Honey Glossary
A
ANTHER - The area where pollen is developed and contained in a plant.
APIARIST - A beekeeper.
APIARY - Where several bee colonies are kept in one place.
B
BEEHIVE - A place where a bee colony dwells.
BEESWAX - Secreted wax from the underside glands of the bee abdomen; bees mold the wax to form honeycomb.
C
COLONY - A community of tens of thousands of worker bees, usually containing one queen, with or without drones.
COMB HONEY - Honey presented in its original wax comb.
CRYSTALLIZATION - Honey is a supersaturated solution. Crystals will develop in honey when glucose crystallizes out of solution. Crystallization of honey is most rapid at 57°F.
D
DRONE - A male bee.
E
EXTRACTED HONEY - Honey removed from the comb by a special machine called an extractor and sold in liquid or crystallized form.
EXTRACTOR - A machine that rotates honeycomb with great speed to remove honey.
H
HIVE - A man-made structure for bees.
HONEY - The nectar and sweet deposits from plants as gathered, modified and stored in honeycomb by honey bees.
HONEY BEE - An insect with three pairs of legs, four wings, a stinger and a special stomach which holds nectar. The honey bee is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.
HONEYCOMB - Hexagonal beeswax cells built by honey bees.
N
NECTAR - The sweet secretion from flowers of various plants.
P
PISTIL - A flower's central organ that contains the stigma, style and ovary.
POLLEN - The male reproductive cells of flowers. Bees collect pollen to use as food for their young. It is the protein part of a bee's diet.
POLLINATION - The fertilizatBeeion of a flowering plant. The transfer of pollen from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of that or another flower.
Q
QUEEN - A sexually developed female bee.
S
STAMEN - The male part of a flower where pollen-producing anther are borne.
SWARM - The natural division of a bee colony.
W
WORKER BEE - A sexually undeveloped female bee.