Z - The BUZZZZZZ of the Bees

The Stewarton hive is a type of historical bee hive. Extra boxes below allowed expansion of the swarm, and thus strongly inhibited swarming and any tendency for the queen to enter the honey boxes, while expansion with extra honey boxes above the brood area gave ample space for the bees to create surplus honey stores that were easily harvested by the beekeeper. The introduction of this hive is credited to Robert Kerr, of Stewarton, Ayrshire, in 1819.

News of Bee Robin, as he was locally known, hive spread quickly among the bee keepers of the district and also into neighbouring counties and even to this day Bee keepers often visit the Stewarton Museum to look at Kerr’s design with the aim of building one for themselves.