queen

en-verb

queen (third-person singular simple present queens, present participle queening, simple past and past participle queened)

queens (present singular third-person)
queening (participle present)
queened (participle past)
queened (past)
queene (alternative obsolete)
quene (alternative obsolete)
queyne (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (“woman”).
Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween (“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Norwegian kvinne (“woman”), Danish kvinde (“woman”), Icelandic kvon (“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån (“wife”). Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of English quean, from Middle English quene, from Old English cwene (“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (“queen”), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”) (see Modern English regina). Doublet of quean and gyne.

gloss

"wife"; > Middle Low German <i class="Latn mention" lang="gml">quene</i> (“elderly woman”)

cog

They have all been queened by imported stock, or the best of home-bred mothers.

1882 November 22, E. L. Briggs, “Development of ‘The Coming Bee’”, in The American Bee Journal, volume 18, number 47, retrieved 2022-01-15, page 743:

The nucleus should not be queened by a queen from any of the parent colonies.

1957, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (India), The Wealth of India, page 263:

(beekeeping) To be the queen bee of a colony.

In queening his apiary, he aims to keep about half of the queens of the current season's rearing, and the other of the summer preceding.

1896, The Progressive Bee-Keeper, page 320:

If such a queen is immediately allowed to run through the entrance of a queenless colony, the queening is usually successful.

1967, Everett Franklin Phillips, Are Bees Reflex Machines?:

Once you have introduced the queen, the first three steps of the capture have been completed, namely: blocking the tree, providing an alternate home, and queening the colony.

1980, Robert E. Donovan, Hunting Wild Bees:

Sealed cells with about to emerge queens are used for queening the divisions.

2007, NPCS Board of Consultants & Engineers, The Complete Book on Beekeeping and Honey Processing, →ISBN, page 389:

(beekeeping) To provide with a new queen bee.


beard

en-verb

beard (third-person singular simple present beards, present participle bearding, simple past and past participle bearded)

beards (present singular third-person)
bearding (participle present)
bearded (participle past)
bearded (past)

PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English berd, bard, bærd, from Old English beard, from Proto-West Germanic *bard, from Proto-Germanic *bardaz (compare West Frisian burd, Dutch baard, German Bart). Cognate further to Latin barba, Lithuanian barzda, Russian борода́ (borodá): the word may date to Proto-Indo-European as *bʰardʰeh₂, *bʰh₂erdʰeh₂. Doublet of barb.

(intransitive, beekeeping) Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape.


nadir

From Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِير السَّمْت (naẓīr as-samt), composed of نَظِير (naẓīr, “counterpart, corresponding to”) and السَّمْت (as-samt, “the zenith”).

der

نَظِير السَّمْت

(beekeeping, archaic) An empty box added beneath a full one in a beehive to give the colony more room to expand or store honey.


nadir

en-verb

nadir (third-person singular simple present nadirs, present participle nadiring, simple past and past participle nadired)

nadirs (present singular third-person)
nadiring (participle present)
nadired (participle past)
nadired (past)

der

نَظِير السَّمْت

(transitive, beekeeping) To extend (a beehive) by adding an empty box at the base.


super

There may be thirty to fifty supers in every outyard, and we have only about half an hour to get them off the hives, stacked and covered before the bees get really cross about what we are doing.

1983, Sue Hubbell, A Country Year: Living the Questions, Boston, MA: Mariner Books, published 1999, →ISBN, page 69:


super

en-verb

super (third-person singular simple present supers, present participle supering, simple past and past participle supered)

supers (present singular third-person)
supering (participle present)
supered (participle past)
supered (past)

The question is: when is the best time to super?

1917 Dadant, C. P., First Lessons in Beekeeping; revised & rewritten edition, 1968, by M. G. Dadant and J. C. Dadant, p 73


eke

The noun is derived from Middle English eke (“addition, increase, enlargement”), from Old English ēaca, from Proto-Germanic *aukô, from *aukaną (“to increase, add, enlarge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- (“to enlarge, increase”). The English noun is cognate with Old Frisian āka (“addition, increase; bonus”), Old Norse auki (“growth, increase, proliferation”).
The verb is derived partly:
* from the noun; and
* from Middle English eken (“to increase, add, enlarge”) [and other forms], from three distinct verbs (1) Old English īeċan (“to increase, add, enlarge”) (transitive), (2) ēacan (“to be enlarged or increased”), and (3) ēacian, all from Proto-Germanic *aukaną (“to grow, increase”); see further above.
The English verb is cognate with Latin augeō (“to augment, increase; to enlarge, expand, spread; to lengthen; to exaggerate; to enrich; to honour; (figuratively) to exalt, praise”), Old English ēac (“also”), Old Norse auka (“to augment, increase; to add; to exceed, surpass”), Icelandic auka (“to augment, increase to add; to exceed, surpass”), (Danish øge (“to enhance; to increase”), Norwegian Bokmål øke (“to increase”), Norwegian Nynorsk auka (“to increase”), Swedish öka (“to increase”)).

nb...

æcon, ayke, eche, echen, eek, eeke, eik (Scottish), ek, eke, uchen, yche, ȝeke, ȝeken

cog

Various have been the contrivances for effecting the separation of storage and breeding departments in a hive. […] An empty box or hive, pushed beneath a full one, is denominated a Nadir,—a mode of practice not always advisable except in the case of swarms of the same year, or towards the latter end of very abundant seasons. A still smaller addition to a common hive consists of merely a few bands of straw, on which it is raised temporarily, and this constitutes an eke. […] The entrance to the stock-hive must be stopped, and one made at the bottom of the eke or nadir.

1850, Henry Taylor, “Swarming (or Single Hiving) and Depriving Systems”, in The Bee-keepers Manual, or Practical Hints on the Management and Complete Preservation of the Honey-bee; […], 6th edition, London: Groombridge and Sons, […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:

(beekeeping, archaic) A small stand on which a beehive is placed.

(beekeeping) A spacer put between or over or under hive parts to make more space.


tang

en-verb

tang (third-person singular simple present tangs, present participle tanging, simple past and past participle tanged)

tangs (present singular third-person)
tanging (participle present)
tanged (participle past)
tanged (past)

onomatopoeic

Imitative

(dated, beekeeping) To strike two metal objects together loudly in order to persuade a swarm of honeybees to land so it may be captured by the beekeeper.


apidictor

(beekeeping) An instrument which measures and records the sounds in a beehive.


brushed

en-adj

brushed (comparative more brushed, superlative most brushed)

more brushed (comparative)
most brushed (superlative)

I recommended the forming of brushed swarms about 15 years ago, in the American Apiculturist, and made them on the old stand as well as on a new stand in uncounted numbers, with the result that these swarms always worked with the same vigor as natural swarms, so I know what I say.

1900, L. Stachelhausen, “A New Management for Comb-Honey Production”, in Gleanings in Bee Culture, volume 28, page 840:

When I make shaken or brushed swarms I usually wait till queen cells are found with eggs or larvae in them, although I do not think this is essential.

1907 August, F. Greiner, “Shaken Swarms”, in The American Bee Keeper, volume 17, page 170:

But when one practices this method of making artificial, shaken, or brushed swarms, he should remember that probably nothing will be accomplished in swarm prevention by shaking unless the bees are actually preparing to swarm.

1907, Ernest Rob Root, Facts about Bees, page 56:

(beekeeping) Having been artificially formed into a swarm by being brushed off a honeycomb.


nuc

I have to take brood from established hives to set up nucs, as I did the previous week[…]

1998, Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them, page 110:

(beekeeping) A nucleus colony; a small bee colony created from a larger colony.


honey plant

honey plants (plural)
honey-plant (alternative)

I have no doubt that where I live one thousand hives will provide for themselves and gather surplus honey wherever one can. It is not with honey plants, as with other pasturage, which once eaten off takes time and favoring showers to cause a new growth.

1863 September 12, Ellen S. Tupper, “Essay on Bees—1st Premium”, in Tenth Report of the Secretary of the State Agricultural Society, to the Governor of the State, for the Year 1863, Des Moines, Ia.: F. W. Palmer, state printer, published 1864, →OCLC, page 228:

[T]he only reason that buckwheat is considered valuable as a honey plant, is because it blooms generally in dry weather late in the fall, when the difference in the temperature between two o'clock in the day and two o'clock at night is sufficient to favor the production of honey.

1869 September, A. W. Harlan, “Honey Dews in the West and Southwest [From the Keokuk ‘Gate City.’]”, in Samuel Wagner, editor, American Bee Journal, volume V, number 3, Washington, D.C.: Samuel Wagner, →OCLC, page 47, column 1:

There was also another good honey plant that had lately come into notice in his section. The same described in the Bee Journal by him, that comes up in the fall and blooms the next spring, that was the best of honey plants for early spring.

1872, “Proceedings”, in Transactions of the North American Bee Keepers’ Society, at their First Annual Session Held at the City of Cleveland, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 6–8, 1872, Indianapolis, Ind.: Indianapolis Printing and Publishing House, →OCLC, topic no. 6 (What are the Best Honey Producing Plants?), page 13, column 1:

The lack of literature concerning the tulip-tree as a honey-plant is a serious one and the chief object of this bulletin is to make up this deficiency.

1922 January, E[verett] F[ranklin] Phillips, George S. Demuth, “Peculiarities of the Region”, in Beekeeping in the Tulip-tree Region (Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 1222), Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 9:

But of late years plows and sheep have made sad havoc in these glorious pastures, destroying tens of thousands of the flowery acres like a fire, and banishing many species of the best honey-plants to rocky cliffs and fence-corners, […]

a. 1914, John Muir, “The Mountains of California”, in Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth; My First Summer in the Sierra; The Mountains of California; Stickeen; Selected Essays (Library of America; 92), New York, N.Y.: Library of America, published 1997, →ISBN, chapter XVI (The Bee-pastures), page 523:

HONEYSUCKLE—Lonicera spp.: […] This introduced, escaped shrub is strikingly overlooked as a major honey plant.

2009, Kim Flottum, “Some of the Better Honey Plants to Know”, in The Backyard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook: A Guide to Creating, Harvesting, and Cooking with Natural Honeys (Backyard Series), Beverly, Mass.: Quarry Books, Quayside Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 48:

(beekeeping) Any plant from which bees usually collect nectar, pollen, or both for making honey.

hunajakasvi

any plant from which bees usually collect nectar, pollen, or both for making honey


balling

en-noun

balling (countable and uncountable, plural ballings)

Balling of queens seems to be relatively common in some strains of bee.

1986, Beowulf A. Cooper, Philip Denwood, The Honeybees of the British Isles, page 145:

The balling behaviour of workers has been explained by a "stress pheromone" hyphothesis: a disturbed queen produces a "stress pheromone" that stimulates an attack on her (balling) and her own death.

2013, Yaacov Lensky, Pierre Cassier, “Alarm Pheromones of the Queen and Worker Honey Bees”, in Avshalom Mizrahi, Yaacov Lensky, editor, Bee Products: Properties, Applications, and Apitherapy, page 152:

The poetic fancy of Maeterlinck who, while he admits that "bees are not sentimental," will not allow the possibility of individual disloyalty in the hive, attributes the balling of the queen to a law which "invests her person, whoever she be, with a sort of inviolability," and prohibits the direct assault of any one bee:.

2013, A Beekeeper's Guide to Rearing Queen Bees:

(beekeeping) An incident when worker bees surround a queen bee, usually leading to her death by suffocation or starvation.


duplet

(beekeeping, archaic) An empty box placed above the existing boxes of the beehive in order to allow the colony to expand or store additional honey.


requeen

en-verb

requeen (third-person singular simple present requeens, present participle requeening, simple past and past participle requeened)

requeens (present singular third-person)
requeening (participle present)
requeened (participle past)
requeened (past)

Requeening means changing the queen of a colony, either to secure better stock, or to replace a queen which...cannot furnish the eggs necessary to the development of a normal colony.

1917 Dadant, C. P., First Lessons in Beekeeping; revised & rewritten edition, 1968, by M. G. Dadant and J. C. Dadant, p 93

(beekeeping) To change or replace the queen bee of a colony of bees.


uncapping

With a bent wire I drew out a large quantity of dead bees, mixed with the uncappings of the combs, and much signs of dysentery.

1895, British Bee Journal & Bee-keepers Adviser, volume 23, page 90:

The tank at the left is a large galvanized arrangement that we use for taking the honey from the uncappings.

1907, Novices' Gleanings in Bee Culture, volumes 35-36, page 1570:

(beekeeping) Wax removed from a honeycomb.


varroa

These bees are resistant to varroa.

Swarms were reasonably common place in rural areas when New Zealand had a large feral bee population but few wild bees now survive due to varroa disease.

2009 January 29, Don Farmer, “Shop forced to shut as bees swarm”, in Wairarapa Times-Age:

(beekeeping, chiefly New Zealand) Infestation with the mite Varroa destructor, or the disease caused by such mites.

varroatosis

condition of infestation of a colony by Varroa mites


unqueen

unqueen (third-person singular simple present unqueens, present participle unqueening, simple past and past participle unqueened)

unqueens (present singular third-person)
unqueening (participle present)
unqueened (participle past)
unqueened (past)


superhive

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superhive.wav

(beekeeping) An empty box placed above the existing boxes of the beehive in order to allow the colony to expand or store additional honey.


superhive

superhive (third-person singular simple present superhives, present participle superhiving, simple past and past participle superhived)

superhives (present singular third-person)
superhiving (participle present)
superhived (participle past)
superhived (past)

(beekeeping) To add or to place a superhive atop the existing boxes of the beehive.


storify

storify (third-person singular simple present storifies, present participle storifying, simple past and past participle storified)

storifies (present singular third-person)
storifying (participle present)
storified (participle past)
storified (past)

The advocates for the storifying system boast, that it is highly favourable to the formation of artificial swarms; it should, however, be previously demonstrated, that any actual advantage is to be derived from an artificial swarm.

1844, Robert Huish, Bees: Their Natural History and General Management:

(beekeeping, transitive) To store (additional honey) in additional tiers or stories of a hive.


topbar

(beekeeping) One of a set of parallel bars, at the top of a beehive, to which the bees attach their comb.


round dance

The round dance is never performed on a comb on which there are none or only a few bees, but it always takes place in the midst of a dense throng.

1924 February, John H. Lovell, “The Odor of Flowers as a Means of Communication Among Bees”, in The American Bee Journal, volume LXIV, number 2, Hamilton, page 76:

(beekeeping) A repetitive, circular movement done by a foraging honey bee in process of communicating to other workers that it has located a significant and nearby food source.


goback

There may be one or a dozen or perhaps a hundred or so of supers with partly filled sections, and these are all designated as "gobacks". They are either placed on top of other supers that are being built out from foundation, or upon colonies that seem to show a special aptitude for finishing up gobacks.

1900 August 2, “Dr. Miller's "Goback" Sections”, in American Bee Journal, volume 40:

Bees will then work in the whole super evenly and leave no gobacks.

1909, Gleanings in Bee Culture, volume 37, page 787:

(beekeeping) A section of honeycomb that is unfinished and returned to the hive.


storification

en-noun

storification (countable and uncountable, plural storifications)

(beekeeping) The process of storifying (storing honey in additional tiers of a hive).


bee vacuum

(beekeeping) A suction device somewhat like a vacuum cleaner, used to capture swarms of bees.


queen-cage

queen-cages (plural)
queen cage (alternative)

(beekeeping) A small case used to introduce and protect a new queen bee to a queenless hive in order to determine whether the new queen will be accepted or rejected


outyard

From out- + yard (“enclosed area designated for a specific purpose”).

af

There may be thirty to fifty supers in every outyard, and we have only about half an hour to get them off the hives, stacked and covered before the bees get really cross about what we are doing.

1983, Sue Hubbell, A Country Year: Living the Questions, Boston, MA: Mariner Books, published 1999, →ISBN, page 69:

Nowhere was this more evident than when we moved four of her beehives to the outyard.

2020, Dave Doroghy, Show Me the Honey: Adventures of an Accidental Apiarist, page 49:

(beekeeping) A temporary location with better sources of pollen to which a hive is moved during times when the plants in the normal location of the hive have dried up.


wax down

en-verb

wax down (third-person singular simple present waxes down, present participle waxing down, simple past and past participle waxed down)

waxes down (present singular third-person)
waxing down (participle present)
waxed down (participle past)
waxed down (past)

If the hive is suspected of being queenless, a queen-cell from another hive, with the pupa ready to hatch out, is sometimes placed in it, when, if the new queen is required, the bees will take to her, but should they have a queen and do not require a new one, they will wax down the queen-cell that was inserted so that the young queen cannot hatch out; a specimen of a cell so waxed down is exhibited.

1884, “The Museum”, in Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society, number 32, page lviii:

By the description of his cover for the bees to wax down, it was not properly braced, as the dovetailed end is made by different manufacturers.

1892 June 23, Thomas Johnson, “Temperature in Wintering Bees”, in American Bee Journal, volume 29, number 26, page 833:

How can I insert candy without chilling bees, as their outer covering at present is a bag of cork-dust, which seems (as far as I can tell without lifting) waxed down to the frames?

1904 December 22, “Queries and Replies”, in British Bee Journal, volume 32, number 2, page 509:

(beekeeping) To generate a layer of wax that completely covers.


smoke blower

she had dark hair and quick, brown eyes, her cheeks were very pink, and one of them was decorated with a black smudge from the smoke blower.

1921, Cornelia Meigs, The Windy Hill, page 21:

The hollow limbs of old gums often sheltered a hive, and he always carried an axe and a smoke blower when I drove him through the bush.

1944, Alan Marshall, These are My People, page 192:

Armed with a smoke blower, he was good at capturing the bees.

1988, R. L. Skrabanek, We're Czechs, page 41:

(beekeeping) A small fire chamber with attached bellows used to blow smoke on a hive to pacify the bees before the beekeeper works on it.


queen excluder

(beekeeping) A selective barrier inside a beehive that allows workers past, but not the larger queens and drones.


thermoballing

Certain subspecies, such as Japanese honey bees, guard against hornets by "thermoballing."

2007 September 17, “Honey Bee Defense Leaves Hornets Breathless”, in Science:

Some honeybees have adapted to defend themselves from Asian giant hornets via thermoballing, which is when they surround the hornet and vibrate their muscles.

(Can we date this quote?), Helen Roy, “Asian hornet guide: how to identify, the difference from a native European hornet, and how to report a sighting”, in BBC Wildlife Magazine:

(beekeeping) An incident where honeybees surround a threat and cause it to die through high temperature.