• 20 parts
  • Checked September 2026

Parts of a Beehive

A hive pulled apart from cover to stand, with one frame from inside drawn larger.

Parts of a Beehive

Name Date

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Outer cover (telescoping cover, lid)
  2. Honey super (super)
  3. Brood box (deep hive body, brood chamber)
  4. Frames (movable frames)
  5. Bottom board (hive floor)
  6. Hive stand
  7. Inner cover
  8. Queen excluder
  9. Entrance (hive entrance)
  10. Landing board (alighting board)
  11. Entrance reducer (entrance cleat)
  12. Comb (honeycomb)
  13. Top bar
  14. Bottom bar
  15. End bars (side bars)
  16. Foundation (comb foundation)
  17. Frame wires (support wires)
  18. Hand hold (hand hole)
  19. Inner cover hole (center hole)
  20. Rabbet (the ledge the frames hang on)

Drawn for this site on 2026-09-26: a ten-frame Langstroth hive pulled apart in a parallel oblique view, and one brood frame drawn flat with comb and wired foundation. Licence: own work.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

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All 20 parts on the diagram

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Start here: 8 main parts 8

  1. Outer cover (telescoping cover, lid) The roof: its rim overlaps the box, its metal top sheds rain.
  2. Honey super (super) Added on top as needed; the bees store surplus honey here.
  3. Brood box (deep hive body, brood chamber) The bees' living quarters, where the queen lays her eggs.
  4. Frames (movable frames) Each hangs by its top bar and lifts out for inspection.
  5. Bottom board (hive floor) The floor of the hive, made solid or with a screen.
  6. Hive stand Lifts the hive off damp ground and keeps the floor dry.
  7. Inner cover A thin board under the roof; the air gap insulates.
  8. Queen excluder Workers pass through the grid; the larger queen cannot.

Covers and boxes 3

  1. Hand hold (hand hole) A recess cut in the wall for lifting the box.
  2. Inner cover hole (center hole) Fits a bee escape and lets the beekeeper feed sugar syrup.
  3. Rabbet (the ledge the frames hang on) A ledge in the wall that the top bar ends rest on.

Floor, entrance and stand 3

  1. Entrance (hive entrance) The opening at the front where the bees come and go.
  2. Landing board (alighting board) The ledge in front of the entrance where incoming bees land.
  3. Entrance reducer (entrance cleat) A notched wooden block that narrows the entrance and excludes mice.

One frame, bar by bar 6

  1. Comb (honeycomb) Six-sided wax cells where bees rear young and store food.
  2. Top bar The frame hangs in the box by this bar's two ends.
  3. Bottom bar The thin strip that closes the lower side of the frame.
  4. End bars (side bars) Wider near the top, so neighboring frames keep their spacing.
  5. Foundation (comb foundation) A sheet of beeswax or plastic pressed with the cell pattern.
  6. Frame wires (support wires) Run through holes in the end bars to support the foundation.

How this list was compiled: Part names and the fact lines were written for this site and checked on 2026-09-20 against these sources; nothing was copied. A name is ringed only when two of them use it. (1) University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, Beekeeping: Getting started, https://www.uaex.uada.edu/farm-ranch/special-programs/beekeeping/getting-started.aspx : nine numbered hive parts with the job of each (hive stand, bottom board solid or screened, entrance reducer as a notched wooden block that also keeps mice out, brood chambers as the bees' living quarters, movable frames with beeswax or plastic foundation, optional queen excluder, honey supers added as needed, inner cover with a dead air space and a center hole for a bee escape, telescoping cover with a metal covering that sheds water and reflects heat), and the bee space. (2) University of Georgia Honey Bee Program, Beekeeping Equipment, https://bees.caes.uga.edu/beekeeping-resources/getting-started-topics/getting-started-beekeeping-equipment.html , and University of Georgia Extension Bulletin 1045, https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/B1045/ : hive outer cover, inner cover, shallow honey supers, queen excluder (usually not needed when two hive bodies are used), hive body or brood chamber holding 10 frames, bottom board, hive stand that keeps the hive bottom dry, frames and foundation. (3) US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook 335, Beekeeping in the United States (a work of the United States government, public domain), text at https://archive.org/details/Beekeeping.in.the.United.StatesD7 : the hive as bottom board, hive bodies, supers, queen excluder, inner cover and outer cover; entrance blocks or cleats that restrict the entrance and exclude mice; the telescoping cover covered with sheet metal; the oblong hole of the inner cover for a bee escape and for feeding sugar syrup; the Hoffman frame, self-spacing by the wider top portion of its end bars, with holes in the end bars for wires that support the foundation; hand holes; glossary entries for alighting board, bee space, comb foundation, frame, honeycomb, super, wired foundation and wired frames. (4) Purdue Extension, 4-H-571-W, 4-H Beekeeping Division I, https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/4H/4-H-571-W.pdf , and its Helper's Guide 4-H-576-W: bottom board and entrance cleat, hive body, frames as four strips of wood, comb foundation of beeswax or plastic, inner cover, hive cover as the roof or lid, optional queen excluder, honeycomb as six-sided wax cells where bees rear their young and store their food, and a stand that keeps the hive off damp ground. (5) University of Missouri Extension, G7600, https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g7600 : brood boxes (deeps) and super boxes (mediums), bottom board screened or solid, entrance reducer, optional queen excluder, inner cover, a telescoping lid that extends downward on all four sides, self-spacing frames with widened end bars, foundation embossed with the cell pattern. (6) Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstroth_hive and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hive_frame : the order of the stack, eight to ten frames in a box, top bars that hang on rabbeted slots along a box's upper sides, the bottom board extended beyond the entrance as a landing area, the entrance reducer, beeswax foundation supported by metal wires threaded through a frame, frames set the cold way with their ends toward the entrance, top bar, side bars and bottom bar, and US Patent 9300 issued to L. L. Langstroth on October 5, 1852. (7) A. I. Root and E. R. Root, The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, 1910 (not in copyright), https://archive.org/details/abcxyzofbeecultu00root : top-bars, end-bars, bottom-bar, alighting-board, hand-holes and the rabbets that the ends of the top-bars rest on. The Penn State Extension beekeeping guide could not be opened on the day (its address shows a store listing only), so it is not a source. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-26: a ten-frame Langstroth hive pulled apart in a parallel oblique view, and one brood frame drawn flat with comb and wired foundation. Our own geometry; nothing traced or copied; the text sources are listed in this dataset's source. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a beehive stack in a fixed order: stand, floor, a deep box for the brood, shallower boxes for honey, then two covers. This drawing pulls one hive apart and lays a frame beside it, 20 parts.

Read the full guide

Parts of a Langstroth beehive, from the top down

The outer cover is the roof, and the inner cover under it leaves an insulating air space. Next come the honey supers for surplus honey, then the queen excluder, a grid that keeps the queen below. Under it the brood box holds the nest, on a bottom board whose open front is the entrance. A hive stand carries the stack.

The frame inside every box

A box holds eight or ten frames. Each is a top bar, two end bars and a bottom bar around a sheet of foundation, and the bees build their comb on that sheet. The top bar's ends rest on a rabbet cut into the box wall.

  • Pick One frame, bar by bar for its 6 parts alone. The drawing zooms in on the frame.
  • Start here: 8 main parts covers the big pieces of the stack, from outer cover to hive stand.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a bee hive and their functions?

From the top: the outer cover sheds rain, the inner cover insulates, honey supers store surplus honey, the queen excluder keeps the queen below, the brood box houses the nest, the bottom board is the floor, and the hive stand keeps that floor dry.

What is a Langstroth beehive?

A hive of stacked boxes whose frames hang with a gap of 1/4 to 3/8 inch, the bee space, around them, so each lifts out. L. L. Langstroth patented it on October 5, 1852. The name is a design, not a brand.

What is the difference between a brood box and a honey super?

Both are boxes of frames. The brood box is the deep one at the bottom, where the queen lays her eggs. A super is any box placed above it for surplus honey, and it is usually shallower, so it weighs less when full.

Does a beehive need a queen excluder?

It is optional. The university extension guides checked for this page list it that way, and one says it is usually not necessary when two brood boxes are used. Its job is to keep the queen in the brood box, below the honey supers.

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