How to Build a Mason Jar Beehive for Comb Honey

Man Uses Homemade Beehive To Save The Bees And It's Amazing

A mason jar beehive is a regular hive with a custom top: a wooden board drilled with a dozen holes, each holding an upside-down glass jar. Bees climb up from the brood box below, build comb inside the jars and fill them with honey, so you can lift out a jar of comb honey without disturbing the whole colony. The project went viral after one home builder shared photos of his hive, and it is achievable with basic woodworking tools. Before you start, though, it helps to understand what bees really need.

Why people are building backyard hives

Bees pollinate a large share of the fruits, nuts and vegetables we eat. California's almond orchards alone rent around 1.6 million honey bee colonies each spring, and cherries, apples and many other crops also depend on them. Since the mid-2000s, alarming reports of colonies dying off have encouraged many people to set up hives in gardens, on rooftops and even on city fire escapes.

The picture is more nuanced than "bees are disappearing". The phenomenon named colony collapse disorder, first reported in late 2006, has no single cause. The US Environmental Protection Agency lists several pressures that interact: parasites such as the varroa mite and the viruses it spreads, bacterial diseases such as American foulbrood, poor nutrition from lost forage, pesticide exposure, some management practices and low genetic diversity. Beekeepers in some regions, including the US, still lose a large share of colonies each year.

At the same time, the number of managed honey bee colonies worldwide has grown. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization counted a 47% rise between 1990 and 2021, to about 102 million colonies. The bees in more serious trouble are many wild and native species, which a honey hive does not directly help. Keeping honey bees is rewarding, but it is livestock care rather than a conservation shortcut.

How the jar hive works

The design builds on the standard Langstroth hive, patented by Lorenzo Langstroth in 1852 and still the most common hive in many countries. Its key idea is "bee space", a gap of roughly 6 to 9 millimetres in which bees neither build comb nor glue things shut with propolis. Lower boxes, called brood boxes, hold the queen and her eggs. Honey is stored in boxes stacked above, called supers.

In the jar version, the honey super is replaced by a plywood board with jars screwed into it from above. A wire grid fitted under the holes, visible in the photos, works like a queen excluder: worker bees pass through, but the larger queen generally cannot, so she does not lay eggs in your honey jars.

Materials and cutting list

Start with a ready-made bottom hive kit, meaning a standard brood box with frames, a floor and an entrance. Then gather the following for the jar top:

Two-by-twelve lumber, about six feet long, cut into two 22-inch side pieces.
A second length of the same lumber, cut into two 18-inch pieces for the front and back.
One-by-one strips, about six feet long, cut into two 22-inch pieces for the sides of the top frame.
More one-by-one strip, cut into two 18-inch pieces for the front and back of the top frame.
Thick plywood cut to 16 by 20 inches for the jar board.
Twelve wide-mouth quart mason jars with screw rings.
A box of one-inch wood screws and a can of dark wood stain.
A queen excluder or wire mesh, washers or shims, and of course a colony of bees from a reputable supplier.

Check your brood box measurements before cutting: kit dimensions vary, and the jar board must sit flush on top without gaps bees can escape through.

Building it step by step

1. Cut and assemble the frame

Measure every piece twice, then cut the lumber to length. The heavy boards form a box that sits on the brood box, and the thin strips make the frame that holds the jar board. Screw the frame together and stain the outside in whatever shade you like, keeping stain off the surfaces bees will touch inside.

2. Mark the jar holes

Lay out a grid of 12 holes on the 16 by 20 inch plywood, three rows of four, leaving enough wood between them for strength.

3. Drill and test-fit

Use a 3½-inch hole saw for each opening, then screw a jar ring into every hole to make sure it fits. Fasten the plywood into the frame you built from the 18-inch and 22-inch pieces.

4. Seat the jars

Clean and sanitise the jars, then twist them upside down into the holes. Add washers or shims so the board can carry the weight of jars full of honey. Aim for a snug fit, with less than about a sixteenth of an inch of play between jar and hole.

5. Give the bees a starting point

Fix a strip of foundation or a small piece of empty comb inside each jar. Bees build faster when they have a guide to follow.

6. Add the colony and harvest

Once the colony is settled in the brood box, set the jar top in place. When a jar is completely filled and capped, lift it out, put on its lid and replace it with a fresh, empty jar so the bees keep working. Leave the colony enough honey below to get through winter.

Heat, ventilation and other problems to watch

Glass jars warm up quickly in sunshine and have no airflow, so comb can soften and bees can overheat. Cover the jars with an outer box or lid, and place the hive where it gets afternoon shade. Make sure the hive has ventilation elsewhere, usually through the entrance and a vented inner cover.

Keep the space around the jars sealed so bees cannot build stray comb between them, which makes harvesting messy. Check jars regularly: the brood box underneath still needs the same inspections as any other hive.

Before you keep honey bees

Check local rules. Many towns and cities regulate hive numbers, placement and registration.
Join a beekeeping association. Local mentors and courses are the fastest way to learn hive inspections and swarm control.
Plan for varroa mites. Monitoring and treating mites is now a basic part of keeping colonies alive.
Think about neighbours and allergies. Face the entrance away from paths and talk to people next door.
Help wild bees too. Plant a range of flowers that bloom from spring to autumn, avoid unnecessary pesticides and leave some bare ground and dead stems for nesting.

A jar hive turns honey into something you can see being made, cell by cell. Built carefully and paired with good beekeeping, it is a lovely way to get closer to the insects that feed so much of the world.

Sources: EPA: Pollinator health concerns; Wikipedia: Colony collapse disorder; Wikipedia: Langstroth hive; project via Why Don't You Try This and Boredom Therapy.

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