The Hive

There are many different kinds of hives out there and lots of opinions surrounding all of them.  I have no opinions of any of them since I am still working on understanding their differences and functionality.  I have a Langstroph hive, so all hive information provided here will be regarding that hive.

Hive Bodies:
The term 'Hive Bodies' refer to the different boxes that make up the hive.  There are three different sizes of hive bodies, a deep, a medium, and a short.  Generally speaking the mediums and the deeps are used as Brood Boxes (the boxes where the queen lays all of her eggs and brood is cared for).  Subsequently, the mediums and the shorts and usually used as Honey Supers (the boxes from which honey is harvested).

Bottom Board:
The bottom board is exactly that...basically the foundation of the hive.  People play around with making the bottom board more or less ventilated with different designs and materials.  Your bees need ventilation, but they also need protection from the elements.  So, depending on how much ventilation the rest of your hive allows and what sort of climate you live in, you can play around with how much to ventilate your hive through the bottom board.

There is no right-side-up to the bottom board, although each side does allow a larger or narrower entrance to the hive.  No right or wrong here.  Again, it has to do with ventilation and also how you want to feed your bees.  Using a Boardman feeder (the upside down mason jar with feeder attachment) will require that you put the bottom board in such a way that the entrance is wider.  Pictures to come on this.

Inner lid:
This simply provides a boundary for the bees, this is usually used in conjunction with the outer lid.  The inner lid also has a slot in it, if you are in a warm dry climate you may place your feeder over this slot in the spring and fall (and winter if its warm enough).

Outer lid:
Protects from the elements.

Queen excluder:
Some use it, some don't....anyone have thoughts on this??  This is basically a metal grid with slots large enough to allow the worker bees to pass through but too small for the larger queen to pass through.  It is placed between your brood boxes and honey supers to ensure that the queen does not begin laying eggs in the honey super.

Frames:
Frames are sized to fit the box size they are in.  There are ten frames per box and they come with a foundation for bees to build their honeycomb off of.  This is where it gets fuzzy for me.....Top bar hives have no foundation, the bees build it all from the ground up.  But it takes a lot of time/energy/supplies to build honeycomb, so wouldn't you get a higher honey yield if you provided a frame that already had a foundation in it?? Help please :)