Now that you have selected the location for your bee yard it’s time to select your hive and set it up. A hive can be considered to be a manufactured home for bees. Early hives were crude shelters made of any material easily procured in the beekeeper’s locale.
Today’s hives are made of wood or plastic. They come in various sizes and contain either 8 or 10 frames in each hive box. The modern standard hive in America was invented by L. L. Langstroth in 1851. It is a movable frame hive that allows a beekeeper to inspect the bees and harvest honey easily.
The modern hive consists of the following parts.
Bottom board
Hive bodies with frames
Inner Cover
Outer Cover
Before you set up your hive you must decide if you want the hive to sit on the ground or on a hive stand. Setting your hive on the ground may be the simplest method but it can cause the hive to stay damp on the inside. A damp hive is a good breeding ground for disease. Plus, you must consider that you will be bending over your hive to inspect the bees and pull off honey supers.
Hive stands raise your hive off the ground and allow for better air circulation. They eliminate a lot of bending over the hive.
Hive stands can be made of any sturdy material that will hold up several hundred pounds of hive bodies and honey combined. The most common materials are wood, cinder blocks, and barrels.
If you use a hive stand, it should raise the hive off the ground 2 to 3 feet. How high you need your stand will depend on what makes for the most comfortable experience when working the hive and lifting heavy supers for you.
Hives can be ordered unassembled or assembled. Which one you get depends on your skill at putting things together. Either way you go, you need to know the parts of the hive.
First is the bottom board. These come in two styles; solid and screened. Both styles have their fans in the beekeeping world. The main advantage of screened boards over solid boards is mite control. Mites drop through the screened bottom and can’t get back in the hive. Screened bottom boards also provide extra ventilation.
Second is your hive body where the bees will raise brood and do their dances to tell of good nectar and pollen sources or where a new home could be found. This first hive body is called the brood nest. It is recommended that two or three hive bodies be used for the brood nest area.
Hive bodies come in 3 sizes; shallow, medium and deep. Medium and deep sizes are most commonly used for the brood nest area. The first hive body is set on the bottom board and secured with either nails or clips. The second hive body is just set on top of the first one.
The frames are inserted in the hive body. They are wooden or plastic frames that have foundation comb inserted. The foundation comb is made of beeswax and helps speed up the honey bee's work when making comb.
A note of caution here; hive parts vary from manufacturer to manufacturer so when you find a good source be sure to get all your parts from that manufacturer. This will allow you to interchange hive bodies and frames without any problems with ill - fitting parts
If you want the cleanest honey possible, no bee parts or odd taste from brood comb etc, use a queen excluder.
This is just an inexpensive screened frame that fits over the top of the second hive body. It keeps the queen and drones out but let’s the workers go through to store the extra honey in the honey supers. Queens will lay eggs in all the combs if you don’t confine her to the bottom hive bodies.
Honey supers go on next. Like the brood nest boxes they come in three sizes, shallow, medium and deep. Most commonly used is the medium size. They look identical to the brood nest boxes and are interchangeable when ordered from the same supplier. Shallow supers are most commonly used for comb honey. The frames in the honey super are the same as what is in the brood nests.
The inner cover is next. It is a solid piece that has an oval shaped hole in the center. This sets directly on top of the uppermost super. Think of it as the ceiling in your bees' home. It acts as a buffer between the hot air at the top in hot weather and helps regulate air flow.
The oval shaped hole in the center of the inner cover is called the bee escape. This is where you put a device that lets bees go down in the hive but prevents them from returning to the honey super when you are harvesting the honey.
The outer cover goes on next. It can be flat or peaked. The peaked style is for decorative purposes only. It is made of wood or plastic and has a metal covering on top. This is the roof of the hive and protects it from the weather and animal pests.
And finally, you place a heavy weight on top of the outer cover. This helps prevent the wind from blowing the cover off during storms and also prevents raccoons from gaining access to the hive. It can be anything that is heavy such as rocks, cinder blocks or a heavy piece of metal.
Only the outside of the hive body is painted. The traditional color is white but you can paint it any light color you wish. Choose the color for your hive bodies the same way you would for your house. The inside of the hive is never painted or stained.
Setting up your hive is easy and doesn't take much time. There's a lot of choices available from bee supply companies. Get what suits you and your budget.
Reference: The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum.