938 
BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 
Paraffin. —A white translucent substance somewhat 
resembling beeswax, derived from mineral oil, 
and sold very largely in the form of candles. It 
is used by beekeepers to render honey-barrels 
tight. 
Parent stock. —The original colony that has cast a 
swarm. 
Parthenogenesis. —Production of a new individual 
from a virgin female without intervention of* a 
male; reproduction by means of unfertilized 
eggs. In bees the unfertilized eggs produce 
only males. An unfecundated queen, and some¬ 
times a worker, may lay eggs that will hatch, 
producing only drones. See “Parthenogenesis” 
in the body of this work. 
Perforated zinc. —Zinc sheet metal having oblong 
holes 1-6 of an inch in width to allow worker 
bees alone to pass, and excluding queens and 
drones. See “Excluders.” 
Pickled brood.—See “Sacbrood.” 
Piping.- —-A series of sounds made by a queen, 
louder than any sound made by a worker, con¬ 
sisting of a loud, shrill tone, succeeded by sev¬ 
eral others, each sound shorter than the one 
that precedes it. A laying queen is seldom 
heard to pipe; a virgin perhaps always pipes at 
intervals after emerging from her cell, and in 
response to her piping may be heard the quahk- 
ing of one or several virgins in their cells, if 
such are in the hive, the quahking being uttered 
in a lower key and in a more hurried manner 
than the piping. Piping is also called ‘teeting.” 
Pistil. —The pistil is divided into the ovary, style 
and stigma. The ovary contains the ovules 
which, after fertilization, become the seeds. See 
“Pollen” in the body of this work. 
Plain sections. —Comb-honey sections with no in¬ 
sets or scalloped edges. See “Comb Honey, 
Appliances For,” in the body of this work. 
Playfiights, or playspells.—On warm clear days 
young bees, which have never before left the 
hive, perform the flight of orientation. The 
head is turned constantly toward the hive and 
the bee hovers up and down, and later de¬ 
scribes smaller and then larger orientation cir¬ 
cles. It thus forms a memory picture of the 
hive and its surroundings, which later guides 
it when returning from the field. The older bees 
fly forth from the entrance without a moment’s 
delay. 
Polariscopc. —An optical instrument much used in 
sugar and honey laboratories for measuring the 
quantity of or differentiating between the vari¬ 
ous sugars. Its use depends on the fact that 
each sugar has its own “specific rotation.” 
Polarization. —The specific rotation of a substance 
like the sugars as measured by the optical in¬ 
strument called the polariscope, q. v. 
Pollen.- —Dust-like grains formed in the anthers, 
within which are produced the male elements or 
sperms. 
Pollen-basket. —A cavity on the hind legs of the 
bee wherein is deposited the pollen gathered 
from flowers. 
Power extractor. —An extractor driven by some 
kind of power, usually a small gasoline engine 
of about two horsepower. A power extractor is 
a machine of large capacity, containing not less 
than six or eight combs at a time. 
Prime swarm. —The first swarm—the swarm with 
the old queen. 
Propolis. —A kind of glue or resin collected by the 
bees and chiefly used to close up cracks and 
small spaces. 
Pupa. —The third stage of the bee, during which 
it is inactive and sealed up in its cell; some¬ 
times called “chrysalis.” 
Quahking.- —The noise made by a young queen in 
her cell in response to the piping of the queen 
at large. See “Piping.” 
Queen. —A fully developed female bee; the mother 
bee. 
Queen-cage. —A small box of wire and wood in 
which queens are held prisoners. 
Queen candy.—Candy made by kneading powdered 
sugar into extracted honey or invert sugar syrup 
until it forms a stiff dough; used in queen- 
cages ; called Scholtz candy, because Rev. M. 
Scholtz introduced it in Europe. Afterward I. K. 
Good gave it prominence in America, and so it 
is often called Good candy. 
Queen-cell.—A cell in which a queen is reared, 
having an inside diameter of about Ys of an 
inch, hanging downward an inch or more in 
length. 
Queen-excluder.—See ‘ ‘Excluder.” 
Queening.—The act of introducing a queen into a 
queenless colony of bees. 
Queenless.—Having no queen. 
Queen-nursery.-—A cage or set of cages in which 
to confine queen-cells or queens. 
Queen-rearing.—Raising queens. 
Queen-register.-—A card to be attached to a hive 
with pointers that may be moved so as to indi¬ 
cate dates, and conditions relating to the queen, 
such as “cell.” “hatched,” “laying,” etc. 
See “Record-keeping” in the body of this 
work. 
Queenright.—Having a good laying queen. 
Queen’s voice.—A sound made by a queen. See 
1 ‘Piping.’ ’ 
Queen-trap.—A device provided with perforated 
zinc, or wire bars, to be attached to the en¬ 
trance of a hive, allowing workers to pass, 
but trapping any queen or drone that attempts 
to issue. Called also “drone-trap.” 
Quilt.—A cover for brood-frames made in the 
form of a thin cushion. 
Quinby frame.—The hanging Quinby frame is 
18 y 2 by 1114 ; the closed-end or standing Quin¬ 
by is 19% by 11, is without lugs, and sup¬ 
ported at the bottom. See “Hives” in the 
body of this work. 
Quinby hive.—A hive invented by Mr. Quinby 
based on Huber’s leaf hive of the latter part of 
the 18th century. See “Hives” in the body 
of this work. 
Rabbet.—1. An offset in the upper inside edge of 
a hive. 2. A narrow piece of tin folded in a 
peculiar manner to form a rest for the shoulders 
of the hanging frames. See “Hives” in the 
body of this work. 
Race.—Groups smaller than species are variously 
called subspecies, race, variety, strain and form. 
The first three terms are nearly synonymous. A 
race of Apis mellifica is a geographical variety, 
which propagates itself sexually and interbreeds 
freely with other races of the same species. 
Rendering wax.—The process of melting combs 
and refining wax from its impurities, usually 
done by means of hot water or steam accom¬ 
panied by pressure on the mass of material. 
Repository.—A room, usually upon a hillside, part¬ 
ly or wholly below ground, in which bees are 
wintered; a bee-cave; a bee-cellar. In a general 
sense the word may be used for any place in 
which bees are wintered indoors. 
Reversing.—Turning over or inverting a hive with 
bees to accomplish certain results. See “In¬ 
version.’ ’ 
Reversible extractor.—A machine that reverses 
the combs inside of the can either automatically 
or by hand. 
Ripe honey.—Honey left in the care of the bees 
until it contains less than 25 per cent of -water. 
Robbing.—As applied to bees, the taking of honey 
by stealth or force from the hives of other colo¬ 
nies. 
Royal cell.—Queen-cell. 
Royal jelly.—Brood food. A milky white, finely 
granular jelly with a strong acid reaction. The 
larvae of the queen receive no other food, but 
it is fed to the larvae of the workers and drones 
for only three days. It is not known how it is 
formed. The contents of the bee’s stomach are 
brown-colored, strongly alkaline, and can not 
be forced back thru the stomach-mouth. Brood 
