The Natural Beehive

Honey Bees Creating Beehives in the Wild

There are two definitions to the term “natural beehive”:

• As a reference to “Natural Beekeeping”, the practice that involves using hive styles and management methods mimicking the nesting conditions of bees in nature, as in top bar hives.
• As a standalone definition, “Natural Beehives” refer to the suitable locations a swarm seeks when scouting for a new hive. This is how wild colonies establish themselves when not under a beekeeper’s care and usually ends up with these bees in trees.

This article covers the latter aspect, focusing on the biology and behaviours of a wild bee colony, and how the “natural beehives” are selected for by the swarm. It compares the nesting habits of the European honey bee Apis mellifera to that of other honey bee species. It concludes with a description of the beehives and beekeeping practices designed to emulate natural beekeeping conditions. For purists, I acknowledge that the term “honey bee nest” is the correct description of wild colonies in natural cavities and that “beehive” refers to artificial structures maintained by beekeepers.

How Honey Bees Live in the Wild

The Swarm Searches for a Home

Bees are selective in their choice of nesting sites. When a swarm departs the hive, it lands at a nearby temporary location and worker bees start scouting for a suitable site. European honey bees swarm once or twice a year, and the colony commences swarming activities in the spring and summer by hatching drones and raising queen bees.

There are a number of criteria involved in site selection, including:

• Cavity size,
• Entrance size,
• Height above ground,
• Daily sunlight exposure, and
• Ventilation.

These are preferences and not rigid rules. One aspect that may matter for one geography (e.g. nest entrance direction) may not matter in another. Elaborations follow.

Nest Construction & Considerations

Cavity Size

Multiple experiments conducted by Thomas Seeley on the ideal nest cavity size have found that the optimal nest volume is around 40 litres. For comparison, the average 10-frame full-depth Langstorth box has a volume of 42L.

Entrance Size and Position

The ideal nest entrance would be a small circle, around 2 inches in diameter; enabling easy defence against pests and predators. This circle would be located towards the bottom of cavity, making it difficult for intruders to get far inside the hive, and assist with regulating temperatures. It is easier to cool things down than it is to heat them up, and the excellent insulation provided by trees reduces the resources required to maintain the required colony conditions.

Height Above Ground

A colony that is high above the ground will have a much easier time defending the nest from predators like bears or humans, and also be protected from flooding.

Sunlight Exposure

Bees are endothermic at the colony level. In cold weather they form a cluster and generate heat by muscle activity¹; at higher temperatures they fan and evaporate water to cool the nest. Sunlight exposure assists in this process and bees can continue brood rearing under less-than-ideal conditions.

Ventilation & Humidity

The cavity must be dry to begin with, as a moist cavity will lead to condensation and mould growth, causing diseases such as chalkbrood. Fanning activities alone are not always sufficient, and having proper ventilation allows for the stale air to leave the hive. Cavities can be found in the form of small gaps near the top of the tree hollow, or by tears into the wood from birds or natural conditions.

The Process for Establishing a New Honey Bee Nest

Once an appropriate location has been identified and voted on by the scouting bees, bees migrate to their new hives, and the entire colony building process begins anew. Prior to departure, the worker bees gorge themselves on honey, to assist with building wax combs at their new nest. These bees will rapidly secrete wax plates from their glands and produce the required comb for nest building.

Many bees commence foragering duties to identify suitable plants for pollen and nectar collection. Other bees will gather plant saps (“exudates”). Substances such as resins and sap to make propolis, the multipurpose bee glue used to seal cracks, mummify the dead and disinfect surfaces (amongst many other functions).

Enter the Queen Bee

Once sufficient comb is laid, the queen begins to lay eggs, thus completing the reproductive cycle. This is a variable process that depends on the factors mentioned above, as well as swarm nutrition & worker numbers. Honey bees don’t instinctively know how much comb they they build before swapping to focus on broodrearing activites, it’s all part of the feedback loops that stem from division of labour.

Generally, the increased presence of eggs is a signal to the rest of the bees to commence brood-rearing activities, such as the mixing of pollen and honey to make bee bread and establishing an internal hive temperature of ~35°C for optimal brood development. The process starts again next spring, with the bees raising a new queen to swarm yet again.

Modern Hives Vs. Natural Hives: Which is Better for Bees?

There are renewed interests in natural beekeeping practices as a way to provide bees with the proper hive operating conditions. This is another debated topic in the beekeeping world, with counterarguments ranging from “bees adapt to whatever box they’re put in” to “it is easier for beekeepers to manipulate these boxes during commercial pollination operations & manage bee health”. Urban Beekeepers have now flourished thanks to the adaptability of bees. While Langstroth design shown above is the most popular, any hive style can be successful with preparation.

Bottom line: Man-made hive designs enable easier inspections, pest control, honey harvesting, and supplemental feeding, but they don’t change how bees organise comb or behave; bees will build hexagonal comb regardless of hive style.

The Modern Hives

Depending on your region, you will have a different interpretation of “modern beehive”; those in the UK will think of the WBC or William Broughton Carr, hive whereas those in Australasia will have the rectangular Langstroth come to mind.

There are many different styles, and an exhaustive comparison would be not feasible. For modern hives, their advantages revolve around temperature regulation, removable frames for easier honey and brood inspections, and a portable bottom board for pest management.

Top Bar Hives

Predominately used in Africa, there are multiple variations to this beehive type. What all varieties share in common is that the bees build their comb on horizontal wooden bars without an embedded wax foundation frame; a common feature of commercial Langstroth hives.

There are several varieties of top bar hives, including:

• The Kenyan hive, a trapezoid-shaped structure with sloping sides that widen at the bottom to prevent bees from building comb on the sides.
• The Tanzanian hive; rectangular in shape with vertical walls, favoured for its easy-to-build design. However, the absence of slopes on the walls means more maintenance is required to prevent the bees from building comb on the sides, because:
  • Side comb makes it harder to conduct inspections, and has a higher risk of collapsing the entire comb structure if the top bars were to be removed for inspections or extractions.
  • It becomes an inefficient use of space as the bees would work with the constructed sides rather than additional top bars. Additionally, it makes for more challenging swarm management, due to the increased difficulty in locating queen cells or the queen bee amongst the additional comb.
• A modified top bar hive is a hybrid variety that combine features from other beehive designs, like the removable frames of the Langstroth hive, with the trapezoid shape from the Kenyan hive. This provides a stronger comb structure and can make for easier inspections.

Warre Hive & Natural Beekeeping

An honourable mention to the Warre hive. It imitates the natural beekeeping style by allowing for vertical comb construction with minimal intervention. As the colony grows, boxes are added from the bottom up to encourage the downward expansion of the comb . As such, the upper boxes are used for honey production, and when the queen moves into the new box, the eggs will only be found in the bottom.

How Other Species of Honey Bees Build Nests

The aforementioned criteria is characteristic of the European honey bee colony who nest in cavities. Other species within the genus have different preferences for hive building. Despite not being as well studied as A. mellifera, they provide insight into the variations of “natural beehives”; After all, they still are honey producers and honeycomb is a delicacy.

Nesting Habits of the Giant Honey Bee Apis dorsata

Located in South East Asia, giant honey bees do not nest in tree cavities (Robinson, 2021). They are found in open locations up to 50 meters above the ground, including tree branches, cliff faces and buildings. Nests are typically over a meter in length and are built on a slight downward slope to allow water to run off its surface. Considering their exposed nature, the bees add extra wax to the outer layers of the comb, imbuing it with water repellent properties and preventing it from seeping into the brood comb underneath.

The preference for high altitudes provides sufficient sunlight exposure and predator defence. Since the bees select sturdy structures with some degree of cover, it enables the colony to survive year-round. In locations where forage is seasonal, A. dorsata migrates in response to the availability of nectar-producing blooms.

Nesting Habits of the Dwarf Honey Bees Apis florea

Another species native to South East Asia are the dwarf honey bees, who also build exposed nests. Unlike A. dorsata, their nests tend to be be smaller, between 20-30 centimeters in diameter and 1-5 meters off the ground. Dwarf honey bee colony populations are smaller, with populations numbering in the the low thousands. Compare that to the tens of thousands of bees that make up a single A. dorsata beehive.

The lightweight nature of their beehives enables A. florea to be more generalist in their selection of a support structure; so long as there is plenty of forage in their chosen area, the nest can be built on shrubs or smaller tree branches.

How the Asian Honey Bee Apis cerana Builds its Nests

Whereas A. mellifera are named the “western” honey bees, A. cerana is the “eastern” honey bee, and has been domesticated for beekeeping and crop pollination in Eastern Asia. Like the western bees, they build their nests in cavities, and display a similar selection criteria to A. mellifera.

The differences lie in colony size and foraging ranges, as well as the adaptability of A. cerana to a broader range of temperature and humidity levels in comparisons to A. mellifera. A more detailed comparison between the two species is made in the scientific name of bees.

Can Honey Bees Live Everywhere?

Honey bees are an adaptable species and can establish hives almost anywhere, warranting honey bee removal services when they nest in undesirable locations. If a nesting location is not to their liking, they will either modify it or abscond to a new location. Bees have been found in the most unlikely (and often inconvenient) places, from the underside of trampolines to roof cavities.

The bees were able to create a natural beehive in an unnatural location, which answers the question “can honey bees live anywhere” with a “yes“. For further reading on research about how Apis mellifera swarms conduct nest selections and much more, the recommendation is Tom Seeley’s excellent work Honeybee Democracy.

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Footnotes

1. In winter and cold conditions, bees can generate heat through the rapid contraction of their muscles (Stabentheiner et al., 2003). When bees group together, they form a cluster that maintains temperatures inside the formation for normal bee functions. This cluster enables normal hive activities like queen feeding and cell cleaning to continue during winter. ↩︎