Bee Vocabulary Project:
Here are 50 beekeeping words we think are important.
1. Apiary: A place where bees are kept; a collection of beehives.
2. Beehive: A man-made structure in which honeybees live and raise their young.
3. Brood: The eggs, larvae, and pupae of bees developing in the hive.
4. Brood Chamber: The part of the hive where the queen lays eggs and brood is raised.
5. Drone: The male honeybee whose primary role is to mate with a queen.
6. Worker Bee: A female bee that does not reproduce but performs various tasks for the hive, such as foraging and brood care.
7. Queen: The sole egg-laying female in a hive, responsible for colony reproduction. The only fertile female in a hive.
8. Comb: The wax structure made by bees, consisting of hexagonal cells used to store honey, pollen, and brood.
9. Honey Super: A hive box placed above the brood chamber to collect surplus honey.
10. Frame: A wooden or plastic structure that holds the comb within the hive and usually 8 or 10 in a conventional Langstroth style hive.
11. Foundation: A pre-formed sheet of beeswax or plastic placed in frames to guide bees in building comb.
12. Swarming: The natural process of colony reproduction where a new queen and a portion of the bees leave to form a new colony.
13. Hive Tool: A tool used by beekeepers to open hives, scrape off excess wax, and manipulate frames.
14. Smoker: A device that produces smoke to calm bees during hive inspections.
15. Nectar: A sugary liquid secreted by flowers, collected by bees to make honey.
16. Pollen: The male reproductive cells of flowers, collected by bees as a protein source.
17. Propolis: A resinous substance collected by bees from tree buds, used to seal cracks and strengthen the hive.
18. Royal Jelly: A special feed produced by worker bees, used to nourish larvae and queens. It’s produced in their mandibular gland.
19. Varroa Mite: A parasitic mite that carries viruses that infect honeybee colonies, causing death and disease.
20. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD): A phenomenon where worker bees disappear from the hive, leaving the queen and brood behind.
21. Bee Space: The precise space (about 3/8 inch) that bees need to move freely between combs and structures. Larger and they wax it in; smaller and they propolis it in.
22. Foraging: The act of bees collecting nectar, pollen, water, and propolis from the environment.
23. Queen Excluder: A screen placed between the brood chamber and honey super, allowing workers but not the queen to pass through.
24. Larva: The second stage of bee development, following the egg stage.
25. Pupa: The stage of bee development where the larva transforms into an adult bee.
26. Apis mellifera: The scientific name for the European honeybee.
27. Drone Congregation Area (DCA): A specific area where drones gather to mate with queens.
28. Guard Bee: A worker bee that defends the hive entrance from intruders.
29. Nectar Flow or “the Flow”: A period when nectar is abundant, and bees are actively collecting nectar to make honey.
30. Extracting: The process of removing honey from the comb, usually using a centrifugal extractor.
31. Package Bees: A group of bees with a queen, sold to start a new colony.
32. Nuc (Nucleus Colony): A small colony created from a larger one, used for starting new hives.
33. Beeswax: A natural wax produced by bees, used to build comb.
34. Foundationless: A beekeeping method where frames are used without pre-formed foundation, allowing bees to build natural comb.
35. Open Mating: Natural mating of queen bees in DCA’s with drones from various colonies in the environment.
36. Closed Mating: Controlled mating of queens with selected drones to ensure specific traits.
37. Bearding: Bees clustering outside the hive entrance, usually due to high temperatures inside. When this occurs there is usually brood loss from excess temperatures.
38. Absconding: When an entire colony leaves the hive permanently.
39. Queenright: A hive with a healthy, laying queen.
40. Queenless: A hive without a queen.
41. Swarm Trap: A device or box used to attract and capture swarming bees.
42. Supersedure: The replacement of an old or failing queen by the bees.
43. Capped Honey: Honey that has been sealed in the comb by bees with a wax cap.
44. Grafting: Utilizing a queenless colony to draw queen cells from young worker larva you have transferred into wax or plastic cups on a cell bar.
45. Hive Stand: A structure that elevates the hive off the ground allowing some protection from moisture, ants and small mammals.
46. Comb Honey: Honey sold in its original comb.
47. Post-Solstice Queen: A queen made after the summer solstice to improve the winter survival rate by having a young healthy prolific queen that will also have a lower tendency to swarm in the spring.
48. Skeps: Traditional beehives made from straw or wicker.
49. Waggle Dance: A behavior performed by forager bees to communicate the location of food sources.
50. Requeening: The process of introducing a new queen to a hive for the purpose of improving genetics, replacing a failing queen, or preparing for winter with a post-solstice queen.