Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Beehive |
BeehiveNoun1. Any workplace where people are very busy. 2. A structure that provides a natural habitation for bees; as in a hollow tree. 3. A hairdo resembling a beehive. 4. A man-made receptacle that houses a swarm of bees. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "beehive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Synonym: BeehiveSynonym: hive (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Honey from traditional hives was typically extracted by pressing - crushing the wax honeycomb to squeeze out the honey. Because of this harvest method, they typically provided more beeswax but far less honey than a modern hive.
Skeps and other fixed-frame hives are no longer in wide use (and are illegal in many countries) because the bees and the comb cannot be inspected for disease or parasites without destruction of the honeycomb and usually the colony.
There are three basic styles of traditional beehive; Tile hives, Skeps and Bee gums.
Sections of the hollow trees were set upright in "bee yards" or apiaries. Sometimes sticks or crossed sticks were placed under a board cover to give an attachment for the honeycomb. As with skeps, harvest of honey from these destroyed the colony. Often the human bee "robber" would sulphur the bees, killing them all, before even opening their nest. This was done by inserting a metal container of burning sulphur into the gum, an act that modern beekeepers find abhorrant.
Langstroth hives make use of the discovery of bee space, a characteristic of European honeybees which causes them to propolize small spaces (less than 1/4 inch), gluing wooden parts together and to fill larger spaces (more than about 3/8 inch) with wax comb but to hold the intermediate space open for traffic channels for the bees. His cleverly designed hive makes use of this bee space so that frames are neither glued together nor jammed up with burr comb.
Langstroth hives make use of standardized sizes of hive bodies and frames to ensure that parts are interchangable and that the frames will remain relatively easy to remove and inspect without killing too many of the bees.
Langstroth hive bodies are rectangular wooden or styrofoam boxes that can be stacked to expand the usable space for the bees.
Langstroth frames are thin rectangular structures made of wood or plastic and which have a wax or plastic foundation on which the bees draw out the comb.
The frames hold the beeswax honeycomb formed by the bees. Ten frames side-to-side will fill the hive body and leave exactly the right amount of bee space between each frame and between the end frames and the hive body.
Langstroth frames are often reinforced with wire which makes it possible to extract honey in centrifuges which spin the honey out of the frames.
The empty frames can be returned to the beehive for use next season.
Since bees are estimated to use as much food to make one pound of beeswax as they would to make eight pounds of honey, the ability to reuse comb can significantly increase honey production.
The top-bar hive gets its name because the frames of the hive only have a top bar, not sides or a bottom bar.
The beekeeper does not provide a foundation (or only provides a fractional foundation) for the bees to build from.
The bees build the comb so it hangs down from the top bar.
Unlike the Langstroth hive, the honey cannot be extracted by centrifuging because a top-bar frame does not have reinforced foundation or a full frame.
Because the bees have to rebuild the comb after each harvest, a top-bar hive will yield more beeswax but less honey.
However, like the Langstroth hive, the bees can be induced to store the honey separately from the areas where they are raising the brood so that far fewer bees are killed when harvesting from a top-bar hive than when harvesting from a skep.
See also: bees, diseases of the honeybee
Traditional beehives
Traditional beehives provided an enclosure for the bee colony but little more. Because there is no internal structure provided for the bees to start from, the bees fill the space in the hive with comb. The comb is often cross-attached and cannot be moved without destroying it. This is sometimes called a 'fixed-frame' hive to differentiate it from the modern 'movable-frame' hives. Harvest generally destroyed the hives, though there were some adaptations with extra top baskets which could be removed when the bees filled them with honey. These were gradually supplanted with box hives of varying dimensions, with or without frames, and finally replaced by Langstroth equipment.Tile Hives
Clay tiles were the customary homes of the bees around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Long cylinders of baked clay were used in ancient Egypt, the Middle East and to some extent in Greece and Italy. They sometimes were used singly, but more often stacked in rows to provide some shade, at least for those not on top. Keepers could smoke one end to drive the bees to the other end while they harvested honey.Skeps
In northern and western Europe, baskets made of coils of grass or straw, called skeps, were used. In the simplest form, there is a single entrance at the bottom of the skep. There is no internal structure except what the bees build themselves.Bee gums
In Eastern, particulary southeastern USA, sections of hollow trees were used up until the 20th century. They were called "gums" because they often were from red gum trees. Modern beehives
There are two modern types of hives in common use: Langstroth hives and Top-bar or Kenya-type hives. Langstroth hives
Named for their inventor, Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth, these hives are typified by removable frames which allow the apiarist to inspect for diseases and parasites. Movable frames also allow the beekeeper to more easily split the hive to make new colonies. Langstroth presented his design in 1860 and it has become the standard style hive for 75% of the world's beekeeping.Top-Bar Hives
These hives were developed as a lower-cost alternative to the standard Langstroth hives and equipment. They are used by some devotees in the US, but are much more popular, due to their simplicity and low cost, in developing countries. Top-bar hives also have movable frames and make use of the concept of bee space.External sites and References
Deseret
The beehive had been used as a symbol of industry for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as represented by the word Deseret, which is explained in the Book of Mormon as an Adamic (pre-tower of Babel) word for honeybee. The beehive (represented as a skep hive) is also the official emblem of the state of Utah.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Beehive."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Husbandry | Menagerie, vivarium, zoological garden; bear pit; aviary, apiary, alveary, beehive; hive; aquarium, fishery; duck pond, fish pond. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Beehive |
| English words defined with "beehive": Alveary, Alveated ♦ Beehive State ♦ skep, Snail clover. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "beehive": beehive coke, beehive coke oven, beehive kiln, Bees, Belgian coke oven ♦ CHARCOAL BURNER, BEEHIVE KILN, COKE BURNER ♦ kiln burner ♦ Wild Women. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "beehive": Alveary ♦ Ruche ♦ skep. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You are in a beehive, pal. Didn't you know? (All About Eve; writing credit: Joseph L. Mankiewicz) Well stay away from her, or I'll stuff a mattress with you! And you, I'll make you into a beehive. Here Scarecrow, want to play ball? (The Wizard of Oz; writing credit: L. Frank Baum; Noel Langley) Logan, the mind isn't just a box that can be unlocked and opened, it's a beehive with many. (X2; writing credit: Zak Penn; David Hayter) | |
Tongue Twisters | The fuzzy bee buzzed the buzzy busy beehive. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Moon with charms and a beehive.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Beehive coke ovens near Westmoreland Homesteads. Westmoreland County, Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Beehive; bees; swarming; bee; swarm; hornet; wasp; bumblebee; honeybee. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Beehive" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 92.86% of the time. "Beehive" is used about 56 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 92.86% | 52 | 47,145 |
| Noun (proper) | 7.14% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 56 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "beehive": beehive entrance ♦ beehive State. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "beehive": beehive-pop, beehive-shaped. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "beehive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | zgjua (apiary, hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مكان مزدحم, قفيري الشكل, قفير, خلية النحل. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | кошер (hive, kosher). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 蜂箱. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | úl (hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | bistade (apiary, bee hive, bee hive stand, bee yard, bee-hive, beehouse, hive), bikube (apiary, bee hive, bee hive stand, bee yard, bee-hive, beehouse, hive), stade (bee hive, bee-hive, hive, phase, stage). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | bijenkorf (bee hive, bee-hive, hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | abelujo (bee-hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | کندوی عسل (Apiary), کندو (Apiary, Hive), جمع شدن (Aggregate, Assemble, Backlog, Congregate, Constringe, Drift, Flock, Gather, Group, Herd, Muster, Retract, Shrink, Snuggle, Twitch), جای شلوغ وپرفعالیت . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | mehiläispesä (bee hive, bee-hive, hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | ruche (bee hive, bee-hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frisian | bijekoer. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Bienenstock (apiary, bee hive, bee hive stand, bee yard, bee-hive, beehouse, hive), Bienenkorb (bee hive, bee-hive, hive, skept), Beute (accession, acquisition, asset, bag, bee hive, bee-hive, booties, booty, catch, haul, hive, kill, loot, prey, quarry, spoils, swag). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κυψέλη (bee hive, bee-hive, cell, compartment, hive, jack, seed cell, shell, socket). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | méhkas (apiary, hive), kaptár (apiary, hive), lármás hely, forgalmas hely. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Icelandic | býflugnabú. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | sarang lebah (honeycomb). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | alveare (apiary, bee hive, bee hive stand, bee yard, bee-hive, beehouse, hive), arnia (bee hive, bee-hive, hive, honey body, super). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 巣 (breeding place, cobweb, den, haunt, nest, rookery). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | す (breeding place, cobweb, den, haunt, nest, rookery, sandbank, vinegar), ほうそう (broadcast, broadcasting, fragrant herb, hive, lawyer, legal profession, packing, seeing an emperor off, smallpox, wrapping), はちのす (hive, honeycomb). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 벌통. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | shelleig (hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | bikube (hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eehivebay cortiço, colméia (apiary, hive, honeycomb). (various references) ulei (oil), stup (hive). (various references) улей (hive). (various references) sgeap (a beehive). (various references) phago. (various references) mukoko (man-made beehive), gonera (natural beehive). (various references) colmena (bee hive, bee-hive, hive). (various references) bikupa (apiary, bee hive, bee-hive, hive). (various references) รังผึ้ง (hive, honeycomb). (various references) kovan (barrel, case, expulsive, hive, shell, snout, socket), ari kovani, arı kovanı (apiary, hive, skep). (various references) bort (r). (various references) капелюшок, вулик (hive). (various references) tổ ong (hive). (various references) bydaf, gwenyn, cwch (boat, hive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | alvei, alveo, alveos, alveum, alveus, caveam. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "beehive": beehives. (additional references) | |
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"Beehive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: beehived, beethov, behine, behive, Bykhov, Geheime. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-e-e-h-i-v" | |
-3 letters: hebe, hive, vibe. | |
-4 letters: bee, eve, hie, vee, vie. | |
-5 letters: be, bi, eh, he, hi. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-e-e-h-i-v" | |
+1 letter: beehives. | |
+3 letters: beshivered. | |
+4 letters: hereinabove. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 65 65 68 69 76 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-... . . .... .. ...- . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01100101 01100101 01101000 01101001 01110110 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B e e h i v e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 0065 0065 0068 0069 0076 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)36717174758871 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
