What is a log hive?
Short answerTrue
A hollowed section of tree trunk, closed at both ends with removable discs and given a small flight hole. It is the most widespread hive form on earth, still in everyday use from Ethiopia to the Himalaya to the Yucatán, and it works because it is what a wild colony would have chosen anyway.
Why the log
A wild swarm looks for a dry, dark cavity of roughly forty litres with a small entrance, which is exactly a hollow tree. A log hive supplies one deliberately, so baiting it and getting a swarm to occupy it is straightforward. It is cheap, insulating, made from local material and repairable.
It is used horizontally on a stand, hung from a branch, or stood upright, and the orientation belongs to the regional tradition rather than to the hive. The Mesoamerican jobón, used for stingless bees, is the same object with stone end discs.
How old is it?
Sources
- Bees and Beekeeping: Science, Practice and World Resources — Heinemann Newnes (1990) · Monograph
- Bees and their role in forest livelihoods — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2009) · Industry body
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.