Beekeeping Hives

Do you know beekeeping ? 

Do you want to be a successful beekeeper ?

Beekeeping is not only about collecting honey and profiting from it, there are many other aspects such as understanding the species of bees you want to breed and the beekeeping station.

As a beekeeper, you need to be very familiar with the types of hives required, which hive goes well with which bees, the lifespan of the hives, and so on.

When you purchase a beekeeping hive to house your bees you have to keep in mind that the beekeeping hive you will go for should be able to bear the weather conditions of the place you live in..

There are three old types of beekeeping hives :

1- Mud and clay hive - this type beekeeping hive is made of clay and its origin is from ancient Egypt. 


Honey is collected from this hive by smoking one end of the clay which makes the bees fly off to the other end. Thereby, the honeycomb is left unguarded and collecting honey becomes easy.

2- Skep hive - this type of home beekeeping hive is actually a basket that has no inside structure. 


The way that bees move in and out of the hive, this hive has a single hole at the bottom. But there are two negative factors 
- firstly, you cannot inspect the internal structure of this hive. Secondly, to collect the honey, you have to destroy the hive and as a result, the bees would either fly away or get killed.

3- Bee gum hive - this type of beekeeping hive is located in the hollows of gum trees. 


It is better not to go for this type of hive because for collecting honey, you have to practice sulphuring. 


Sulphuring  is Insertion of a container of burning sulpher inside the hive. This action would directly kill all the bees at once, probably not the best solution if you plan on keeping your bees for seasons to come.

These beekeeping hives are made to serve two purposes.. The first purpose is, to extract honey and second purpose is, to create an avenue for pollination of nearby crops.

There are also two modern and most commonly used beekeeping hives readily available in the market :
 
Top Bar hive - used mostly in the UK.


Langstroth hive - used mostly in the US.

Both these hives share common features. 


They have removable frames that makes it easier for the beekeepers to inspect the bees, honey can be easily collected without killing any of the bees and their homes can be used over and over again for a longer period of time. The perfect choice if you're a serious beekeeper!

Magdy Elhalawany