Bee Hive Structure - How It Is Constructed?

Bee Hive Structure

Honey bees live in a complex structure known as a bee hive. This article is about artificial and natural bee hives so that you will better understand their structure and purpose.

Bee Hive Contents

Bees live in many different areas in the natural world. They inhabit caves, hollow trees and rock cavities. Some bees will make exposed aerial combs as well, but the most common kind are bee hives inside other structures.

These nests are made of honeycombs laid out parallel to each in a uniform pattern. Nests generally contain only one entrance, however in times when bees are under stress this can be changed. The purpose of creating bee hives is to produce bee honey, birth young bees and as base home for them
 
The hive structure in the wild areas is always the same. Upper part of the comb stores the  honey, below there are rows of cells that store pollen, worker brood cells, and drone brood cells. On the very bottom there are queen cells of the peanut shape.

Artificial bee hives started to appear at least 900 B.C. There is a physical evidence that supports the fact that artificial bee hives existed at that time.

The modern bee hive still builds on its traditional roots but was significantly upgraded.  A good example of the modern bee hive is the Langstroth hive. Its design was shown in 1860 and nowadays is the standard for 80% of today’s bee hives. Langstroth hive is a clever way to easily extract the honey from the hive. It is also very portable.

Modern bee hives contain six main parts. The first part is the bottom board which makes the bottom of the hive and lets the bees get in and out. Next part is the brood box on the very bottom of the hive which is the place where the bee queen lays larva. Above the brood box is the honey super where the honey is stored. The next part of the bee hive is the foundation. It is usually a wooden frame and a plastic sheet. It is also  where bees put honey combs made of wax. Inner and outer cover is the last part.

For more information on bee keeping check out bee pollen and get rid of bees sites.