Beekeeping Glossary
Essential beekeeping terms — from frames to foragers.
SACBROOD
A common brood disease caused by a virus that prevents affected larvae from completing their development, leaving them as fluid-filled sacs beneath the cappings. Most colonies are able to suppress mild outbreaks through hygienic behavior, though severe infestations can set back brood production significantly.
SCOUT BEES
Experienced forager bees that venture out ahead of the colony to locate and evaluate new resources, whether nectar and pollen sources or, in the case of a swarm, potential nest sites. Scouts communicate their findings to other bees through the waggle dance, and in a swarming situation, the ultimate destination is decided by a democratic process among competing scouts.
SCREENED BOTTOM BOARD
A bottom board fitted with wire mesh instead of a solid floor, allowing Varroa mites that fall off bees to drop out of the hive rather than climbing back onto bees. Screened bottom boards also improve ventilation and can be used with sticky boards for mite monitoring.
SECONDARY SWARM
A smaller swarm that departs the parent colony after the primary swarm has already left, typically led by a virgin queen that has recently emerged. Multiple secondary swarms, sometimes called afterswarms or casts, can follow if the colony produced several queen cells, though each successive swarm further depletes the original colony's population.
SKEP
A domed, basket-like hive woven from coiled straw or grass that served as the standard beehive in Europe for centuries before the invention of removable-frame hives. Because skeps have no movable parts and cannot be inspected, they are now largely impractical for modern beekeeping and are prohibited for colony management in many US states.
SLATTED RACK
A wooden frame fitted with evenly spaced slats that sits between the bottom board and the lowest hive body, creating a small buffer space beneath the brood nest. Many beekeepers find that this addition encourages the queen to lay closer to the bottom of the frames, reduces bearding on hot days, and can help improve overall colony productivity.
SLUMGUM
The dark, waxy residue left behind after beeswax has been rendered and filtered out of old comb and cappings, consisting of cocoons, propolis, pollen, and other debris. While it has little commercial value, slumgum is sometimes used as a fire starter or trap bait for small hive beetles.
SMALL HIVE BEETLE
An invasive pest (Aethina tumida) originally from sub-Saharan Africa that has spread to North America and beyond, where it infests hives and lays eggs in comb. The larvae tunnel through honeycomb, feeding on honey, pollen, and brood, causing comb to slime and ferment. Strong colonies can often keep beetle populations in check, but weaker hives are vulnerable to being overrun.
SMOKER
An essential beekeeping tool that burns natural materials such as wood chips, burlap, or pine needles to generate cool smoke, which is puffed into the hive entrance and under the cover before an inspection. Smoke triggers a feeding response in bees and masks alarm pheromones, making the colony significantly calmer and easier to work.
SOLAR WAX MELTER
A simple, low-cost device that uses the sun's heat to render beeswax from old comb and cappings, with no fuel or electricity required. Old comb is placed inside a glass-topped insulated box where solar energy melts the wax, which then drains and solidifies for collection.
SPLIT
The division of one colony into two or more separate colonies, either to prevent swarming, make increase, or produce new queens. A walk-away split involves simply dividing the bees and brood, leaving the queenless portion to raise its own queen from existing eggs or young larvae.
SPUR EMBEDDER
A hand tool with a small toothed or notched wheel that rolls along the wires laid across foundation, using pressure and sometimes gentle heat to press them flush into the wax. Properly embedded wires reinforce the foundation so drawn comb holds its shape during extraction.
STINGER
The defensive weapon of a worker honey bee, formed from a modified egg-laying structure and connected to a venom sac. Unlike the smooth stingers of wasps and bumblebees, the worker's stinger has backward-facing barbs that anchor in mammalian skin, causing the stinger and venom sac to be torn from the bee's body — a fatal wound for the bee but one that allows venom to continue pumping into the sting site.
STREPTOCOCCUS PLUTON
The bacterial pathogen (now reclassified as Melissococcus plutonius) responsible for European foulbrood, a brood disease that causes young larvae to die before their cells are capped. Infected larvae typically appear twisted, discolored, and have a sour odor, and the disease tends to flare up during periods of nutritional stress in the colony.
SUCROSE
A disaccharide sugar that makes up the bulk of the carbohydrates in flower nectar, which foraging bees collect and carry back to the hive. During honey production, bees enzymatically break sucrose down into its simpler component sugars, glucose and fructose.
SUGAR ROLL
A non-lethal alternative to the alcohol wash for counting Varroa mites, in which approximately 300 bees are placed in a jar with powdered sugar, rolled to coat the bees and dislodge mites, and then shaken over a white surface to count the mites that fall out. The sugar-coated bees are returned to the hive unharmed.
SUPER
A box placed on top of the brood nest that the beekeeper intends to harvest from, giving worker bees dedicated space to store surplus honey beyond what the colony needs for itself. Supers come in different depths — shallow, medium, and deep — and are typically separated from the brood area by a queen excluder.
SUPERSEDURE
A colony's natural process of quietly replacing a failing or underperforming queen by raising one or more new queens without triggering a swarm. The old queen usually continues laying alongside her replacement until the new queen takes over, making supersedure a gentler and less disruptive transition than swarming.
SURPLUS HONEY
The portion of a colony's honey stores that exceeds what the bees require to sustain themselves through the season or winter, which the beekeeper harvests as the reward for good hive management. How much surplus a colony produces depends on the strength of the nectar flow, colony population, and local forage conditions.
SWARM
The primary way honey bee colonies reproduce at the colony level — a large group of bees, typically including the existing queen and up to half the worker population, departs the parent hive together to found a new colony elsewhere. Swarms often cluster temporarily on a nearby branch or structure while scout bees search for a permanent nesting site.
SWARM CELL
A queen cell constructed by workers in preparation for swarming, typically found hanging from the lower edges of frames rather than in the middle of the comb. The presence of multiple swarm cells is a reliable signal that the colony is actively planning to swarm, and finding them during an inspection gives the beekeeper an opportunity to intervene.
SWARM TRAP
A box or container placed in a location likely to attract a scout swarm, baited with old comb, propolis, or lemongrass oil to mimic the scent of an established cavity. Swarm traps are an effective, low-cost method of capturing feral swarms and expanding an apiary.
SWARMING
The biological mechanism by which a honey bee colony reproduces itself, splitting its population to send a new colony into the world while leaving a daughter queen behind to lead the original hive. While swarming is a healthy instinct, beekeepers typically manage against it to maintain strong colony populations and prevent honey loss.