CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How to raise bee pupae?

Bee pupae are rich in nutrition, crispy and tender, and are truly natural and delicious food. In recent years, in Jishou, Zhangjiajie and other places in western Hunan, the price of bee pupae is as high as 400 yuan per kilogram, becoming another local specialty for mountain people to give to relatives and friends.

Bee pupae are generally larvae and pupae of wild bees such as wasps, yellow jackets, black bees, and ground bees. These bees belong to the class Insecta, order Hymenoptera, and family Vespa. In the mountainous areas of western Hunan, 2 to 5 generations can develop in a year. The best time to pick them is when they are in the stage of larvae to pupae. Bee pupae are fresh products. In addition to being fried and eaten fresh, most of them are processed by drying methods for easy storage and packaging.

Fold this section to edit artificial pupae

After the hive is collected, it is wrapped with nylon gauze, and then the pupae are smoked in smoke for 2 to 5 minutes to drive away the individual stinging adult bees hiding in the hive. After the smoke, the gauze is untied to remove the dirt, residues, bark and other impurities on the surface of the hive. There are two main methods for artificial pupation: one is to remove the membrane of the pupa mouth with a small clamp and take out the pupae and larvae from the hive one by one; the other is to burn the hive mouth downward in an open flame for 1 to 3 minutes, so that the membrane of the pupa mouth is burned and the pupa head is exposed, and then the lid is gently shaken by hand to make the pupae and larvae fall out of the room. If some cannot be peeled off, they can be picked up with a small clamp. After the pupae are taken out, they are placed in a clean bamboo dustpan or basin.

Fold to edit this section: blanching in salt water

Clean the cooking pot, pour in an appropriate amount of water and a small amount of salt, the concentration of the salt water should be 2.5% to 3.3%, then boil the water, put the peeled bee pupae and larvae into the boiling water and blanch for 3 to 5 minutes. If there are many small pupae in the pot, you can do it in batches. After blanching, take out and drain, and spread thinly on a bamboo dustpan.

Fold and edit this section Drying process

After being blanched in boiling water, the bee pupae should be drained in time and spread thinly on a bamboo dustpan and placed in the sun to dry. In case of rainy days, they can be dried with fire. The water content of the pupae should be controlled below 14%. You can also fry them in vegetable oil for two or three minutes after drying them in the air (or in the oven), then remove them and drain them, so that the appearance of the bee pupae will be smoother and more shiny.

Fold to edit this section Packaging introduction

After the bee pupae are dried, the powder and debris must be removed before packaging to make them complete and uniform in size. Use food bags that meet food hygiene standards and package them in 500g, 250g, and 125g sizes. The inner bag should be airtight, labeled with the processing date, and stored in a dry place or put on the market for sale.

The processing of bee pupae follows the processing techniques of picking → taking pupae → blanching → air-drying (baking) → packaging, which can ensure the processing quality. The method is simple and easy to operate, and the storage period can reach more than 6 months.

Bee pupae are truly pure natural foods and have long been popular among the people as a delicacy. Especially in recent years, as people favor insect foods, they have become more popular, and many areas have begun artificially breeding hornets to obtain bee pupae for food. Let’s take a look at how to eat bee pupae in the most nutritious way!



1. Nutritional value

Bee pupae are the larvae of bees or wasps (wasp larvae are more common). Their main components are protein, carbohydrates and fat. They are also rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes and active substances. The most representative ingredients are protein (more than 20%) and vitamins (especially vitamin A and vitamin D). Their effects are mainly reflected in nutrition, anti-aging and growth promotion.



2. Steamed Bee Pupa

Steamed bee pupae are the most nutritious way to eat them. Before making them, clean the bee pupae and put them in a bowl. Then put the bee pupae in the bowl and put the bowl into the steamer. Steam the bee pupae over high heat. After they are cooked, sprinkle them with a little pepper powder, salt and other seasonings, mix well and they are ready to eat. In fact, this way of eating basically retains all the nutrients in the bee pupae. Compared with fried bee pupae, it is healthier and less likely to cause internal heat.



3. Fried bee pupae

The most common and simplest way to eat bee pupae is to fry them. Before making them, wash the bee pupae and drain them. Then add a proper amount of oil to the pot and heat it over high heat. When the oil is 70% to 80% hot, turn to low heat and put the bee pupae in and fry them slowly. When the bee pupae are fried until golden brown, turn off the heat and remove from the pot. After removing from the pot, add a proper amount of salt and you can eat them. You can also add condiments such as chili and Sichuan pepper to make spicy bee pupae, pepper and salt bee pupae, salty and crispy bee pupae, etc.



4. Soak in Bee Pupa Wine

Soaking bee pupae in liquor is also a popular way to eat bee pupae. When making it, you only need to soak the bee pupae in liquor for more than half a month before drinking it. However, you should pay attention to the following points when making it. First, the bee pupae must be fresh and the insect body must be intact. Second, the liquor should be pure grain liquor with a higher degree (preferably more than 50 degrees). Third, the soaking time must not be less than half a month. In addition, the container must be sealed after each use of the bee pupa liquor.



5. Beware of allergies

Bee pupae are a nutritious food with high protein and low fat. Although they can be eaten by the general population, because bee pupae contain a certain amount of foreign protein (which can easily cause allergies), a very small number of people with allergies may suffer from allergies after eating them. Therefore, if you are allergic to shrimps and crabs, it is best not to eat bee pupae to prevent allergies and health problems. In fact, severe allergies to bee pupae can even be life-threatening.

Summary: Bee pupae are the best among insect foods. They are mostly eaten fried or steamed. If you must choose the most nutritious way to eat them, it is steamed. But no matter which way you eat them, you must make sure that you are not allergic to bee pupae. Otherwise, the mildest symptoms include itchy throat, numbness of mouth, etc., and the worst symptoms may include difficulty breathing, anaphylactic shock, and even death.

Preliminary understanding: Before beekeeping, let's first learn some knowledge about bees. At present, there are 7 million colonies of bees in my country, of which 90% are European bees imported from abroad, including Italian bees and Northeast black bees, and 10% are Chinese bees. Italian bees, referred to as Italian bees. They are widely raised in North China and Northeast China. Northeast black bees are an intermediate type of European black bees. They have strong reproductive capacity and good wintering performance in cold areas. But they cannot maintain strong colonies in areas with low latitudes. Chinese bees are referred to as Chinese bees, which are suitable for living in Northeast, Northwest, North China, East China, Southwest and other regions of my country.

Social insects: A group of bees usually consists of a queen bee, 1% drones, and 99% worker bees. The queen bee, drones, and worker bees each have their own specialties in the group, work together, and depend on each other. The queen bee is the female bee in the bee colony. Under normal circumstances, there is only one queen bee in a group of bees. The queen bee's duty is to lay eggs. After the queen bee mates once, the sperm stored in the spermatheca can meet the needs of reproduction throughout her life. She starts laying eggs 2 to 3 days after mating. A queen bee can lay 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day and night.

Understanding bee eggs: One is a fertilized egg, which can develop into a worker bee, and the other is an unfertilized egg, which can develop into a drone. The queen bee develops from the fertilized eggs in the queen cell. The queen cell is also called the queen cell. The eggs in the queen cell grow up eating royal jelly, so they develop into the queen bee.

Queen bee breeding: The breeding of new queen bees is usually carried out in autumn (usually in summer) to prepare for high production in the next year. When two queen bees appear in a bee colony, they will fight each other until only one queen bee is left. Worker bees are incompletely developed female bees in the bee colony. After the worker bee larvae hatch, they are fed royal jelly by adult worker bees for the first three days, and then fed a mixture of honey and pollen from the fourth day.

Drone characteristics: Drones have no working instincts and specialize in mating with virgin queens. Most drones begin to fly at 7 to 10 days old and become sexually mature at 12 days old. Mating usually takes place between 1 and 5 p.m. on sunny days.

Development stage: Every bee goes through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa, and adult bee. After the queen bee lays the fertilized eggs in the hive, worker bees will instinctively secrete some royal jelly around the eggs within 6 hours.

Bee breeding equipment:

Beehive: Beehive is also known as honeycomb, which is the place where bees live, reproduce and store food. Beehive consists of a large cover, straw curtain, cover cloth, sub-cover, honeycomb, partition, queen excluder and other parts. There are thousands of neatly arranged and interconnected hexagonal cells on both sides of the honeycomb.

Honeycomb: Honeycomb fixed on a wooden frame is called a frame of honeycomb. According to the amount of honey, pollen, and larvae on the honeycomb, it is called honeycomb, pollen comb, and brood comb. According to the age of the brood comb, it is divided into egg comb, worm comb, capped comb, and empty comb. The beehive with 10 frames of honeycomb is the most widely used standard beehive. The hive can be expanded in time by stacking supers.

Bee path: The distance between each honeycomb is called the bee path.

Queen excluder: Queen excluder is used to separate the insect breeding area and the honey storage area, which is beneficial to the maturation and collection of honey and improves production efficiency.