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 A dearth of nectar during a long, hot dry period |   dearth See itlack of natural food sources for nectar and pollen, common between fall and spring or during a period of prolonged drought during the normal foraging season See also: Feeding and Watering |
 | decoy hive a hive designed and placed specifically to attract honeybee swarms, for the purpose of placing the swarms in hives or for studying honeybee swarming and migration habits |
| demaree a method of controlling honeybee swarming introduced by George Demaree in 1884 that makes it possible to retain the entire colony population; it accomplishes this by separating the queen from the brood, decreasing hive congestion and therefore the bees' desire to swarm. |
 Removing a queen (dequeening) in preparation for requeening |  dequeen See itto remove a queen from a honeybee colony to prepare for requeening See also: requeening |
 Grapes are naturally rich in dextrose sugar | dextrose See it known as "grape sugar", dextrose (or glucose) is one of the two principal sugars that constitute honey, the other of which is fructose (levulose) See also: fructose |
| dividing the process of separating a populous honeybee colony to into two separate hives to form two colonies; usually practiced as a method of swarm control See also: requeening, swarm |
 Division board feeder hangs in hive box in place of a frame | division board feeder  See ita wooden or plastic compartment that is hung in a hive like a frame and contains sugar syrup to feed honeybees; BeeCARE does not recommend this feeder, since you must open and disturb the hive to check or refill it. Also, it holds too little syrup, and many bees drown in this type of feeder, which is a very unusual occurrence in a hive-top feeder. Drowned bees rot and corrupt the syrup, making the other bees sick and discouraging them from feeding, which then causes the syrup to mold. This is a very poor feeder and should not be used if possible. See also: boardman feeder, hive-top feeder |
| double screen a wooden frame, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, with two layers of wire screen to separate two colonies within the same hive, one above the other. An entrance is cut on the upper side and placed to the rear of the hive for the upper colony. |
 Honeycomb drawn out from the foundation into hexagonal wax cells | drawn combs See it comb foundation that has the embossed cells of the foundation built out into beeswax honeycomb in the frames of a beehive; the honeybees have "drawn" the cells out from the base of the foundation See also: comb |
 Field bees are more likely to drift in a strong cross-wind, or when they are old and weak | drifting the phenomenon of field bees entering the wrong hive in their apiary when they return from foraging. Drifting is unusual in small apiaries, and occurs more commonly in apiaries containing many hives. Younger honeybees are more likely to drift, and honeybees from smaller colonies also tend to drift more into hives with larger colonies. When honeybees drift to other hives, they are usually accepted, since they are carrying a load of honey and pollen. If they continue to drift to the same hive, they will become part of the colony, weakening their original hive population. Occasionally, a foreign honeybee that drifts into another hive is rejected by the guard bees, either not being allowed to enter or stung to death in the ensuing fight. Drifting can be minimized by spacing the hives farther apart (three feet or more) or by staggering the position of the hives, instead of having a long, straight row of hives. Drifting is especially likely in areas where prevailing winds blow more sideways across the hives instead of straight on, especially if the wind is typically brisk. In this case, drifting can be minimized by providing a wind break close to the hives, such as a snow fence or thick shrubbery. The use of a landing ramp also helps minimize drifting, especially for older field bees. |
 Two honeybee drones  New drone emerging from his brood cell | drone  See itthe male honeybee, whose only role in the colony is to mate with a virgin queen. The drones do no other useful work, but rather sit around and engorge themselves on honey and pollen which has been produced and packaged by all the hard-working female bees. As illustrated in the top picture at left, the drones have larger, more bulbous eyes and a stubbier, usually darker abdomen than the female worker bees. The bottom picture shows a drone emerging from its brood cell. Out of a population of 20,000 to 60,000 honeybees in a healthy honeybee colony, there will be only several hundred drones. The colony ejects the drones from the hive in the late autumn in preparation for winter, and the drones die. During early spring, the colony will begin producing drones again in drone comb cells, so drones can be available to mate with a new queen in case the colony swarms. |
 Raised, dome-like cells are drone cells | drone comb See it sections of wax comb in the beehive built for raising drones and for storing honey and pollen; cells in the drone comb are slightly larger than the normal worker cells, and drone cells have a convex, dome-like appearance when they are capped, as opposed to the flatter cappings of the worker cells. The illustration here shows drone cells in the middle and lower-right of this section of comb, with normal worker cells at the upper left. You can see the light-colored, capped drone cells, which are distinctly identifiable by their raised dome shape. See also: bee metamorphosis, Queen and her brood, worker comb |
| drone layer an infertile or unmated laying queen |
| drumming pounding on the sides of a hive to make the bees ascend into another hive placed over it |
 Many bees rapidly die during spring dwindling | dwindling See it the rapid dying off of old bees in the spring; sometimes called spring dwindling or disappearing disease |
| dysentery an abnormal condition of adult bees characterized by severe diarrhea and usually caused by starvation, low-quality food, moist surroundings, or nosema infection |
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