CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Do individual bees lay eggs or build nests in tree holes?

Do individual bees lay eggs or build nests in tree holes?

Spring is the breeding season for bees. After you build a nest, they will lay eggs in it. You can observe it again after a while.

How to trap bees?

There are three methods:

1. Honey smell

Apply some honey to an old beehive and place it in places where wild bees often move. Observe every evening to see if there are any bees entering. If so, move the beehive away. The moving distance must be more than three kilometers, otherwise the bees will return.

2. Honeycomb fragments

In the evening, light some fragments of the beehive near the beehive. Then the wild bees will come to the beehive after smelling the fragrance. If the beehive also has the smell of bees living there, the smell will enter the beehive.

3. Use scout bees

Use honey to lure scout bees into the beehive, do not close the nest door, let them leave on their own, after repeating several times, the scout bees will bring a large number of bee colonies. After the bee colony arrives, find the queen bee and control her to prevent her from flying away.

Additional information:

How to trap wild bees

1. Choose a location

To attract wild bee colonies, you should choose to place beehives in places with abundant nectar and pollen sources, nearby water sources, sunny foothills or mountainsides, suitable microclimates, and obvious targets. Beehives can be placed under large trees or next to rocks.

2. Seize the opportunity

The success rate of trapping is high during the bee swarming season. April to May in the north and November to December in the south are the suitable periods for trapping Chinese honey bees. In the southern subtropical regions, nectar sources are scarce from August to September, and wild bee colonies may migrate, which is also suitable for trapping.

3. Use old beehives

It is best to use old beehives at home (you can replace the old ones with new ones and use them specifically for trapping), because the old beehives contain propolis and beeswax, which are most successful in trapping bees. Apply a layer of beeswax on the door of the beehive (burn the old nest with fire and apply the melted beeswax).

4. Check frequently

Generally speaking, you will have a harvest after a few days of placement, especially in winter. If it rains for a few days and then the sun comes out one day, you will have an unexpected surprise. Wait for the bees to return to the hive in the evening, close the nest door, move it home, and raise it in a box as soon as possible.

To trap wild Chinese honey bees, you need to choose a place where bees like to nest, place an attractant box, and let the wild bee colonies fly in. This should usually be done during the swarming season.

The trap box should be placed in a place with dense and lush forests, abundant nectar and pollen sources, and a good microclimate. The place should be easily discovered by scout bees. The trap box should be dark, clean, dry, and free of odor. It is better if there is a trace of used wax inside the box, which is more attractive to bees. The trap box is best placed in a place with natural objects behind it, and the box body should be raised and pressed with stones to prevent wind, rain, and wild animals from overturning it, and leave a proper nest door.

The trap box should be checked every 3 to 5 days, especially after a long rainy day when natural swarming is likely to occur, so the trap box should be checked in time. After wild bees enter the hive, you can close the nest door after the bees return to the nest in the evening, move them back for breeding or borrow combs to transfer to the hive.

1. Hunting wild bees Hunting is based on the nesting habits and rules of wild bees, tracking the returning bees, finding the wild bee hives, and then collecting them. Hunting wild bees is more suitable in summer in the north; in the south of the Yangtze River, bees can be active all year round, and it is better to hunt in April to May and October to November when the climate is warm, the nectar source is abundant, and the bee colony is strong. 1. Look for bee feces When bees fly in groups (recognize the nest flying) or fly freely, they often excrete feces near the hive. If you find yellow bee feces on leaves and weeds, it means that there is a hive nearby. 2. Tracking water-collecting honey bees often collect water in places with water sources near the hive, so carefully observe the stream, the field or the depression with accumulated water. If you find water-collecting bees, it means that the hive is no more than 1 km away. 3. Tracking water-collecting bees At 9 to 11 am on a sunny day, go into the mountains and pay attention to searching for water-collecting bees, and observe their flight activities and directions when they return to the nest. When collecting bees take off from flowers, they often hover and then fly towards the hive. If the returning bees make a circle when taking off and fly below 5 meters, it means that the hive is far away and difficult to track. When you find bees collecting honey on flowers, you can hold a small dish of honey in your hand, and when a bee flies back from collecting honey, follow its flight direction step by step, and finally you can find the hive. In mountainous areas where bees are active, apply honey on leaves 2 meters above the ground, and burn some old honeycombs to emit a beeswax smell. If bees are attracted, pay attention to the flight and direction of the returning bees. Also, observe the flight route of the returning bees in the same way at a distance of about 10 meters. Tracking in the direction where the two flight lines intersect may help find the hive. Another method is to use a line several dozen centimeters long, tie a small piece of paper on one end, and tie the other end to the waist of the captured collecting bee, and then release it. Bees with paper tied to them fly slowly and are easy to track. 4. Search for tree holes. Bees often build nests in tree trunks with hollows. You can ask herbal farmers, hunters and other people who often go into the mountains to provide clues. Search carefully for large trees with holes along the edge of the forest. 5. Hunting methods After discovering the wild bee hive, prepare various tools: such as knives, axes, chisels, hoes for digging holes, smoke sprayers (or wormwood) for collecting bees, bee cages (boxes), surface nets, buckets, etc. (1) Capturing rock bees: If the rock cave cannot be chiseled open, first find several holes, keep only one of the entrances and seal the rest with mud. Then put cotton wool dipped in 50% carbolic acid gas (or camphor oil cotton balls) into the nest, and immediately insert a glass tube with a diameter of about 10 mm from the reserved entrance and the other end into the hive door. Driven by the carbolic acid gas, the bees will pass through the glass tube and enter the hive. After seeing that the queen bee has passed through the tube and most of the bees in the hole have come out, close the hive door and transport it back for processing. (2) Capturing tree hole bees or earth hole bees: Dig a hole, and after vibration, most bees will suck honey and crawl away from the honeycomb. Then use smoke to make the bees leave the honeycomb and gather in the empty space. Refer to the method of not turning over the nest and the box, cut the honeycomb, set the frame, and collect the bees. Pay special attention to collecting the queen bee during the operation. After capturing the tree hole bees, you can use the original tree hole to trap wild bees. Therefore, when digging the tree hole, protect the original nest as much as possible, leaving a part of the wax base, and then repair it with bark, wood chips, and clay, leaving an entrance and exit hole. 2. Trapping wild bees To trap wild bees, place an empty beehive in a place suitable for their life to lure swarms or migrating bees to fly in automatically. The following steps need to be mastered when trapping: 1. Choose a location to lure wild bee swarms. The beehive should be placed in a place with abundant nectar and pollen sources, nearby water sources, sunny foothills or hillsides, suitable microclimate, and obvious targets. 2. Grasp the opportunity to trap the bees during the swarming season. The success rate is high. April to May in the north and November to December in the south are suitable periods for trapping bees. In the southern subtropical region, nectar sources are scarce from August to September, and wild bee colonies may migrate, which is also suitable for trapping. 3. Prepare beehives. Soak new beehives in rice water to remove the smell of wood, dry them, and apply beeswax on the inner wall. Put 3 to 5 nest frames with lead wire and narrow nest foundations in the box, add partitions on both sides, and fill the gaps in the box with hay. The nest door is 8 mm wide. Put rocks or tree trunks, and use stones to pad the beehive off the ground. Old beehive barrels with wax bases have the smell of beeswax and are suitable for luring wild bee colonies. 4. Check frequently. During the swarming season, check once every 3 days. Check in time after a long rain. If wild bees have moved in, wait until the bees return to the nest in the evening, close the nest door, and move back for breeding. If you use old beehive barrels, you should raise them in boxes as soon as possible. Related links How to choose a place for bees to overwinter Management methods for relieving swarming fever in bee breeding Methods of artificial insemination of bees and their important role Methods and functions of artificial watering for bees What are the reasons for the low efficiency of bee breeding? Good bee management in autumn lays the foundation for the overwintering of bee colonies Key points for bee breeding and management in late autumn The technology of transferring bees in live frame breeding 1 netizen has expressed his opinion, click to view. 22:00:49.0

Tips for trapping bees:

1. First, choose a good location.

The location for trapping wild bees must meet the following conditions:

1. Trapped beehives should be placed in areas with abundant sources of honey and pollen.

2. Suitable climate: In summer, you should choose a cool and ventilated place to trap wild Chinese honey bees; in winter, you should choose a place that is sheltered from the wind and facing the sun.

3. It is best to place the beehives under a cave on the hillside facing south. Such a place will not be exposed to the sun and rain, and it is warm in winter and cool in summer, so you can place beehives in all seasons. Other places such as in front of the eaves or under a big tree are also good places.

4. Prominent targets Prominent targets are easy for scout bees to spot and are convenient for bees to move in and out.

2. Selection of beehives for trapping wild Chinese honey bees.

1. The beehive should be lightproof, clean, dry, and free of wood or other special smells. It is best to have a beeswax scent. New beehives have a strong wood smell, which bees dislike, so they need to be processed. Put the new beehive outdoors in the sun, rain or smoke, or soak it in cypress leaf juice or rice washing water. After the wood smell is completely removed, apply beeswax and bake it with fire before use.

2. Beehive barrels with wax bases have the smell of beeswax and bee colonies, which are attractive to bees, especially old barrels with honeycombs.

3. Place the treated beehives in a selected place, and make sure they are not exposed to rain, and then wait for the wild Chinese honey bees to move in. This wait may take a long time, or the bees may move in quickly. It is usually easier to trap wild Chinese honey bees during the swarming season in spring or autumn.

4. If you find that wild Chinese bees have entered the hive, wait until the evening when the bees return to the hive, close the hive door and move them back. It is best to borrow combs from old beehive barrels that night.