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Bees belong to the order of Hymenoptera and to Apoidea. There are several bees that make honey such as the tribe Apini that includes, A. Florea, A. Dorsata, A. Indica and A. Mellifera. Apis mellifera is a common domestic bee and is everywhere and has several subspecies and races. A. Mellifera ligustica is mostly found in Italy. Apis indica is an Eastern honeybee related much to A. Mellifera and can be found in Japan, the Philippines, Asia, India and China. This
Species can survive in very harsh climates. A. Florea is an Indian dwarf honeybee that exists in Indonesia and India The giant honeybee is Apis dorsata and is found in southern China, the Philippines, Indonesia and in India.
Even the ancient Greeks and Romans kept bees and really cultivating beekeeping as they used quantities of wax and honey. They constructed beehives of wood, earthenware, cork and wicker in various shapes and size with movable comb frame. They would only take part of the honey and did not destroy the bees. In the nineteenth century as honey became more popular modern ways of beekeeping were formed. They began having fixed combs and were unable to prevent or combat disease or to extract honey and wax without killing bees and tearing up the combs.
The definition of a beehive is a dwelling for bees. Bees that live in the hives furnish wax constructions that are called combs. This is then called a colony and a collection of these colonies in one place is called an apiary. Some of the fixed comb hives are vertical with an end open to the ground. It has to be above the ground enough to allow the bees to come and go in and out of the hive. Holes can be made for the bees to go in and out in the low part of the front wall. In the horizontal hives the bees can enter by the open end and no holes are necessary. Combs are attached to the inner surfaces by hardwood battens that are arranged on opposite walls. In these fixed combs the bees have to be destroyed for obtaining the combs. This destroys the young queens that are very necessary for their reproductive activities.
In 1850 two apiculturists, L. L. Langstroth in American and Baron von Berlepsch in Germany invented rectangular frames that were movable. In this type of hive the roof is removable. The frames can be moved and there will be no damage to the comb as they are built 7-8 millimetres from the other parts of the hive. The Langstroth hive has been subject to many variations since his invention. There are basic parts such as the brood or nest chamber, the queen excluder, the honey storage chamber, and the floorboard. There is an entrance-black, coverboard, the roof, a dummy board and 12 brood frames and 12 super frames.
This brood chamber is 20 x 16.24 x 9.44 inches. There are two opposite walls that will allow the frames to be suspended from lugs. They will be on two small metal supports. The 12 brood frames are 9.122 inches high by 17.63 inches wide. There is room for a dummy board if one of the frames is removed with a small partition that lets the capacity of the brood chamber be altered. The queen lives in a metal mesh that she cannot pass through but the workers are able to pass. It is between the brood chamber to keep the queen laying eggs in the honey stores. There is a box the same size as the brood chamber but half as high tat fits on top of the brood chamber. The 12 frames are like the brood chamber but not as high. There are fillets on three sides that fit op top and are the same size as the brood chamber. Since three is not a fillet at the front there is a space of about l inch between the base and the brood chamber that is the entire width to the front. This serves as a doorway for the bees. There is a crownboard that fits across the top of the hive and needs to be accurate in construction. The room will protect the hive and can be made of sheet metal, wood or lumber. There is a space between it and the ceiling to allow air to circulate. These frames on what is used by the bees to construct their wax combs.
These honeybees are very social and keep creating more and more colonies and reproducing indefinitely. There can be as many as 100,000 bees and most will be the workers. The queen lays the eggs and new bees develop. Usually there is only one queen in the hive but sometimes when the queen is very old there may be young queens. When the hive gets too many bees it will divide and form more colonies. The older queen cannot swarm anymore so a new princess which is a queen in the larvae state leave the hive to form a prime swarm. A beekeeper will be watching to see this swarm as if he doesn't get her back to the hive she will form her own colony.
The queen will only mate once as this occurs when she takes a nuptial flight. When she mates with a male bee his copulatory organ breaks off inside her and he dies. She will be followed on this flight by drones. When she returns to the hive the workers will remove the male's genital organs and feed her abundantly. She will begin to lay her eggs within a few days. This will be all she does for the rest of her life as her purpose is only to lay eggs. The fertilized eggs will produce females while the unfertilized eggs will produce males. Bees are in an embyro stage that takes three days to develop. They will go through five moults in five days in larvae from fertilized eggs and six days from unfertilized eggs. The worker bees will feed the larvae on royal jelly that they produce. After the moulting the larva becomes a pupa, and after pupation it will gradually change from a larval form to an adult insect.
Honey is made by a nectar that forms a sugary liquid exuded from plants. Inside the corolla of a flower are the nectar-secreting glands that slow down evaporation and make it available to the bees. In various plants the nectary production will vary. Bees need much water for the dissolving of crystallization or congealed honey in the combs and for dissolving pollen to feed the brood of bees. They collect water from damp dew on leaves, from puddles and from damp earth.
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