The Beesness of Bees

Beekeepers usually keep beehives in wooden boxes. The box measures about 20 inches by 20 inches and maybe one foot high. Inside, are wooden frames; the bees build their hexagonal wax combs on these frames. One or two of these boxes gives a queen enough space to lay her eggs (an area called the brood chamber).

Above this brood chamber, a beekeeper stacks more boxes and more frames, and the bees fill these frames with honey. Usually a beekeeper will separate the brood chamber from the upper part of the hive with a piece of mesh called a queen excluder. The mesh is sized so that worker bees can get through the mesh but the larger queen cannot.

The beekeeper can take the upper, honey-filled sections of hive off and extract the honey. This is normally done using a centrifuge - a big spinning drum that slings all the honey out of the honeycomb. The beekeeper can then filter this honey and bottle it for consumption.

Photo courtesy: Florin Tirlea/Shutterstock

If you have ever seen a beekeeper working with a hive, you know that he uses smoke. The smoke keeps the beekeeper from getting stung. It works in two different ways.

The first is a natural reaction that bees have when they smell smoke. They think there is a fire. So they load up on honey in case they need to escape. A bee full of honey is much less likely to sting.

The second is a masking effect. Bees are very sensitive to smells given off by other bees. For example, if a beehive is under attack, guard bees can create a smell, called a pheromone, that signals the attack. When other bees smell that pheromone, they are much more likely to sting. The smoke masks the pheromone so the bees in the hive can't smell it. The same thing happens if the beekeeper accidentally smashes a bee. Smashed bees give off a smell that tells other bees that an attack is under way. The smoke masks this smell as well.

By making bees much less likely to sting, smoke has a strong calming effect on a hive. Some experienced beekeepers are able to work without any protective clothing because their bees are so calm.

Beeuty and the Bees People use all of the different bee products in many ways. We eat honey. We make candles and beauty products out of the wax. Some doctors use bee venom in different medical treatments. And the pollen and royal jelly are collected and eaten or used in beauty products.