Introduction
Beekeeping is the maintenance of bee colonies for the purpose of collecting their honey, beeswax, flower pollination and more. Modern beekeeping attempts to revert to a less industrialized way of obtaining honey by utilizing smaller colonies, usually between 10,000 and 30,000 bees and the whole operation is based around the hive. Below we will teach you how to build a Langstroth hive which is common to North American and Australian beekeeping. This particular type of hive is customizable to the size of your colony which means you don’t need to build and plan out everything at the beginning of the journey. You can keep building and adding depending on how many bees you want. Below we will describe the parts of the Langstroth beehive and the functions of each.We talked with Gary S. Reuter, an apiculture technician in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Entomology, and he flooded us with great information about beekeeping and hives. He strongly recommends that beginner beekeepers take a few classes or read up on beginning beekeeping. Gary, along with some of his colleagues at the University of Minnesota, has written a comprehensive guide to beekeeping in northern climates.
Parts of the Beehive (From Bottom – Up)
Bottom Board/Floor: This is the base of the beehive. As you continue to build up, you’ll realize that you don’t want the bees to get out of the top of the hive. This is their only exit.
Entrance Reducer: An entrance reducer is a cleat used to adjust the size of the hive’s entrance and controls ventilation and temperature during cooler months. You won’t fasten this small piece to the rest of the assembly but rather use it as an optional accessory. They are used more frequently during the winter months when other animals, such as mice, will try to enter the hive for warmth. During the summer, especially at the height of nectar flow, you can remove it to maximize honey production.
Hive Bodies/Deep Super: Hive Bodies are the boxes where the bees live. The hive bodies contain the comb frames. The height is standardized at 9-1/4 in. which makes building one out of dimensional lumber very easy. You can have two deep hive bodies (one for the brood or family, one for the food) and then continue with the honey supers (see below) above. In cold weather locations, a bee colony can survive with only one deep hive body. We added foil tape to the rabbets on these boxes. Gary told us that the foil tape isn’t necessary, adding “I like a piece of metal in the rabbet. It doesn’t necessarily make the frames come out easier, but it makes it easier to scrape the wax and propolis (a resin-like material) from the rabbet when the frames are out. The metal protects the wood from getting scraped away.”
Queen Excluder: This part is only used during honey season. The queen bee isn’t involved with the actual production of honey, so you place the queen excluder between the brood and honey production. There are slits to let colony bees through but not the queen. Excluders come in plastic or metal.
For the plastic one we used, click here.
Honey Super: This is where the surplus honey is collected. This is your honey, the stuff you can harvest from the bees. You need to leave the honey in the deep hive bodies for the bees to survive. Supers are identical in design to the deep hive bodies but are slightly shallower. The typical sizes are 5-3/4 in. tall or 6-5/8 in. tall, known as an Illinois super. You’ll only need one honey super during your first season of beekeeping but can add two or three for the upcoming seasons.
Frames: Bees build their honeycomb into the frames. You can easily inspect and work on the frames because they’re removable. You will often see frame ends have a taper in them. We decided to not use a taper but if you want to, cut 1/8-in. from each edge of the part [what part?] with a jigsaw. As Gary Reuter told us, “The wider part at the top is to make them space correctly by just pushing them together. The narrow part allows the bees to walk through.” Each frame needs a single sheet of beeswax foundation. Foundations come in three sizes, corresponding to the different depths of hive bodies and supers. Beeswax foundations are delicate and tough to work with at first, so be patient. By the third frame, you’ll be a master. Many beekeepers now use plastic foundations.
Click here to find the beeswax foundations that we used.
Buy plastic foundations from Amazon here.
Inner Cover: The inner cover is a tray with a hole and small notch used for ventilation. Screened inner covers have gained popularity because they provide great ventilation with no fuss.
Outer Cover/Roof: Just like the roof on your house, the outer cover protects the bees from the elements. You can extend the life of your hive by attaching a weatherproof material like aluminum flashing to the top of the roof.
Cutting List
Beehive Project Plans
Click here for a printable PDF of all the different beehive parts.
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