Engineering Studies On Honeybee Hives

The present work was carried out in a private apiary located at El.Tamaneen locality, Abou-Hammad, Sharkia during season of 2004-2005 to evaluate the suitability of three engineering modifications carried out on Langstroth hive to optimize the microclimate of the honeybee colonies.The most suitable hive model was the completely isolated one during autumn and winter and the completely isolated with two ventilating openings during spring and summer.Flight activity of honeybee workers was incomparably higher in completely isolated colonies recording increase range of 22.0 – 134.8 % over that of the control colonies for nectar collecting workers and an increase range of 14.78 – 179.20 % for pollen collecting foragers, according to the season. Increase range of 30.38 – 41.97 % was recorded in the total honey yield of the isolated colonies over that of the control colonies.