Many people start with stingless bees by taking a wild colony out of a tree hollow and simply leaving that log sitting in the garden. It works, and the bees do fine.
The problem only shows up when you want to do something with the hive: check its health, split it for propagation, or harvest honey. At that point the log becomes a black box — the only way to see inside is with a saw.
Three types of hive box and their real strengths and weaknesses
A natural tree hollow
The colony stays exactly where it chose to be, with the least disturbance possible. But you can hardly inspect it, you cannot split it without wrecking the nest, and harvesting honey means breaking into the internal structure. It suits someone who simply wants to keep a colony in the garden for the pleasure of it and for pollinating the fruit trees.
The single-chamber box
A simple wooden box with a lift-off lid. Cheap and easy to build. You can inspect it, but opening the lid means opening the whole nest — the brood area and the honey stores are exposed at the same moment. The colony is more badly shocked, and harvesting honey without damaging the brood combs is difficult.
The two-tier box — the most widely used design today
The lower tier is where the bees build the brood nest, the upper tier is for honey storage, and a divider sits between the two. The big advantage: you harvest honey from the upper tier without touching the brood combs in the lower tier.
Splitting is also far tidier, because you can split by tier instead of digging through the whole nest.
The drawbacks: it is more work to build, more expensive, and the bees need time to "accept" moving up into the top tier. But if you intend to keep bees seriously, from three hives upwards, this is the option worth paying for.
Dimensions and materials
There is no single set of numbers that is right for every region, but there are a few principles:
- Do not build it too big. Stingless bee colonies are small. If the box is too roomy, the colony does not have enough workers to keep the whole space warm and humid, and the nest structure ends up spread thin.
- Timber 2–2.5cm thick. Thin timber conducts heat quickly — scorching by day, freezing by night. Thick timber holds the temperature steady, which is why experienced keepers do not use thin plywood.
- Odourless timber, with no chemical treatment. Freshly sawn timber still smells strong, so air it for a few weeks before use. Never paint the inside surfaces or coat them with wood preservative.
- A small entrance. Just wide enough for a few bees to pass at once. A wide entrance makes the colony hard to guard and opens the way for robber bees and ants to raid the honey.
Siting the box: four conditions
Covered in detail in the beginner's guide to keeping stingless bees; in short: morning sun, shelter from rain, off the ground, quiet.
One more point that few people think about: mark the entrance with a visual landmark. Paint a small patch of colour beside the entrance, or place the box next to a fixed object that is easy to recognise. Stingless bees navigate by the landmarks around them; line up several identical boxes in a row and returning foragers will drift into the wrong hive, which leads to fighting.
Common mistakes
Using a plastic or polystyrene box. Cheap and light, but plastic absorbs a terrifying amount of heat around midday, while polystyrene traps moisture and goes mouldy easily. Plenty of colonies have died of heat in plastic boxes left out in the sun.
Placing several boxes close together with the entrances facing the same way. The bees enter the wrong hive. Angle the entrances differently, or space the boxes at least a metre apart, each with its own identifying landmark.
Forgetting ant control. The legs of the stand should be greased with beef tallow or stood in dishes of water. Check them regularly, because grease dries out and fallen leaves bridge the gap for the ants.
Sealing the box up to keep it "warm". The nest needs to release moisture. Sealing it causes condensation, then mould, ruining both the brood combs and the honey pots.
Build your own or buy ready-made
Build your own if you have basic woodworking skills and can source good timber. It costs less, and you understand your own box thoroughly.
Buying ready-made suits you better if you want correct dimensions from the outset, or if you keep several hives and need matching boxes so that splitting colonies and swapping tiers later is straightforward. See our standard hive boxes with setup instructions.