Beekeeping Glossary

A

• Alarm Pheromone When a bee stings, it releases an alarm pheromone at the base of its sting and from its mandibular glands, a chemically complex mixture of several dozen scent compounds.

B

• Baker's Honey Under the Honey Regulation (Germany), baker's honey is honey suitable for industrial purposes or as an ingredient in other foods, which may show a foreign taste or smell, may have begun to ferment, may have fermented, or may have been overheated.
• Bee Brush The bee brush is a narrow, soft hand brush used to sweep bees off a comb or off the hive wall.
• Bottling Honey Bottling is the last step of honey processing, in which the fully clarified honey, stirred to the desired consistency, goes into its sales jars.

D

• Drone Frame The drone frame (Baurahmen) is an empty frame without foundation, which the bees build out themselves through free natural comb building.

F

• Formic Acid Formic acid is an organic acid and one of the approved active ingredients against varroosis.

I

• Infestation Level The infestation level describes how heavily a colony is affected by the varroa mite at a given point in time, usually expressed as the ratio of the number of mites to the number of sampled bees, or as the daily natural mite drop.

N

• Nucleus Colony (Nuc) A nucleus colony (Ableger) is a small young colony that the beekeeper forms from the material of a strong production colony.
• Nurse Bee A young worker bee that tends the brood from about the fourth day of life until the tenth or twelfth day.

Q

• Queen Excluder The queen excluder is a grid made of metal or plastic that is placed between the brood chamber and the honey super.

R

• Registration Requirement for Beekeepers Anyone wishing to keep bees in Germany must report this to the responsible authority no later than when the activity begins, stating the number of bee colonies and their location.

S

• Skimming Honey After extraction the honey runs through a sieve into the bucket and is left to stand there, covered, for a few hours.
• Sulfuring Sulfuring refers to killing an entire honey bee colony by burning sulfur inside the hive.

T

• Trap Comb The trap comb, sometimes also called a comb pocket or cage, is a tool of biotechnical, i.e.

W

• Wash Method (Mite Count) The wash method, also called the alcohol wash, is regarded as particularly accurate among the common procedures for determining varroa infestation.
• Worker Bee Worker bees are the female bees that handle the everyday life of the colony.