The COLONY - around 60,000 honey bees wil live in a colony. There are three types of bee (they are called castes) in a colony: the queen, workers and drones. Only one queen, the egg layer. Lots of workers (females) who do all the, ahem, work!... and the drones (males) who do very little, except mate with the queen. I will post more on the different castes another time.
The HIVE - wow! a very impressive structure. Created by a chap called Langstroth in the US so that honey could be harvested without destroying the colony. All modern hives are based on his design. On Saturday, the speakers that I spoke to said if they had their time again, they would start with a national hive but I will research this thoroughly.
The floor - there appears to be different types of floor, solid and mesh. More research required. The entrance to the hive is here. It is as wide as the hive but can be narrowed.
The brood body - these have frames where the queen lives and lays her eggs. The colony will grow from here and the honey must be left for the bees.
Queen excluder - you put this on with the supers to stop the queen and drones getting up into them.
Supers - the honey collecting part. When the bees have filled up the brood body with honey, the supers are added so the workers can fill them up with honey too - this is the part you harvest. The queen excluder stops any bee getting up there that isn't a worker. More than one super can be added.
Crown board - it seems its primary use is to separate the supers from the roof. Bees apparently have a sticky varnish they use to cover the wood which can make the supers stick to the roof. More research will be done on this. There is also a rapid feeder which can be placed here.
The WDBKA like the flat roof. They turn them over, place on the ground and stack the supers on them. This isn't possible with a gabled roof.
There is also usually a stand as the hive has to be kept off the floor and also a landing board although I have read differing views as to whether the bees use this or not.
What do bees DO?
They make honey, yes, but in addition.... this is what I know (or think I know, so far). Please feel free to correct me below if I'm wrong.
The new queen is a virgin. She has to go out and mate with a drone, then return to the hive and starting laying eggs - a lot of them. The colony grows in the brood box with workers and drones. Workers have lots of roles and one is to collect pollen and nectar stores.The drones hang around and eat some of the profits. The workers look after the new bee-babies. The colony grows, the workers store honey in the supers and we harvest this. The colony grows, the queen gets old, the hive is overcrowded and decides to split. This is called a SWARM. The bees will gather somewhere, on a tree perhaps, and will look for a new home. This is good for the colony but bad for you as you will lose half your bees.... unless you can provide a new home for them. More knowledge and research required. Watch this space!
