Beekeeper Vocabulary

“A pair of beekeepers carefully remove some honeycomb from a bee hive.”

More Beekeeper Vocabulary and Beekeeping Facts:

• Beekeeping, also called apiculture, dates back thousands of years, with evidence of people harvesting honey as far back as 8,000 years ago.
• A single bee hive can house tens of thousands of bees, most of which are worker bees.
• Bees tell each other where to find food through a special movement called the “waggle dance”.
• Honeycomb cells are hexagonal because this shape uses the least amount of wax while storing the most honey.
• Beekeepers use smoke to calm bees before opening a hive, since it masks the alarm signals bees release to warn each other of danger.

Talking About Hard Work:

• Industrious (Adjective): Diligent and hard-working.
• Diligent (Adjective): Showing care and effort in one’s work.
• Hardworking (Adjective): Tending to work with energy and commitment.
• Productive (Adjective): Achieving a lot; producing good results.
• Tireless (Adjective): Having or showing great effort or energy.
• Busy (Adjective): Having a great deal to do.

Bees have given English plenty of expressions, too. If someone works extremely hard, we say they’re ‘as busy as a bee‘. And if you think something is excellent, you might call it ‘the bee’s knees‘ – old-fashioned slang for something wonderful! But if you’re overwhelmed with too many tasks at once, unlike a bee, you might have too many irons in the fire.

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