Talk:Beehive/Archive 1

Proposal to rename pages
I really don't like the fact that The Beehive (and a couple of related pages) have the definite article in their title. IMO, very un-encyclopedic. (We don't have, for instance, The Washington Monument (see Washington Monument) or The Taj Mahal (see Taj Mahal.)

I would like to make some changes to see Beehive set up as the main disambiguation page with Beehive (building), Beehive (hairstyle), Beehive cluster and Beehive (beekeeping), and so on, set up as sub-branches. Any comments? If not, I'll go ahead and make the changes in a little while. I think a standardised set up will be much neater. -- FP 06:49, Mar 6, 2005 (UTC)


 * I've performed the move as I discussed a couple of weeks ago -- FP 04:45, Apr 2, 2005 (UTC)

What about hives built by bees??
It is absurd that this page redirects to 20 other pages, none of which describe hives built by bees. --Doradus 14:21, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Does WIkipeida have an article about natural beehives? Ewlyahoocom 02:32, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No, I don't think so. And I think such an article should be here, at "Beehive".  What is currently here should go to "Beehive (disambiguation)".  --Doradus 14:54, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * That sounds like a good plan when -- or if -- such an article ever gets written. Ewlyahoocom 15:02, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Ok, see Talk:Beehive (beekeeping) for the proposal to move. --Doradus 20:08, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

The move has now occurred. Now hopefully an expert can start adding information about how/why/where/when bees make hives. --Doradus 14:32, 10 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Yep, I should have mentioned this beyond the edit summary but a) there wasn't a specific move discussion and b) it seemed like an obvious move, as the place where bees live is the obvious primary meaning of "beehive". For the record, I moved what was "Beehive" to Beehive (disambiguation) and then moved "Beehive (beekeeping)" to Beehive. I hope this is acceptable to all parties. Regards, Pro hib it O ni o ns  (T) 17:33, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

"Natural beehives are built by the bees themselves..."

But Natural beehives are NOT built by the bees themselves. Bees can't build a hive, they can only nest in a useful hollow space. Some animals can make a "home", but bees have to find a suitable one. The actual article (further down) says this very acurately, but this statement ("are built by the bees themselves") is not accurate.


 * I don't see how anything you've said contradicts the statement above. The hollow space they live in is not a hive until the bees make the honeycomb inside it.  (BTW, sorry for reverting the change without reading the talk page first.) --Doradus 00:08, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

In the Top-bar hive section I disagree with:

"Top-bar hives also have movable frames..."

They have movable COMBS. They do NOT have movable frames. This is what distinguishes a top bar hive from a Langstroth or other modern hive.

Also "the honey cannot be extracted by centrifuging..." is not accurate. Sweinty and Betterbee have marketed an extractor specifically designed for top bars and I know of people who extract top bar combs in a standard extractor as well. It's more accurate to say:

"Since top bar hives are usually used in either a small hobbiest scenario or in an area where there is a lack of money for equipment or "higher" technology, top bar combs are usually not extracted."

I don't have references to prove this, other than perhaps the Foxfire books, but my guess is that skeps and bee gums were more often smoked out, drummed out or shaken out prior to harvest rather than killing them with sulfur. It's the reason the AMM were (and sometimes still are) so runny and the queens so flighty. Still it was a messy process with a lot of wasted brood (well, the chickens got a good meal out of it, but the hive suffered).

All the rest of this article, in my opinion, is very accurate and well written.Michael Bush 18:39, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Good evening, Michael. I think that you are probably right about the definition we've created here of a "natural hive".  I've been uncomfortable with that since it was added.  You can have a feral colony and that colony can live many places but those places are not generally called "hives".  The comment about top-bar hives is one of definition.  I have heard some call that top bar a "frame" even though it only has one piece of wood.  The term was used to differentiate comb attached to the top-bar from burr-comb.  I'm less concerned with that technical distinction. You are correct that there is a new extractor that is supposed to work with top-bars.  I have not seen it in action or even read any reliable reviews yet so I don't know if it lives up to its marketing hype.  But your proposed change would certainly be reasonable.  For all those changes, be bold and make them.  Don't think that you have to wait for permission.
 * On your last point, some beekeepers used smoke instead of sulphur but in general, skeps and gums were killed, not merely smoked out.
 * Aggressive smoking causes the bees to start opening cells and eating honey. That makes collection and storage messy and significantly reduces the shelf-life of whatever you did harvest since it's now uncapped.  Even today, the best harvesting is with as light a smoke as you can manage.
 * Aggressive smoking leaves lots of angry bees still flying around you trying to get back to the colony when you're trying to take it home.
 * Aggressive smoking won't drive off nearly as many bees as most people think. Nurse bees are loathe to leave brood and will resist even heavy smoking.  And smoking will almost never dislodge the queen.  Without the queen, it's a dead colony regardless of whether you killed them immediately or smoked them out to die off a week later.
 * Most of the historical evidence I've seen of smoking as a means of harvesting seemed to be associated with areas where sulphur (or another food-safe ways to kill the colony) was not readily available. That might also explain some of the regional variations that developed in the bees.  Unfortunately, I can't prove that hypothesis.  Rossami (talk) 21:40, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Regarding Rossami's comment above that "You can have a feral colony and that colony can live many places but those places are not generally called "hives"."... Then they're not the topic of this article. I don't see the problem. --Doradus 18:40, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

"Natural" beehives
I have pulled the following section from the article. While the details described in the section are (to the best of my knowledge) all true, I could find no source calling what it describes a "natural beehive". Every source I have been able to find uses the term "beehive" exclusively in the sense of a man-made structure. Until we know for sure that this is the right label for "bees in a natural cavity", I don't think this article is the right place for this content. Rossami (talk) 01:25, 15 October 2007 (UTC) ==Natural beehives== The natural nesting sites of honeybees are caves, rock cavities and hollow trees. The nests are composed of multiple honeycombs, parallel to each other, with a relatively uniform bee space. The nest usually has a single entrance. European honeybees prefer nest cavities of about 45 litres in volume and avoid those smaller than 10, or larger than 100, litres. European honeybees exhibit preferences with regard to several nest site properties: the height above ground is usually between 1 and 5 metres, entrance positions tend to face downward, south-facing entrances are favoured, and nest sites over 300 meters away from the parent colony are preferred. Nests are often occupied over the course of several years. No one tree genus is strongly preferred.

The bark surrounding the hive entrance is often smoothed by the bees, and the cavity walls are coated with a thin layer of hardened plant resin (propolis). Honeycombs are attached to the walls along the cavity tops and sides, but small passageways are left along the comb edges. The basic nest architecture among all honeybees is similar: honey is stored in the upper part of the comb; beneath it are rows of pollen-storage cells, worker-brood cells, and drone-brood cells, in that order. The peanut-shaped queen cells are normally built at the lower edge of the comb.

It seems to me most of the information are from Dr. Seeley T.D. "The nest of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Insects Sociaux 23:495-512 year 1976. Rossami you attempt to play authority I suppose in beekeeping.--Lenin1 04:47, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

The information in the paragraph are all correct. Only the sentence fragment: "entrance positions tend to face downward" make me thinking. If that means: "mostly entrance located close to bottom" it is correct. If it suggest that "the corridor goes downward" I first time heard such statement. However I would question the author about the exact sentence from literature which suggested him so. Unnecessary he is wrong. It would be advantageous for you to read the article mentioned above Rossami. There was mentioned about definition what is hive. Better use term "Natural nest" instead "Natural beehive". People who are not strictly professionals think beehive as a man-made box. --Lenin1 05:06, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Obviously the sentence: "Natural beehives are built by the bees themselves.." is nonsense, lightly speaking. Bees build only combs etc. inside a hive that is all. Bees DO NOT built hives. Right?--Lenin1 05:13, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

PS. It is good idea to say sorry in the case of unfair play.

Merriam Webster gives a definition of beehive that includes: a natural habitation of bees, as a hollowed-out tree. I have restored the Natural Hives section. --Doradus 20:41, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

What means hive?
Have are not build by bees. Hive is defined as: “The term "hive" means any receptacle or container, or part of receptacle...”, for example in government publications:   So the hive is build by a person or it is natural one, for example cavity inside a tree. It would not be a mistake to call a tree cavity as “natural hive”, however in scientific literature is used the term “natural nest” rather. This is, I believe, since nest is an unit which contains also wax combs etc., and of course the receptacle. If a nest inside a box or something made by man and independently chosen by bees can be call a “natural nest” can be questionable for sure it5 is not natural hive. Concluding: We have natural hives and man made hives. We have a natural nest and man disrupted nests in one way or another. --131.104.219.176 22:41, 14 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Let's not speculate. If anyone can find an unambiguous authoritative citation for this, it would be most welcome.  --Doradus 20:47, 21 October 2007 (UTC)


 * One definition is technical (the scientist's sense), the other colloquial (the layman's sense). I see no reason the WP article cannot accommodate the lay definition (thus including natural nests) - all it requires is an explanation that this is not the preferred technical use of the term. Dyanega 21:51, 21 October 2007 (UTC)


 * That sounds reasonable to me. In fact, it sounds like an important thing to mention, as I am probably not the only person who was unaware that the preferred technical use of the term excluded natural bee colonies.  --Doradus 21:02, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

DIY hive construction
Please include a section about diy hive construction (langstroth and perhaps top-bar hives) and indiginous/native beehive construction (stingless bees, carpenter bees, solitary bees, ...).

See this website for plans (commercial), this page and this page for langstroth hive construction] and this website for top bar diy hive construction. More DIY-plans for hives and other equipment (bee wax melters, honey extractors, ...) can be found at the VillageEarth AT Sourcebook.

Thanks. KVDP (talk) 08:38, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Why can't you do it? Sting au  Buzz Me...   12:10, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Not enough time, and already created allot of articles lately. So done my share allready.

87.64.163.89 (talk) 15:06, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Please don't add information that is already covered from links found in existing article. Also if adding reference links please use the correct citeweb template and check spelling. Recent addition was reverted because info already covered from links to separate articles and new material detracted from appearance of this article. Sting au  Buzz Me...   23:12, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Working on the grammar
Since the Arthropod Project page asks that someone work on the text for this page, I started doing that. Specifically, I am spending most of my time converting passive voice to active voice. While I am an entomologist, I do not claim to be an expert on bee hives, so I will not change facts or references. I also changed some instances of "honeybee" to "honey bee." Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 10:20, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

The following is from the section on Modern Beehives. It is difficult for me to understand what the original writer meant.

"However, for easy operations in beehives the spaces between elements need to be correct. The correct distance between combs was described in 1845 by Jan Dzierżon as 1½ inches from the center of one top bar to the center of the next one. In 1848 Dzierzon introduced grooves into the hive’s side walls replacing the strips of wood for moving top bars. The grooves had been 8 x 8 mm – exact average between 1/4 and 3/8 of an inch, which is range recently called bee space."

Does the first sentence refer to the beekeeper or the bees? The last sentence also is confusing to me. Help? Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 01:59, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

The first sentence (However...correct) intends to convey that without proper (bee space) spacing of components of a bee hive the bees will build and attach honeycomb in ways that are not conducive to allowing beekeepers to manipulate the hive components without damage to the honeycomb. The remainder of the text goes on to describe what that spacing should be. Spaces smaller than 'bee space' will be closed up by the bees, spaces larger than 'bee space' will get honeycomb built into them. The actual measurement of that space varies by individual bee species as larger bees need larger 'bee space'. This site has a good laymen description of bee space to help clarify: Eight is the magic number, sort of Hope that helps.Xanderphillips (talk) 02:56, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

Beewax honeycomb artificial hives
What's strange to me is why artificial hives have the honeycomb made of metal. Isn't it cheaper to just have a basic grame in place ie upon which there are strings, ... so that the bees can make the combs themselves ? 91.182.241.204 (talk) 13:15, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't know where you're getting your information but I know of no manufacturers of metal honeycombs. Frankly, I can't imagine anyone doing it, either.  The thermal characteristics would make it far more difficult for the bees to thermoregulate the hive.  Rossami (talk) 14:27, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Wax / honey equivalents
This page, like many others, cites a figure for how much honey it takes to produce wax. While researching beekeeping (just taking up) I have seen various figures for this, and as yet no solid citations or studies. The page on beeswax is similar and cites a bee club, but they do not specify their own source and do not claim to have studied this. Does anyone know of studies on the cost to the bees of producing wax? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.78.240.7 (talk) 00:26, 29 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Here is a study from a reputable source stating "The total cost of building 1 kg of comb has been conservatively estimated at 6.25 kg of honey (Weiss, 1965). Thus, the 1.2 kg of comb in a fully developed colony consumes an impressive 7.5 kg of the 60 kg of honey consumed each year by a typical temperate-zone colony (Seeley, 1985)." Does that help? Novickas (talk) 00:39, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Honeybee hives
Changed article somewhat to also include some hives for other beespecies, see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beehive&oldid=496564724

I'm however wondering whether there are any optimized designs for the other honeybee species, ie Apis florea, Apis andreniformis, Apis dorsata, Apis koschevnikovi, Apis nigrocincta — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.182.146.248 (talk) 07:53, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

"Hives" made by bees
Do we have RS for the term "hive" for a structure built by bees? And if so, is it a universally used term? I have no expertise on the subject, but as a fluent BrEng speaker, I'd instinctively differentiate between a "Beehive" (man-made structure) and a "Beesnest" (made by bees). Yet as an experienced Wikipedian, I'm keen to see what RS say, rather than just arguing 'I know that's the case'(!) but it does seem odd and wrong that this article asserts the meaning of its title term, without any sources. --Dweller (talk) 12:19, 13 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I fully agree that a "beehive" is man-made, and that a nest of bees in the wild should not be called a beehive. Two major UK English dictionaries say:  (i) Shorter Oxford.."Beehive: a receptacle used as a home for bees; usually made of thick straw work in the shape of a dome" and "Hive: an artificial receptacle for the habitation of a swarm of bees".  (ii) Collins.. "Beehive: a man-made receptacle used to house a swarm of bees".   I feel the intro is currently too long and unsatisfactory (for instance calling bees 'domesticated'), and I propose shortly to edit the page accordingly.  Arrivisto (talk) 14:32, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I made these edits, or at least most of them, today.Cliff (talk) 07:03, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Removed uncited and potentially hazardous sentence
"A common method used to destroy bees in a diseased hive is a quantity of petroleum, some say a pint, poured into the hive after all exits have been plugged." It may be common for some, but overall is not the preferred method of destroying a diseased hive by the majority of beekeepers.Wzrd1 (talk) 18:47, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Open design beehives
Can open design beehives be mentioned, see http://www.gizmag.com/open-source-intelligent-hives/31689/ http://www.opensourcebeehives.net/

109.130.224.45 (talk) 08:27, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Ruches troncs
I added this:

In some instances, bee gums are also still used, even with bee species that do produce large quantities of honey (i.e. Apis mellifera nigra). However in these instances, part of the reason why bee gums are then used is that this allows the producers of the honey distinguish themselves from other honey producers and to ask a higher price for the honey. An example where bee gums are still used is Mont-Lozère, France. It should be noted however that the length of the bee gums used are rather on the short side; unlike regular bee gums, the bee gums are slightly modified artificially (hollowed out artificially and cut to a specific size).

Perhaps that someone can look up the exact size and design of the hives (ie diameter of trees used, interior design -are plates with cells used ?-, and length of the logs. KVDP (talk) 07:33, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

File:Natural Beehive and Honeycombs.jpg
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Natural Beehive and Honeycombs.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on June 2, 2014. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2014-06-02. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. Thanks! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 12:40, 17 May 2014 (UTC)


 * The photo nicely illustrates the fact that some tropical species of Apis build combs that are not enclosed in natural hollows. However, this is problematic from the standpoint of the applicability of the term "beehive" to the exposed comb, since it's an atypical example, and definitions of "beehive" are often couched in terms implying enclosure (e.g. "a structure that provides a natural habitation for bees; as in a hollow tree", "a natural habitation of bees, as a hollowed-out tree"; "A structure or receptacle, typically made of straw, forming the home of bees.". This reflects a natural bias in English towards examples from the temperate world, where beehives are always enclosed. See also the discussions above under "What about hives built by bees??", "Natural" beehives", "What means hive?" for other Wikipedians' views. WolfmanSF (talk) 03:27, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Per your talk page comment at Template talk:POTD/2014-06-02, this has been reworked with the term "hive". However, owing to the fact that we do not have a bee nest article, or an article on beehives which are not enclosed, the template should link here (and the image is still used here). Perhaps the (apparently often-repeated) issue with a definition could be fixed by highlighting the differing definitions, as well as a general (dictionary) and specialist (entomology) definition? — Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:14, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
 * The problem is the common definition that involves only artificial beehives vs natural beehives found in nature. In some regions, beehives are completely open, in others, enclosed. I learned that one when I was in the Middle East, where the bees had open hives that they tended to like placing under windows and even on a tricycle.Wzrd1 (talk) 05:32, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Definition
I have marked the current definition of a beehive as an "enclosed structure" as needing a citation. This is owing to various definitions which disagree with it, including:
 * Vocabulary.com: "a structure that provides a natural habitation for bees;"
 * Merriam Webster: "a nest for bees"
 * Dictionary.com: "a natural habitation of bees"

Several definitions, such as Collins (here) don't even include natural beehives. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:28, 18 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Maybe the word hive shouldn’t be used at all in the caption – use nest instead. As the bee scholar Eva Crane writes: “A hive is a container used to house a colony of social bees which builds its nest in a cavity…” . She covers the world in that book, but nowhere does she use anything but the word nest when speaking of Apis dorsata, the species whose colony is pictured here. It’s too bad we don’t have a bee nest article, but I don’t think the caption should link here under the circumstances.  It would be nice to cover the definition a little in this article, though I’m not inspired enough to do that just now. Yes, people do informally use the word hive when referring to all kinds of bee nests, artificial and natural, and I know it's sad that we can't wikilink to a more precise place rather than nest, but I don't think we should link here just because we don't have an article. Novickas (talk) 15:23, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Are there sources to write an article? If we can do that, or at least differentiate in text here, that would help avoid confusion. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 15:42, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
 * There sure are. The Eva Crane book, for starters, when I search within that book for nest I see 94 results. . Also in Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees There are so many kinds of bees and so many different nesting strategies. Not just tropical, see Bumblebee, for one thing. It's just a question of who's got the dedication and inspiration to write such a thing. Novickas (talk) 16:02, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... this is nowhere near my field (neither professionally nor Wikipedia-wise), but I may look into writing it. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:31, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
 * That would be nice, User:Crisco 1492 :) Honeybee nests sounds doable since there's only seven species and it looks like they're all covered in Crane's book. By the way, I was wrong when I said above that she never mentions hives in relation to A. dorsata. Section 8.31 describes "Frames and partly enclosed hives" for that species . (Not that it makes a difference wrt to the POTD caption, which I see you have changed, thanks.) It deserves a short mention at this article, which is very Western-honeybee-centric, should you feel inclined. Novickas (talk) 13:51, 28 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I'll try to look into it. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:06, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

Sections conflicting with style guidelines?
Several subsections including "Warre hives", "Hives optimized for bumblebees", and "Top bar hives" link out to free plans or ebooks. I can't find the Wikipedia guide that explicitly covers this but it doesn't seem very encyclopedic to me. After all, an article on dogs shouldn't link to local dog shelters or to ebooks telling you how to train your dog or build a doghouse. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.90.213.186 (talk) 21:32, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Additional styles of beehives missing from this article needing references and details added:
AZ Hive Information about the A-Z or AZ (both spellings are used widely) style hive is difficult to find, even though it is purported to be the traditional hive of Slovenia. Facts regarding this hive are scattered in bits and pieces all over the web, and as such would greatly benefit by being compiled here with appropriate citings. For anyone wishing to research and add this type to the article the AZ hive is also called an Alberti-Žnidaršič.

Kranjič Hive Found this hive type when searching for information regarding the AZ. I have little info regarding this type other than it was described as being a design several centuries old.


 * Both the AZ and the Kranjič style hives are unique from other hives I've researched in that they are not 'stand-alone' hives, they are designed to be housed in an larger enclosure such as a building or covered cart, with multiple hives making up a 'wall' of the structure.

Xanderphillips (talk) 03:20, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

No information on average population?
Average number of bees in a modern commercial colony seems like a pretty relevant piece of information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.112.208.120 (talk) 18:43, 16 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Feel free to add the information if you can find a reliable source. Meters (talk) 01:27, 21 August 2016 (UTC)

Image Description
The image titled "Frame of honeycomb with honey in the upper left and pollen in most of the rest of the cells" is rather small, but looks like it mainly contains capped brood rather than pollen. Can you obtain a larger/clearer image? Minipinion (talk) 22:31, 2 September 2016 (UTC)