Bee hives, its parts, types of bee hives, different types of beekeeping equipment's and safeguards during beekeeping.

1. ACQUAINTANCE WITH BEE
HIVES, EQUIPMENTS AND
SAFEGUARDS.
Preparedby:
PRUTHVI KRISHNA

2. INTRODUCTION:
Honey bee is originated from Indian and South East Asia. Honey bees are reared in artificial hives
for honey and bees wax, and for the help they do in pollinating crop. The practice of rearing bees
is called apiculture or beekeeping and the place where the hives are maintained is called an apiary.
For artificial rearing of bees, Hive, beekeeping equipment’s, safety measures place an import role.
So, all the details about the mentioned above are discussed below.
BEE HIVE
Hive Stand: It is to support the bottom board.
Bottom board: It is floor of the hive which is having an small entrance for bees on one side.
Brood chamber rests on this board.
Brood chamber: The Chamber used for rearing of the brood. The frames are placed in brood
chamber on which bees raise combs or artificial combs are kept. The dimensions and number
of frames vary with the type of hive.

3. Brood Frame: Each frame consists of a top bar, two side and a bottom bar. Inner aspect of
the top bar has a groove for fixing comb foundation sheet. Side bar has 4 holes for wiring the
frame. The frame holds a comb.
Super: Bees store surplus honey in this chamber. The dimensions of this chamber may be
same as that of brood chamber or half of it.
Inner cover: A board which separates the brood or super chamber and the roof.
Top cover: It is a roof placed over inner cover.
TYPES OF BEE HIVES
There are different types of bee hives like,
 Pot hive
 book hive
 Madhusagar hive
 house hive
 nucleous hive
 single walled and double walled Dadant hives
 British standard hive
 Langstroth hive
 Jeolikote hive and
 Newton hive
 In all these types, the hive designed by Rev.Fr. Newton is the most popular in South
India.
 Newton’s hives, BIS hives and Marthandam hives are suited for rearing Indian bees.
 Langstroth hives are suited for rearing Italian bees.
BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS:
 Hive tool: An iron strip used for opening of hive, to separate frames and its cleaning.

4.  Comb foundation mill: It is used for printing the natural cell size of desired comb
foundation sheet for A. mellifera and A. cerana
 Smoker: Used to calm down the bees while opening the hive and during harvesting
honey.
 Uncapping knife: Large sized knife used to uncap the frames during honey extraction.
 Queen cell protector: A spring like structure for protecting queen cells.

5.  Queen cage: Used to introduce a queen to new colony.
 Bee brush: To brush the bees from frames during harvesting.
 Feeders: The feeders are used for feeding sugar syrup to the bee colonies.
 Swarm basket: Basket to catch bee swarm

6.  Queen excluder: Perforated sheets assembled in such a way that
workers can pass through them and queen cannot (perforation size is 4.20mm for A. mellifera
whereas worker thorax size varies from 3.33 to 3.50mm). It is used during honey flow season to
restrict queen to brood chamber and thereby preventing egg laying in the super. It is also used in
maintaining multiple queen system in a colony.
 Honey extractor: It is a machine that works on a principle of centrifugal force which
centrifuge out the honey from uncapped frames.
 Wax melter: Double walled chamber for melting of bees wax for making comb
foundation sheets

7.  Pollen trap: For trapping pollen of returning bee foragers: For A. mellifera pollen trapping
screen has holes of 4.7 to 5mm. and for A. cerana 3.5 to 3.7mm.
 Bee escape: To provide one-way passage to bees.
SAFEGUARDS
Upper Body Protection
 Bee Hat and Veil: Used for preventing bee stings on face and neck
 Jacket: A popular option for beekeepers is a beekeeping jacket (as opposed to a full body
suit These are quicker to put on and often have a veil integrated into their design. They
are available in both ventilated and non ventilated.

8. Gloves: Protects hands from stings. And also gloves reduce the “touch and finesse” when
undertaking a hive inspection.
Lower Body Protection
 Pants: Many beekeepers do not use specially designed pants. But no regular clothing
protects entirely against bee stings. Even heavy-duty jeans can be penetrated by a
determined worker bee.
 Boots: Protects legs from stings. The one important point here is that you should
ensure no gap exists between the bottom of your pants and your feet.
 Bee Suits: Protects full body from

9. CONCLUSION:
It is very important to save all the honey bees as they are the major pollinators of major crops and
Humans will be out of food if the bees extinct. So, artificial beekeeping is playing a key role in
increasing the population of honey bees. Acquainting the knowledge of artificial beekeeping,
equipment’s needed, and safety measures that should be taken care for this is very important.