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Comment by russellbeattie | Hacker News Reader

New word for me today: "apiarist"/"apiary". Never knew bee keepers had a more formal name, though it makes sense.

Dad joke: It would be more apt if instead of a-piary, it was "b-piary".

So a "swarm" is the collective noun for bees. But I couldn't find a collective noun for apiarists. I propose "stung" as in "a stung of beekeepers."

A swarm is actually a reproductive process. It looks like a mass of bees, but it has a specific purpose and composition.

(Although maybe you’re right colloquially)

A load of bees engaged in robbing behaves entirely differently from a swarm, which is a magical thing to interact with.

It’s correct enough colloquially. It’s just so much cooler than that.

Just like specialists probably differ from the general population on how many legs / arms an octopus has.

From the name, either they have 8 tentacles, or they have 8 of something else which is presumably called pus in Latin.

My mind is thoroughly in the gutter now.

Ironic coming from someone named "mead"!

Well. Technically, it's meadhbh (or meabh.)

Jason Statham in "The Apiarist" doesn't have the same ring to it

If you'd seen the movie, you'd realize that it couldn't have been more ridiculous even if that had been the title.

"Secret Backup NSA" isn't as catchy

Bonus word: if you want to sound all fancy, beekeeping is also known as apiculture.

And soldiers who use bees in battle are called the apilry

Oh, like the way the cavilry use guinea pigs?

I think the Incas mostly used guinea pigs as incendiaries so technically it would be cavillery like artillery.

Made more common semi recently I think by bees being in Minecraft and various apiary mods.

Similar to how when they added sherds (opposed to shards) for broken archaeological finds.