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What do you call your girls?

12K views 61 replies 54 participants last post by  busybguy 
#1 ·
I got an interesting phone call from a college student yesterday. Her professor is a beekeeper and has assigned her the project of coming back to him with "bee nicknames." He's not looking for apis mellifera or any technical terms; he's looking for things like "the girls." As a matter of fact, "the girls" is the only one I could think of. Do any of you call your bees by a nickname? If so, and you can let me know what it is, I'll pass it on to Jennifer.

I'm really curious myself at this point. . .never heard any other nicknames.
 
#30 ·
Sometimes when we move bees and the bees drift to one hive and beard on front. We call them buzzard bees.... I have no idea why....

Gotta box full of buzzards over here.

Watch out those are meanie weanies.

Watch out those are black butts.

Those are some nice yella heads.

Weak hives are dinks.

Strong hives are honey makers.
 
#38 ·
"Thanks, iddee, for giving her this website. Hope she is reading this.--Tia. -- That's ALL??

"nothing wrong with calling our bees "mine". I built their home, brought them in, care for them best I can, and make my lively hood off them off them. I am sure they don't mind if I call them,......"my girls". -- Ian. That's right Ian,.. in order to distinguish between your "girls" and the other beekeepers,............"girls".

OK! I want to give the "professor" and his "student" something to,.. "think about".

I give each and everyone of my bees [YES all 50,000/hive] a NAME from A to Z. Sure,.you can distinguish every bee according to the "venation" on the wings and the banding on their abdomens. NO bee is exactly the same; like snowflakes. I'll bet you didn't know that!

I start out with,..........Abby and end with,.........Zedna,. or so,..in English. I then begin again in Chinese with,......$$((*/:=+, and japanese like,.. ^^}{!!]$$. Well, you get the picture. There's,..Polish, Arabian,Aztec, Australian, Austrian,...all the way to the,..Zuni language you can choose from for names of your "girls". ..Have a nice day!
 
#43 ·
sometimes "my little ladies" or "young ladies"
Last year, for our banquet, I printed up a fake cover to put over the abc's & xyz's of Bee Culture. My cover said something like "The Giant Book of Bee Names, over 50,000 names to give your bees" It got a good response, and I sold out of copies. If you want to buy one, sign your name on the back of a hundred dollar bill and send it to me. ;)
 
#45 ·
no pet bee names but I do put collars on the workers

I dont have a pet name for my bees. But I do put collars on all the workers to satisfy the local police chief. I started this when the city attorney sent a letter threatening to ticket me for bee running at large if I did not contain my bees to my property. When people tell me they seen one of my bees. I ask if it had a collar on. If they say no then I deny its one of mine. Havent been ticketed yet.:D This has gotten to be a big running joke in our small town
 
#48 ·
Since I only have a few hives, I give each a name: Beezus, Scoobee, Doobee, Suebee and Newbee. When I go back in the house after fooling with the hives, my wife will ask something like "So, how are the bees?" and then pretend to listen while I drone on about how Beezus doesn't look good, Suebee is boiling over, Doobee's mite count is up, etc.
 
#52 ·
This has been very interesting!!

The hive I took from a tree is named St. Simon Stock after the Carmelite friar who lived as a hermit in the trunk of an oak tree when he was a youth.

Another is named after St. Gobnait who lived in the 1200's. She had a strong relationship with bees and used the properties of honey in the treatment of illness and healing of wounds. Her name is the Irish equivalent of the Hebrew name Deborah, which means "Honey Bee." The Bees have long been important in Irish society and were part of the ancient laws called the Bech Bretha (Bee Judgments). In prehistoric times the soul was thought to leave the body as an insect, either a bee or a butterfly.

I name the others after other saints that are associated with bees in one way or another.

Sr. Tanya
 
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