Glossary of terms
Apiary – colonies, hives, and other equipment assembled in.one location for beekeeping operations. Apiculture – the science and art of raising honey bees.
Apia mellifera – scientific name of the honey bee.
Bait hive – a hive placed to attract stray swarms.
Bee bread – a mixture of collected pollen and nectar or honey, deposited in the cells of a comb to be used aa food by the bees.
Bee space – 1/4 to 3/8-inch space between combs and hive parts in which bess build no comb or deposit only a small amount of propolis.
Beeswax – a complex mixture of organic compounds secreted by special glands on the last four visible segments on the ventral side of the worker bee’s abdomen and used for building comb. Its melting point is from 62 to 64 degrees C.
Brood – bees not yet emerged from their cells: eggs, larvae, and pupae.
Capped brood – pupae whose cells have been sealed with a porous cover by mature bees to isolate them during their non-feeding pupal period; also called sealed brood.
Cast swarm – a small swarm, usually heeded by a virgin queen, which may leave the hive after the first or prime swarm has departed. Also called an after swarm.
Castes – the three types of bees that comprise the adult population of a honey bee colony: workers, drones, and queen.
Cell – the hexagonal compartment of a honey comb.
Colony – the aggregate of worker bees, drones, queen, and developing brood living together as a family unit in a hive or other dwelling.
Comb – a mass of six-sided cells made by honey bees in which brood is reared and honey and pollen are stored; composed of two layers united at their bases.
Bait hive – a hive placed to attract stray swarms.
Drone – the male honey bee.
Fertile queen – a queen, inseminated instrumentally or mated with a drone, which can lay fertilised eggs.
Foundation – a commercially made structure consisting of thin sheets of beeswax with the cell bases of worker cells embossed on both sides in the same manner as they are produced naturally by honey bees.
Hive tool – a metal device used to open hives, pry frames apart, and scrape wax and propolis from the hive parts.
Honey – a sweet viscid material produced by bees from the nectar of flowers, composed largely of a mixture of dextrose and levulose dissolved in about 17 percent water; contains small amounts of sucrose, mineral matter, vitamins, proteins, and enzymes.
Honey stomach – an organ in the abdomen of the honey bee used for carrying nectar, honey, or water.
Larva (plural, larvae) – the second stags of bas metamorphosis; a white, legless, grub-like insect.
Laying worker – a worker which lays infertile eggs, producing only drones, usually in colonies that are hopelessly queenless.
Mating flight – the flight taken by a virgin queen while she mates in the air with several drones.
Nectar – a sweet liquid secreted by the nectaries of plants; the raw product of honey.
Nucleus (plural, nuclei) – a small hive of bees, usually covering from two to five frames of comb and used primarily for starting new colonies, rearing or storing queens; also called “nuc.”
Nurse bees – young bees, three to ten days old, which feed and take care of developing brood.
Piping – a series of sounds made by a queen, frequently before she emerges from her cell.
Pollen – the male reproductive cell bodies produced by anthem of flowers, collected and used by honey bees as their source of protein.
Pollen basket – a flattened depression surrounded by curved spines or hairs, located on the outer surface of the bao’s hind legs and adapted for carrying pollen gathered from flowers or propolis to the hive.
Prime swarm – the first swarm to leave the parent colony, usually with the old queen.
Proboscis – the mouthparts of the bee that form the sucking tube or tongue.
Propolis – sap or resinous materials collected from trees or plants by bees and used to strengthen the comb, chose up cracks, etc.; also called bee glue.
Pupa – the third stage In the development of the honey bee, during which the organs of the larva are replaced by those that will be used by an adult.
Queen – a fully developed female bee, larger and longer than a worker bee.
Queen cell – a special elongated cell, resembling a peanut shell, in which the queen is reared. It is usually an inch or mora long, has an Inside diameter of about 1/3 inch, and hangs down from the comb In a vertical position.
Queen substance – pheromone material secreted from glands in the queen bee and transmitted throughout the colony workers to alert other workers of the queen’s presence.
Royal jelly – a highly nutritious glandular secretion of young bess, used to feed the queen end young brood,
Scout bees – worker bees searching for a new source of pollen, nectar, propolis, water, or e new home for a swarm of bees.
Skep – a beehive made of twisted strew without movable frames.
Sting – the modified ovipositor of a worker honey bee used as a weapon of offence.
Supercedure – a natural replacement of an established queen by a daughter In the same hive. Shortly after the young queen commences to lay eggs, the old queen disappears.
Swarm – the aggregate of worker bees, drones, and usually the old queen that lave the parent colony to establish a new colony.
Swarming – the natural method of propagation of the honey bee colony
Virgin queen – an unmated queen.
Wax glands – the eight glands that secrete bees wax; located in pairs on the last four visible ventral abdominal segments.
Winter cluster – the arrangement of adult beaa hanging together within the hive during winter.
Worker bee – a female bee whose reproductive organs are undeveloped. Worker bees do all the work in the colony except for laying fertile eggs.
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