Acarapis Woodi 

a mite which infests mainly the tracheae that lead from the first pair of thoracic spiracles of adult bees.  The main effect of the mite is to shorten the life of the bee.

Acarine 

see Acarapis Woodi

AFB 

see American Foul Brood

American Foul Brood 

a Notifiable Disease (all beekeeepers  have a legal obligation to report any suspicion of a notifiable disease or pest to the Bee Inspector at their local Scottish Government Rural Payments Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) Area Office Email: SGRPID.Hamilton@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or email Bees Mailbox with your details). Named for where the disease was first discovered. A bacterial infection caused by Paenibacillus Larvae. It develops in the larva’s gut after the cell is sealed, consuming the larva, and reproduces by producing spores which are picked up by nurse bees cleaning out the cell who then pass it on to other larvae in the brood food, so spreading the disease. The spores are unaffected by disinfectants, they can lie dormant for as long as 50 years. Moving equipment among colonies, apiaries and between beekeepers can spread the disease far and wide. For this reason it is not advisable to accept equipment, especially deep frames with old wax, from other beekeepers. This is why it is also advised that a regular removal of old frames is carried out ensuring that wax in brood frames is no more than 3 years old. The disease is recognised by the sunken appearance of the cell cappings and sometimes a ‘pepper pot’ appearance of the frame where cells have been opened haphazardly to clean them out unsuccessfully. The queen is unable to lay in cells as they cannot be cleaned out. When a matchstick is used to stir the cell contents, a mucous like rope is extracted when you withdraw the matchstick. There is no treatment for AFB. All the bees are killed and the frames, combs, bees and honey are burned and then buried to prevent robbing which would spread the disease. Wooden boxes can be scorched to kill the spores.

Antennae 

bees have 2 antennae they are divided into segments (flagellae), 12 in the worker and Queen, 13 in the drone. They are primarily used to detect smell.

Apiary 

A site where a bee hive or hives is located.

Apilife Var 

a treatment to help control varroa. It is based on organic products such as thymol and eucalyptus oil, menthol and camphor. It is used on the hive after the honey has been harvested. May be detrimental to polystyrene hives. Is only effective in warmer weather, ie above 15degrees Celcius.

Apis Cerana 

the species of bee native to areas of asia.

Apis Mellifera 

the native british honeybee.

Apivar 

a synthesised substance used to control varroa. The active ingredient is amitrax which affects the nervous system of the mites. It is used in flea collars for dogs and cats. Varroa can become resistant to apivar, it should be used as part of an Integrated Pest Management plan (IPM).

Bee Bread 

pollen chewed with honey and fed to drone and worker larvae.

Bee Inspector 

the Bee Inspector can be contacted at the local Scottish Government Rural Payments Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) Area Office Email: SGRPID.Hamilton@scotland.gsi.gov.uk. Bee Inspectors have many duties, they monitor the sea ports and airports to ensure the health of bees being imported to the UK and monitor to ensure bee pests are not introduced; they implement movement bans when Foul broods are detected; they help to improve honeybee health by inspecting apiaries and advising on management of bees and treatement of pests. You can request a Bee Inspector to come to inspect your apiary by contacting them at the email address earlier in this entry.

Bee Space 

or beeway was discovered in 1789 by Francois Huber. It is a space of between 6-10mm. It is the space that bees use as a corridor to move around the hive.  Bees leave one beespace between the surfaces of adjacent frames of stored honey and two beespaces between combs in the brood nest. Langstroth recognised the need for bee space in the design of his moveable frame hive.  Bees will fill spaces less than 6mm with propolis, and brace comb if more than 10mm. Hives are built with either bottom OR top beespace. The two are not compatible as combining them will cause bees to be squashed.

Bee Suit 

a protective suit which may be a full suit, covering the body, arms and legs, or a jacket and trousers. The material is usually cotton to allow breathability. While it may not prevent stings penetrating it, it does dramatically reduces the likelihood of being stung. The suit is completed by a veil covering the head and face. Vulnerable points are wrists and ankles so gloves and boots are generally worn. Suits should be laundered regularly. Dirty suits can harbour disease. Also, washing removes the pheromones left by stings which encourage bees to sting at that point. Suits come in many different colours, traditionally white, camouflage is becoming more popular as beekeepers try to keep the location of apiaries hidden to protect from theft or damage. Most can be laundered in household washing machines. Steeping in a solution of washing soda prior to washing can help remove wax and propolis. The veils normally require to washed by hand as machine washing damages the mesh.

Beeswax 

wax is produced by bees from 8 wax glands on their abdomens. It takes approximately the same quantity of nectar to make one pound of wax as it does to produce 7 pounds of honey. Wax is valuable to bees and beekeepers. Some bee suppliers, like Thornes, will exchange cakes of wax for foundation. Beeswax is renowned for making exceptionally good candles that do not smoke and give a good, clean light. It is also very popular for use in furniture polishes and some cosmetics. It has a multitude of other uses: waterproofing of fabrics; protection of leather e.g. saddles and other horse tack; encaustic painting; lost wax casting techniques; some dentistry techniques; chewing gum; some medical surgical procedures; protection for fruit to prevent dessication; as a coating on sweets eg jelly beans. Beeswax melts at 62 degrees C (145 F). In food labelling it has an E number E901.

Bottom Bar 

the lower bars on a frame, fitted to help support the weight of the honey or brood stored in the frame. They helps to keep the sheet of foundation flat so that the bees can draw it evenly, wavy foundation leads to wavy combs which inhibit manipulation of frames within the hive and makes honey extraction difficult. Frames can come with single or double bottom bars; single bottom bars are generally used with unwired foundation, double bottoms bars are generally used with wired foundation.

Bottom Space 

some hives are designed with the bee space at the top, others at the bottom, making the parts incompatible. Bottom space hive designs include the National, WBC and Commercial.

Brace Comb 

bees build extra comb to fill spaces, they do not like wasted space in the hive. Hives are built with a ‘bee space’  to help prevent unnecessary wild or brace comb being built. As part of an Integrated Pest Management plan to reduce the numbers of Varroa in a colony, a super frame can be placed in a brood box to encourage the bees to draw out brace comb, very often it is drawn with cells at 4 to the inch to be used for rearing drones. Removal of this comb, and the mites in the drone cells, reduces the varroa buren of the colony. However, the down side is that it also removes drones which represent a significant amount of energy of the colony, and they are needed to provide diversity in mating virgin queens, so this should not be done regularly and as only a part of an IPM plan.

Braula 

braula coeca is an insect. It is a parasite of bees, about 1.4mm in length, reddish brown, resembling a miniature spider (although it has only 6 legs being an insect). Also called a bee louse. Generally they only damage cappings, which can be a problem if you plan on showing a frame. Tobacco smoke is reputed to make them let go of their hold of the bee on which they travel and when they land on the floor board they can be disposed of immediately, a blowtorch being very useful.

Brood 

young brood consists of eggs and larvae until they are capped. Older brood is brood which has been capped i.e. sealed with a capping of wax mixed with pollen to allow the larva to spin its cocoon and metamorphose into an adult bee.

Brood and a Half 

instead of using only one brood box the beekeeper provides the bees with a larger brood space by putting a super on top (or below) the brood box. If a queen excluder is used it is used above the brood and a half i.e. before the supers to be used for honey storage.

Brood Box 

see Deep

Buckfast 

a type of bee bred by Brother Adam (1898 – 1996) of Buckfast Abbey to be a good worker, give a good surplus of honey and be easy to handle. Generally very yellow in colour.

Butler Cage 

see queen cage

Candy 

a solid sugar feed used to feed bees in the winter months when syrup cannot be given. A simple recipe for candy is to bring tot the boil 6lb of sugar, one pint of water and a teaspoon of cream of tartar, stir constantly until the sugar is fully dissolved. Simmer for 10 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool to around 50 degrees C and stir until it thickens whereupon it should be poured into shallow moulds. Place directly on top of the frames, in contact with the cluster.

Capped Brood 

larvae which are old enough to be capped over to allow them to  begin pupating and metamorphosing into adult bees. The capping is a mixture of wax and pollen which allows air to permeate otherwise the larvae would suffocate. The state of the cappings can indicate health or disease – see American Foul Brood..

Cappings 

bees use the wax they make, in their wax glands on their abdomens in thin sheet like flakes, to make frames of wax for the queen to lay in and to store honey, nectar and pollen. They make particularly fine white wax to seal the cells containing honey. They mix pollen with wax to make air permeable cappings for cells containing brood.

Castellations 

metal edgings used on supers to space the frames. They are available with a variety of different slot numbers. The fewer the slots the deeper your frames need to be drawn to prevent wild or brace comb from being produced. Useful when transporting hives as they prevent the frames from swinging and crushing bees.

Casts 

following a primary swarm, one or more secondary swarms, or casts, may occur. Casts generally contain fewer bees than the primary swarm. The queen within the cast may be a virgin. The smaller cast, once caught, can be added to another colony to increase its size.

Cells 

each hexagonal space on a frame of beeswax is called a cell. Cells are used to store pollen, nectar, honey and larvae.

Chalk Brood 

a fungal infection of the brood. The brood die in the cell and look like mummies. The mummies are white until the fungal spores are produced when they can look black. Evidence of this disease can be seen in the detritus on the floor board. Some colonies seem more prone to this than others. Requeening can help. It is quite common in Scotland.

Chilled Brood 

to develop properly, brood needs to be kept at an optimum temperature of between 32 and 35 degrees. If the queen is a prolific layer she may produce too many larvae for the existing adult bees to cover and so keep warm. Keeping a frame of larvae out of the hive too long during an inspection on a colder or a windier day may also result in chilled brood. Chilled brood is dead brood and may appear yellow-ish/grey before turning black. The larvae will dessicate and adult bees can easily remove the husks.

Clearer board 

also known as an ‘escape’, a board used to remove bees from supers so the supers can be easily removed for extraction. There are numerous types of clearer board – Canadian, Rhomboid, Porter. The bees have an ‘escape’ route down into the brood box but are unable to find their way back up to the super. Some work faster than others, some use a maze, some use springs.

Cluster 

in cold weather, especially in the winter, the bees in the hive will form a cluster over 2 or more frames. It is effectively a ball of bees. This allows the colony to protect the queen and any brood she has laid, which will be in the centre of the cluster, where it is warmer. Bees on the outside of the cluster will move in to get heat and bees from the warmer centre will move out to take their turn on the outside. A cluster will generally move upwards in colder weather, consuming stores stored above them on the way. A hive of bees can starve in the winter even if there is plenty of honey in the hive as a cluster will generally not move sideways. Winter feed should be placed directly on the top bars of the frames over the cluster.

Cold Way 

describes the orientation of the frames in the brood box. The outside dimensions of a national hive are square therefore the brood box can be sat on top of the floor in two directions. With the frames running perpendicular, i.e. at 90 degrees, to the entrance it is described as the ‘cold way’. The edges of the frames nearest the entrance will be the coolest and the bees may be more reluctant to draw or work these areas, however air is said to circulate more effectively with this set up, which may be an advantage in warmer weather. The frames in the supers should be orientated the same way as the in the brood. With the frames running parallel to the entrance it is decribed as the ‘warm way’, the frontmost frame may not be fully utilised by the bees as it will be cooler than subsequent frames being nearer the draught from the entrance.

Commerical Hive 

a bottom space hive. Single walled. The main benefit is the size of the deeps or brood boxes, the frames for which are 16″x10″ allowing a larger brood space. It is compatible with National equipment. There is an eke called a Hamilton converter which will convert a national brood box into a 10 frame commercial.

Contact Feeder 

a plastic tub or a glass jar or a tin with a lid, all can be used. Small holes are punched in one end and when the container is placed holes down, a vacuum inside the container prevents the liquid running out. The bees access the syrup through the holes. A contact feeder can be used on top of a crown board, e.g. during the summer months, it can also be used in direct contact with the cluster in winter by placing it directly on the top bars above the cluster, but the container would have to be insulated.

Corbiculae 

the pollen baskets on the back legs of a honey bee. Used by forager bees to collect pollen and propolis to bring back to house bees at the hive.

Crown Board 

generally a wooden board (may be plastic in polystyrene hives) placed over the top of the topmost box to retain heat. Normally has a hole (or two) which can be used to support feeders placed on top of the colony or for bee escapes when clearing a super of bees to harvest the honey.

Dadant Hive 

a top space hive design, single walled. A very large hive.Frames are 17_5/8” x 11_1/4” (448mm x 286mm).

Deep 

a brood box, which requires deep frames, if shallow or super frames are used the bees will draw wild comb on the bottoms bars making the frames harder to handle, but this can be used as a technique to help manage Varroa.

Demaree 

a method of swarm control. Put a new brood box with some foundation and some drawn comb on the original floor site leaving room for the queen on her frame. Move the queen on her frame into the middle of this box. Put a queen excluder on top of the brood box. Put two supers of stores above the queen excluder. Put the old brood box with all the young brood, i.e. uncapped larvae and eggs, above the supers. The nurse bees will migrate to the top of the hive and the older flying bees will be in the bottom of the box.

Drawn Foundation 

bees given foundation in a frame will draw out the wax into cells. They make their own wax and add this to the foundation to make the cells deep enough for their use. Super frames held by castellations can be spaced to encourage the bees to draw the cells deeper, which allows more honey to be stored per cell. See bee space.

Drone 

a male bee. Drones are formed from unfertilised eggs, generally laid by a queen bee, but laying workers can lay eggs which are unfertilised and therefore mature into drones. The drone takes 24 days from being laid as an egg to hatching out. His purpose is to fertilise a virgin queen. He is mature enough to fertilise a queen at around 13 days after hatching. He can only mate once and then he dies as part of his abdominal contents are dragged out after mating. If a drone does not mate with a queen he may live for up to 50 days. Drones cannot feed themselves and rely on workers to feed them. The are ejected from the hive in autumn as the workers conserve food for the rest of the colony to survive. Drones will gather at Drone Congregation sites in the summer on good days waiting for queens to come looking for them. Drones have no sting. Drone sacrificing is used as a method of controlling varroa. A super frame is placed in a brood box, the bees draw out ‘wild’/brace comb under the frame with 4 to the inch cells in which the queen will lay unfertilised eggs, varroa prefer drone brood as it takes longer to mature giving the young mites more time to mature before the drones hatch. The wild comb is cut and the varroa (and the larvae) are killed by freezing or burning the comb.

Drone Cappings 

drones are slightly larger than workers and they are raised in cells that the bees make at 4 to the inch. The cell cappings are domed, giving the frame a lumpy look, this is because the larger drone larva needs more space to pupate.

Drone Comb 

bees build their hexagonal cells in two different sizes, 4 to the inch for drones, 5 to the inch for workers. (also 5 to the inch for storing nectar, honey and pollen)

Drone laying Queen 

if a queen has insufficient sperm she is unable to lay fertilised eggs therefore any eggs she lays will be unfertilised and will be drones when they mature. Queens that do not mate, or older queens which are failing, become drone laying queens and need to be replaced if the colony is to survive.

Dummy Board 

a plastic or wooden board the same dimensions as a standard frame, but solid. It is usually sited to one edge of the colony allowing the board to be removed during inspections leaving more space to manipulate the bees on the frames without rolling or squashing the bees. Also used if the brood box is not used to capacity, the dummy board becomes the end wall for the colony. It also helps to retain heat by saving the bees having to heat the entire box space.

Dysentery 

bee diarrhoea – may be a result of bees being infected with Nosema. Bees defecate inside the hive leaving brown streaks on the tops of frames. These signs may also be due to the bees being unable to leave the hive to defecate, perhaps during a prolonged cold spell. The National Bee Unit will test samples of bees for you to see if Nosema is present – http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm

EFB 

see European Foul Brood

Eke 

a four sided box, the same outside dimensions as a brood or a super but much shorter. Ekes are used to surround feeders to support the roof to keep the hive watertight. Ekes are also used if you have a queen cell that extends below the bottom of your brood box, ensuring that you don’t damage it while manipulating the boxes.

European Foul Brood 

a Notifiable Disease (all beekeeepers  have a legal obligation to report any suspicion of a notifiable disease or pest to the Bee Inspector at their local Scottish Government Rural Payments Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) Area Office Email: SGRPID.Hamilton@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or email Bees Mailbox with your details). Named for where the disease was first discovered. A bacterial infection caused by Melissococcus Plutonius. The bacteria is passed to the larva as it is fed by nurse bees. As the bacteria grows it competes for food and can cause the larva to die of starvation,  it does not always kill the larva. Affected larvae are described as lying in uncomfortable twisted positions instead of neatly curled in the cell. Dead larvae have a melted down, yellow/white colour and an unpleasant, sour odour. The Bee Inspector will decide if a shook swarm is advised or if the entire colony should be destroyed as for AFB. Bees can cope with a low level of infection but will eventually succumb as numbers of the spores increase. It is the duty of the beekeeper to check for this disease on a regular basis, looking closely for as little as a single larva which displays the symptoms. As spores can build up in the wax of brood frames it is important to ensure that frames are disposed of on a regular basis. Some beekeepers recommend a 3yr life span for brood frames, culling a certain number of frames from each brood box each year.

Extractor – Radial 

a device used to extract honey from combs. After removal of the cappings, the combs are placed in the extractor with the top bars facing outwards round the rim. As the machine turns (by hand or by electric motor) the honey is flung out onto the outer rim where it drips down into the tank. Not effective for heather honey unless the frames are heated first, or aggitated, to overcome the viscosity of the heather honey. Not effective for Oil Seed Rape honey unless it is removed from the hive while it is still liquid, before it crystalises.

Extractor – Tangential 

a device used to extract honey from combs. After removal of the cappings, the combs are placed in the extractor with the top bars facing the direction you intend to spin the machine. It is turned manually or by electric motor. It is necessary to extract only half the honey in the first side of the combs, i.e. those facing outwards towards the rim of the machine, and then to remove and replace the combs with their other faces facing outwards and spin to extract all the honey from this side before once more removing the frames and reversing them to extract the remaining honey from the first side, in order to protect the combs which would otherwise be torn from the frames by the force and weight of the honey as the machine rotates.

Eyes 

bees have 5 eyes. Two large multifaceted compound eyes which they use to detect colour and form, and 3 small unfaceted eyes (ocelli) they use for navigation using polarised sunlight.

Feeder 

a box or tub of plastic or wood (or a glass jar with a lid with holes in it) used to contain liquid feed. There are two main types: Rapid feeders, such as miller 

and ashforth

 and English feeders

; and contact feeders

 . Polystyrene hives often have built in feeders as feeders used for wooden hives may not fit polystyrene hives. Frame feeders will fit most hives but have the disadvantage that the bees will build comb inside them once they extract the feed.

Flagellum 

a section of an antenna. The antennae are divided into 12 sections in Queens and workers, and into 13 sections for drones

Fondant 

a sugar paste used to feed bees, normally in the winter when syrup is not an option. Place directly on the tops of the frames, immediately above the cluster.

Forager 

a worker bee becomes a forager about 3 weeks after she has hatched. She will take an orientation flight to ensure she knows where her home is so she can return to it and then she will go in search of nectar, pollen, water and propolis as required by the colony. Foragers are the bees that perform the waggle dance. When they return to the hive they will give directions to other foragers on how to find what they have brought back. Other foragers will be able to follow her directions to the source of the nectar or pollen. Workers are normally only foragers for the last 2 weeks of their lives. A worker bee can fly about 500 miles in her 2 weeks of flying, visiting 2,000 flowers a day and making 50 trips per day back to the hive. When their wings wear out from flying worker bees generally die away from the hive, this saves some other bee having to use precious energy in clearing up after them!

Formic Acid 

an organic acid, produced by many insects including ants. Found naturally in small quantities in honey. Used to treat varroa as the molecule size is so small it can penetrate the cell cappings and kill the mites in the cells. Treatment generally involves absorbent pads placed in the colony when the temperature is above 10 degrees C. Protective equipment is needed when handling this hazardous substance. It is generally used at a strength of 60%.  A commercially produced formic acid treatment is available – MAQS which comes, not as a liquid, but in impregnated strips that are hung in the hive.

Foundation 

sheets of wax impressed with an hexagonal pattern to encourage the bees to draw it out into cells. The pattern may be 4 to the inch to stimulate drone production or the more common 5 to the inch used for worker brood production and for honey supers for the storage of honey. Wired foundation has a wire running either in a W shape top to bottom or in parallel lines horizontally through the wax to reinforce it. Reinforcing with wire in this way makes the foundation stronger and can be of use in the brood boxes where larger sheets are used, but it also makes it easier to preserve the wax in supers when extracting honey. Unwired foundation is generally more fragile and is normally used where section honey or honey on the comb is to be harvested.

Foundation Press 

see Wax Press

Frame 

a wooden support for wax foundation or comb into which bees can put larvae or stores. They are made of top bars, side bars and bottom bars – see N1-N5. Generally frames are fitted with wax foundation to reduce the amount of wax the bees have to make.

Frame Feeder

a container shaped to be as wide as a fully drawn frame that is placed in the hive and filled with sugar syrup to feed the bees. A small piece of balsa wood is floated on top of the syrup for the bees to perch on while accessing the syrup without drowning. The main disadvantage is that you have to open the colony to top up the feeder. Its main advantage is that it can be used in nucleus boxes which don’t normally have crown boards and ekes or supers..

Haemolymph 

bee blood. A colourless fluid, it transports energy around the bee’s body from the gut to the muscles and brain. Varroa mites are thought to feed on the haemolymph.

Hamilton Convertor 

an eke used to convert a national brood to take 10 commercial sized brood frames

Heavy Syrup 

sugar syrup is fed to bees for many reasons: to prevent starvation; to stimulate laying. Syrup is always made from refined white sugar, never unrefined or brown sugar, which the bees cannot use. Heavy syrup is more concentrated than light syrup. Add boiling water to the sugar and stir until it is dissolved. A little heat may be required when making heavy syrup. Use the ratio of sugar:water 1kg:0.5L (1kilo to 1 pint). It is given to the bees using a feeder.

Hefting 

lifting the corners of a hive to estimate if there is sufficient weight of food stores to last the bees through the winter. Hefting does not indicate where the stores are in relation to the cluster, so an inspection may be necessary to ensure the bees are in contact with their stores, otherwise feeding may be needed. It is recommeded you heft at least 2 corners of a hive in case all the stores are all to one side.

Hive Tool 

a metal tool, usually of stainless steel, shaped in various ways, used by the beekeeper to lever up frames, scrape propolis or wax from surfaces, open cells, squash bees and a myriad of other tasks. It should be held in the hand at all times when carrying out an inspection. They are renowned for getting lost when you put them down, even for an instant, no matter what colour they are!

Hoffman Frames 

these frames have shaped side bars which are broader at the top than at the bottom which allow frames to be self-spacing negating the need for spacers or castellations. Considered to be of more use in the brood box than in supers as the shape of the side bars makes uncapping more awkward when harvesting honey.

Honey 

honey is made from nectar, a sucrose rich liquid which bees gather from flowers. The bees use the enzymes in their saliva, along with evaporation, to reduce the water content to produce a super saturated sugar solution containing  a variable proportion of inverted sugars (glucose and fructose) with less than 17% water which, when capped with wax capping to prevent the moisture in the air reaching it, will not ferment. The bees can then use this as a food store to survive the winter months. Bees need to dilute the honey to use it, it is their source of carbohydrate.

Honey Bee 

an insect which makes nectar into honey to store to survive lean periods. Many bees make honey but only the honeybee makes a surplus.

Honey Flow 

when there is a surge in the production of nectar available to bees, e.g. when certain trees come into flower or when heather is in flower.

Honey Stomach 

to bring back nectar to the hive a forager bee has to swallow the nectar. She will hold the nectar in her stomach by closing her proventriculus thus preventing it moving into her gut. When she comes back to the colony she regugitates the nectar to pass it to a house bee. The honeybee honey stomach may contain as much as 75 milligrams (0.003 ounce) of nectar, which can be about one-third the insect’s total weight.

House Bee 

a worker bee becomes a house bee about 10 days after hatching. She will take nectar and pollen from foraging bees as they return to the hive and place them in appropriate cells, round the tops of brood frames, or if there is a honey flow she will put nectar into cells in the supers. Passing nectar from bee to bee mixes it with bee saliva which contains enzymes that invert the sucrose in nectar into glucose and fructose, this also has the effect of removing some of the water content of the nectar. House bees also fan the nectar in the cells to help reduce the water content further (down to 17%) by evaporation before capping the cells with wax to prevent the honey from absorbing water from the air which would allow it to ferment making it useless to the bees. House bees become sentries or guard bees defending the entrance to the hive before becoming foragers.

Hypopharangeal Glands 

worker bees have two glands inside their heads which produce royal jelly, brood food, a highly nutritious protein rich substance. These glands mature a short time after a worker bee hatches and one of her tasks becomes feeding the larvae. Initially she feeds older larvae by mixing this royal jelly with pollen. As she matures, the royal jelly becomes more nutritious and she progresses to feeding younger larvae then the queen. The presence of larvae stimulates this maturation of the glands. A nurse bee requires to eat large quantities of pollen to produce royal jelly.

Inspection 

a visual check of the state of the inside of the hive. A routine inspection would include checking if the colony is queen right, has eggs, sealed brood and stores of honey and pollen as well as checking for pests and dieases.

Integrated Pest Management 

a combination of different approaches to dealing with a variety of pests to protect the health of a hive of bees. Methods include, chemical (organic acids, medications etc.), mechanical (open mesh floors etc.) and general common sense practices regarding cleanliness and tidiness e.g. not leaving old wax or frames around the apiary, regular rotation of frames to remove old wax, using a soda wash for tools, keeping equipment clean, fumigating or scorching wooden boxes before using on another colony.

IPM 

see Integraged Pest Management

Isle of White Disease 

in 1906 a previously unseen disease decimated the bee population on the Isle of Wight. In 1912 it was suggested that the losses had been due to nosema but this was disproved. In 1919 acarine was suggested to be the cause. More recent research has concluded that a combination of factors including chronic paralysis virus (unknown at the time), poor weather limiting foraging and overstocking (keeping too many bees for the amount of forage available) was more likely.

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Larva 

when a bee egg hatches it becomes a larva. A larva goes through 5 moults before it spins a silk cocoon and metamorphoses to become an adult bee. Larvae of all 3 castes are fed royal jelly from the hypopharangeal glands of nurse bees for the first three days after hatching. Queen larvae continue to be fed only royal jelly but worker and drone larvae are then fed a mixture of royal jelly and pollen mixed with honey – bee bread.

Laying Worker 

if a colony becomes queenless one or more workers may, due to the changes in pheromones in the colony, develop sufficiently to lay eggs. All these eggs will be unfertilised and so will only produce drones. As workers have shorter abdomens than queens a laying worker can be detected as the eggs will not be deposited at the bottom of cells but partway up the walls. Also, there may be more than one egg per cell. Quite often requeening is not successful and many beekeepers recommend dispersing the remaining bees among other colonies or just tipping the bees onto the ground in the apiary to allow the workers to beg entrance at other hives.

Lift 

a wooden box-surround used around the broods and supers of a WBC hive.

Light Syrup 

sugar syrup is fed to bees for many reasons: to prevent starvation; to stimulate laying. Syrup is always made from refined white sugar, never unrefined or brown sugar, which the bees cannot use. Light syrup is less concentrated than heavy syrup. Add boiling water to the sugar and stir until it is dissolved. Use the ratio of sugar:water 1kg:1L. It is given to the bees using a feeder. Some people add thymol to prolong the ‘shelf life’ of the syrup and as part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan.

Manley Frames 

a manley frame is distinguished by its 40mm wide side bars and 27mm wide top bar. They act in the same way as hoffman side bars to automatically space the frames. Manley frames should not rock about or slide and squash bees in transit. They are considered to aid in uncapping during honey harvest as the uncapping knife is guided by the wood. They have been described as giving a ‘double walled’ effect in the supers as there is no bee space between the ends of the frames. However, as the side bars are in contact all down their length, they do tend to be glued together with propolis.

MAQS 

a commercially produced formic acid treatment used to combat varroa. See Formic Acid.

Metal Ends 

see Spacers

Mouse Guard 

a metal or wooden block placed to obstruct the entrance to the hive to prevent mice gaining entry. The entrance to the hive is restricted to one or two bee spaces making the colony easy to protect by the bees on the inside. Usually put on in the autumn and rmoved in the spring. Some of the metal versions with round holes are said to strip pollen from the bees’ legs which could be detrimental to colony build up in the spring.

Ocelli 

the three small unfaceted eyes that bees use to navigate using polarised sunlight.

OMF 

see Open Mesh Floor

Open Mesh Floor 

a metal mesh floor with a board underneath it to catch debris falling from the colony. Inspection of this debris can help in many ways, estimating the position of the cluster in winter, estimating the varroa burden of the colony, evaluating the effectiveness of treatment given to combat varroa etc.

Orientation Flight 

when a worker bee is old enough to become a forager she flies outside the hive for the first time. She will fly a short distance out from the font of the hive and then turn through 180 degrees to face the hive. She will hover while moving to the left and right in arcs in front of the hive before flying in circles around the hive. Her circles will gradually increase in diameter as she views the hive from a variety of angles and compares its position to any landmarks. She will also void the contents of her rectum which she will not have done before, having been only ever inside. An orientation flight may last for as long as an hour. Having learned where her home is, the new forager is now able to go out to find sources of nectar and pollen and return home safely.

Oxalic Acid 

an organic acid, used to treat against varroa. It can be applied by trickling the acid over the seams of bees or by vaporising crystals using a heat source and so fumigating the hive. It is only effective against phoretic mites on adult bees, not against mites in capped cells, and so is generally used in winter when there is less brood and the mites are phoretic.

Pepperpot brood 

describes the pattern of brood on a frame. Irregularly spaced cells are left empty amongst an otherwise even slab of brood. Pepperpot brood can indicate the presence of AFB as the worker bees cannot clean the cells and the queen cannot relay in them. An in-bred queen may also display a pepperpot pattern of brood laying.

Pheromones 

chemicals produced by animals to communicate with others. Bees produce a number of pheromones, see nasonov gland and queen substance.

Phoretic 

a stage in the life of a varroa mite. In the phoretic stage (meaning migratory) the mites ride on adult bees, piercing the bees to feed on their haemolymph.

Piping 

queen bees make two main sounds – quacking while still in the queen cell before they hatch, tooting after they hatch. Quacking and tooting are collectively known as Piping.

Play Cup 

see queen cup

Pollen 

produced by plants to fertilise their flowers to reproduce. Pollen is the bees’ protein source. Bees do better with a variety of pollens rather than being on one type exclusively. It has been estimated that a single colony, in only one year, will require 30kg of pollen. Pollen is predominantly eaten by worker bees, especially nurse bees who are producing brood food i.e. royal jelly for feeding young brood and the queen but is also fed, mixed with honey, as bee bread to older worker and drone larvae.

Pollen Baskets 

see corbiculae

Pollen Patties 

artificial feeding for bees to stimulate brood production. May contain pollen. May contain soya and a variety of other substances to provide the bees with protein.

Pollination 

the sexual reproduction of plants. Insects such as bees aid in this by moving pollen from one flower to another allowing cross fertilisation.

Propolis 

a sticky substance produced by the buds of many plants and trees. Bees collect it and use it to fill up holes in the hive to prevent draughts. They also use it to polish cells ready for the queen to lay in. It is being investigated to discover its antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties.

Proventriculus 

this is a valve which prevents the nectar running into the stomach.  It acts also as a filter, extracting pollen out of the nectar as it moves into the honey stomach.

Quacking 

queen bees make two main sounds – ‘quacking’ while still in the queen cell before they hatch, ‘tooting’ after they hatch. Quacking and tooting are collectively known as Piping.

Queen 

queens are formed from fertilised i.e. female producing eggs. Any fertilised egg may become a queen, however it is the care given by the workers that determines the outcome. Generally the existing queen will lay a fertilised egg in a queen cup which the workers then extend to form a queen cell. They fill the cell with Royal Jelly after the egg hatches and this is what determines the outcome for the larva. It is given only royal jelly, unlike workers which, after a few days of royal jelly, are changed to a diet of bee bread (pollen mixed with honey). From the egg being laid to hatching takes 16 days but the queen is not sufficiently mature to mate until 4 days after hatching. If she does not mate by the 25th day after hatching she is too old to mate. The queen produces queen substance, a pheromone, which helps regulate the activity in the colony. She is constantly attended by her entourage of workers who groom her and feed  her. She can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day at the height of the season, twice her bodyweight. She may lay a few eggs each day even in the dead of winter if the nest temperature can be maintained. The queen has a smooth unbarbed sting which is only used against other queens, it can be used repeatedly.

Queen Cage 

a number of different designs are available. Some are devices used to catch and keep hold of a queen bee until the beekeeper can mark her, or to keep her safe while performing some manipulation of the colony; some are used to house the queen, with a number of attendants who will feed and groom her, for a number of days, eg when introducing a queen to a new colony or when sending a queen in the post, this type is also called a butler cage.

Queen Cell 

an elongated cell that looks like a peanut shell, on the bottom or face of a frame. Generally near the middle of the brood nest. It is an indication that the bees feel the need to swarm or are replacing a lost queen or a queen that they feel to be inadequate  – see supersedure.

Queen Color 

there is a convention for the colours used to mark queens to identify the year they were born. White Yellow Red Green Blue is the order and white years are those which end in a 1 or a 6; yellow for years ending in 2 or 7; red for 3 or 8; green for 4 or 9 and blue for 5 or 0. 2015 queens will be marked blue. Simple mnemonics are used to aid in remembering the order: (1-5) ‘will you rear good bees’  or, (0-4) ‘be warned you require gloves’, ‘begin with your royal girl’

Queen Cup 

worker bees quite often make these wax cups on the sides and bottoms of foundation and frames. They can be extended into queen cells. They may be an indication that the colony is considering swarming. Sometimes called play cups as they often come to nothing.

Queen Excluder 

a mesh of metal or plastic in which the slots/gaps are large enough to allow workers to pass through but are too small for the larger queen to pass through. A queen excluder is normally used between the brood box and the supers to prevent the queen laying in the supers so that any honey extracted is uncontaminated by larvae. The direction of the slots/gaps should be perpendicualr to the direction of the frames. Queen excluders can be flat sheets, with no bee space, or framed in which case they may have a beespace on one or both sides. Occasionally used below a brood box to prevent a queen from leaving with a swarm.

Queen Right 

a colony is described as queen right if there is evidence of a queen, ie eggs and brood. Queens exude queen substance which has a calming effect on the colony. A non-queenright colony is generally very bad tempered and will either be in the process of replacing a lost queen or will need to be provided with a queen if they are to survive.

Queen Substance 

queens produce a pheromone that is passed from bee to bee around the colony. When the colony becomes very large the substance is effectively diluted among so many bees and this can trigger swarming. Removing a queen from a colony for as little as 15 minutes can dilute the pheromone sufficiently for them to be visibly seen to become more anxious.

Rapid Feeder 

a box or tub containing liquid feed that the bees access by climbing over a dam e.g. Ashforth and Miller types, or by resting on a floating piece of wood as in the frame feeder design. The tub or box is generally placed over the hole in a crown board but can be placed directly on the top bars of the frames.

Requeening 

if a colony is not thriving, if it has certain diseases e.g. chalkbrood, the beekeeper may attempt to improve the state of the colony by introducing a new queen and disposing of the old one. Colonies are also requeened if they are bad tempered or to produce a colony with greater tendency to produce a honey surplus.

Royal Jelly 

a protein rich substance produced by the hypopharangeal glands of worker bees. All bee larvae are fed royal jelly for the first 3 days after they hatch from eggs. Only a queen larva continues to receive exclusively royal jelly until her cell is capped. This highly protein rich substance is what makes the queen what she is, she matures more quickly than a worker and from egg to emerging from her cell takes only 16 days. Royal Jelly is all a queen is ever fed, as a larva and also as an adult. She is fed by her entourage of bees and in the summer when she is at the height of her laying she can lay twice her own body weight in eggs per day and thus needs vast quantities of this protein rich substance. There is no known benefit to humans of applying externally or eating royal jelly.

Sacbrood 

a viral infection which prevents the larvae making their final moult into adult bees. The larva is said to resemble a chinese slipper. The larva in its sac turns yellow and then black and then dries into a brown scale which the house bees can easily remove.

Seam 

a seam of bees is the line of bees between two frames. Some treatments for varroa are calculated by how many seams of bees there are, others advise how much of a treatment to trickle over each seam.

Section Frames 

small wooden crates which are held in a frame to produce comb honey. These use unwired foundation as people don’t want to eat wire and it is impossible to extract the wire without damaging the cells and disturbing the honey. Many beekeepers avoid sections as the bees are said not to like working them. As there are usually 3 section crates per super frame, there is a lot more work for the bees to do climbing around the woodwork when they would much rather work on the surface of a drawn comb. Other beekeepers have good success with sections and it sells for a premium price. The bees are more likely to work sections well, filling up all the corners, if there is a honey flow on.

SHB 

see Small Hive Beetle

Shook Swarm 

moving bees into a new box with clean drawn comb or foundation.  Each frame of bees in the original hive is taken out and shaken into the new one.  All brood is left behind, only the adult bees are rehomed. This technique is used to deal with some diseases of the brood, see EFB. All the old wax is also removed from the bees by this technique, old wax often harbours disease.

Side Bar 

the side bars of frames determine how deep a frame will be, short for supers, long for broods. The side bars can be straight sided or shaped. Straight sided side bars can be narrow (N1 or N2) or wide (Manley). Self spacing, shaped side bars are known as Hoffman bars (N4, N5).

Small Hive Beetle

a notifiable pest.  (all beekeeepers  have a legal obligation to report any suspicion of a notifiable disease or pest to the Bee Inspector at their local Scottish Government Rural Payments Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) Area Office Email: SGRPID.Hamilton@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or email Bees Mailbox with your details).  Aethina tumida originates from Africa where it is considered a minor scavenger of the african honeybee. The european honeybee has no defenses against the SHB and a colony can be devastated by it. The beetle eats brood, honey and pollen. It destroys combs. It has caused major loss of bees and economic losses for beekeepers in America, Canada and Australia. It has also been found in Mexico and Jamaica. It is anticipated that one of the most likely ways for it to enter Britain will be with the importation of bees from an affected area. Sentinel hives around Britain near sea ports and airports are monitoring for SHB in the hope that if it is caught early it can be either eradicated or at least controlled to slow its spread. The adult beetles are 5-7mm long and 3-4.5mm wide. About a third of the size of a worker bee. They are reddish brown when they emerge but darken to black as they mature. They have distinctive club shaped antenae. The egg of the SHB is 2/3 the size of a honeybee egg. They are laid in crevices in large irregular masses. In the US and Australia, pesticides are used to try to control the beetle to slow its progress. SHB was detected in September 2014 in Southern Italy and many hives were destroyed to prevent this pest spreading further. It was a time of great anxiety for many beekeepers as this area of Italy exports queens and bees to many parts of the world including Scotland.

Smith Hive 

a top space hive design, single walled. Its parts are not compatible with bottom space hive designs such as the National. The frames have shorter lugs than those used in National hives.

Smoker 

a device used to deliver cool smoke to calm the bees. Many beekeepers burn cardboard, old sacking or wood chips to produce a cool, non-toxic smoke which, by use of the bellows on the smoker, can be puffed into the hive prior to opening it for inspections, or during inspections to calm bees or move them off the edges of boxes to prevent squashing bees when boxes are being restacked. It can also be used to puff over the site of a sting to  cover the pheromone that calls other bees to the same site to help defend their colony.

Snelgrove Board 

See swarm board

Solar Wax Extractor 

uses the suns rays to concentrate heat to melt the wax from old combs, cappings and burr comb which can then be run through a strainer into a collecting tray to produce clean wax.

Spiracle 

openings on the thorax of the bees leading to the tracheae. These openings allow air into the  body tissues and blood of the bee and carbon dioxide out. Bees can be seen to be raising and lowering their abdomens to pump air in and out of their spiracles particularly on hot days or after activity e.g. flying – a bit like panting. There are 10 pairs: 3 on the thorax, six visible on the abdomen and the final pair hidden within the sting chamber. There are no spiracles in the head.

Sting 

queen bees have a smooth sting which is used only against other queens, unless the beekeeper has another queen’s pheromone on him from handling another queen. Drones have no sting. Worker bees have a barbed sting which is used only in defence of their colony. Because the sting is barbed the bee can sting only once as it cannot be withdrawn from the attacker. The barb allows it to stay firmly in place while the muscles around the venom sac pump the venom into the attacker. After the bee stings an attacker she will attempt to fly away which rips the sting out of her abdomen, along with other abdominal contents, causing her to die of dehydration. Please see the section on stings in the website for advice on dealing with stings. The best prevention against stings is to wear appropriate clothing when working with your bees and try not to open them on days when the weather is likely to irritate them i.e. cold, thunder, rain.

Stores 

bees store pollen and honey around the brood nest to make it easy for workers to access food for the larvae. They store excess honey in the supers to support the colony through times when they cannot get out to forage, e.g. rainy weather, cold spells, windy days and the through the winter.

Super 

a honey box, not as deep as a brood box and therefore lighter and easier to lift. It will require shorter super frames. Generally put above (supra) the brood box in a colony. Sometimes, if a beekeeper wishes to give a queen more laying space, he will give her a brood and a half for the brood, i.e. a brood and a super. This is not universally encouraged as working with deep and shallow frames limits how much you can move things around.

Supersedure 

the queen in the hive may appear to be viable but if the bees see a weakness in their queen they may opt to rear a replacement for her without swarming. Supersedure cells are generally on the face of the comb.  Usually occuring at the beginning or end of the bee season with only a few queen cells being produced.

Swarm 

swarming is the method that bees use to make more bees. The adult queen leaves with the older workers to form a new colony, leaving the eggs, brood and young bees to raise a new queen on the old site. Thus 2 colonies now exist instead of only one. A swarm of bees can be an alarming thing for the uninitiated to observe, thousands of bees filling the air and milling around. A swarm is not dangerous unless provoked. Ideally the beekeeper tries to prevent his bees from swarming as when the adult bees leave he is left with a hive full of young bees who have no capacity to collect honey to make a surplus he can then harvest. If a swarm does escape, beekeepers are often called upon by the public to take it away. Please have a look online or in beebooks for advice regarding catching swarms, or discuss with your local association beekeepers who are bound to have lots of useful helpful advice on how to gather a swarm (as well as tales of the ones that got away!).

Swarm Board 

an adapted crown board or specially made board, generally with openings top and bottom on at least two sides to manipulate the bees to aid in swarm control. Some designs are named for their designers, e.g. Snelgrove

Thymol 

an essential oil produced from the thyme family of plants, used to help control varroa. It is a constituent of Apiguard, ApiLife Var and Thymovar. Some people add small quantities to sugar syrups to prolong their shelf life and as part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme.

Tooting 

queen bees make two main sounds – ‘quacking’ while still in the queen cell before they hatch, ‘tooting’ after they hatch. Quacking and tooting are collectively known as Piping.

Top Bar 

the bar on a frame that supports the frame within the hive. Top bars come in a variety of widths. N1 and N4 top bars are _7/8”/22mm wide. N2, N5 and Manley top bars are 1_1/16”/27mm wide. See N1-5.

Top Bar Hive 

a hive where the colony grows horizontally rather than vertically. The sides of the hive are slopped with the top wider than the bottom.  Bars of wood with starter wax foundation are used rather than frames. The bees produce brood near the entrance and store honey further back. When honey is being harvested the honey is cut off the bar and the honey pressed out of the wax.

Top Space 

some hives are designed with the bee space at the top, others at the bottom, making the parts incompatible. Top space hive designs include the Smith, Dadant and Langstroth.

Trachea 

the breathing tubes, they open to the air along the bee’s body at the 10 pairs of spiracles, 3 pairs on the thorax, six visible on the abdomen and the final pair hidden within the sting chamber.

Tracheal Mites 

these mites cause acarine disease. See Acarapis Woodi.

Trickle Treatment 

some methods of treating bees for varroa infestation include the use of oxalic acid which is trickled over the seams of bees. See oxalic acid.

Tropilaelaps 

a notifiable pest – (all beekeeepers  have a legal obligation to report any suspicion of a notifiable disease or pest to the Bee Inspector at their local Scottish Government Rural Payments Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) Area Office Email: SGRPID.Hamilton@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or email Bees Mailbox with your details). Tropilaelaps has not been found in the UK as yet. It is a mite that infests bees. Native to the asian bee, Apis Dorsata, the mite larvae feed on the haemolymph of bee larvae. Apis Dorsata has behavioural defenses against this pest and removes infested workers from the colony. The european honeybee has not developed these defences and would be vulnerable. The mites are redish brown and about 1mm long by 0.5mm wide. Its life cycle is similar to the Varroa mite except that tropilaelaps cannot pierce the membranes of adult bees and has to rely on feeding on the brood. It is thought that this mite cannot survive in broodless colonies as the pregnant female must deposit her eggs in a cell with a larva within two days of emerging from the cell she developed in, or she will die. The mites damage the larvae by feeding on them and may kill the larvae but some will survive as physically or physiologically damaged adults with a shorter lifespan. The mites also spread viruses such as deformed wing virus.

Uncapped Brood 

eggs hatch into larvae which are fed by worker bees before they are capped over with wax cappings. Also referred to as young brood. The capping is a mixture of wax and pollen which allows air to permeate otherwise the larvae would suffocate.

Uncapping 

To remove the wax cappings from frames of honey in order to extract the honey.

Uncapping Tool 

a tool to remove the cappings from sealed frames of honey. Knives are popular, electrically powered to be heated, or not.  Uncapping forks are also used.

Varroa 

varroa destructor, a parasitic mite that infests honey bees. It was originally a pest of apis cerana which seems to have found a way to live with the mite. When it was introduced to Britain our honey bees suffered great losses as apis mellifera has no resistance to it. During their phoretic phase the mites can move from adult bee to adult bee and as they ride on the bees they drink the bees’ haemolymph. Unfortunately they also transmit various viruses from bee to bee in the process which can further weaken a colony. Some research seems to indicate that, although the viruses the mites spread are already in the bee population, viruses spread in this way by the mite are more virulant. Many methods have been attempted to control the mite but the consensus of opinion is that an Integrated Pest Management approach is best – good husbandry, some chemicals, keeping colonies strong and healthy and so better able to resist the mite and the viruses. The mite breeds in the capped cells as the bee larvae mature. One female mite will enter the cell and begin feeding off the larva. When the cell is capped this female will lay an egg every 30 hours, up to 6 eggs. The developing mites feed on the larva. The first offspring the mite has laid is male, it mates in the cell with all the others which are female, so that when the adult bee emerges, a number of pregnant female mites are ready to find other cells to enter and the cycle continues. The male mites, and any immature female mites left in the cell, die. The mites show a preference for drone brood, this is thought to be due to the fact that drones take 3 days more than workers to mature and emerge, giving the mite longer to reproduce and for its offspring to mature.

Veil 

a fine mesh material used over the front of a hood or a hat to prevent bees from stinging the face and neck. Many beesuits have integral veils so there is no gap at the neck. It is generally advised that veils are hand washed as machine washing can damage the mesh.

Venom 

bee venom is a mixture of chemicals produced by two separate poison glands.  One produces a thick alkaline secretion the other a watery acid which, when mixed, form a potent venom.  It is stored in the venom sack in the abdomen of worker bees. Potency can vary with different strains, time of year and age of bee.  

Virus 

there is a variety of viruses that affect bees. The most common one present in British Bees is the Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). The virulance of this virus is increased by factors that weaken the larvae, such as varroa or tropilaelaps. Other viruses include: Black Queen Virus; Acute Israeli Paralysis Virus; Chronic Paralysis Virus; Kashmir Bee Virus

Waggle Dance 

bees indicate the quality, direction and the distance to sources of pollen and nectar that they have discovered by dancing for other worker bees in the darkness of the hives. By feeling the dance with their legs and antennae the other workers can then use the directions to find the source.  From sampling the nectar or pollen they can tell the quality and the plants they are looking for. The direction of the waggle phase of the dance indicates the direction relative to the position of the sun. The length of the waggle phase of the dance indicates the distance required to get to the source, the more waggles the further away the source and the more energy required to retrieve it. Bees will choose which source to go to.

Warm Way 

describes the orientation of the frames in the brood box. The outside dimensions of a national hive are square therefore the brood box can be sat on top of the floor in two directions. With the frames running parallel to the entrance it is described as the ‘warm way’. The frame nearest the entrance will be the coolest in the box and the one the bees are least likely to draw or work on. The frames in the supers should be orientated the same way as the in the brood.

Warré Hive 

Warré (pronounced WAR-ree) is a type of top bar hive develeoped by Abbé Émile Warré (1867-1951), in France. His aim was to make a bee-friendly hive that was easy to use with the minimum amount of manipulation or inspection. Simply put, it is a tower of boxes. In the spring one or two new boxes are added to the bottom of the hive. In the autumn one or two boxes are removed to harvest the honey. The bees are given top bars with only a strip of foundation to encourage them to build their own combs. By regular removal of old comb, when harvesting the honey, pathogens and pesticides that can build up in comb is removed from the hive. Inspecting or treating the bees for disease is not as simple as with moveable frame hives, but such problems were probably not envisaged when this type of hive and method of beekeeping was developed.

Washing Soda 

used to disinfect tools and equipment to help prevent the spread of diseases at a concentration of 200g/litre of water. Effective in removing propolis and wax. Also used to launder beesuits. A bucket made up with solution can be used to wash hive tools and nitrile gloves between hives. Such a solution will keep for up to one month and should be labelled with the date is was made up. If it should become particularly discoloured it should be discarded sooner. It can be disposed of down household drains. Gloves should be worn when handling the solution, especially if you have sensitive skin.

Wax Glands 

worker bees have 4 pairs of wax glands on the underside of their abdomen. They produce beeswax which is chewed and formed into cells on frames, or cappings for cells storing honey or propolis, or mixed with pollen to make porous cappings for brood cells.

Wax Moth 

of the Galleridae family. Greater wax moth G mellonella, Lesser wax moth Achroeia grisella. They lay eggs in the combs and the caterpillars burrow into the comb consuming the wax destroying the frames.

Wax Press 

or foundation press. A device with a honeycomb pattern on two plates. Molten beeswax is poured into the press and the hexagonal pattern is imprinted on the wax before it cools. The sheet of foundation wax is then removed from the press ready to be fitted into a frame for use by the bees.

WBC 

a bottom space hive. Named for its designer William Broughton Carr. This is the ‘traditional’ shaped beehive. It has the advantage of an air insulation space between the lifts and the broods and supers, and the space can be further insulated in the winter by packing the space with straw. However, it takes longer to perform an inspection as there are twice as many pieces to move off and then back on again afterwards. The parts are generally interchangeable with National parts.

Winter Bee 

a female worker laid in the autumn will have a higher fat content than a summer bee and she may live for up to 6 months. Her duties are mainly in the hive but on good days during the autumn and winter she may forage outside the hive for water and nectar when it is available. Her duties inside the colony will include maintaining the temperature of the cluster and helping to rear brood as well as keeping the nest clean by removing dead bees and detritus.

Worker Bee 

female bees are worker bees (unless they are queens). They emerge 21 days after they are laid as an egg. They are the smallest of the three castes of the honeybee. They have a myriad of jobs. They keep the nest clean; they feed and rear the young; they defend the nest; they gather and store pollen, propolis and nectar; they turn the nectar into honey; they gather water and ventilate and regulate the temperature of the hive; they dance to tell other workers where to forage for pollen, propolis and nectar; they feed the drones and the queen; they groom each other. A worker bee laid during the active months may live for only 6 weeks and she may only be a forager outside the hive for the last 2 weeks of her life. Generally her wings will wear out and she will die away from the hive. A bee laid in autumn will be a ‘winter bee’ and may live for up to 6 months, the majority of it again inside the hive.

Worker Comb 

bees build their hexagonal cells in two different sizes, 4 to the inch for drones, 5 to the inch for workers. (also 5 to the inch for storing nectar, honey and pollen)

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