Lay down the hive, straighten the crosses, insert snaffles to support the honeycombs. Wax the hive, insert several old waxes into its head. Draw a hive, transplant a worm (worm, baby) from a rich hive into a poor one, for offspring. Beekeeping can be: board and body, apiary or hive. Bort or del is hollowed out in a living tree; the body is suspended from a tree in the forest; The hive is placed with a stump on the beehouse. Ulnik, ulichnik, ulnik old. apiary, beekeeper; a small number of hives placed together behind the threshing floor, at the back.

Examples of the use of the word hive in literature.

IN hive The Great White Brotherhood formed Hermes Trismegistus, whose influence on the Italian Renaissance was irrefutable, as well as on the Gnosticism of Princeton, Homer, the Gallic Druids, Solomon, Solon, Pythagoras, Plotinus, Joseph of Arimathea, Alcuin, King Dagobert, St. Thomas, Bacon, Shakespeare, Spinoza , Jacob Boehme, Debussy, Einstein.

We returned to a wide yard, more like a meadow, it is so huge, in the depths there are heavy log barns, in one of them there is even a stove for heating, they hide in this barn for the winter hives, and in all the barns there were piles of apples.

They stimulate his natural ability to make instant decisions and solve logical equations without regard to distractions such as attitudes Hive and complex moral considerations.

As if disturbed hive, the students of the men's gymnasium buzzed madly all night.

This is how things stood, for example, at the Bussy Gate, where we must now move in order not to lose sight of some of the characters we have already introduced at the beginning of this story, and in order to get to know new ones: at this end of the city there was a noise as if hive at sunset, a certain house, painted pink and, in addition, painted white and blue.

This noise disturbed the bees: they flew out in large numbers and furiously attacked Jacques the anemone, who, not heeding my warnings, placed himself near the hole that served as an exit from hive.

Deeper in the valley, clinging to the pointed-round hill was a small, aspen-like hive, the village of Vinci, with a fortress tower as sharp and black as two cypress trees on the Ankian road.

Suddenly, around the bend, below, in a deep, cozy valley, like a cradle, the small dark village of Vinci opened up - an aspen hive, with a fortress tower as sharp as black cypresses.

But you, Mr. Vitkevich, can live through the Methuselah centuries if you don’t poke your nose into this Afghan hive, where there are a lot of stinging bees, but very little sweet honey.

And we have everything hives They are clean, and we don’t have foulbrood, like in other beehouses here in the area, in our plant either.

His Huns are everywhere and always surround him in a dense crowd, like bees. hive.

Valery Uliev, Sasha Dergunov and Timur Grigorashvili are already sitting pale, with blue lips, the guys are short of breath, and I am breathing freely, deeply.

From the fort on Aldan he reached the mouth of the small tributary Mai, walked along it to the foot of the Dzhugjur ridge and, having crossed, descended to Houllier.

Where the platform ended, the deserted little world of the station, the paths, forests of fences, glowed warm hive houses - it was a suburb of Yelsk, which is also a city, squat and wide, like the local area itself.

The day was barely busy, but the Mouse was able to discern a garden trampled by horseshoes with magic herbs, an overturned straw hive and a huge stain of soot on the flat surface of the granite block that protected the wizard’s fragile home.

Multi-body hives (two buildings and an extension in each)

Hive- an artificial dwelling made by man for keeping honey bees. Depending on the system, one or more bee colonies can live in one hive. The methods of keeping bees in hives of different systems also differ somewhat.

Non-dismountable hives

Under natural conditions, bees live in tree hollows, less often in rock crevices and other suitable natural spaces.

Since ancient times, in the forests of Russia, honey and wax have been extracted from hollows. People have long learned to make artificial hollows for colonization by bees - borti. The remains of airborne beekeeping could be found at the end of the 19th century in the forests of Bashkiria. Often, hollows along with bee families were cut out of wood and moved to some other place. When these boards in the form of logs began to be collected in one place for ease of protection and maintenance, a transition occurred from side beekeeping to apiary beekeeping.

In the southern treeless regions, bees were kept in sapetkas - hives made of twigs or straw coated with clay. In the steppe regions, boxes were also made from boards for bees or thin-walled nests were hollowed out in which bees were kept.

The board, the log, the nest, and the nest were non-demountable hives. The bees built them with honeycombs, and a person could get inside the nest (for example, to collect honey) only by destroying the bees’ home.

Collapsible hives

Linear hives

The transitional system from a non-demountable hive to a collapsible one was a line hive, in which a row of wooden rulers were laid in parallel under a removable lid so that under each ruler the bees built a separate comb. By cutting the sides of the honeycomb and thus separating it from the side walls, it was possible to carefully remove the individual honeycomb without destroying it. However, line hives were not widely used and were only a transitional step to modern frame (collapsible) hives, which opened up the opportunity to control the life activity of bees.

Frame hives

Invention of the frame hive

Frame with bees. Sealed honeycombs are visible: in the upper part with honey, in the central part - with brood

The frame hive was invented in 1814 by the Ukrainian beekeeper P. I. Prokopovich. Jan Gerzhon (created his collapsible hive in 1838) and August von Berlepsch () also claim the championship. However, a frame design close to the modern one was patented in the USA by L. Langstroth in 1851; the frames in the Langstroth hive were removed from above; it was this design that became the most widespread in the world.

Also in 1931, a patent was filed for: “Device for pressing parts of frame hives from straw” by V.A. Zatolokin. This invention was created for pressing parts of frame hives from straw. They consist of two boxes, between which pressing frames move. The box consists of two parts, connected bottoms and fastened with clamps and spacer frames.

Frame hive details

A frame hive is formed from its component parts. In some specific cases, the hive can be assembled from them in different ways. The hive kit usually includes:

Removable bottom (in a number of designs the bottom is part of the 1st body).
Housings (depending on the type of hive from one to several).
Store extensions (there can be one or several, often regardless of the type of hive); each extension has one complete set of frames (depending on the design 10-24).
Roof (if bees are kept in a pavilion, there may be no roof, because the hives are located under the roof of the building/trailer).
Frames in which bees build honeycombs; As a rule, two sets of frames are held for each body, and one for the extension.
Frame dividers (for example, pegs or other system for fixing a certain width of the inter-frame space).
A canvas or ceiling made of a thin board (it is laid on top of the frames of the uppermost body).
Feeder (most often it is a frame feeder).
Arrival board; most often it is not removable and is located under each entrance.
Diaphragm (to separate families sharing one building; or the inhabited part of the building from the empty one).
One or more separating grids (they prevent the queen from entering the housing or honey super and sowing eggs there)
A pillow or several (filled with dried moss, cotton wool or other material).

Types of frame hives

Vertical hives (risers) are all frame hives, the volume of which is increased upward by placing new buildings or magazines (“semi-frame extensions”) on the nest. Thus, the frames in a vertical hive, as its volume increases, are arranged in several tiers.

Horizontal hives (beds) are hives whose volume is increased by adding frames to the side of the nest. The frames in the beds are arranged in one tier and the bed hives themselves look like elongated boxes. In fact, the beds have only one design, which can be slightly modified by individual beekeepers.

In Russia, both multi-body hives-risers and beds are equally widespread.

The multi-body system is considered more convenient when working with a large number of bee colonies, because it allows you to work not with frames, but with bodies. Often, one beekeeper with bee keeping houses has 200 or more bee colonies.

Bed hives

Horizontal hives are called sunbeds. They look like long boxes or ancient chests. Usually they contain 16-20, and sometimes 24 frames measuring 435x300 mm. The bees' nest expands here horizontally. A 16-frame beehive is made for one family, and 20- and 24-frame ones are made for two. The volume of such a hive allows you to raise families that are stronger than in a 12-frame hive. Typically, two lower and two upper tapholes are located in front, but they can also be located on opposite sides - in the front and rear walls. There are one or two shops. The ceiling is made collapsible. The roof is flat and is flush with the walls of the building, while being held in place by external folds. Since working with a bed is very simple, novice beekeepers usually start working with it.

Multi-body hives

In a multi-body hive, the bodies are placed vertically, one on top of the other. As the bee colony develops, housings and magazine extensions are added. As a rule, there are two-, three- and multi-body hives. In this case, the number of buildings is determined by the beekeeping method and the calculations of the beekeeper, and not by design.

A hive is the home of bees, in which bees build a nest from wax ready. In the cells of the honeycombs, bees reproduce (raise brood), store food reserves - honey and beebread, and they are placed in the spaces between the honeycombs (streets). The hive protects the nest and bees from the adverse effects of the external environment, and ensures the preservation of the heat generated by the bees.

In ancient times, the homes of wild bees were rock crevices, caves and tree hollows. Later, in the care of bees, non-collapsible, and then collapsible and frame hives began to be used.

General information about frame hives

All common frame hives can be divided into two groups: vertical - risers and horizontal - beds.

Vertical hives. The volume of vertical hives, if necessary, is increased upward by installing additional buildings or extensions. The height of such hives is greater than their length and width. Vertical hives best meet the biological requirements of bees and industrial bee care technology. When working with multi-body hives, the beekeeper operates not with individual frames, but with entire bodies and extensions, which significantly increases the productivity of beekeepers.

Disadvantages of hives:

it is inconvenient to use them for keeping helper queens and spare queens;

hives consisting of a large number of buildings are unstable;

Working with bees in two- and multi-hull hives, the beekeeper is forced to lift and carry heavy bodies.

Horizontal hives. These include hives, the volume of which increases not upward, but to the side. Horizontal hives are wider than they are tall. The beds make it easier to keep helper queens and broods close to the main family, it is more convenient to select honey and collect the nests of bee families for the winter. The expansion of nests in such hives is carried out more evenly, the thermal regime is better preserved, since the nest can be insulated from above and from the sides. The main disadvantage of sun loungers is their bulkiness, which makes it difficult for bees to migrate.

Requirements for the hive. As a home for bees, the hive must reliably protect their nest from precipitation and sudden changes in external temperature, but at the same time it must be well ventilated. It is necessary that the design of the hive allows the volume of the nest not to change depending on the time of year.

Hive structure:

1 - roof; 2 - roof; 3 - ventilation slot; 4 - liner; 5 - extension; 6 - nest body; 7 lindens with a landing block; 8 - upper and lower tapholes; 9-year gate valves; 10 - corners; 11 - support bars; 13- grips

Based on the biological characteristics of bees, hives of all types must have the following mandatory dimensions:

the distance between the mediastinum of two nesting combs is 37.5 mm;

the size of the streets (passages for bees) between neighboring honeycombs is 12.5 mm;

the distance between the side bars of the frames and the hive is 7.5 mm;

over-frame space - 8 mm.

Most convenient when working with bees - hives, the parts of which are interchangeable, as well as hives adapted for migrations with bees for honey collection and pollination of agricultural crops. The hive must be durable, lightweight, simple in design and economical to manufacture.

Hives are mass-produced from coniferous and deciduous wood. Expanded polystyrene is used experimentally for these purposes. In practice, beekeepers use reeds, pressed shavings, wood concrete and some other local materials to make hives.

Hive parts. Depending on the design, the frame consists of separate parts, each of which has its own meaning and device.

The body is the main part of the hive where the bees' nest is located. Hives with two or more bodies are common. The body has the form of a box without a bottom and a roof, in the upper edge of the front and back walls of which there is a fold for hanging nesting frames. In addition to frames, the body of many hive designs includes diaphragms and a hive partition. On the front wall of the body in its upper part there is a hole for the entry and exit of bees. It can be round or slit-shaped.

Store extension. In height, it is usually half the height of the buildings. The magazine extension accommodates half-frames. It is used to increase the volume of the nest mainly during honey collection. Depending on the amount of honey flow, one or more extensions are placed on the hive.

The roof is placed over the body or store extension and protects the bees' nest from rain, heat and cold, enemies and pests. The roofs of most typical hives are flat in design.

The roof liner is designed to accommodate the feeder and create free space above the frame.

The bottom limits the hive body from below and can be detachable or blind. The bottom consists of a shield made of boards and a frame made of beams. The front bar has a slot - a lower taphole 20 mm high, which is adjusted with special inserts. At the lower entrance, a flight board for bees is attached to the front bar of the bottom trim.

Hive frames. There are nesting frames and magazine extensions. In them, bees build the honeycombs that make up the hive's nest. Each frame consists of an upper and lower beam and two side strips. The top bar has two 10 mm protrusions (hangers) for hanging the frame in the hive. In all standard hives, the top bar and side slats of the frame are the same in width - 25 mm (in the upper part at 1/3 of the height they are expanded to 37 mm); the thickness of the top bar is 20-22 mm, the side bars are 8-10 mm. The length of the bottom bar is equal to the frame clearance, and the cross-section is 15x15 mm.

Hive frames (dimensions, mm):

A - hive: B - for drone combs; B - for reinforced foundation; G - sectional

Nail the side strips to the top and bottom bars with 35 mm nails. Data on the external dimensions and useful area of the honeycombs of the hive frames are given in the table.

Dimensions and useful area of honeycombs of hive frames

Frame for drone honeycomb RT-1. Designed to combat varroatosis. Frame dimensions: 435xx20x70 mm. It is attached with staples to the hive half-frame and is used in the nest and during the beekeeping season. In a rebuilt drone comb and a brood filled with bees, the female Varroa mite is more likely to lay eggs. As the bees seal the drone brood, it is cut out and destroyed.

Hive frame for reinforced foundation. Honeycombs built on reinforced foundation (several rows of wire are soldered transversely into the foundation) are much stronger than usual. Of interest is the frame designed at the Beekeeping Institute. A quarter is selected in the upper block of the frame along its entire length; the ends of the wire inserted into it, protruding from the foundation, are pressed with a detachable block measuring 4x8x288 mm.

The opposite ends of the foundation wire are secured into the tongue of the lower block with a key equal in length to the upper block (its cross section is 4X8 mm). The block and dowel are secured in the frame with nails.

Sectional frames are designed for obtaining comb honey in small quantities (sections). Frames are made from wood chips 450 mm long, 2 mm thick and 35-40 mm wide. Currently, the industry produces sectional frames made of plastic, frame dimensions 110X100 mm. A cut is made on one side of the frame to strengthen the foundation. Four such sections can be inserted into a magazine frame, each of which, after the bees have built the honeycomb, can hold 400 g of honey during honey collection. The sides of the frame have cutouts for the passage of bees.

Frame dividers are a necessary part of hive frames. Without them, bees cannot be transported in hives, since the frames swaying when the vehicle moves crush the bees, and the combs may break. The most commonly used are wooden

blocks measuring 12X15X X 100 mm. When preparing the nest for transportation, they are inserted from above between the side bars of the frames. By stuffing the blocks onto the bar at intervals equal to the width of the frames, you can insert all the blocks between the frames at the same time and thereby speed up the packing of the bees' nest for transportation.

Hive frames with permanent dividers are more convenient. They represent an extension of the side frame bar to 37 mm in the upper part. The frames suspended on the folds of the hive are tightly adjacent to each other, which ensures their stability during transportation.

Hive parts:

A - insert board; B - hive partition

An insert board, or diaphragm, is used to limit the nest of a bee colony when the bees do not occupy the entire nesting body of the hive. Using a diaphragm in such cases allows the bees to maintain the necessary thermal conditions of the nest. The board should fit freely into the hive body and have a passage at the bottom for bees. The panels of the insert boards are made from individual boards 15 mm thick, on the sides of which two strips 20 mm wide and 15 mm thick are nailed. It is better to connect the panels of the shield with the slats into tongue and groove. A support bar 470 mm long is attached on top of the shield, on which the diaphragm is suspended on the folds of the hive.

Hive partition. It is used when keeping layering or helper queens in the same hive with the main family, when it is necessary to fence off part of the nesting body. Unlike insert boards, partitions are made solid so that bees cannot pass from one compartment to another. To do this, rubber bands or strips of rubber are stuffed onto the sides of the insert boards. Thanks to the elasticity of the rubber, the partition fits tightly to the walls and bottom of the hive, and can be rearranged if necessary.

Ventilation of hives. Bees and larvae breathe intensely, releasing carbon dioxide and water vapor. Especially a lot of moisture accumulates in hives when bees evaporate water from nectar during honey collection. Ventilation in the hive is carried out passively and actively. In the first case, air exchange and removal of excess moisture occur through the hive walls, cracks and ceiling. In the second, the air is forced through the upper and lower entrances by the bees themselves.

In order to enhance ventilation, and therefore free the bees from excessive stress, ventilation holes are installed in the sap walls of the roof liner, with folding slats. From the inside, they are covered with a metal mesh.

belt (top) and belt (bottom)

Hive scrapie. Special devices for fastening the bottom, body, extension, roof of the hive when transporting bees on migration. It is very important that they securely fasten all the separating parts of the hive and are easy to use. To fasten two adjacent parts of the hive, you can use wooden planks, metal loops and plates with screws screwed into the walls of the hive.

In nomadic apiaries, metal tension clamps of various designs and clamps with a screw device are successfully used.

The most widely used in apiaries are tape and belt clamps.

Tape fastener (SL). Main parts: hinge, axle, lever, steel band and lock. Tape length 3.5 m, weight 0.49 kg.

Operating instructions. Before use, clamps must be cleaned of preservative grease;

The procedure for working with clamps is as follows: untie the spool of tape, cover parts of the hive with its free end, pass it through the loop, pre-tension it, tuck the head under the tape, then turn the lever 180" to pull the tape, fastening the parts of the hive;

during long breaks in work, the fly is wound into a reel and bandaged, parts and surfaces that do not have protective coatings are preserved,

Safe working practices. The forces on the handles (levers) when clamping should not exceed 8 kg after clamping, the handles (levers) of the clamps must be fixed.

Belt fasteners SRL15, SR.215K, SR.216, SR.217 are designed for fastening hive bodies during loading and unloading operations and transportation.

They are a device consisting of a belt connected to a device for tensioning and fixing it in this state. The technical characteristics of the clamps are given in table.

Technical characteristics of staples

Operating instructions. Before starting to fasten the hives, check by external inspection the reliability of the connection of the belt with the clamping bracket and hook;

when working with clamps, the belt is pulled under the bottom of the hive between the bottom bars;

the metal part of the clamp with the fixed end of the belt is placed on the roof of the hive approximately in the middle;

the second free end of the belt is threaded into the loop of the fastener from top to bottom (for fasteners SR.216 and SR.217) or the belt is put on a hook (for fasteners SR.215 and SR.215K);

Pre-tension the belt in such a way that when it is finally tensioned using a hook or bracket, the applied force does not exceed 8 kg;

With light tension, select the free length of the belt, placing its free end under the belt being tightened, and then using a tightening loop (CP.216 clamp) or. using the hook itself (fasteners SR.215, SR.215K, SR.217) the final tension of the belt is carried out;

fixing the belt tension of the SR.215, SR.215K, SR.217 clamps is carried out by threading the free end of the hook under the belt in such a way that the special bits made on the free ends of the hooks completely come out from under the belt;

in the SR.216 clamp, fixation occurs due to the shifted arrangement of the axes;

It is forbidden to lift the fastened hive by the belt.

Hive accessories. The set includes three corners and one square. The fittings are designed to fasten hive parts in order to increase the strength, reliability and durability of hives when used in apiaries. It also prevents gaps from appearing in hive joints. The main parameters and dimensions of the fittings are given in table.

Main parameters and sizes of fittings

The hive fittings are made from aluminum sheet of the AMgSh, LMg2M brands with a thickness of 1.5 mm or from sheet steel of the St. grade. 3 1.0 mm thick.

The roof-corner kit KU is designed to protect the unit from mechanical damage, as well as for repairs. It is a set of metal bent corners and a roof-roof weighing no more than 5 kg.

Technical characteristics of the CU

Operating instructions.

The kit must reliably protect the hive roof and outer corners from mechanical damage;

a sheet of iron is secured to the wooden roof of the hive with nails;

The corners are attached to the corners of the magazine extension and the hive bodies.

Insulation of hives. To maintain the desired temperature in the hives, especially during the cold time of the beekeeping season, insulation is of great importance. Insulate bee nests in hives from the top, sides and bottom.

Insulation materials. To insulate hives, moss, firewood, and some other materials are used. Foam plastic and foam rubber are also used for insulating nests. In terms of their physical properties, insulating materials are not the same.

Thermal conductivity is the main indicator in assessing the quality of insulating materials. It is usually expressed by the coefficient of thermal conductivity (the number of calories of heat passing through 1 m 2 of the fence surface in 1 hour with a meter thickness and a temperature difference between the internal and external air of 1 ° C).

Structure (fibrousness). The most valuable material is one that differs in its specific elasticity when compacting fibers. Such materials cause little caking, and the thermal conductivity coefficient will be higher (tow, moss, firewood).

Hygroscopicity is a negative property of a material, since its thermal conductivity increases as a result of moisture absorption. Therefore, the insulating material must be dry. Hemp tow best meets this requirement.

Insulating materials used in beekeeping, depending on their positive properties, can be arranged in the following order.

Thermal conductivity coefficient and volumetric mass of various insulating materials (according to V. A. Temnov)

Use of insulating materials. Fibrous insulating materials (tow, cotton wool, firewood, moss) are used in the form of pillows (top and side). Usually, pillowcases are made from burlap according to the size of the hive, 60-80 mm thick. To ensure that the material in the pillow lies flat and does not bunch up, it is better to quilt it.

As top insulation, you can use wooden frames made to the size of the hive from 80x10 mm planks. The frames are covered with canvas or burlap, and the free space is filled with tow, firewood, moss, etc. Cushion frames and diaphragm-pillows are quite common in apiaries. They are convenient because they serve as both diaphragms and side insulation in the hive.

Many beekeepers use mats made of straw and reeds to insulate their hives, and make them on special machines.

Standard pillows for insulating hives are made from measured and weighted pieces of cotton fabric, lining twill, waste non-woven fabric, cotton wool, batting. Pillows for insulating hives are a pillowcase filled with insulating material, evenly spaced and firmly fixed.

Non-dismountable hives

Under natural conditions, bees live in tree hollows, less often in rock crevices and other suitable natural spaces.

Since ancient times, in the forests of Russia, honey and wax have been extracted from hollows. People have long learned to make artificial hollows for bees to populate - borti. The remains of airborne beekeeping could be found at the end of the 19th century in the forests of Bashkiria. Often, hollows along with bee families were cut out of wood and moved to some other place. When these boards in the form of logs began to be collected in one place for ease of protection and maintenance, a transition occurred from side beekeeping to apiary beekeeping.

In the southern treeless regions, bees were kept in sapetkas - hives made of twigs or straw, coated with clay. In the steppe regions, boxes were also made from boards for bees or thin-walled nests were hollowed out in which bees were kept.

Collapsible hives

Linear hives

Frame hives

Invention of the frame hive

Frame with bees. Sealed honeycombs are visible: in the upper part with honey, in the central part - with brood

The first frame hive, as is commonly believed in the domestic tradition, was invented in 1814 by the outstanding Ukrainian beekeeper P. I. Prokopovich. Jan Gerzhon (created his collapsible hive in) and August von Berlepsch () also claim primacy in this matter. However, a frame design close to the modern one was patented in the United States by Langstroth in 1851; the frames in the Langstroth hive were removed from above; it was this design that became the most widespread in the world.

Frame hive details

A frame hive is formed from its component parts. In some specific cases, the hive can be assembled from them in different ways. The hive kit usually includes:

Removable bottom (in a number of designs the bottom is part of the 1st body).
Housings (depending on the type of hive from one to several).
Store extensions (there can be one or several, often regardless of the type of hive); each extension has one complete set of frames (depending on the design 10-24).
Roof (if bees are kept in a pavilion, there may be no roof, because the hives are located under the roof of the building/trailer).
Frames in which bees build honeycombs; As a rule, two sets of frames are held for each body, and one for the extension.
Frame dividers (for example, pegs or other system for fixing a certain width of the inter-frame space).
A canvas or ceiling made of a thin board (it is laid on top of the frames of the uppermost body).
Feeder (most often it is a frame feeder).
Arrival board; most often it is not removable and is located under each entrance.
Diaphragm (to separate families sharing one building; or the inhabited part of the building from the empty one).
One or more separating grids (they prevent the queen from entering the housing or honey super and sowing eggs there)
A pillow or several (filled with dried moss, cotton wool or other material).

Types of frame hives

In Russia, both multi-body hives-risers and beds are equally widespread.

Bed hives

Horizontal hives are called beehives. They look like long boxes or ancient chests. Usually they contain 16-20, and sometimes 24 frames measuring 435x300 mm. The bees' nest expands here horizontally. A 16-frame beehive is made for one family, and 20- and 24-frame ones are made for two. The volume of such a hive allows you to raise families that are stronger than in a 12-frame hive. Typically, two lower and two upper tapholes are located in front, but they can also be located on opposite sides - in the front and rear walls. There are one or two shops. The ceiling is made collapsible. The roof is flat and is flush with the walls of the building, while being held in place by external folds. Since working with a bed is very simple, novice beekeepers usually start working with it.

Multi-body hives

In a multi-body hive, the bodies are placed vertically, one on top of the other. As the bee colony develops, housings and magazine extensions are added. As a rule, there are two-, three- and actually multi-body hives. In this case, the number of buildings is determined by the beekeeping method and the calculations of the beekeeper, and not by design.

The most popular (and almost the only) multi-hull hive design in the world is the Langstroth-Ruth hive. Its cases are designed for a Ruth frame measuring 435x230 mm, and the magazines do not differ from the cases.

Cases differ depending on the height of the frame that is used. The most commonly used frame is the Root frame.

There are cases when beekeepers assemble Dadan hives as multi-body ones - they install several bodies and extensions (the latter can be either bodies or typical extensions on a half-frame).

The basic structure of a modern hive is almost identical to the housing that bees build for themselves in the wild. There, a bee family needs a reliable shelter to live, where they can raise and feed their offspring, store food supplies, be protected from bad weather, and safely survive the winter cold.

Such criteria are met, for example, by tree hollows, which are a favorite place for insects where they make their homes. An ideal vertically elongated space is formed inside the trunks, which the bees gradually fill with honeycombs from top to bottom. In such a home, the correct microclimate is created, it is convenient to protect it from enemies.

A beehive is a man-made imitation of the natural habitat of insects, but slightly modified for ease of use. Improvements were needed to make the structure more comfortable to maintain when caring for bees and to remove the main beekeeping product - honey.

Today, in apiaries, frame structures of hives are mostly used, which to the greatest extent satisfy the natural need of bees for housing and provide the beekeeper with the opportunity to profitably carry out his business.

How does a hive work?

Having tamed useful insects, man gave them a new home. The structure of a bee hive is actually quite simple. There is nothing superfluous there, only what the bee colony needs for work and life.

A modern hive is a linear high-narrow or narrow-wide structure with a certain set of elements. It consists of a nest body or several bodies. These are hollow boxes without a bottom and a lid, which can be connected to each other if necessary.

On the inner walls of the cases, fastenings are provided in the form of strips or selected folds for installing frames, which occupy the entire space of the case. The frames themselves are four slats forming a square or rectangle, inside which the bees build honeycombs.

In the center of the housing structure there are nesting frames with brood, the upper part of all frames and the entire side ones are intended for honey.

At the bottom of the hive structure there is a solid bottom, which serves as the floor for the first building; a roof is placed on top to protect the structure from rain and other precipitation.

In the summer, during the honey harvest period, store extensions (or simply stores) are added to the cases; the external and internal dimensions of the boxes are identical to them, only smaller in height. They contain frames in which the bees store the honey they bring.

Bees enter and exit the hive through the entrance - a rectangular or round hole located in the body.

There are several entrances, the lower passage is located in the front part of the first building at floor level, the rest are located in the center of each subsequent element of the vertical structure, except for magazine extensions. They don't have entrances.

Some designs have additional ventilation holes in the roof trim to improve the microclimate inside the hive.

Most of the hives used in beekeeping today are of collapsible designs. Their volume is not a constant value. If necessary, it can be changed in one direction or another. In spring and summer, increase it for the development and expansion of the bee colony; in autumn, decrease it when preparing the apiary for wintering.

The frames with honeycombs in the hive structure are not a stationary, but a movable element, which makes it possible to rearrange them inside the nest at the discretion of the beekeeper or to change between hives, provided they are of the same type.

From general to specific

The design of a beehive for bees is not limited only to a set of certain elements that make it up. Intentions to create a structure most suitable for insects and humans led to the emergence of various models proposed at one time by various inventors.

The frame is the most important detail in the hive; the size and type of the entire future structure are determined by it. Today, there are several formats known that are most used in beehive frames. This:

square frames;
low-wide;
and narrow-high models.

The production dimensions of the frames are brought to a single standard. The most popular of them:

435 by 230 mm (Langstroth-Ruth model);
435 by 300 mm (Dadan-Blatt model);
For magazine extensions, frames measuring 430 by 145 mm are used.

The variety of modern designs is characterized by such a feature that a different number of frames can be used in one case. Therefore, when designating a specific hive, it is customary to name not only the type of frame used. Their number in one sector is also mentioned. For example, a 10, 12 or 20 frame hive for such and such a frame.

Nesting and honey frames can be placed horizontally in the housings all in one row - then the hives are designated as horizontal single-tier. They are usually called sunbeds. They can be placed in several tiers, one above the other, then such structures will be considered vertical multi-tiered. They are also called risers.

Other distinctive features of hives

In addition to all of the above, the design of any hive is determined by additional technical characteristics in the design features of its other parts and individual parts.

Today, to keep bees in different climatic conditions, single-walled, and double-walled modifications to hive devices. In the latter option, the gaps between one and the second walls are filled with backfill made of high-quality insulating material.

Store extensions, floors and roofs are usually produced as single ones, but some beekeepers, when making hives themselves, prefer to install double floors, which has certain advantages during long wintering in harsh conditions.

Long-term beekeeping practice shows that the most suitable roofs for vertical hives are those that are placed over the body and overlap it (overlapping). This arrangement more reliably protects the walls of the building from getting wet and rotting.

It will not be superfluous to cover the roof surface with sheet iron, roofing felt or roofing felt. A simple wooden surface will still leak, regardless of the quality of putty and painting, thereby not only causing inconvenience to insects, but also shortening the service life of the entire product.

The hives can have a solid bottom, which is typical for sunbeds, and a detachable bottom, which distinguishes Langstroth-Ruth hives. The latter type of design is much more convenient, as it facilitates the work of cleaning the hive and significantly reduces the time spent on this.

The entrance in different models can be located:

for cold skidding, when the frames are located in the body perpendicular to it;
for a warm skid, with the frames positioned parallel to the taphole hole.

In the case of long-distance transportation of bee colonies or nomadic beekeeping, special hive devices are used, the distinctive feature of which is the low weight and portability of the entire structure.

Classic hives are made of wood. Good quality lumber from fir, cedar, spruce, linden, and large-ply pine is suitable for this.

The boards used for the manufacture of the structure must be free of visible flaws, large knots and properly dried, in order to avoid subsequent warping and cracking. This material most accurately creates for bees a semblance of their natural home, a hollow with its unique microclimate.

The disadvantage of wood for the beekeeper is that the hive structure is too heavy, which creates certain inconveniences when working with such models. Therefore, the most modern developments are made from foam plastic, while maintaining identical external and internal structures characteristic of this structure.

It is customary to paint hives in bright colors, preferably blue, light blue, and yellow. It is believed that bees distinguish them best and, returning from honey collection with nectar, wander less and find their home faster.

In addition, the paint protects the external parts of the housing from premature wear, increasing the service life of the inventory product.

The variety of modifications of hives is nothing more than the desire of beekeepers to create the most perfect artificial housing for their charges. There are no bad designs and it makes no sense to say that one hive is better than another. It’s just that they were all created under certain conditions, which is worth taking into account when working in your apiary.