2.0 EQUIPMENT
The Candidate will be
2.2 aware of the concept of the bee space and its significance in the modern beehive;
NOTES
Bee space is the gap that a bee feels comfortable to move around the hive in.
If there are gaps in the hive larger than the bee space the bees will tend to build comb to narrow the gap.
If there are gaps smaller than the bee space the bees will tend to fill these in with propolis.
The exact size of bee space seems remarkably difficult to find agreement on in bee books, anything from 4mm to 12mm is quoted. Its probably safe to say that the bee space is not an exact number and depends on circumstances, but the concensus for a dimension appears to be 8mm +/- 2mm.
Rev Lorenzo Langstroth is credited with discovering bee space and developing the first practical removable frame bee hive.
The principle of design of modern beehives is to leave a bee space sized gap between all parts of the hive. For example, in a Smith hive, there is a gap between the top of the frames and the top of the brood or super boxes (top bee space). When a hive part such as a queen excluder or crown board is placed on top of the box, the bees have a space to crawl between the frames and the part placed on top of the box. Other hive designs like the British Standard have the frames flush with the top of the brood and super boxes and this means that there should be a gap at the bottom of any hive part placed on top of the boxes (bottom bee space). The top bars of frames are either designed to be self-spacing (leave a bee space gap when pushed next to each other) or are fitted with “ends” (spacers) that maintain the appropriate gap.
Note that bees will leave a double bee space between combs so that they can work back to back on the faces of the comb.