Beekeeping Glossary
Essential beekeeping terms — from frames to foragers.
QUEEN
The sole fully reproductive female in the colony, distinguished by her elongated abdomen and remarkable capacity to lay up to two thousand eggs per day during peak season. Her pheromones regulate colony behavior, suppress worker reproduction, and give the hive its cohesion and identity.
QUEEN BANK
A temporary storage system for keeping multiple mated, caged queens alive and viable in a strong host colony for days to weeks until they are needed for requeening. Queen banks allow beekeepers to have replacement queens on hand when needed and are commonly used by queen producers.
QUEEN CAGE
A small screened enclosure used to safely transport a queen and a handful of attendant workers, and to introduce a new queen to a colony gradually so the resident bees have time to accept her. A candy plug at one end of the cage is slowly consumed by the bees, releasing the queen only after she has had time to become familiar to the colony.
QUEEN CELL
An enlarged, peanut-shaped wax cell constructed by workers specifically to rear a new queen, hanging vertically from the face or bottom edge of a comb. The presence of queen cells is a signal worth paying close attention to, as it may indicate swarm preparations, supersedure of a failing queen, or an emergency response to queen loss.
QUEEN CLIPPING
The practice of trimming one or both wings of a queen so she cannot fly, which prevents her from leading a swarm away from the apiary. A clipped queen that attempts to swarm will fall to the ground outside the hive, giving the beekeeper an opportunity to intervene, though the technique does not stop the colony from making swarm preparations.
QUEEN EXCLUDER
A flat grid of precisely spaced wire or plastic slots inserted between hive bodies to confine the queen to the brood nest while allowing smaller worker bees to pass freely into honey supers above. This keeps brood out of the honey crop, though some beekeepers choose not to use one, viewing it as an unnecessary restriction on colony movement.
QUEEN REARING
The process of deliberately producing new queen bees through grafting young larvae, using cell starter and builder colonies, and allowing bees to raise queens for mating. Queen rearing allows beekeepers to propagate desirable traits, reduce dependence on purchased queens, and make increase colonies.
QUEEN RIGHT
A term describing a colony that has a functioning, laying queen present. Confirming that a hive is queen right is one of the primary objectives of a hive inspection, as a queenless colony will eventually fail without intervention.