Apiology – All Things ‘Bee’ Related
I always marvel at what research writing leads me into. And at the moment I’m researching Bees, the study of which is Apiology, the Apis being the Bee.
Without giving too much away, I’m researching bees from a variety of countries, and beekeepers or apiarists. It is proving to be a fascinating subject, although I’m not about to get going in this area myself.
I’ve also been looking at the different types of hives that can found the world over and the reasons for the differences, which are not solely based upon the climate which was my first thought. I’ve also come across a recent design that allows you to see Bees at work in a kind of ‘mini indoor hive’ that you can install in your house, or school (if health and safety regulations permit?). It’s a very clever design that you can see for yourself here:
Click the link if you’re interested in finding out more details about the indoor beehive, The BEEcosystemobservation Hive
Here are some bee and beekeeping related terms that I have come across during the course of my research for one of my future titles:
| Alarm pheromone | This alerts guard bees to potential threats to the colony. It is produced by worker bees |
| Anther | The part of a flower’s stamen that produces pollen. |
| Apiary | The place where beehives are situated |
| Apiculture | The science and art of bees and beekeeping. |
| Bee veil | Protective cloth of wire netting which stops a beekeeper’s head and neck from being stung |
| Beeswax | Wax that is secreted by special glands on the underside of the bees. |
| Blending | Like making a fine whiskey, mixing various varieties of honey can make something better than the sum of the parts, typically improving flavour and colour. |
| Brood | All stages of immature honey bees; eggs, larvae and pupae |
| Brood chamber | The part of the hive where the brood is based. Generally this is at the bottom of most modern hives. |
| Cell | A single hexagonal wax compartment, the basic unit of comb. Each honey bee develops within a single cell, and honey and pollen are stored within cells. |
| Colony | Honey bees are social insects. Each honey bee can only live as part of a colony and not individually. Each colony of honey bees contains one queen bee who is the female parent of the colony, a few hundred drone bees and thousands of worker bees. |
| Comb |
The wax structure made of hexagonal cells in which honey bees rear young and store food.
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| Drone | A male honey bee Drones undertake no work within the hive: their sole function is to fertilize the queen. |
| Extractor | The centrifugal machine in which honey is spun out of cells within com |
| Forage | Flowering plants which provide nectar and/or pollen for bees. |
| Forager | A worker honey bee that collects pollen, nectar, water or propolis for the colony. |
| Foundation | A thin sheet of beeswax embossed with the hexagonal pattern of comb. A sheet of foundation is placed in each wooden frame and this serves as a base upon which honey bees build their comb. Without foundation honey bees would not necessarily build their comb in the orientation required by the beekeeper. |
| Frame | A wooden rectangular frame that holds a sheet of wax foundation. A number of frames hang parallel to one another inside the hive. |
| Frame hive | A hive which contains frames. The honey bees are encouraged to build their comb within these |
| Hive | Any container provided by humans for bees to nest in. |
| Langstroth hive | A design of frame hive. The inventor, the Rev L Langstroth recognised the importance of bee space and this allowed him to design the movable-frame hive. |
| National | The name given to the most popular style of hobby hive in the UK |
| Nectar | A sweet liquid secreted by flowers, a watery solution of various sugars. |
| Pacifier | A substance used to calm bees |
| Pollen | The fine dust-like substances which are the male reproductive cells of flowering plants. Collected by bees as a source of protein. |
| Pollen basket | Areas of stiff hairs on the hind legs of worker honey bees where they carry pollen |
| Propolis | This is a sticky brown filler or type of glue that bees produce to seal gaps in the hive. It is made from many differing sources, the main one being tree sap. Propolis has many amazing antiseptic medicinal uses and is produced commercially for sale in tincture or tablet form |
| Queen | The female parent of the colony, the only sexually developed female. |
| Queen excluder | A metal grid placed between the brood box and super in a modern hive. The spaces are wide enough to allow worker bees to pass through with honey but are too narrow for the Queen to pass through and lay eggs. |
| Royal jelly | Glandular secretions of worker honey bees mixed with some regurgitated carbohydrates and fed to developing bees. |
| Scout bees | Worker honey bees that are responsible for locating new sources of forage’, or a new location for a swarm. |
| Smoker | A device for generating smoke to subdue bees. Often made from a metal can with bellows attached. |
| Super | Any hive box placed above the brood nest. Usually contains combs in which bees will store honey. |
| Swarming | When a honey bee colony becomes large enough to divide into two, swarming takes place. When this happens a new queen is reared, the colony divides and a swarm leaves the hive or nest. This swarm consists of a queen, drones and workers which will form another colony in a new location. |
| Worker bees | Female honey bees that make up the bulk of the colony and undertake all the work of the colony except for mating and egg laying. Workers are sterile females. |
