Welcome to Gardeners Beehive training

So bees live in trees.

there are a few simple thigs to understand about trees.

1: they dont change shape.

2: they dont grow legs

3: they have other bugs and biological stuf going on.

Why is these obvoius things important , well its this realisation that one can then understand how the Victorans where able to take a nest box and turn it into a farm machine. This is what a conventionalbeehive is. It is a machine for farming honey, not for helping bees, but taking advantage of bees survival instincts to generate loads of honey , not happy helathy bees.

Ok , so if you look at the middle picture we have a picture of a nest of bees in a tree.

warm air rises so over wintering honey is at the top. Space at the top not got an arow but above H

So again bees have no interest in making honey or wax. they make a load of wax when they set up and then a little just for repairs. making honey stresses bees.

Bees want to make more bees, and spred their geens. to do this they make drones and swam.

Yes" swarm control" is actualy hive castration.

bees never need to be fed , if given the corect enviroment!

Bees only make a little honey though summer to feed the brood. and they only make a little wax to do repairs in the hive. honey production only realy happens in earnist at the end of summer to get ready for winter.

So what beekeepers do is they increas the cavaity volume, install a queen seperaitor and give space above the brood.

This puts the hive into a stat of shock. as they have to fill and live in the higest part of the cavity. whith the bees in a state of life and death, they then are suseptibale to infection and diseas. But they do make a load of honey. sepecialy if you kill all the drones all the time and kill any new queens. (hive castration or swarm controle.)

SO just thought you might like to know what you where not told.