🧤 Equipments

Bee Box or Bee Hive

• These are boxes made of wood. It is made of locally available wood or Teak wood.
• A typical beehive contains various parts like hive stand, floor board, brood chamber, super chamber and outer cover.
• The hive stand consists of a wooden pole or iron stand fixed to the ground.
• On the hive stand is a wooden plank or floor board that makes the floor of the hive which is separable from the hive stand. Brood box or Brood chamber sits on this floor.
• Brood Chamber: It is a larger sized of box inside which eight full-depth wooden frames are arranged vertically and parallel to each other. On each of this frame is fixed a foundation sheet made of waxy material. The bees build the comb on both sides of the foundation sheet. The foundation sheet makes the preparation of bee comb a faster exercise and the combs are almost evenly spaced between the vertical wooden frames. A brood box normally contains one queen bee. The latter lays eggs, placing one each inside a cell of the comb. When the eggs hatch larvae are formed inside the cells and the larvae mature into the adult bees. When the brood chamber is well populated with bees the bee-keeper fixes a super chamber on the top of the brood chamber.
• Super Chamber: It is like the brood chamber the super chamber also has eight frames meant for comb making by worker bees. The super chamber is meant for storage of surplus honey and pollen in the cells by the worker bees and not for egg-laying by the queen. So that the queen bee should not enter into the super chamber to lay eggs a mesh work called queen excluder is placed between the brood and super chambers.
• The honey and pollen stored in the brood chamber is meant for only the developing larvae and not for extraction by the bee-keeper.
• The standard height of the super chamber is three-fourth of the brood chamber.
• To prevent the queen bee from flying out of the box a metal plate with few holes that can permit only the entry and exit of the worker bees and drones is fixed to the entrance of the box opening. This slotted metal plate is called as queen guard.

Bee space

• Bee space is discovered by Revd. L.L. Langstroth.
• The “bee space” is the precise gap within a hive or natural nest that bees won’t fill with wax or propolis. It enables the bees to crawl around in their home.
• Bee space for Apis cerana indica is 7-9 mm (1/4 inch) and A. mellifera is 10 mm (5/16 inch)

Smoker

• The smoker is like a metal tube where we light a fire to create smoke.
• It has a bellow to blow air into the fire.
• The controlled smoke from the tube is then directed into the beehive to calm the bees down and make them less likely to sting.

Honey Extractor

• It consists of a metal drum with a centrifugally rotating device, for the extraction of honey from the frames.
• Four frames filled with honey from the super-chamber can be placed in the extractor at one time to extract honey by rotating it with the help of a handle.
• Use of the extractor will not cause any damage to the combs so that they can be placed back in the super chamber after honey extraction.

- https://nbb.gov.in/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee
- Essentials of Beekeeping – A.S. Atwal
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apiary
- https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/
- https://wgbis.ces.iisc.ac.in