CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How do beekeepers tell whether bees are flying out to collect honey or coming back after collecting honey?

How do beekeepers tell whether bees are flying out to collect honey or coming back after collecting honey?

Generally, there are bees going out to collect honey and those returning from collecting honey at the same time. The returning bees have a low flying speed due to the honey in their bodies. When they are near the hive, they will fly in a figure-8 dance, making a low sound.

The bees that go out to collect honey fly at a very high speed, and the wings vibrate quickly, making short and brisk sounds. In addition, the bees that come back from collecting honey have large and transparent bellies, which can be seen directly. The bees that go out to collect honey will disappear after a flash at the entrance of the hive.

Bees are not picky about nectar sources. If a certain plant has an absolute advantage in number during the flowering period, the honey collected at this time is called single flower nectar of this plant. For example, in mid-May, when the acacia flowers bloom, most of the flowers are in bloom, so the honey collected at this time is acacia honey. In some places, there may also be hawthorn flowers when the acacia flowers bloom. This requires looking at the color of the honey to distinguish the purity. Pure acacia honey is water white. If it is mixed with other flowers, the color will deepen to light yellow... Similarly, other types of honey are distinguished in this way, according to the flowering period. If there are hundreds of flowers blooming on the mountain at a certain time, the honey collected at this time is called mixed flower honey or hundred flower honey.

The weight of bees increases after they carry pollen, so they have to speed up the flapping of their wings to fly. The frequency of the sound source vibration increases, causing the pitch to become higher. (If you listen carefully, mosquitoes are also like this.) The flying speed of bees is 20-40 kilometers per hour, the altitude is within 1 kilometer, and the effective range of activity is within 2.5 kilometers from the nest.

All bees feed on pollen and nectar. Collecting nectar is a very hard job. A bee visits 1100-1446 flowers to obtain one sac of nectar. During the nectar flow period, a bee collects nectar 10 times a day on average, and the amount of nectar carried each time is half of its body weight. In its lifetime, it can only provide 0.6 grams of honey for humans. When the nectar is sucked into the sac by the bee, it is mixed with the secretion of the maxillary gland - invertase, and the conversion of sucrose begins from then on.

After repeatedly brewing honey and constantly fanning to evaporate water, the transformation and concentration are accelerated until the honey is fully mature. Depending on the species, the number of worker bees generally ranges from 12 to more than 50,000. They collect nectar and pollen. If they are honey bees, they will also transport nectar and pollen to specific places, which is obtained by dancing special and strict dances. Their duties include making honey, making wax honeycombs, which are for food storage and larvae to live in, and taking care of bees and queens, guarding and expanding the hive. Bees are a perennial group, and new queens will continue to be raised. The old queen and a group of worker bees then leave the hive to rebuild a home somewhere else.

Generally, there are bees going out to collect honey and those returning from collecting honey at the same time. The bees returning from collecting honey have a low flying speed due to the honey in their bodies, and they will fly in a figure-8 dance when they are near the hive, making a low sound; the bees going out to collect honey fly at a very high speed, their wings vibrate quickly, and the sound is short and brisk.

When a bee is carrying nectar, its wings vibrate an average of 300 times per second; when it is not carrying nectar, it vibrates an average of 440 times per second. Experienced beekeepers can tell whether a bee is flying out to collect nectar or flying back after collecting nectar.

You can understand it by the sound of bees. If the sound is relatively quiet, it means they are back from collecting honey.

The beekeepers have rich experience in distinguishing the vibration frequency of the bee's wings.

How to determine if bees have lost their queen and what to do if they have lost their queen

1. After the queen is lost, the bee colony will show signs of turmoil and tension. 2. After the queen is lost for a long time, worker bees will begin to lay eggs, which can usually be discovered in about 3-5 days. 3. After the queen is lost, the bee colony will be less active. 4. After the queen is lost, worker bees may fly around and gather outside the hive. 5. The normal bee colony works in an orderly manner. After the queen is lost, there are generally no guard bees at the entrance of the hive.

1. How to determine if bees have lost their queen

1. The queen bee controls the order of the bee colony by secreting queen pheromones. A few hours after the colony loses its queen, the worker bees will develop a queen-loss emotion and will show signs of chaos and tension.

2. If the bee colony has been queenless for a long time, it may cause the ovaries of a small number of worker bees to regrow and lay eggs. These unfertilized eggs can develop into drones. This phenomenon can usually be discovered about 3-5 days after the queen is lost.

3. After losing the queen, the bee colony's attendance time will be significantly reduced, the worker bees will be darker in color, they will crawl around the nest entrance, are easily frightened when the lid of the hive is opened, and will make buzzing sounds.

4. After a bee colony loses its queen, the most prominent symptom is that the worker bees fly and gather around the hive. However, when enemies such as ants and wax moths hide in the hive, the bee colony may also gather around the hive.

5. The normal work of a bee colony is very orderly. The nurse bees, nest-building bees, honey bees and guard bees will do their jobs well. When there is a queen bee, there are guard bees at the entrance of the hive. After the queen bee is lost, there are generally no guard bees at the entrance of the hive.

2. What should be done if the bees lose their queen?

1. The queen bee dies suddenly or due to reasons such as bee theft, colony invasion, and invasion of natural enemies.

(1) If there are brood combs and 3-day-old larvae in the bee colony, you can use them to urgently build queen cells as a remedy.

(2) If there are too few broods in the colony, the problem can be remedied by inducing queen cells or inserting virgin queens.

(3) When there are very few or even no eggs or larvae in the colony, you can seal the honeycomb and lure in a mature egg-laying queen, which is beneficial to the development of the bee colony.

2. The virgin queen went out to mate and got lost

(1) If a virgin queen cannot return to the nest on time due to sudden weather changes or encountering natural enemies during mating, it may cause the queen to be lost. After the virgin queen comes out, the old queen is usually driven away or bitten to death. It takes about 1-2 weeks for the virgin queen to reach sexual maturity and mate and lay eggs. During this period, there are usually no insect eggs in the nest. Introducing queen cells or intervening in virgin queens is not good for the development of the bee colony.

(2) An egg-laying queen bee can be introduced indirectly. This will increase the acceptance of the bee colony and prevent the colony from escaping due to the lack of eggs and larvae.

(3) If there is no queen laying, you can borrow brood combs from other bee colonies and let them quickly build queen cells. During the whole process, you must pay attention to replenishing the number of brood combs.

3. Losing the Queen during the Honey Harvest

(1) During the honey-collecting period, the queen bee may be accidentally shaken off or injured by the bees, which may cause the bee colony to lose its queen.

(2) It is quite common to lose the queen bee during the honey-collecting period. If there is a reserve queen bee, you can intervene directly. At this time, the bee colony has a high degree of acceptance and the phenomenon of surrounding the queen bee will generally not occur.

(3) If there is no queen bee in reserve and the queen bee dies suddenly, but there are still eggs in the nest, you can urgently build queen cells to breed a new queen. At this time, you should remove the excess queen cells to prevent them from coming out at the same time and causing swarming.

4. Merging bee colonies causes loss of queen

(1) When merging bee colonies, improper operation may result in the queen bee being surrounded and killed. If the queen bee is not selected, it may also result in a double-queen slaughter, resulting in the death of both queens.

(2) In the early stages of the queen bee being surrounded, you can spray water into the beehive or put the beehive into water to disperse the swarm and rescue the queen bee.

(3) If the queen bee is killed, you can introduce a new queen bee. However, be careful not to lure the queen bee in directly. You can wait until the bee colony is stable and then use indirect methods such as a queen cage to lure the queen bee in.

(4) When merging bee colonies, weak colonies should be merged into strong colonies, and queen bees should be selected and discarded, keeping the good ones and discarding the bad ones.

5. The queen has been lost for a long time, and the worker bees lay eggs

(1) If the queen has been missing for a long time and worker bees have begun to lay eggs, it is generally not successful to introduce a virgin queen or an old queen at this time. Even if the colonies are merged, problems are likely to occur.

(2) After the worker bees lay eggs, when the new queen leaves the hive, the bee colony will naturally accept the new queen. If the worker bees continue to lay eggs, all the honeycombs can be removed, the nest door can be closed, and they can be starved. This will cause the ovaries to atrophy, and then a normal brood comb with queen cells can be placed in to ensure the development of the bee colony.