The words, in the order you meet them

Before there are bees

Langstroth: the standard stacked-box hive, named for the man who worked out bee space.

Bee space: roughly 6 to 9mm. Bees leave a gap this size open as a passage, fill anything smaller with propolis and build comb in anything larger. Every dimension of the hive follows from it.

Deep, medium, shallow: box depths. A deep full of honey is around 90 pounds, which is the practical argument for mediums.

Super: any box added above for honey storage, from "superstructure". To super a hive is to add one.

Foundation: a sheet of wax or plastic embossed with cell bases that gives the bees a starting point and keeps comb straight in the frame.

Nuc: a small established colony, usually five frames, with a laying queen. The usual and better way to start.

Package: bees by weight plus a caged queen, with no comb and no brood. Cheaper, slower, and unrelated to your climate.

The colony

Brood: eggs, larvae and pupae collectively. Open brood is uncapped, sealed or capped brood is covered.

Brood nest: the area of comb being used for brood, the warm center of the colony.

Queenright: has a laying queen. An inference, not an observation.

Laying worker: a worker producing unfertilized eggs after long queenlessness. Drones only.

Supersedure: the colony replacing its own queen without swarming.

Drawn comb: foundation the bees have built out into finished cells. The most valuable thing you own, because it is honey they have already spent.

Burr comb and brace comb: comb built where you did not want it, in spaces larger than bee space.

Through the year

Flow: a period when nectar is abundant. Everything is easier during one.

Dearth: the opposite. Colonies turn defensive and robbing starts.

Robbing: bees stealing stores from another colony. Fast, destructive, and mostly caused by beekeepers leaving honey exposed.

Absconding: the whole colony leaving. Different from swarming, which is a reproductive split.

Cluster: the ball of bees that holds warmth through winter. It moves through stores; it does not hibernate.

Dead-out: a colony that died. The comb it leaves is usually salvageable and is the point of diagnosing why.

Harvest and selling

Capped: cells sealed with wax. For honey, the bees' signal that moisture is low enough.

Uncapping: slicing those cappings off before extraction.

Extractor: the centrifuge that spins honey out of comb, leaving the comb intact and reusable.

Crush and strain: the alternative. Destroys the comb and needs no machine.

Settling: letting honey stand so air bubbles and fine debris rise before bottling.

Refractometer: the instrument that reads moisture. The one measurement that decides whether honey keeps.

Cottage food: a state exemption allowing certain foods to be made and sold without commercial kitchen licensing, under conditions that vary by state.