Hive
A hive is a building used to house honey bees. Hives can be created at a craftsdwarf's workshop, kiln, glass furnace or metalsmith's forge using stone, wood, ceramics, glass or metal. Hives are categorized as Tools in Finished goods stockpiles. Note that bees cannot be brought with on embark, so starting the beekeeping industry requires at least one wild colony.
In order to house bees, a hive must be constructed on or adjacent to a tile that is above ground. A dwarf with the beekeeperbeekeeping labor enabled will place bees in any hive toggled to "install colony when ready," so long as he or she has access to a preexisting colony of wild bees, or another hive that is ready to be split. You can find out if a hive has bees, and whether or not it has a honeycomb ready to collect on the building's Contained Items screen.
A populated hive will eventually become "ready to be split," which will allow a beekeeper to populate an empty hive using bees from the original. Also, a hives will produce a honeycomb and a royal jelly at some point in time after it becomes ready to be split. If the hive is toggled to "gather any products," a beekeeper will harvest the honeycomb and royal jelly, assuming he has access to a suitable jug in which to put the royal jelly. Royal jelly can be eaten or cooked, and the honeycomb is processed at a screw press workshop to yield wax and honey.
Honey bees in their artificial hive can and will sting your dwarves. Worker bees occasionally appear within a few tiles of a hive and are presumed to be responsible for stinging dwarves. It is likely that an inexperienced beekeeper will receive a bee sting when gathering the products of a hive. Additionally, it has been observed that placing a meeting zone next to hives puts idle dwarves at serious risk of being stung.
Bee stings currently seem to be inconsequential. Bee stings do not appear to be recorded as wounds, but the health screen will show "Slight pain" for the stung dwarf, which can trigger a "recover wounded" task. This can trigger good thoughts about being rescued and resting, even though the hospital stay was instantaneous. Being stung does not seem to produce a bad thought. But don't be surprised if your refuse pile fills up with bees that die after stinging your dwarves.