Beekeeping Glossary

A long, flat-bladed knife used to slice away the thin wax cappings that bees seal over cells of ripened honey, exposing the honey so it can be spun out in an extractor. Heated uncapping knives — either electrically or with hot water — glide through cappings more cleanly than cold blades.

A large container used during honey extraction to catch the wax cappings and draining honey after frames are uncapped. Uncapping tanks typically have a strainer or mesh insert to separate cappings from liquid honey, which can then be processed separately.

The practice of merging two or more colonies into a single, stronger unit, commonly done to combine a failing or queenless hive with a healthy one. The newspaper method — placing a sheet of newspaper between the colonies and letting the bees chew through it gradually — is the most widely used technique for a low-stress merger.