Common knowledge
Most people’s knowledge of bees stops at seeing one on a flower, honey tasting, or unfortunately being stung by one.
Individual bees are only one small part of an amazing social unit, the colony. The colony consists of mostly female worker bees, some males (drones) and one queen. In the wild, colonies look for hollow trees and cavities.
Did you know that 90% of the food we eat is dependent on pollination by bees? And yet they are endangered by human activity.
Destruction of their habitats, use of pesticides and the importation of bee diseases via imported bees has led to this situation!
Although you may still see bumble bees in your garden, honey bees in the wild are now quite rare. It is quite likely that if you do see a honeybee in your garden, it will belong to (and so be under the protection of) a beekeeper.
A bit of history
In the 18th and 19th centuries people would collect colonies from the wild and place them in a straw skep, where they would be allowed to develop and produce honey. Only the strongest would be kept through the winter months in a protected area, the rest would be destroyed to collect the honey.
During the 19th century, it was discovered that when bees create a nest by producing comb, (which is a complex wax structure consisting of hexagonal cells, where eggs are laid by the queen), the space between the layers of comb is consistent i.e., we have a bee space in which the bees can just comfortably walk between the comb. This is the basis of the modern hive!
Frames holding a thin sheet of wax slot snugly in. The bees build it out leaving one bee space between each frame.