Beekeeping Appliances, Hives and Equipment
Appliance questions ask you to select the right hive and tool and to know what each item does.
Hives
The Langstroth hive has movable frames, a brood chamber and supers, and suits A. mellifera; a 10-frame body is common. The Newton hive is a smaller-frame hive designed for A. cerana. Both rely on bee space (about 6-9 mm), which bees leave open rather than propolise or build comb in.
Handling equipment
A smoker (dry grass, wood shavings, cotton waste), hive tool, bee veil, gloves, bee brush and frame lifter are basic. A queen excluder keeps the queen in the brood chamber; queen cages and marking pens handle queens. Feeders and water feeders support dearth management.
Processing equipment
Honey extractors are tangential or radial; uncapping knives, strainers, settling tanks, food-grade buckets and a refractometer complete the line. A solar wax melter recovers wax.
Worked example
A beekeeper with A. cerana wants a hive. Reasoning: A. cerana colonies are smaller and prefer cavity nests; a Newton hive with smaller frames is the standard choice, while a 10-frame Langstroth is more typical for A. mellifera. The decision follows bee species and frame size, not price.
Traps
Do not place the queen excluder below the brood chamber. Do not use a dirty extractor or plastic containers that taint honey. Do not smoke heavily; it drives bees and can damage brood. Do not call the hive tool a queen excluder or confuse a drone trap with a pollen trap.