CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Beekeeping Technical Guidance (IV) (Beekeeping Technical Guidance (III))

1. Explanation of double-box beekeeping technology?

1. Spring Double King Breeding Method

In spring, there are many nectar sources, so two queens can be allowed to breed in the same beehive. Specifically, the following two methods can be used: one is to breed two queens in a double-group sandwich. Two weak or medium-sized colonies are raised together in a beehive, separated by a gate in the middle, and enter and exit from the nest door separately, so as to facilitate mutual warmth and accelerate breeding. The second is to use a honeycomb frame with a frame beam and worker bee holes for breeding. Use high-quality plastic nest foundation, and place the opening of the frame beam in the middle of the two colonies. Close it during the adaptation period, and then turn on the active switch after adapting to the colony smell, so that the worker bees on both sides can communicate with each other and build honeycombs on both sides. The third is to breed by cutting the stings of the two queens first. That is, cut off the stings of the two queens, and then put them in the same beehive to breed and lay eggs, and develop into young bees.

Double-king breeding can improve the larval rate. By controlling two queens on both sides of the nest box or clipping and stinging two queens in the same nest, such as through the principle of switchable queen excluder, it can effectively solve the problem of worker bees communicating or not communicating at any time according to the needs of the bee colony. This mode effectively solves the problem of uneven feed and unequal bee quantity on both sides during spring breeding. The queen is separated from the honeycomb, and the honeycomb can also be used to build honeycombs on both sides to solve the problems of unstable temperature in the nest and easy temperature loss during late spring cold. Bee colonies of varying strengths in the apiary can achieve balanced rapid reproduction through double-king breeding. By making full use of the egg-laying queen to lay more eggs, the excess leisure bees are merged into the weak colony, and the egg-laying honeycombs are adjusted to solve the problem of slow reproduction and poor feeding ability of the weak colony. Before the arrival of the big nectar source, a large number of bees of appropriate age for collection are cultivated to achieve a strong colony with strong bees and high yield.

2. Multiple King Breeding Method

At present, some bee farms in China have a relatively mature model for Italian bees to achieve multi-queen breeding. Some beekeepers have also introduced multi-queen breeding in Chinese bee breeding, using 12-frame multi-boxes to raise Chinese bees. By introducing three queens, as long as the hostility of the queen bee is effectively resolved, the problem of pheromone dilution of individual queen bees is solved, and the swarming fever of worker bees is solved, etc., I believe that this technology will become more and more mature and win precious time for the reproduction of bees.

3. Overall subsidy for group breeding

In spring, when the bee colony develops to 9-10 frames and 6-8 frames of brood combs, the capped combs from the supplementary colony are used to supplement the breeding colony. Take out one frame of capped combs from each supplementary colony and put it into an empty beehive. Cover the box lid and reduce the nest door. After about 2 hours, most of the flying bees have flown back to the colony. Add two frames of capped combs with larvae to both sides of the breeding colony or one side of the super. The next day, move the two capped combs into the honey combs and bring them closer to the other brood combs. After 6-8 days, use two frames of capped combs without bees from two supplementary colonies to supplement the breeding colony.

After two subsidies, the breeding colony received 2,000-2,500 bees and 4 frames of capped honeycombs, which grew rapidly and became strong. When egg queen cells are found in the breeding colony, the queen bee can be placed on a brood comb without a queen cell using a safety lure and placed in another new beehive. One frame of honeycombs with honeycombs and one frame without honeycombs are taken from the subsidy colony and added to the new beehive, and 1 to 2 honeycombs are added. Move to the new site, keep it warm, reduce the nest door, and feed it with diluted honey. Release the queen bee after 3 days and gradually expand the hive.

4. Reproduction method before relocation and release of bees

Before changing the bee site in summer and autumn, prepare the egg-laying queen bee and determine the time for the queen to leave the hive. After the transfer, put 2-3 honeycombs with bees in the empty beehive and lure in an egg-laying queen or virgin queen for swarming.

2. What are the technical knowledge and methods of beekeeping?

Step/Method 1

Collecting bees: Collecting bees mainly includes trapping wild bee colonies and collecting wild bee colonies. Trapping wild bee colonies mainly includes luring beehives and digging luring holes due to different methods. To collect wild bee colonies, you must first find the wild bee nests or clustered bee colonies. In addition, after the bee colony naturally swarms, the beekeeper is also required to be able to collect the swarmed bees in time.

Step/Method 2

Transferring bees: Transferring bees refers to transferring new bee colonies or native bee colonies into live-frame beehives. When transferring native bee colonies, all the honeycombs in the original beehives must be cut off and tied to the frames of the live-frame beehives. New bee colonies can transfer to the hives with empty honeycombs or with honeycombs borrowed from other bee colonies. However, they must be fed in time after transfer to help the colonies quickly stabilize in the hive.

Step/Method 3

Swarming: Swarming can be divided into natural swarming and artificial swarming due to different methods. Natural swarming is to wait for the bee colony to swarm on its own and then capture the swarm in time, while artificial swarming means that a bee colony is split into multiple colonies in a certain way. In addition, artificial swarming can be divided into queenless swarming, queen cell swarming, queen swarming, etc. due to different methods.

Step/Method 4

Merging colonies: Merging colonies means merging two or more bee colonies into one. The principle is to merge queenless colonies into queeny colonies, weak colonies into strong colonies, and sick colonies into healthy colonies. Due to different operations, there are two ways of merging colonies: direct and indirect. Direct merging is simple to operate but the bees are prone to fighting, while indirect merging is more troublesome but relatively safe.

Step/Method 5

Queen replacement: Queen replacement refers to the introduction of a new queen bee into a bee colony after it loses its queen. There are two methods of queen replacement: direct and indirect. Direct queen replacement is simple but prone to worker bees surrounding the queen, while indirect queen replacement is more complicated but much safer. In particular, when introducing high-quality queen bees, it is recommended to use the relatively safe indirect queen replacement method.

Step/Method 6

Disease prevention: Bee disease and pest control is the highlight of beekeeping production. In fact, in order to achieve high beekeeping yields, disease and pest control must be done well. For example, during the peak period of disease and pests, it is necessary to treat diseases if there are any, and prevent diseases if there are none. In addition, beehives, nest frames and other beekeeping tools must be disinfected regularly and wax scraps, bee corpses and other debris accumulated at the bottom of the hive must be cleaned up in time.

Step/Method 7

Feeding: Feeding technology is a key technology that must be mastered in bee breeding. There are three types of feeding, namely, supplementary feeding, reward feeding and soothing feeding, depending on the purpose. Subsidized feeding is to provide the bee colony with food to sustain its survival, reward feeding is to stimulate the queen bee to lay eggs and encourage worker bees to raise larvae, and soothing feeding is to quickly stabilize the panicked bee colony.

Step/Method 8

Queen breeding: Queen breeding technology is a technique that must be mastered when breeding high-quality queen bees. Due to different operations, there are mainly two methods: artificial selection and artificial queen breeding. Artificial selection refers to the artificial selection of bee colonies with excellent genetic characteristics as the population, while artificial queen breeding is to artificially make queen cells with beeswax and then use worm transfer needles to move in larvae to breed queen bees on a large scale.

3. Beekeeping techniques and methods?

Beekeeping requires little investment, has quick results and high returns. The technical points are as follows:

1. Site selection

There should be sufficient main 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 properly matched. The site should be located on a south-facing slope near a mountain, with sufficient sunlight, a high mountain as a screen, natural shade above, southerly winds in summer and northerly winds in winter, fertile soil, vigorous growth of nectar plants, long flowering period, sufficient water, and convenient transportation.

(II) Selection of bee colonies

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

2. Selection method: Observe at the nest entrance. If the worker bees are diligent in going in and out and collect more pollen, they are generally lively and good. Open the box and check. If the worker bees are quiet and not panic, it means they are gentle. If the queen bee is large, has thick feet, is tall, has a wide chest, a long and plump abdomen, is covered with dense hair, and lays eggs quickly and flexibly without panic, it means the queen bee is young and strong, with 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.

(III) 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 the bee production period, generally give a small amount of 60% nectar or 50% syrup, once every other day in early spring, and once a day as consumption increases, starting from 40 days before the nectar flow period until a large amount of honey and pollen are collected from the outside. 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 syrup to the pollen, boil it, and put it into the feeder after it cools down. ② Cake feeding. Add the same amount of honey or syrup to the pollen or substitute pollen, stir it evenly, make it into a cake, wrap it with plastic paper, open it at both ends, and place it on the frame beam for the bees to feed. This method is often used when encountering cold currents.

4. Feeding water and salt: Generally, each bee colony needs 200 to 300 ml of water every day. Fill the feeder with water or put a wet towel on the gauze cover for the bees to collect water by themselves. Add 1% salt to the syrup.

4. 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, and let them fly out of the nest to excrete. ② Insulate the hive. After excretion, it enters the breeding period, and artificial heat preservation is required. 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 honeycombs from the honey collection group 5 days before the big honey flow period to form another small group. The next day, lure a mature queen cell into the honey collection group, 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 in order to replenish the group.

3. Management in autumn: ① Cultivate a new queen and replace the old and inferior queen. ② Cultivate overwintering bees of appropriate age. Overwintering bees of appropriate age refer to the young bees that have emerged from the hive before overwintering, have only performed two or three excretion flights, have not done any feeding and collecting work, and have not secreted royal jelly. In order for the 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 spawning. 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 eggs. At the same time, move the bee colony to a cool place, expand the bees slightly by 1 time, and take out the pollen combs from the hive, and remove the insulation, so as to terminate the spawning 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 brought into the room before the water freezes and the ground is not covered with snow. When entering the room, the beehive should be 20 cm away from the wall 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% and 80%.

4. Beekeeping techniques of upper and lower beehives?

First, you need to make sure that the queen bee has mated. There must be residual honeycombs in the beehive (because the queen bee has no materials to build a nest). Then keep the beehive ventilated, but don't let the queen bee escape. At this time, feeding honey and sugar water cannot meet the queen bee's needs for laying eggs. Frequently observe whether the queen bee has laid eggs. If she has, there is no need to confine the queen bee. Just make sure there are no wasps invading. Once the worker bees emerge, there will be no problem at all.

5. What is Yapeng Xinfengge’s beekeeping technology?

1. Technique of observing bees from outside the hive.

Beekeeping requires more observation and less movement, which is beneficial to the health of the bee colony and can save the beekeeper's energy and time in opening the box to check the bees. Therefore, "more observation" is not without purpose, but should be targeted.

1. Determine whether the bee colony is sick by observing outside the hive.

Many bee colony diseases can be observed from outside the hive. Here are two examples:

(1) If the bees entering and leaving the bee colony have parasites in their bodies, it means that the bee colony has bee mites or bee flies.

(2) If there are bees with missing limbs at the entrance of the nest, it means that the bee colony has bee mites or nest insects.

2. Determine whether the bee colony has any urgent negative situation by observing outside the box.

What skills should a novice beekeeper master?

(1) If bees are excited or anxious at the entrance of the hive, it means that the colony has lost its queen or is short of honey.

(2) If bees are fighting at the entrance of the nest, it means that there is bee theft in the colony.

3. Observe from outside the hive to see if the bee colony is breeding new bees.

(1) If there are bees constantly entering the hive to collect pollen, it means that the queen bee is laying eggs and the bee colony is breeding young bees. Otherwise, it means that the queen bee may have stopped laying eggs.

(2) In the afternoon, light yellow bees appear and hover in the air, indicating that a new batch of bees has emerged in the bee colony.

4. Observe the bee colony from outside the hive to see if there are any swarming or escaping behaviors.

(1) If the bees are working in an orderly and active manner, it means that the bee colony is collecting honey and pollen effectively. Otherwise, it means that the bee colony is working slowly. If the bee colony is large, it may be a precursor to swarming.

(2) If the bee colony does not consume pollen or honey, and some bees are often "hanging out" outside, it means that the bee colony may be about to escape.

The technology of observing bees outside the hive covers a lot of content. Only when we master the quantity can we greatly improve our beekeeping efficiency. If we want to raise bees well, this skill is indispensable.

6. What are the techniques for breeding flower-waisted bees?

1. Feeding

Feeding is a key technology that must be mastered in flower bee breeding. It can be roughly divided into subsidized feeding and reward feeding. Subsidized feeding is to supplement the bee colony with the food necessary for survival, while reward feeding is to stimulate the queen bee to lay eggs and encourage worker bees to raise larvae.

2. Swarm

Swarming is the main way for bees to expand their population, which can be roughly divided into natural swarming and artificial swarming. Small-scale Chinese bee farming generally allows the bee colony to swarm naturally, while Italian bee farming and large-scale Chinese bee farming mostly use artificial swarming.

3. King Jie

King introduction refers to the introduction of a new queen to a queenless colony. In beekeeping production, it is inevitable that a bee colony will lose its queen unexpectedly. At this time, a new queen must be introduced to the colony. In addition, when the apiary introduces other queens, the king introduction technology must also be used to introduce the queen into the colony.

7. What is the latest technology in beekeeping?

1. Live frame beekeeping

The honeycombs in the movable frame beehive are movable and can be exchanged with other bee colonies; the movable frame beehive can freely control the colony strength according to needs; and the movable frame beehive can cause almost zero harm to the bee colony when extracting honey. Therefore, it is recommended to use flexible and easy-to-manage movable frame beehives for beekeeping as much as possible.

2. Proper bee breeding

Honey bees have two most critical breeding periods: spring and autumn. The purpose of spring breeding is to quickly restore the colony's strength so that it can make the most of the abundant nectar resources in spring, while the purpose of autumn breeding is to encourage the colony to quickly cultivate a large number of overwintering bees of the right age so that the colony can survive the winter smoothly. In fact, both spring and autumn breeding are inseparable from reward feeding. The specific method is to feed the colony a small amount of honey water or syrup every night during the rapid breeding period of honey bees.

3. Breeding Queen Bee

The quality of a bee colony depends to a large extent on the quality of its queen bee. Experienced beekeepers are willing to spend time and energy on breeding queen bees. Currently, the most widely used artificial queen breeding technique is queen transferring. The specific operation is to first use a queen breeding stick to make a base out of beeswax, and then place the base into the bee colony for transformation. After the base is made, use a worm transferring needle to move in 1-2 day old worker bee larvae. Finally, the queen cells with larvae are introduced into the queen breeding colony to be fed by worker bees.

4. Artificial swarming

Swarming is the main way for bees to expand their population size. There are two swarming methods: natural swarming and artificial swarming. Natural swarming is to wait for the bee colony to swarm on its own and then collect the swarms, while artificial swarming can divide the bee colony into two or more according to the beekeeper's wishes. In fact, experienced beekeepers often perform artificial swarming because natural swarming of bee colonies is almost uncontrollable, and if the swarms are not collected in time, they are very likely to be lost.

5. Strictly prevent diseases

Disease prevention and control is the difficulty and key point in bee breeding. Once a disease breaks out, it can easily destroy even a large-scale apiary. The main diseases include foulbrood and sacbrood. The main parasites include bee mites (mainly harm Italian honey bees) and nest moths (mainly harm Chinese honey bees). The main enemies include wasps, spiders, ants, etc. Therefore, beekeepers must actively do a good job in disease prevention, and if the bee colony has already been diseased, it must be dealt with in a timely manner.

8. Top-secret technology of Chinese beekeeping?

1. Collecting bee colonies

Chinese honey bees are distributed in most parts of my country, especially in the southern mountainous areas where there are extremely rich wild resources. If they can be captured and artificially bred, it will undoubtedly be the best source of bee species. Currently, there are two main ways to capture wild Chinese honey bees: luring bees and collecting bees. Luring bees is to use luring beehives to lure swarms or migratory bee swarms, while collecting bees is to find the hives of wild Chinese honey bees and then capture them.

2. Bee colony transfer

There are two main ways of breeding Chinese honeybees in our country: traditional soil breeding and live-frame beehive breeding. In order to facilitate the management of bee colonies in the future, it is recommended that you try to use live-frame beehive breeding. However, whether it is a newly collected bee colony or a soil breeding to live-frame breeding, the hive transfer technology is required. When transferring the hive, the Chinese honeybees' habit of loving honeycombs is mainly utilized. In short, some honeycombs should be placed in the beehive first and then the transfer operation should be performed.

3. Artificial feeding

Chinese honey bees generally do not need to be fed artificially, but they need "reward feeding" during the spring and autumn breeding season to stimulate the queen bee to lay eggs and encourage worker bees to raise larvae. In addition, "supplementary feeding" is also needed in winter or early spring to provide the necessary food for the bee colony. The feed can be honey water, syrup or pollen. The most commonly used syrup by beekeepers is syrup made by melting white sugar with an appropriate amount of boiling water.

4. Swarming treatment

The biggest disadvantage of the Chinese honey bee is its strong swarming tendency. There are two main ways to deal with swarming: natural swarming and artificial swarming. Natural swarming is to wait for the bee colony to swarm and then capture the swarms, while artificial swarming is to artificially split the bee colony into two groups when the queen cells are mature. One group contains the old queen bee and old worker bees, and the other group contains queen cells and new worker bees (worker bees that have not recognized the nest or conducted test flights).

5. Intervention of the Queen Bee

Chinese honey bees are relatively easy to lose their queen, so beekeepers must master certain queen removal techniques. There are two types of queen removal, direct and indirect, depending on the operation. Direct queen removal is to spray the queen bee with honey water and then put it into the bee colony, while indirect queen removal is to use a queen removal device. It is worth noting that when the queen bee is surrounded, do not use your hands to move the bee colony. Use methods such as spraying smoke or sprinkling water to rescue the queen bee.

6. Spring breeding management

Spring breeding is the key task of Chinese honey bee breeding. Doing a good job in spring breeding can significantly improve the beekeeping benefits throughout the year, but Chinese honey bees should pay attention to the following four points during spring breeding. First, the time of spring breeding should be determined according to the local climate. Second, there must be "more bees than combs" during the spring breeding period. Third, "reward feeding" should be continuous during the spring breeding period to promote rapid breeding of the bee colony. Fourth, the bee colony should be kept warm during the spring breeding period.

7. Autumn breeding management

The purpose of autumn breeding is to allow the bee colony to cultivate a large number of overwintering bees of appropriate age. Simply put, the more overwintering bees of appropriate age in the bee colony before wintering, the safer the wintering. The specific management is similar to spring breeding. First, the time of autumn breeding should be determined according to the local climate. Second, "reward feeding" should be carried out continuously during the autumn breeding period to promote rapid reproduction of the bee colony. Third, the "queen" should be closed in time in the late autumn breeding period to preserve the overwintering strength of the bee colony.

8. Overwintering of bee colonies

The wintering period is the key point for the success or failure of Chinese honey bee breeding. At this time, there are two key management aspects. The first is to supplement the bee colony with enough food before wintering. Because the worker bees gather in groups and rely on eating honey to produce heat during the wintering, the bee colony will starve to death or freeze to death if there is insufficient food. The second is to keep the beehives well insulated, but the principle of insulation is "better to be cold than warm", because excessive insulation will cause the bee colony to disperse and cause wintering failure.

IX. Disease prevention and control

Disease prevention and control is the highlight of Chinese honey bee breeding. In fact, it is also the culprit for most people's beekeeping failure. Therefore, we must "prevent early, detect early, and treat early" for diseases, especially the sac brood disease and nest insects that pose the greatest threat to Chinese honey bees. Once an outbreak occurs, it can be devastating to the entire apiary. In addition, when the harm caused by enemies (mainly hornets) is serious, we must assist the bee colony in fighting against natural enemies.