BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 
937 
which is to hold the nectar gathered by bees 
from flowers. The walls are very distensible. 
House-apiary. — 1. An apiary kept in a specially 
constructed building; 2. The building itself 
which contains the hives, the walls of the build¬ 
ing containing holes through which the bees 
pass out and in. 
Hybrids. — A cross between different species, or 
between varieties of the same species, as be¬ 
tween black and Italian bees. 
Hymettus. —A mountain district of Greece famous 
for its wild-thyme honey, and celebrated in 
classic poetry and history. 
Imago.— The fully developed bee or other insect. 
Imbedding tool. —A device for crowding the wire 
of the frame into the sheet of comb foundation. 
Introduce. — To give a colony a strange queen, 
taking precautions so that she will not be killed 
by the bees. 
Introducing. —Giving a strange queen to a colony 
of bees. Unless certain precautions are taken, 
a colony is apt to kill a queen to which they 
are not accustomed. Introducing is generally per¬ 
formed by hanging the queen in a cage in the 
midst of the strange bees several days until she 
acquires the odor of the hive. 
Introducing-cage. —A small box of wire and wood. 
Inversion. — The process of turning a hive upside 
down to compel the bees to attach their combs 
to the bottom-bar. also to remove honey from 
brood-frames into the supers. 
Invert sugar.—A mixture of equal parts of the 
two sugars, dextrose and levulose. with or with¬ 
out water. Invert sugar is made from sucrose 
(cane or beet sugar) by heating with a trace 
of acid. It superficially resembles honey, q. v 
Italian bees. — The most valuable race of bees for 
honey production. They were first successfully 
introduced into this country about 1860. The 
first three dorsal segments of the abdomen are 
banded with yellow. There are also four and 
five banded strains. 
Italianize. — To change a colony of any other race 
to Italians by introducing an Italian queen. 
Jumbo frame. — 17% inches long, 11% inches in 
depth. See ‘‘Hives” in the body of this work. 
Jumbo hive. — A regular standard Langstroth hive 
having Quinby depth hut otherwise regular 
Langstroth dimensions. It is 2% inches deeper 
than the regular standard Langstroth. It uses 
the same covers, bottoms and supers as the 
standard hive. 
Langstroth frame. —17% inches long by 9%' 
inches deep. See "Hives”; also "Frames” in 
the body of this work. 
Langstroth hive. —A hive having frames 17% by 
9%. In one sense, any movable-frame hive is a 
Langstroth hive, since Langstroth invented the 
movable-frame hive. See "Frame.” 
L. frame.— Langstroth frame. 
L. hive. —Langstroth hive. 
Larva (plural larvae). —A bee in the worm state; 
unsealed brood. 
Laying worker. —A worker which lays eggs, such 
eggs producing only drones. Laying workers 
do not appear except in colonies long queen¬ 
less. 
Legume. — A species of the Leguminosae, or pulse 
family, is often called a legume. The name of 
the fruit of this family, which is a 2-valved pod 
with the seeds borne on the ventral suture only. 
Levulose. —One of the five important sugars. It 
occurs in honey and in nearly all fruits except 
the grape. It is known also as fruit sugar or 
fructose. 
Light brood foundation. —Comb foundation running 
about 9 square feet to the pound. 
Ligurian bee. —Italian bee, named for the district 
in which the best Italian bees are found. 
Lining bees. — Watching the direction of the flight 
of bees so as to trace them to their home (usu¬ 
ally in some hollow tree). See "Bee-hunting” 
in the body of this work. 
Lock-cornered hives.—A scheme of fastening the 
hives together at the corners by means of lock¬ 
cornering straight fingers of wood. Dovetailed 
hives incorrectly named; are really lock-cor¬ 
nered. in that the fingers are straight and not 
dovetailed. See "Dovetailed Hives” in the 
,body of this work. 
Loose frames or loose-hanging frames. — As opposed 
to fixed frames, those which have no provision 
for self-spacing, but must be spaced by the eye. 
See "Self-spacing Frames,” also "Frames.” 
Mai de mai.—May sickness ; a peculiar disease of 
bees occurring mostly in May, and giving much 
trouble in Europe. 
Maltose. — One of the five important sugars. It oc¬ 
curs in malt products, beer and corn syrup or 
commercial glucose. 
Mandibles. — The first or upper pair of jaws of in¬ 
sects. The. second or lower pair of jaws are 
called the maxillae. 
May pest.—Same as mal de mai. 
Medium brood foundation. —Comb foundation run¬ 
ning about 7 square feet to the pound. 
Mel-extractor.-— Honey-extractor. 
Melipona.-—A genus of stingless bees native to 
South and Central America. They bite vicious¬ 
ly but do not sting. 
Metal-spaced frames. — Self-spacing frames having 
metal spacers on the sides of the frames. 
Migratory beekeeping. — In some portions of the 
country, particularly in California and in the 
Rocky Mountain districts, it is the practice to 
move whole apiaries from one locality to an¬ 
other to catch the successive honey flows. The 
bees are sent overland on trucks or by train. 
Mite. — See "Acarapis woodi.” 
Moth miller. — See "Bee Moth.” 
Movable frame.—A loose comb frame which can 
be removed completely from the hive for the 
purpose of examination or use. A Langstroth 
frame. See "Frames.” 
Natural Swarm.—A swarm of bees issuing through 
a natural impulse from the mother colony. 
Nectar. — A sweet liquid secreted by nectaries lo¬ 
cated chiefly in flowers and on leaves. 
Nectaries. — Glands composed of specialized tissue 
which secrete nectar. 
Neuter.—A name sometimes but incorrectly ap¬ 
plied to worker bees. 
Non-swarming hive. — A hive so constructed as to 
control the desire to swarm. 
Nucleus (plural nuclei). — A very small colony of 
bees. The difference between a nucleus and a 
colony is much like the difference between a 
boy and a man. It is not easy to say just when 
a nucleus becomes large enough to be called a 
colony. Perhaps nothing larger than three 
combs with adhering bees should be called a 
nucleus, although in the spring many so-called 
colonies have much less than three frames of 
brood. 
Nurse bees. — Young worker bees that feed the 
larvae and do other work inside the hive. They 
are generally less than 16 days old. 
Observatory hive.—A hive largely of glass to per¬ 
mit observing the bees at work. 
Ocelli.—The three simple eyes of the bee. 
Out-apiary.—An apiary kept at some distance 
(generally more than a mile) from the home of 
the beekeeper. 
Overstocking. — A condition reached when there 
are too many bees for a given locality. 
Packing-cases. — Large cases of wood surrounding 
one or more hives during winter. The space be¬ 
tween the hives and the case is filled in with 
packing of some sort, such as planer shavings 
or leaves; never used during the summer or 
warm months. See "Wintering Outdoors” in 
the body of this work. 
