Absconding. A term commonly used where swarms are lost through their departure for parts unknown.

Adair Hive. A hive formerly popular in some localities but now almost gone out of use. The frames were 13 3/8 inches long and 11 1/4 inches deep.

Afterswarm. A small swarm issuing after the first or prime swarm. Where bees are not given proper attention it is not uncommon for them to send out several afterswarms, one after another until the parent colony becomes almost worthless.

American Hive. A hive once common but now seldom seen. The frames were 12 inches square.

Apiary. A place where bees are kept. As generally used the term includes bees, hives and other equipment together with the situation.

Apiculture. The pursuit of beekeeping.

Baby Nucleus. A small colony of bees for the purpose of mating queens. Queen breeders often break up colonies into small parts, placing a pint or so of bees into each small hive. To each is given a ripe queen cell.

Balling Queens. When a strange queen is introduced to a colony or when some abnormal condition incites the bees to mistrust their own queen, they often cluster about her in a dense ball, thus smothering her.

Beebread. A term commonly used for pollen stored in the cells within the hive.

Bait Sections. Comb honey sections in which comb left over from a former season has been built. These are placed in the supers along with those filled with foundation to induce the bees to begin work in the super more readily.

Banat Bees. A dark race of bees coming from Hungary.

Bar Hive. A hive with bars instead of frames. These hives are commonly used in Europe but seldom found in America.

Bee-escape. A contrivance which enables the bees to leave a compartment of the hive but prevents their return.

Bee Gum. A name commonly given to a hive made from a portion of a hollow tree. In the South, gum trees are commonly hollow and these are so often used for hiving swarms, that the term has come to apply to any kind of box or hive in which bees are kept.

Bee Martin. The common Kingbird, (Tyrannus tyrannus).

Beemoth. The waxworm. The adult is a small gray moth which lays its eggs in or about the hive. The young larvae burrow in the combs, feeding on the wax and pollen, and in time destroy the combs unless checked.

Beepasture. Sources of nectar. The flowering plants on which bees feed.

Beespace. A space large enough to permit the free passage of the bees, but not large enough to permit the building of the comb. About 1/4 inch.

Black Bees. The common bees of Europe. The German Bee.

Bottom-board. The floor of the hive.

Box-hive. A hive without frames. A box in which bees are hived.

Brood. The young bees in the larval stage.

Brood-chamber. The lower portion of main body of the hive. The part containing the brood nest.

Brood-frame. A frame containing a brood-comb.

Brood-comb. A comb used for brood rearing.

Brood-nest. The part of the hive where the colony makes its principal cluster. The place where the eggs and larvae are to be found.

Brood-rearing. The rearing of young bees.

Bulk Honey. Honey cut from the frames and marketed in bulk as-distinguished from extracted honey or honey in sections. Also spoken of as chunk honey.

Burr-comb. Burr-combs or brace combs are small bits of comb built into small spaces, between two combs, or between the frames and other hive parts.

Capping Melter. A container made of metal which is heated to melt the cappings as they are cut from the combs in extracting honey.

Carniolan Bees. A race of dark bees, native to the provinces of Carniola, Austria.

Caucasian Bees. A race of dark bees native to the Caucasus.

Cellar Wintering. The wintering of bees in a cellar as distinguished from wintering on their summer stands, out of doors.

Cells. The hollows in the combs in which honey is stored. These are of two sizes; worker cells, which measure about twenty-seven to the square inch and drone cells, which measure about eighteen to the square inch. They are hexagonal in shape and the bottom of each cell is opposite one third of each of three others on the opposite side of the comb. Queen cells are special cells resembling peanuts which are built for the rearing of the queens.

Cell-cup. An artificial cell base made of beeswax used by queen breeders to serve as queen cell.

Cell-Protector. A spiral covering made of wire placed over ripe queen-cells to prevent the bees from destroying them when placed in a strange hive.

Chunk-honey. See Bulk Honey.

Cleansing Flight. Since bees do not avoid their excrement in the hive, but only on the wing, except when diseased, it is necessary for frequent flights to relieve them of the accumulated faeces. A cleansing flight is the first flight after a period of confinement.

Cluster. The normal gathering together in a compact mass. In clustering, the bees hang together by means of the hooks on their feet. The winter cluster is formed when the temperature drops to 57 degrees Fahr. When the swarm emerges, a cluster is formed on a twig or other convenient object. A cluster is formed within the hive for the purpose of maintaining sufficient heat for brood rearing. According to Phillips, brood rearing temperature rarely exceeds 97 degrees.

Chaff Cushion. A cushion filled with chaff or other absorbent, which is sometimes placed over the frames for the purpose of absorbing condensed moisture in cold weather.

Colony. A hive of bees, including bees, eggs, brood, etc., together with combs and equipment.

Comb. The assembled hexagonal cells built of beeswax in one frame by the bees. A honey-comb.

Comb-Foundation. A sheet of beeswax impressed with the exact size and shape of the bases of the cells used by the bees.

Comb-honey. Honey in the comb. Usually applied to honey in sections.

Cyprian Bees. A yellow race of bees native to the Island of Cyprus.