CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How can you really keep a box of bees well?

1. How can you really raise a box of bees?

After buying the bees, check whether there is sugar inside. If not, feed them sugar. Clean the inside of the beehive. During this period, the hive door should be facing the sun as much as possible. Because the temperature is not high at that time, the hive door facing the sun is conducive to the development of the bee colony. When opening the box for inspection, try to choose a time when the temperature is high. If you feed them with sugar, you have to do it after dark. If you add sugar during the day, the bee colony will fight for the sugar. Remember this.

When the bee colony becomes strong, they will start to prepare for spring swarming. At this time, they will start to lay drone eggs at the two corners under the comb. The drone base is slightly larger than the worker bee. After the pupa is sealed, you should pay attention to making the queen cell at the bottom. Some combs have several queen cells, and the shape is a bit like a nipple. We try to keep the larger ones, and get rid of the bad ones. We need to look carefully. Some queen cells are in inconspicuous places, so we can keep three or four good ones. When the queen cells are just becoming insects, we should remove the combs with queen cells. It is okay to keep one or two combs of the old queen, but there must be no queen cells. If there are queen cells, it will take the bees away. Put the removed combs two or three combs in a box far away, and pay close attention to each sealed queen cell. If the new queen comes out, if the size is good, keep them. It is not a problem if the bees are scattered. After the new queen mates and starts laying eggs, keep the good ones and replace the old queen. At this time, the bee colonies should be merged.

2. How can one raise bees at home alone?

1. Site selection

The bee farm should be located in a sunny place with clean and dry ground and surrounded by a large number of nectar-producing crops. For small-scale beekeeping, the garden in front of or behind the house can be used.

Apiary should not be built along the banks of larger rivers or lakes (a small river several dozen meters wide is fine) to avoid the bees being blown into the water and drowning when flying to the other side to collect honey; it should not be built under high-voltage lines, because electromagnetic waves will interfere with the bee colony, making the bees lost or restless; it should not be built near sugar factories or sugar workshops to avoid the bees flying to the workshops and being killed in large numbers; it should not be built in places with vibrations, such as steam hammer operations, next to large electric motors, and in mountain quarries; it should not be built in polluted places, such as manure yards, garbage stations, refineries, etc.; and it is also not suitable to build apiaries in low-lying and humid places.

2. Purchase of bee colonies

Beginners should buy 5 to 10 bee colonies for the first year to try raising them, and then raise more after gaining experience. It is best to buy bees in the spring when the bee colonies leave the room, and it is not suitable to buy bees in autumn. When buying bees, you should choose strong colonies, and buy colonies with 4 to 5 frames of bees in spring. The standard for a full frame of bees is that both sides of the honeycomb are covered with bees. If the honeycomb surface is sparse and not tightly covered, it cannot be considered a frame of bees.

3. What are the techniques and methods of beekeeping?

To raise bees, you must first purchase a bee colony with hardworking worker bees and a large queen bee. Then place the bee colony and beehives in a place with abundant nectar sources, plenty of sunshine, fertile land, and abundant water. You can then artificially raise the bees when needed.

There are many details and tips that we need to pay attention to and learn when we keep bees. For example, we'd better put the beehive in a cool place, and put it in a dark and lightless place at night, because bees are phototactic.

And to ensure that the air where the bees live is circulating, and to maintain a certain humidity in the beehive. In addition, in summer, the distance between each beehive frame should be increased, and in winter, it should be increased.

4. How is honey cultivated?

The following are the conditions required for beekeeping:

1. Site conditions

There should be sufficient main nectar sources and auxiliary nectar and pollen sources within a radius of 2.5 kilometers around the site, and the main and auxiliary nectar and pollen sources should be appropriately matched; the site should be selected on a south-facing hillside with sufficient sunlight, backed by high mountains and natural shade above, with southerly winds in summer and northerly winds blocked in winter, and the soil should be fertile, with vigorous growth of nectar plants, a long flowering period, sufficient water and convenient transportation.

2. Selection of bee colonies

1. Purchase time: The best time to buy in the north is April to May. This is the breeding period of bee colonies, the selection is relatively stable, and the external environment is good, making it easy to raise bees successfully.

2. Selection method: Observe at the entrance of the nest. Those who are diligent in entering and exiting the nest and collect more pollen are generally lively and good. Then open the box for inspection. If the worker bees are quiet and not panicked, it means that the bee is gentle. If the queen bee is large, has thick feet, is tall and has a wide chest, a long and plump abdomen, is covered with dense hair, and lays eggs flexibly and quickly without panicking, it means that the queen bee is young and strong, and has a strong egg-laying ability.

3. Arrangement of bee colonies: It depends on the size of the site, the number of bees and the season. There are four arrangements: single-box arrangement, double-box arrangement, staggered arrangement and triple-box arrangement.

3. Feeding

1. Supplementary feeding: artificial feeding when nectar sources are scarce. The methods are as follows: ① Supplementary feeding with honey. Honey can be diluted with 20% warm water (crystallized honey needs to be boiled with a little water). The diluted honey can be fed to the bees by gavage or poured into a frame feeder. ② Supplementary feeding with syrup. Syrup is made by adding 50% white sugar to water, which is heated and fully dissolved and then cooled to lukewarm. It is best to add 0.1% citric acid to the syrup to facilitate digestion and absorption. Brown sugar should not be used at this time.

2. Reward feeding: artificial feeding during the bee colony breeding period and bee production period. Generally, a small amount of 60% nectar or 50% syrup is given every other day in early spring, and then once a day as consumption increases. The time starts from 40 days before the nectar flow period until there is a large amount of honey and pollen from the outside world. Each frame of bees can be rewarded with 50-100 grams of syrup each time.

3. Feeding pollen: The purpose is to supplement protein feed. In the late winter and early spring, the pollen saved in the previous autumn can be supplemented, and soybean powder can also be used instead. The feeding method is as follows:

(1) Liquid feeding: Add 10 times the amount of syrup to the pollen, boil it, wait for it to cool, and then put it in a feeding container for feeding.

(2) Cake feeding. Add an equal amount of honey or syrup to pollen or pollen substitute, mix thoroughly, and make into cakes. Wrap them with plastic paper, open at both ends, and place them on the frame beam for bees to feed. This method is often used during cold snaps.

4. Feed water and salts: ① Water. Generally, each bee colony needs 200-300 ml of water per day. Put water in the feeder or put a wet towel on the gauze cover for the bees to collect water. ② Salts. Add 1% salt to the syrup.

IV. Management

1. Spring management: ① Promote bees to fly and excrete. Raise the temperature in the center of the nest to 33-35℃, provide sufficient nectar and pollen sources or reward feeding, open the box cover and insulation in time to allow them to fly out of the nest and excrete. ② Insulate the hive. After excretion, the bees enter the breeding period, so artificial insulation must be adopted. Compact the hive and make the colony dense. Raise multiple colonies in the same box, and keep the box warm inside and outside. In the north, it lasts until April to May.

2. Management during the honey flow period: ① Adjust and organize the honey collection group in the early stage. ② Maintain strong groups to collect honey. Control the queen bee's egg laying. Use a queen excluder to restrict the queen bee to one area of ​​the hive or the hive. To cut off the brood and collect honey, you can take out the queen bee and 1 to 2 honeycomb bees from the honey collection group 5 days before the big honey flow period to form another small group. The next day, give the honey collection group a mature queen cell, which can greatly increase the honey production. Pay attention to the management of small groups. For those weak groups that cannot collect honey, create conditions to promote the rapid development of the group. Under the premise of appropriate honey collection, we must do a good job of reproduction to replenish the group.

3. Management in autumn: ① Cultivate new queens and replace old and inferior queens. ② Cultivate overwintering bees of appropriate age. Overwintering bees of appropriate age refer to young bees that have emerged from their cells before overwintering, have only performed two or three excretion flights, have not done any feeding or collecting work, and have not secreted royal jelly. In order for overwintering bees to overwinter safely, the birth of young bees born after the nectar flow period must be controlled to maintain the strength of the bee colony. The method of control is to force the queen bee to stop laying eggs at a certain time during the nectar flow period. ③ Timely early termination of offspring. In the later stage of cultivating overwintering bees, first use honey and pollen to press the combs, and pour honey 2 to 3 times, so that the queen bee will stop laying. At the same time, move the bee colony to a cool place, expand the bee path by 1 time, and take out the pollen combs from the hive, and remove the insulation, so as to terminate offspring early.

4. Winter management: ① Adjust the nest door. The height of the nest door should be 6-7 mm and the width should be 60-70 mm. ② Prevent honey crystallization. Strengthen insulation, or stuff some wet cotton balls into the box through the nest door to reduce ventilation. ③ Wintering indoors in the north. The beehive should be moved indoors before the water freezes and the ground is not covered with snow. When moving indoors, the beehive should be 20 cm away from the wall indoors, and the first layer should be 40 cm away from the ground. The room temperature should be kept at 0-2℃, and the humidity should be kept between 75-80%.

[Effects and functions of honey]: skin care and beauty, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, promotes tissue regeneration, promotes digestion, improves immunity, promotes longevity, improves sleep, protects the liver, resists fatigue, promotes children's growth and development, protects the cardiovascular system, moisturizes the lungs and relieves cough, etc.