CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What are the key points in the technology of transferring bees to hives?

1. What are the key points of bee hive technology?

1. Transfer the bee colony to the beehive

After the beehive is ready, you can pass through the beehive. If the bee harvesting tools are small when passing through the beehive, you can put the bee harvesting tools together in the beehive and take them out after the bees come out.

2. Remember to feed the bee colony in time

After the bee colony is transferred, the bees must be fed once every 2 hours. The feed can be honey water or syrup. After that, reward feeding once every night or every night for two weeks can encourage the worker bees to strengthen their spleen and stimulate the queen bee to lay eggs.

3. Try to choose movable frame beehives

Beehives are the most basic breeding tools for beekeeping, which can be roughly divided into old traditional beehives and new live frame beehives. Here I suggest that you try to choose live frame beehives for beekeeping.

4. Add honeycomb

Bees have the habit of loving combs. The presence of combs in the hive helps to quickly stabilize the colony. Therefore, if you get combs when harvesting bee colonies, you can fix these combs on the nest frame and insert them into the beehive.

2. How can the bee colony move into the hive without running away?

The history of beekeeping in my country has been thousands of years long, and beekeeping technology has also developed from traditional folk beekeeping to advanced movable frame beekeeping. However, traditional folk beekeeping is extremely inconvenient in management and honey collection, while movable frame beekeeping perfectly solves these problems. Let’s take a look at how to keep the bee colonies from running away when they move to the hive!

1. Conditions for container transfer

The bee colony can only be transferred to the hive when certain external conditions are met. The two most important conditions are nectar source and temperature. The richer the nectar source, the faster the bee colony will recover after the transfer. Otherwise, the recovery will be slower and the colony may even escape. At the same time, when the outside temperature is too low, the brood combs may easily freeze to death when the bees are transferred to the hive, and when the temperature is too high, problems may easily arise if the bees do not move to the hive. In addition, continuous rainy days, excessive heat and other weather are not suitable for transferring the bees to the hive.

2. Time for box transfer

When the bee colony is transferred to the hive, it needs an abundant nectar source and a suitable temperature. Therefore, spring after the temperature stabilizes is the best time to transfer the bees. At the same time, they can also transfer the bees when the temperature is suitable in summer and autumn. However, early spring when the temperature is still unstable and winter when the temperature is relatively low are not suitable for transfer. In addition, from a daily perspective, it is best to transfer the bees in the afternoon in spring, and in the evening in summer and autumn (the temperature in the evening is relatively suitable for the survival of bees)!

3. Preparation for box transfer

Before the bee colony is transferred to the hive, relevant preparations must be made. The most important thing is to prepare a suitable beehive (live frame hive). Beehives can be divided into Chinese beehives and Italian beehives according to the different bee species. The two beehives are slightly different in design, so be sure to choose beehives of the corresponding bee species. It is recommended to choose a standard hive size first, and then make appropriate adjustments after you have acquired certain beekeeping techniques. In addition, if the beehive has an odor, it must be dealt with in advance!

4. Box operation

The operation of transferring bee colonies to beehives varies depending on the source of the bees. The traditional method of breeding bees is to first drive the bee colonies away from the honeycombs, then cut the honeycombs and fix them on the frames of a movable-frame beehive and put them into the beehive, and finally drive the bee colonies into the movable-frame beehive. When the newly captured wild bee colonies have honeycombs, they must also be fixed on the frames of the beehive, and then the captured bees can be directly poured into the beehive and the beehive lid can be closed.

5. Bee colony management

The management of the bee colony after it is transferred to the hive is the key to the success of the transfer. In order to quickly stabilize the mood of the bees, they should be fed with honey water or syrup once in time. At the same time, in order to ensure safety, it is best to install an anti-escape piece on the nest door. After that, they should be rewarded and fed continuously until the worker bees start to build combs and the queen bee resumes laying eggs. If conditions permit, the bee colony that has just been captured can draw some brood combs from other colonies. The subsequent management is the same as mentioned above.

Reminder: Beekeeping with movable frame beehives has many advantages that traditional beehives do not have, especially when collecting honey, traditional beehives are almost equivalent to "killing the chicken to get the eggs", and if you are not careful, the bee colony may even escape. Therefore, it is recommended that you use movable frame beehives for beekeeping when conditions permit.

You need to pay attention to the temperature and do it at the appropriate temperature, so that you can effectively avoid problems.

Be sure to choose the right box and do this work when the temperature is more suitable, preferably in spring.

3. How to transfer Chinese bees to new hives?

The transfer of Chinese bees to the hive can be determined by the form of the honeycomb of the bee colony to be transferred, its location, and the conditions it has. It is generally divided into flipping the hive; not flipping the hive; transferring by group; and transferring by borrowing honeycombs.

Flipping the box: Suitable for portable and light old barrels. The operation method is: first open the lid of the beehive barrel, observe the position and direction of the honeycomb, then keep the honeycomb vertical to the ground, and slowly flip the old nest over. Then put the bee collection cage close to the top of the bee cluster, tap or smoke to drive the bees into the cage, and after all the bees have climbed onto the cage, move the old nest away, put the bee collection cage in the original nest position, and receive the returning bees. For the old nest that has been moved away, quickly use a honey cutting knife to press against the base of the honeycomb, cut off the honeycombs one by one, take out the available brood combs, place them on the honeycomb support plate, and tie the honeycombs immediately. Before tying the honeycombs, first cut off the large brood combs and large powder honey combs according to the size of the inner circumference of the nest frame, and install them on the nest frame in time. Small brood combs that are less than half the frame area can be combined to make sure that the honeycombs fill the frame. Depending on the specific situation, the honeycombs can be fixed flatly in the nest frame by inserting, hanging, hooking, clamping, etc.

The tied honeycombs should be placed in the order of large brood combs in the middle and small brood combs on both sides. Depending on the strength of the colony, additional honeycombs and partitions should be added. After all this is done, put the beehive in the original position of the old nest, lean a sub-cover against the nest door, lift the beehive cage, shake the bee mass onto the inclined board, and the bees will flow into the new nest door along the inclined board. After about 15 minutes, open the box to check whether the bees have come to the honeycombs. If necessary, slowly encourage them to come to the honeycombs.

Transferring without turning over: Suitable for large, fixed hives that are difficult to move. When transferring, choose the outer side of the honeycomb as the starting point. Use thick smoke to drive the bees to one end, then cut and tie the honeycombs one by one, and finally move the bee group into the new hive. In case some bees fall to the ground, look for the queen bee. If a queen bee is found, lift the wings and put it into the hive.

Swarming and transferring bees to new hives: It takes advantage of the natural swarming opportunity to collect the swarming colonies while cutting off several brood combs from the original colony, tying the combs together and putting them into the new colony to form a swarm of bees.

Borrowing combs to change boxes: If there is a Chinese bee colony that is raised using a new method, you can take out a few frames of brood combs and honey and pollen combs, place them in the new box, and collect the bee colony in it. Cut off the honeycombs from the original colony and tie them up, and give them to the bee colony that has been raised in live frames.

4. How should the swarm of bees collected from the wild be transferred to the hive if there are no brood combs?

Hello everyone, welcome to read my article. Today is another day of popular science knowledge. Today I am studying the swarms collected from the wild. How should we visit the beehive without brood combs?

1. Carbonization treatment of beehives

Bees like to build nests in dark, odorless places. Carbonizing new beehives can not only remove odors, but also make the inside of the beehive darker, creating a comfortable living environment for the bees.

2. Apply beeswax to the beehive

We can brush a layer of beeswax inside the beehive and on the cover of the beehive, so that the beehive is filled with the most familiar smell of the bees, making them feel at home as soon as they enter the beehive.

3. How to transfer honey to the box

The bees should be put into the beehive at midnight when it is getting dark. We should first place the beehive properly, put two honey-brushed nests in the beehive, cover them with plastic film, close the slot door, and finally quickly shake the collected bees into the beehive, cover them with plastic film and the beehive sealing cover, open the beehive slot door after five minutes, and the scattered bees will enter the beehive. In order to prevent the bees from escaping, we should install anti-escape sheets at the entrance of the beehive slot, and wipe the beehive with one to 200 ml of honey water every night. Another point to note is that the honey in the beehive that has not been eaten during the day the next day should be taken out in time to prevent the phenomenon of bee theft, which will be more troublesome to deal with. Until the beehive has a sealed lid. During this period, try to open the beehive as little as possible to disturb the bee colony.

4. Apply honey appropriately

We can brush a layer of honey on the nest storage in the beehive. After being tempted, the scattered bees wandering around can come over as soon as possible, which can attract the bees into the box faster, making it easier for us to carry out unified management in the next step. If you find the article helpful, please read more of my articles and learn more about beekeeping techniques. You can leave a message to discuss, and I will answer all my questions!

Methods for collecting bees in the wild and tying up the combs and transferring them to the hive

This is the bee we use in the wild. When we collect bees, the honey and eggs have been separated. Try not to let the honey stick to the brood comb larvae. Find a mesh partition board to tie the skin of the nest frame. If it is soil-raised, just use a stick to insert it into the beehive. Give priority to the honeycomb with the brood comb capped. Pay attention to the steps. Novice friends must pay attention to tying the brood comb instead of the dense comb. Cut off the empty nests on the edge, put our nest frame on it, and align it neatly. Then use the tip of the knife to gently draw the edge of the wire. Don't draw too deep. Draw half of the brood comb and gently press the wire down. Turn the comb over, take out the mesh partition board, put it under the brood comb, and start tying the comb.

If there is no brood comb, some brood combs should be transferred from other bee colonies and fed well until the queen bee resumes laying eggs and there are a certain number of brood combs in the colony.

Be sure to prepare the beehive, cover it with plastic film and close the slot door. You can also apply beeswax to the beehive.