Understanding Hive Components
At 1:23 in
Grumpy Bees Get A SURPRISE!
What happens here
The presenter explains the different types of hive components, distinguishing between deep supers (brood boxes) and medium supers (honey supers). He shows a five-frame nucleus (nuc) box, which is a smaller temporary hive for a new colony, and demonstrates that the frames from the nuc box are medium-sized. He also shows plastic frame foundations (black, coated in beeswax) which bees will build comb onto, and mentions that deep foundations are taller than medium foundations. Finally, he briefly explains the purpose of the queen excluder (to keep the queen out of honey supers) and the inner cover (to prevent direct exposure to the bees when opening the hive).
Goal: Familiarize with different beehive components and their functions.
Tools and materials
- Deep Super — Main brood chamber of the beehive
- Inner Cover — Provides insulation and a space for bees, preventing them from sealing the outer cover to the frames
- Medium Super — Where bees store honey, placed above the deep super
- Nuc Box — A smaller box used to house a nucleus colony
- Outer Cover — The top cover of the beehive, protecting it from elements
- Plastic Frame Foundations — Base for bees to build honeycomb
- Queen Excluder — A grid placed between the brood box and honey super to prevent the queen from entering the honey super