"someone" wrote in message
...


My neighbour has a beehive-shaped ice house built about 1850 beneath her
garden. It is accessed via a long tunnel and, after descending into it
about half way, you pass a square recess in the stone wall. I recall her
telling me that she discovered it was used to store a beehive in the
winter, since the temperature is fairly constant. Is this the sort of
thing you mean?

No, an ice house is used for making and storing ice.

But in the past in Britain (and even now in some parts of the world, such as
Canada) beehives were stored in cellars - i.e. in a frost free but dry and
dark - place so an ice house could have been used for storing hives during
winter if it weren't being used for storing ice too. It would be unusual to
have a single recess in such a place for storing a hive. It would more
likely to be used for a light of some kind or tools, overshoes, anything
which might be needed in such a situation. The domed shape is common for ice
houses and of course the domed roof would make it very strong.

A bee bole is usually built into a garden or house wall, some walls have
been built purely to accommodate boles. If you go to the link you'll see
very many examples.

Boles are unsuitable for modern wooden hives, they were used for straw
skeps.

www.ibra.org.uk/beeboles

Mary