CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Secrets of keeping bees (Secrets of keeping bees)

1. Beekeeping Tips?

1. Tips for choosing beehives: beehives are placed outdoors for a long time, exposed to wind, rain and sun, and bees live and raise bees and store feed in beehives, so the structure of the beehive must conform to the living habits of bees, the size should be standardized, and the structure should be strong and durable. The wood used to make beehives should be solid, light, and not easy to deform, and it should be fully dried. In the north, white pine, basswood, and paulownia should be used, and in the south, fir should be used.

2. The construction of honeycombs should be started in late spring when the climate is stable and the temperature is around 15°C. Honeycombs need to be protected from bee robbers and rodents, and it is best to use fumigation drugs when storing them.

.3. Seasonal management of bee breeding: Pay attention to keeping the bee colony warm in spring. Spring management should be based on the climate. When the temperature stabilizes at 15℃, the bees should be moved to a place where flowers are in full bloom so that the bees have enough nectar to collect. In spring, the more bees fly out, the stronger and healthier the bee colony is. If there are few bees flying out of the beehive, it should be checked quickly and handled in time. The box should be opened for inspection at noon when the weather is good and the temperature is at least above 8℃.

4. Do a good job in bee colony mite control. Bee mites are the most important pests of bees, which seriously harm bee colonies and affect production.

2. How to keep bees well?

1. Cultivate into a production group as soon as possible

For newly purchased bee colonies, timely prevent and treat bee mites and other bee diseases, keep the number of bees greater than the number of combs (very important, beginners like to add combs), and keep the colony strong and disease-free. When there is a lack of nectar and pollen sources in the outside world, supplement the feed, and then reward feeding every day or every other day to stimulate the queen bee to lay more eggs. Healthy worker bees are in high spirits and can raise more strong young bees. Frequent watering in the nest not only saves "labor", but also avoids freezing to death of water-collecting bees or causing illness to the colony due to sewage collected, and can quickly develop the colony into a production colony with supers. At the same time, without breaking up the strong colony, rear the queen, organize the supers for mating, and implement the combination of production, rearing the queen, and mating.

2. Strong colony super box transfer insects to raise queens

When the bee colony develops into a super colony, natural queen cells will often appear. At this time, just let nature take its course, slightly enlarge the opening of the queen cell, take out the larvae in the cell without stirring the royal jelly, and select one-day-old larvae to move into the cell. Beginners need to practice moving larvae several times to ensure that the larvae are not harmed. If they cannot be moved, they can temporarily use a natural cell and select the best queen to keep later.

Multiple natural queen cells (preferably artificially transplanted queen cells) can be used on one comb, and all queen cells on other combs should be destroyed. Put the queen-rearing comb into the super, and place larval combs and honey-pollen combs on both sides. It is best to add a double-layer queen excluder between the nest and the super, and add a gauze cover frame (without gauze) between the two boards, so that there is a certain space between the two queen excluders to reduce the impact of the old queen on the super.

3. Stack the third box to make a crossover box

The day before the new queen comes out, add another super, open the side door or the back door, add a queen excluder between the two supers, lift the honeycomb with queen cells into the new super (i.e. the third box), and then lift two honeycombs and place them on both sides of the honeycomb with the queen cells. When the young queen comes out three days later, remove the queen excluder between the mating box and the original box, replace it with a gauze cover and add a cloth, shake off the worker bees from the two queenless honeycombs, return them to the original group, and leave one honeycomb in the mating box as an independent mating group. Observe the egg-laying situation of the new king after 10 days. If it is normal, the new king has successfully mated.

4. Swarming to increase the colony

There are two methods to isolate the proliferating population:

1. Take the new queen colony out of the original box and move it to a new location. Then add a capped comb that is about to be released from the room. After 3 days, add a second capped comb to form a production colony as soon as possible.

2. Take out the old queen with two sealed honeycombs as a new colony, and shake in two worker honeycombs, and supplement and develop them as soon as possible to become a production colony. At the same time, remove the cloth covering the mating box and the original box, leaving the gauze. After 8-12 hours, spray the whole colony with white wine syrup (500g syrup added to two small cups of white wine), put the honeycomb with the new queen in the super, spray some white wine syrup, sprinkle the mating box, and cover the beehive. Observe the queen on the next day. If she is normal, swap the supers (or the queen enters the hive), and the colony will be successfully multiplied.

3. Beekeeping secrets?

Tip 1: Choose a good bee farm

The selection of a apiary is the key task of beekeeping, especially for fixed-point beekeeping. First of all, there must be abundant and effective nectar sources near the apiary (the collection radius of bees is about 3 kilometers. If it exceeds 3 kilometers, even if there are more nectar sources, the bee colony cannot collect nectar effectively). Secondly, there must be a clean water source near the apiary, but it cannot be a large area of ​​water such as lakes. Thirdly, the environment near the apiary should be quiet. Finally, the number of enemies such as wasps and ants near the apiary should be as small as possible.

Tip 2: Choose the right bee species

At present, the most commonly raised bees in my country are Chinese honey bees and Italian honey bees. Chinese honey bees have strong adaptability and are good at utilizing scattered nectar sources, but their honey production is far less than that of Italian honey bees. Italian honey bees have high honey production and can produce propolis, royal jelly, etc. and can chase flowers and honey, but they are not as good as Chinese honey bees in adaptability and disease resistance. Therefore, when choosing bee species, it is necessary to choose according to the specific local conditions. It is recommended to raise Chinese honey bees in mountainous areas with more scattered nectar sources, and it is recommended to raise Italian honey bees in plains with more concentrated large nectar sources.

Secret 3: The queen bee must be excellent

The queen bee is the foundation of the development of the bee colony and determines the development of the bee colony to a large extent. Basically, it can be said that beekeeping is raising the queen. The bee colony bred by high-quality queen bee has obvious advantages in all aspects. Therefore, to raise bees well, you must choose a good queen. High-quality queen bee can be obtained through introduction or self-breeding, but no matter how the queen bee is obtained, it must be ensured that the queen bee can adapt to the local climatic conditions. Otherwise, even if the queen bee is of the best quality, it will be useless if it cannot realize its potential.

Secret 4: The group must be strong

A strong colony is the basis of high-yield beekeeping. Beekeeping without a strong colony is basically futile, because only a strong colony can ensure that the colony has a strong collecting ability, only a strong colony can fully exert the egg-laying ability of the queen bee, and only a strong colony can make the colony show strong adaptability. Many novice beekeepers are greedy for quantity, and they swarm as soon as the colony is a certain size. In the end, there are more colonies but less production. Please note that beekeeping requires production rather than quantity. One strong colony can offset all your weak colonies.

Tip 5: Feed enough

Bees collect nectar from flowers and make honey for survival. There is nothing wrong with beekeeping and making honey, but you have to leave enough food for the bee colony. There is a saying that goes "the greed of mankind is like a snake swallowing an elephant" which is very true. When harvesting honey, some people even want to shave off the sawdust on the beehive, and they don't feed the bees. In the end, the bee colony escapes and they look around for the reason. It's really ridiculous. If you were a bee, would you run away or not? Staying is a dead end, but escaping to another place and building a new nest may give you a chance of survival.

Secret 6: The honeycombs should be proportional

Honeycombs are the foundation of the development of a bee colony. They are used for both feeding larvae and storing food. Some novices add honeycombs indiscriminately for the sake of speed, resulting in more honeycombs than bees in the bee colony. The end result is tantamount to "forcing growth". As the saying goes, "you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry". Honeycombs should be added at the right time and in the right amount. When the temperature is low, we must ensure that there are more bees than honeycombs, and when the temperature is high, at least the bees and honeycombs must be proportional. If there are more honeycombs than bees at the same time, the colony is bound to collapse.

Tip 7: Disease prevention

Bee colonies are highly adaptable, but that does not mean that bees will not get sick. In fact, disease in bee colonies is extremely terrifying and can even destroy a apiary in a very short time. Therefore, the prevention and control of bee diseases should be given top priority. Beekeeping tools used in daily life should be strictly disinfected, the quality of feed should be strictly controlled, and pests such as nest insects and bee mites should be prevented regularly. Predators such as hornets, ants, and spiders should be prevented. If any abnormality is found, the cause should be found and dealt with in a timely manner.

4. What are the top ten tips for beekeeping?

The first tip: feed sugar to the bad bees and feed them with pollen frequently; the second tip: it is easy to keep warm but difficult to keep moist, and to keep moist you just need to seal well; the third tip: the breeding group is large but the mating group is small, and the strength of the group is easy to distinguish; the fourth tip: the secret of bee breeding is to raise the queen, and it all depends on it to have children; the fifth tip: the most important thing is to cultivate honey bees, and feeding the young and the queen depends on the honey; the sixth tip: close relatives are compatible and distant relatives are excluded, and the insects to be moved must be close and sparse; the seventh tip: after eating at night, it is forbidden to feed during the day, and the reason for the theft is publicity; the eighth tip: rotten eggs are rare and heat-damaged, and the use of medicine to dissipate heat is very different; the ninth tip: nest worms are difficult to treat and the key is prevention, they are difficult to enter the beehive and do no harm; the tenth tip: the rich raise bees and the poor come to scrape honey, you want to save money but they keep the food.

5. Tips and methods for raising bees?

1. Selection of bee colonies

Not all regions are suitable for beekeeping, and not all bees are suitable for local breeding. Therefore, the selection of bee colonies is extremely important. First of all, we must understand the local natural environment. It is best to choose local bee species for breeding. Secondly, we can choose bees that grow in suitable local natural conditions, so as to increase the success rate of bee breeding. Finally, when choosing a bee colony, try to choose a bee colony that is diligent in going in and out and collects a lot of pollen.

2. Selection of beehives

The selection of beehives is also very important, as it is a basic condition for bee breeding. Because beehives are usually placed outdoors, and bees basically live in beehives, so the first requirement for choosing beehives is that the material should be solid but light. Secondly, for novices who are just starting to raise bees, it is best to choose a movable frame beehive, which is conducive to the replacement of honeycombs and more convenient in management and honey collection.

3. Colony Transfer

Bee colony transfer is the process of transferring purchased bee colonies or wild trapped bee colonies to selected live-frame beehives. Generally speaking, in order to make the bees adapt to the new environment faster, we will put the honeycombs of the bees into the beehive together, so that the bee colonies can resume normal activities as soon as possible and will not linger in the place where they built their nests before, because their honeycombs have been moved with them.

4. Subsidized feeding

Subsidized feeding is actually a process of supplementary feeding for bees during the honey collection period. We usually feed them artificially with honey, sugar water, pollen, etc. at night. Especially when there is less honey collection, such as in winter, we also need to use supplementary feeding to maintain the survival of bees and increase honey production. At this time, supplementary feeding is generally once in the morning and once in the evening.

5. Reward Feeding

Reward feeding generally consists of two stages, the spring bee breeding season and the autumn bee breeding season. Reward feeding in the spring bee breeding season is to further improve the economic benefits of bee breeding, while in the autumn bee breeding season, it is to enable the bees to successfully overwinter and improve the economic benefits of the coming year. Reward feeding is actually very similar to subsidized feeding, both of which use honey, sugar water, syrup, etc. for feeding, but reward feeding only feeds in the evening every day.

6. What are the secrets to raising bees?

Bees are social insects that often gather in large numbers in a hive.

Honey bees belong to the order Hymenoptera, family Apidae. They are 8-20 mm long, yellowish brown or dark brown, and covered with dense hair. The head is almost as wide as the chest. The antennae are knee-shaped, the compound eyes are oval and hairy, the mouthparts are chewing and sucking, the lower lip and tongue are very long, and the hind legs are pollen-carrying legs. There are two pairs of membranous wings, the front wings are large, the hind wings are small, and the front and back wings are connected by a row of wing hooks. The abdomen is nearly oval, with less body hair than the chest, and there is a stinger at the end of the abdomen.

Bees go through four stages in their life: egg, larva, pupa and adult. In the bee society, they still live a matriarchal life. Among the members of their collective family, there is a queen bee, who is a female bee with reproductive ability, responsible for laying eggs and breeding offspring, and at the same time "ruling" the family.

Breeding skills: The most suitable temperature for bees is 15-25 degrees Celsius. When the temperature is 5-35 degrees Celsius (daytime shade temperature, the same below), bees can leave the nest, the queen bee lays eggs in the nest, and the worker bees feed the larvae. The whole period can be called the breeding period. During this period, there are often sources of honey and pollen from the outside world, and it is also the production period for various bee products. When the temperature is below 10 degrees Celsius for a long time, the queen bee stops laying eggs, the bees reduce or stop leaving the nest, and form a bee cluster in the hive, entering the wintering period without spawning.

In temperate regions, the queen bee stops laying eggs in winter, only old bees gradually die, no new bees emerge, and the number of bees in the bee colony gradually decreases; in summer, the queen bee often lays more than 1,500 eggs a day, the number of new bees emerging far exceeds the number of old bees dying, the number of bees gradually increases, and the bee colony develops to its peak. The changes in the number of bees and brood in the bee colony have a similar order and speed every year, which mainly depends on the climate and the changes in the number and quality of bees. The life of the bee colony in a year can usually be divided into several periods, each of which has its own characteristics, but there are no obvious boundaries between these periods.

1. Recovery period: From the time the queen bee starts laying eggs in early spring and the bee colony starts raising brood in the early spring, until the bee colony recovers to the strength before wintering. The bee colony in the north has a long wintering period, and the queen bee starts laying eggs in late February or March; in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the queen bee starts laying eggs in January. Usually, the overwintering bees will actively raise brood after excreting and flying. After about 1 month, the new bees raised that year will replace most of the overwintering bees. The ability of the new bees to raise brood is 2-3 times higher than that of the old overwintering bees, creating conditions for the rapid development of the bee colony.

2. Development period: During this period, the ability of bees to raise brood is rapidly improved, the queen bee lays more eggs, the number of new bees emerging each day exceeds the number of old bees that die, the bee colony grows and develops, and the number of bees and brood combs continues to grow. Some bee colonies have drone brood and drones. When the bee colony develops to 8-10 frames of bees (more than 20,000 bees), it enters a period of prosperity.

3. The prosperous period usually occurs in summer in the north and in late spring and early summer in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. During this period, the bee colony can grow to 20-30 frames of bees (30,000-60,000 bees), 8-12 frames of brood combs, and the colony is relatively strong. The bee colony often experiences swarming fever (making queen cells, cultivating new queens, and preparing for natural swarming). During the prosperous period, the main bee source plants often bloom and flow nectar in large numbers. This is the period when the bee colony rushes to collect feed and is also the period of beekeeping production.

4. Autumn is the period of bee renewal. In autumn, after the nectar flow of major nectar-producing plants stops, the winter bees raised by the bee colony replace the summer bees. Winter bees are mainly worker bees that have not fed before. Their mandibular glands, lingual glands, fat bodies, etc. maintain their development and can survive the cold winter and still feed larvae in the next spring.