CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How to catch the queen bee in the wild and when is the best time to collect honey

1. How to catch the queen bee in the wild and when is the best time to collect honey

1. Collect bee colonies: If the bee colonies are in a cave, you can first place a bee collecting tool at the entrance of the nest and use smoke to drive the bee colonies out of the nest and make them drill into the bee collecting tool. 2. Find the queen bee: The queen bee is generally about 1/3 longer than the honey bee, and its abdomen is also relatively long. Its wings can generally only cover half of its abdomen. 3. Control the queen bee: Use a queen cage to control the queen bee that crawls out. 4. Dealing with the loss of the queen: If the queen is lost, you can transfer the egg and larvae comb to let the bee colony urgently build a queen cell to cultivate a new queen.

1. How to catch the queen bee in the wild

1. Collect bee colonies

(1) If you can find a bee colony directly in the wild, you can use a bee collecting tool to take the entire bee colony away.

(2) If the bee colony is in a rock cave or tree hole, you can usually place a bee collecting tool at the entrance of the nest, and then use smoke to drive the bees out of the nest, so that they will drill into the bee collecting tool on their own.

2. Find the Queen Bee

A bee colony with a queen bee has a recessed ventilation hole at the bottom, but not otherwise. In addition, the queen bee is generally about 1/3 longer than a honey bee, and its abdomen is relatively long, with wings that can usually only cover half of its abdomen.

3. Control the Queen Bee

(1) When collecting bee colonies, there is no need to control the queen bee. You can just pack it up and take it home with the colonies.

(2) When capturing bee colonies in rock caves or tree holes, it is necessary to use a queen cage to control the queen bee that crawls out. It is not recommended to grab the queen bee with your hands, because if the force is too small, the queen bee may break free, while if the force is too large, the queen bee may be crushed to death.

4. Treatment of lost king

Generally, when wild bees are captured, the queen may be lost. In this case, a new queen can be added to the colony in time. First, spray a proper amount of honey water on the queen and the colony to confuse the colony smell, and then place the queen on the periphery of the colony and let it slowly crawl into the colony. You can also transfer some egg and larvae combs to let the colony build a queen cell in a hurry to cultivate a new queen.

2. When is the best time to collect honey from wild bees?

1. Honey collection time

Wild bees can generally collect honey all year round, but it is better to collect honey in late spring and early summer or late autumn and early winter. This is because the honey production in late spring and early summer is higher, while the honey quality in late autumn and early winter is higher. Therefore, the time to collect honey needs to be determined according to actual conditions.

2. Honey collection steps

(1) Fumigation: First, use burning dry wormwood to fumigate the bees to make them flee from the nest frame.

(2) Brush off the bees: Take out the nest frame and use a bee brush to brush off the bees still attached to the nest frame.

(3) Shaking honey: Put the honey frame into the honey shaker, shake the handle to shake the honey onto the wall of the honey shaker barrel, and let it flow into the barrel.

(4) Filtration: Filter the honey through a filter.

2. How to select the queen bee?

1. The queen bee develops from fertilized eggs. The main place of development is the royal cell built by worker bees. Worker bees always feed the larvae in the royal cell with royal jelly, so these larvae can complete the development of the reproductive system and eventually develop into a queen bee with full reproductive capacity.

2. There is a life-and-death competition between queen bees. For example, when two queen bees emerge at the same time, a battle for supremacy will take place. The result of this war is that only the most powerful queen bee will remain. In addition, the queen bee that emerges first will use the stinger on its tail to destroy other queen cells that have not yet emerged from the cell.

3. Queen bee is a species of Hymenoptera, Apidae. Queen bee is also called "mother bee" or "queen bee". It is a female bee with fully developed reproductive organs, developed from fertilized eggs. It is distributed all over the world.

Additional information:

Bee habits:

Bees lay eggs in the hive chamber, and the larvae live in the hive chamber. The social larvae are fed by worker bees, while the solitary larvae eat the bee food stored in the hive chamber by the female bees. When the bee food is eaten up, the larvae mature and pupate, and emerge from the cocoon when they emerge.

Domesticated bees have several generations a year, while wild bees have 1 to 3 generations a year. They overwinter as mature larvae, pupae or adults. Males generally appear earlier than females, have a shorter lifespan, and do not take on the tasks of building nests, storing bee food, and raising offspring. Female bees build nests, collect pollen and nectar, and store them in the nest chamber. They have a longer lifespan than males. Bees feed on pollen and nectar from plants.

Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia - Bee

Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia - Queen Bee

The queen bee is female, and is no different from ordinary worker bees. Ordinary worker bees can eat royal jelly for three or four days after hatching into larvae, but if a lucky larva is born in a queen cell, it will have royal jelly for life and will become a queen bee. Therefore, the position of the queen bee is destined by nature, and there will be no situation where a drone develops into a queen bee. However, there is not just one queen cell, but eight or ten. The queen bee that emerges first will order the killing of the queen bees that have not yet emerged, just like the ancient fight for the throne.

The queen bee is no different from ordinary worker bees. Ordinary worker bees can eat royal jelly for three or four days after hatching into larvae. However, if a lucky larva (also known as queen larvae, royal fetuses, and royal fetuses) is arranged to live in the queen cell, it will have royal jelly for life and will become a queen bee. The queen bee (female) lays eggs, and some of the egg cells directly develop into drones without fertilization (parthenogenesis). In other words: mature drones provide sperm to the egg cells, so that the egg cells are fertilized to form fertilized eggs. After the fertilized eggs develop into young bees, a small number of young bees can eat high-quality royal jelly and then grow into queen bees. This is how the queen bee is selected!

3. I just bought someone else's queen bee. Will the queen bee starve to death if there is no honey in the beehive? The queen bee I bought is a virgin queen. How many days does it take for her to mate and lay eggs?

Generally speaking, you need to be patient. If you just buy it, it should have one to cultivate it for you, otherwise, it will be difficult to get it.

4. The new queen bee eats honey immediately after coming out of the queen cell. Why?

The queen bee usually feeds on royal jelly, which is a special milky substance secreted by the royal jelly glands in the head of worker bees and used to feed the queen bee and larvae.

In fact, the virgin queen is not free when she first leaves the cell. The worker bees bite off the top of the queen cell two days before the virgin queen leaves the cell, exposing the cocoon in the cell. Then the queen bee bites open the cell one or two days later to leave the cell. The newly-leaved virgin queen has a lighter body color and is very active. She searches for unleashed queen cells in the colony. Once she finds a capped queen cell, she bites open the side wall of the cell and then sticks her butt into it to sting the queen larvae inside to death. The virgin queen generally does not care about the uncapped queen cells, but these cells will also be removed by the worker bees.

The queen bee larvae in the royal cell that are stung to death by the virgin queen will usually be dragged out by the worker bees if they have grown into full-grown forms, and then the queen cells will be destroyed. If they are queen pupae that have not yet formed, they will usually be sucked dry of juice by the worker bees, dragged out, and the queen cells will be dismantled.

It is worth mentioning that the virgin queen is not small in the early stage of coming out of the cell. She has a long abdomen and looks a bit like an egg-laying queen. Moreover, the virgin queen who has just come out of the cell does not eat royal jelly, but honey. It seems that the virgin queen only eats honey and rarely eats royal jelly before she completes mating.

In fact, the queen bee is valued by the worker bees in a bee colony after mating. Although there are guard bees around the queen bee before mating, the guard bees seldom feed her. Other worker bees are also indifferent to the newly-born virgin queen. It seems that the virgin queen herself is adapting to the bee colony. During this process, the virgin queen has very few opportunities to come into contact with royal jelly, and we all know the role of royal jelly for the bees in a bee colony. The main difference between whether a worker bee can become a queen bee lies in how much royal jelly the worker bees have eaten and how long they have eaten it. It can be seen that the lack of royal jelly in the newly-born queen bee has a great impact on her.

In fact, the newly-born queen bee not only eats honey, but also some high-quality nutrients to supplement her body. These nutrients mainly come from the protein and other nutrients stored in the fat body during embryonic development. The queen bee relies on these nutrients to reach sexual maturity.

Regarding the introduction of a new queen bee, do the existing queen cells need to be cleaned? I am a beekeeper from Shanwa. Whether it is Chinese bees or Italian bees, there is only one queen bee in a colony. As the saying goes, there cannot be two tigers in one mountain. Even in a double-queen colony, the two queens are separated. An extra queen bee or queen cell in the colony means elimination or swarming of the existing queen bee. Therefore, when introducing a queen to a colony, you must first make sure that the colony has lost its queen, and then clean the queen cells. Otherwise, the consequences will be very serious.

working bees on honey cells

What is the relationship between bees and their queen bee?

Although the queen bee is the leader of a colony and the entire colony of bees are its descendants, the queen bee makes the bees divide the work by secreting pheromones. However, the bees do not give enough respect to the queen bee as their elder. As the queen bee grows older and her ability to lay eggs weakens, making it difficult for her to maintain the stability of the colony, the bees do not allow the queen bee to live in the colony, but instead breed new queen cells and cultivate new queen bees. The old queen bee will be ruthlessly abandoned by the bees so that the colony can continue. In fact, this is also for the long-term development of the colony. Perhaps this is the way of survival for bees.

After a bee colony loses its queen, the stronger bees in the colony will build queen cells and breed a new queen. This process takes more than ten days. Many beekeepers do not like to use hastily made queens, believing that hastily made queens are not good enough. They prefer to use queens they breed themselves. When they find that their colony has lost its queen, they think about replacing a queen with the new one. When they are replacing a queen, they see queen cells built in the colony. At this time, the queen cells must be removed, otherwise it will cause chaos in the colony, which is a big taboo for replacing a queen.

The life story of the queen bee is like this. There are mainly two types. One is that the bees naturally breed new queen bees, thereby eliminating the old queen bee. From the bees building queen cells, as the queen cells grow, the threat to the old queen bee is getting closer and closer. There are only two possibilities. One is to be replaced by the new queen bee and eliminated, and the other is to lead some bees to leave the home and resettle somewhere else. The other is artificial queen breeding. Beekeepers will set up a box of queenless colony to breed queen bees. The main purpose is not to distract the bees so that they can concentrate on breeding high-quality queen bees. It can be seen from this that not only can two queen bees not be in the same group, but they can also hardly coexist with queen cells, especially when introducing a queen to a colony with queen cells. You can only choose one of the two. Even if a queen cell is built in a colony with a queen bee, the original queen bee will only have the fate of being eliminated or leaving the home.

When it comes to replacing a queen, whether it is a new queen or a queen cell, first of all, it must be determined that the bee colony that needs a queen is in a queen-less state. Some novice beekeepers do not have a high level of knowledge about queens, and mistakenly believe that they will introduce a new queen when the colony has lost its queen. In the end, the replacement of a queen may fail, or even two queens may fight, and both will suffer losses. When it is determined that the colony has lost its queen, it is also necessary to check whether there is a queen cell on each honeycomb. It is not only the original queen that is affected by the replacement of a queen, but also the new queen cell. The appearance of a new queen cell means that the bees already have faith. At this time, the replacement of a queen is most likely to fail, or the new queen may be strangled by the bees in the colony in the next few days.

Therefore, when receiving the queen, if queen cells are found, they must be cleaned at this time, or the queen cells that are about to leave the hive must be placed in the queen cell cover and hung outside the partition and kept for use as spare queens. It takes about ten days from the time the queen cells are removed to the time the new queen leaves the hive for natural queen cells, and about seven to ten days from the time the urgently made queen cells are removed to the time they leave the hive. Therefore, it is very important to inspect and clean the queen cells when introducing the queen.

Summary: Before operating the queen bee, Shanwa Beekeeping believes that it is very necessary to have a deep understanding of the queen bee's background and habits, as well as the relationship between the honey bees and the queen bee. This is the prerequisite for successful queen bee introduction. Only by understanding the purpose of queen introduction and the difficulties of queen introduction and simplifying the possible problems can the success rate of queen introduction be improved, and even achieve foolproofness.

In our imagination, the queen bee is the boss of a bee colony. It should be said that she is like the emperors in ancient my country, with all kinds of servants to take care of her. In fact, this is not the case. Friends who have read the articles of Bee Tribe may know something about the queen bee. In a bee colony, the queen bee is actually more like an egg-laying machine, or a puppet, because there are many decisions in a bee colony that the virgin queen cannot make, including the birth and death of the virgin queen. She has no way to decide by herself. In fact, there is a very good example to illustrate this, that is, the issue of the virgin queen leaving the cell. There is controversy about this issue, but at least we can see that a new queen is not welcomed. That is, the virgin queen who just left the cell lost 44 mg in weight in 6 days. What happened in the meantime? Today, Bee Tribe will share with friends some things that happened when the virgin queen just left the cell.

In fact, the virgin queen is not free when she first leaves the cell. The worker bees bite off the top of the queen cell two days before the virgin queen leaves the cell, exposing the cocoon in the cell. Then the queen bee bites open the cell one or two days later to leave the cell. The newly-leaved virgin queen has a lighter body color and is very active. She searches for unleashed queen cells in the colony. Once she finds a capped queen cell, she bites open the side wall of the cell and then sticks her butt into it to sting the queen larvae inside to death. The virgin queen generally does not care about the uncapped queen cells, but these cells will also be removed by the worker bees.

The queen bee larvae in the royal cell that are stung to death by the virgin queen will usually be dragged out by the worker bees if they have grown into full-grown forms, and then the queen cells will be destroyed. If they are queen pupae that have not yet formed, they will usually be sucked dry of juice by the worker bees, dragged out, and the queen cells will be dismantled.

It is worth mentioning that the virgin queen is not small in the early stage of coming out of the cell. She has a long abdomen and looks a bit like an egg-laying queen. Moreover, the virgin queen who has just come out of the cell does not eat royal jelly, but honey. It seems that the virgin queen only eats honey and rarely eats royal jelly before she completes mating.

In fact, the queen bee is valued by the worker bees in a bee colony after mating. Although there are guard bees around the queen bee before mating, the guard bees seldom feed her. Other worker bees are also indifferent to the newly-born virgin queen. It seems that the virgin queen herself is adapting to the bee colony. During this process, the virgin queen has very few opportunities to come into contact with royal jelly, and we all know the role of royal jelly for the bees in a bee colony. The main difference between whether a worker bee can become a queen bee lies in how much royal jelly the worker bees have eaten and how long they have eaten it. It can be seen that the lack of royal jelly in the newly-born queen bee has a great impact on her.

In fact, the newly-born queen bee not only eats honey, but also some high-quality nutrients to supplement her body. These nutrients mainly come from the protein and other nutrients stored in the fat body during embryonic development. The queen bee relies on these nutrients to reach sexual maturity.

Generally, the queen bee's abdomen begins to shrink one to two days after leaving the cell, and its weight gradually decreases. From 210 mg when it is newly born, after six days, the queen bee's weight drops to 166 mg, a full drop of 44 mg. Although many friends believe that this is the queen bee's need to adapt to the outside world when she begins her mating flight, the virgin queen does not receive special care from the worker bees when she is newly born, at least unlike the queen who has been laying eggs and has guard bees responsible for feeding, moving eggs, cleaning feces, etc. As for the reason why the queen bee loses 44 mg in 6 days, the bee tribe personally thinks that it has a lot to do with the fact that the new queen does not eat royal jelly after leaving the cell. Whether the worker bees really do not care about the virgin queen or wait for the virgin queen to mate, this may require more exploration. What do you think? Don't forget to share your valuable experience.

Of course not.

The queen cell is where the queen bee lays her eggs.

After the queen bee lays eggs, worker bees need to gather together to keep warm and incubate the eggs; they also need to feed the larvae.

Without a queen bee, who will lay eggs? Without worker bees, who will hatch the eggs? . . . . . .