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Beehive

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A close-up of a Western honey bee on a honeycomb, showing how bees build their homes.

Beehives

A beehive is a special home where honey bees live, grow, and make honey. Bees need a safe place to live and to store their food. People build beehives to help bees and also to get honey from them.

There are two main kinds of bees that live in beehives: the western and eastern honey bees. These bees are very important because they help plants grow by moving pollen from flower to flower.

Inside a beehive, bees make many small, tight cells from beeswax. These cells are shaped like hexagons and are called a honeycomb. Bees use these cells to store food like honey and pollen. They also use the cells to take care of their young, called the brood. The young bees start as eggs, then become larvae, and finally pupae before they become adult bees.

People have used beehives for thousands of years. Long ago, in places like Egypt, people kept bees in special homes made from straw and clay. These old beehives were found by scientists in Tel Rehov, Israel, and they are about 4,000 years old!

Today, beehives are usually made of wood and have special designs to make it easy for beekeepers to take care of the bees and collect honey. Some common modern beehives are the Langstroth hive, the top-bar hive, and the Warré hive. These hives help keep bees safe and healthy while giving people delicious honey.

Beehives are also important for helping plants grow. When bees move around, they carry pollen from one flower to another, which helps the plants make fruits and seeds. This is called pollination, and it is very important for farms and gardens everywhere.

Images

Wooden beehives sitting in an almond orchard in Butte County, California.
Beekeepers loading a truck with beehives to transport them for pollination work.
Beetles in a natural beehive in Coromandel Valley, South Australia.
Beehives displayed at the Museum of Ukrainian Home Icons in Radomysl Castle, Ukraine.
A view of beehives in an apiary in Morocco, showing traditional beekeeping practices.
A photograph of beehives in Nigeria showcasing local wildlife and nature.
Traditional beekeeping methods in Malta showing beehives used before modern techniques were adopted.
Craftsmen in England building traditional beehives called skeps from straw.
A display of traditional beehives at a museum in Białowieża, Poland.
Beekeepers working with honeycombs as part of conservation efforts to support honey bees and wildlife in Montana.
Beehives nestled in the beautiful mountains of Bosnia.
An old bee skep at Dalgarven Mill, part of a traditional cheese press, showing historic farming methods in Scotland.
An old illustration showing a Langstroth beehive, a special box used to keep bees, from a 1911 encyclopedia.
Illustration of a traditional Warré beehive design used in beekeeping

Related articles

Honey
Honeycomb
Pollen
Egypt

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Beehive, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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