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1. How to get started with Chinese bee breeding technology for beginners?

Soil culture

It is most common in ordinary farmers' homes. It only requires a few wooden barrels, which are turned upside down in front of and behind the farmers' houses.

The wooden barrel needs to be boiled in a large pot, and salt, a small amount of honey, and a small amount of beeswax can be added to the water. You can also use pure Chinese beeswax to brush the boiled wooden barrel inside the barrel, and brush the bottom of the barrel thicker.

Under normal circumstances, in general places, when the spring equinox comes, it is the peak season for the natural swarming of Chinese bees. Natural swarms of bees will come to build nests, and after the big nectar source has passed, honey can be collected. In general, two seasons of honey can be collected in a year, with average yield, extremely high concentration, good taste, and slightly expensive price.

This is the technology of raising Chinese bees in the traditional way. Although the output is average, the management and operation methods are extremely simple. It is very suitable for novice beekeepers, or individual investors who raise a small number of Chinese bees. It is also suitable for amateur beekeepers who raise a few groups of bees to enrich their spare time.

2. The whole process of Chinese bee breeding technology?

Chinese bee breeding is carried out in eight steps: the first is to place the bee colony, the second is to inspect the colony, the third is to handle the honeycomb, the fourth is to feed the bees, the fifth is to merge the colonies, the sixth is to raise the queen, the seventh is to swarm the bees, and the eighth is to handle colony abnormalities.

1. Place the bee colony

Because Chinese bees have a keen sense of smell, strong thieving instincts, and poor directional ability, the bee colony should be placed in a site with two or more main nectar sources (spring and summer, spring and autumn, spring and autumn and winter) and auxiliary nectar sources in other seasons. If the nectar source is insufficient, the bee colonies should be placed in a dispersed manner, usually in groups of 2-3 boxes. The distance between each colony is about 30 cm, and natural barriers such as trees, houses, and terrain should be used to separate the groups.

Tips: Bee colonies should not be placed on windy mountaintops, near high-voltage transformers, in places subject to vibration and smoke, or near roads with heavy traffic of people, livestock, and vehicles. Once a bee colony is placed, it should not be easily moved.

2. Bee colony inspection

There are two methods for inspecting bee colonies: outside-box observation and open-box inspection.

Observation outside the hive: If the worker bees are not active in attendance, return to the nest without pollen, and their wings are shaking in front of the nest door, and they enter and exit in a chaotic manner, it can be preliminarily judged that the bee colony has lost its queen. If there are half-dead pupae dragged out near the nest door, it indicates that there is nest insect damage; if the dragged out are larvae, the bee colony may suffer from larval disease; if there are worker bees with dark body color, swollen abdomen, difficulty in flying, and slow movements crawling in front of the nest door, and there is thin feces around the beehive, the bee colony may suffer from microsporidiosis.

Unpacking and inspection: If there is honey on the side combs, even capped, and there are 2-3 fingers of honey lines on the upper part of the central comb, it means that the feed is sufficient; otherwise, it should be supplemented in time. If the caps show "white-headed pupae" with a linear trend, the combs are uneven, and there are many wax scraps on the bottom of the box, it can be judged as nest worm disease; if the larvae are pointed and upright, and there are some irregular small holes on the surface of the capped combs, it can be judged as cystic larvae disease.

Tips: Each unpacking should have a clear purpose. If it is not necessary or the weather is not suitable, do not open the box blindly and frequently.

3. Honeycomb Processing

If the surface of the honeycomb turns white and wax spots appear on the nest frame, you can add more honeycombs, one at a time, at the edge of the nest frame, and discard the old honeycombs. The general rule for placing honeycombs is to place eggs, worms, brood and new honeycombs in the middle, and old, honey and pollen honeycombs on both sides. The distance from the bee path is 8 mm, which is reduced to 6 mm when accelerating reproduction, and widened to 10 mm when high temperature ventilation is used.

A little reminder: Depending on the situation, it is necessary to regulate and replenish the spleen.

4. Bee feeding

Bees are mainly fed sugar, pollen, water, salt, etc.

Feeding sugar: White sugar has no odor and is not likely to attract bee robbers; the syrup concentration is usually 2:1, that is, two pounds of white sugar to one pound of water, or 1:1. If honey is used, then 3 pounds of honey to one pound of water.

Feeding pollen: Pollen is usually fed during the spring breeding season, the long-term low temperature and rainy season, and when there is a lack of external nectar sources. Pollen combs can be directly inserted into the bee colony for supplementation, and natural pollen and artificial pollen can also be used for feeding.

Feeding water and salt: When the weather is hot and dry, the bee farm can set up water dispensers or drinking troughs. When feeding water, you can add appropriate salt, the ratio is to add 0.1-0.5% salt to clean water.

5. Swarm Merger

Bee colony merging refers to the process of merging two bee colonies into one. During the spring breeding season and late autumn, weak colonies, colonies with aging queens, and colonies without queens can all be merged. There are two methods of merging colonies: direct merging and indirect merging.

Tips: When merging directly, drop 4-5 drops of perfume or 10 drops of white wine on the frame beam for better results.

6. Breeding the King

Queen rearing is divided into artificial queen rearing and mating group organization. Artificial queen rearing includes three main steps: breeding drones, organizing nursery groups to breed queens, and organizing virgin queens to mate. Mating groups are bee colonies organized by inducing mature royal cells or virgin queens for new queens or virgin queens to mate. Mating groups can use special mating boxes or can be separated groups without queens.

7. Swarm

Swarming can be divided into two types: artificial swarming and natural swarming. Artificial swarming can be further divided into two types: single-colony equal swarming and single-colony unequal swarming.

Single colony equal swarming is usually carried out after a large honey flow. The original colony moves half of the box position, and an empty box is added side by side. The original honey comb and brood comb are divided into two and placed in two beehives. The left colony opens the left nest door, and the right colony opens the right nest door. One colony has an old queen. The colony without a queen will introduce a mature queen cell as a mating colony on the second day of swarming.

Unequal swarming in a single colony occurs during the period of high honey flow. For colonies that have developed swarming fever, remove the old queen and two frames of honeycombs with bees and honey-sealed lids, and choose a new site to make a breeding colony. Keep a large and straight queen cell in the original colony, or introduce a mature artificial queen cell.

8. Bee colony exception handling

The treatment of abnormal bee colonies mainly includes two types: early prevention and worker bee egg-laying treatment. Early prevention should strengthen feeding to prevent honey shortage; do not spill honey outside the hive during inspection and feeding; close the small nest door and merge weak colonies during honey shortage period. After the bee colony loses its queen, the emergency construction of the queen cell is unsuccessful. If the queen bee, queen cell or colony is not induced in time, worker bees will lay eggs. At this time, you can inject concentrated salt water to kill the egg larvae, rinse with clean water, dehydrate and move to another bee colony for use

3. Chinese bee breeding technology?

Chinese bee breeding is generally divided into two methods: soil breeding technology and movable frame breeding technology.

Soil culture is the most common method in ordinary farmers' homes. It only requires a few wooden barrels, which are turned upside down in front of and behind the farmers' houses.

The wooden barrel needs to be boiled in a large pot, and salt, a small amount of honey, and a small amount of beeswax can be added to the water. You can also use pure Chinese beeswax to brush the boiled wooden barrel inside the barrel, and brush the bottom of the barrel thicker.

Under normal circumstances, in general places, when the spring equinox comes, it is the peak season for the natural swarming of Chinese bees. Natural swarms of bees will come to build nests, and after the big nectar source has passed, honey can be collected. In general, two seasons of honey can be collected in a year, with average yield, extremely high concentration, good taste, and slightly expensive price.

This is the technology of raising Chinese bees in the traditional way. Although the output is average, the management and operation methods are extremely simple. It is very suitable for novice beekeepers, or individual investors who raise a small number of Chinese bees. It is also suitable for amateur beekeepers who raise a few groups of bees to enrich their spare time.

Based on this traditional soil breeding technology, many derivative breeding technologies have been developed, such as lattice boxes, Three Gorges barrels, etc. They have one thing in common, that is, the lazy beekeeping method, which is simple to operate and has a low technical threshold.

The live-frame breeding of Chinese honeybees is a breeding technology that has begun to be scaled up and industrialized.

This kind of breeding technology is very professional. It is best to learn under the guidance of local, professional beekeepers to avoid novice beekeepers from making mistakes.

Then, the general technology of living frame breeding of Chinese bees must understand the following outlines:

First, clarify the purpose of raising Chinese bees. That is, you need to think clearly whether you raise Chinese bees mainly to sell bee colonies, honey, or both. Only when you have clarified your ultimate cash-out goal, you will be more purposeful and selective in the actual breeding operation.

Second, you must be clear about and understand the strength of your local Chinese bee colony, its honey production capacity, and its ability to adapt to survival in the wild.

Only by knowing these clearly can the beekeeper decide what kind of bee colony to use as the breeding stock and what specifications of beehives to choose.

Third, choose the address of the apiary.

Choose a site with honey source, water source, sunlight, shade and slope. Also, the site should be free of wind, pollution from factories, noise from poultry farms and various processing plants. This is because bees love cleanliness and quietness, and they also want to produce better and healthier wild native honey.

Fourth, understand and record the cycles of local pollen and nectar plants.

Know clearly the pollen and nectar source plants in your area, when they bloom, when they produce nectar, and keep good records, the more detailed the better. This is to know clearly when to collect nectar, when to breed queens, and when to replace queens.

Fifth, learn, learn, and learn again continuously.

Learn more and communicate more from books and on the Internet. Don’t be a beekeeper who is groping in the dark, don’t be a arrogant beekeeper, and don’t be a beekeeper who works in isolation.

Sixth, observe, carefully observe the various living habits and physiological characteristics of Chinese bees.

To raise bees well, you must know the living habits and physiological characteristics of Chinese bees. To know these clearly, you can only rely on meticulous observation, continuous research and comprehension, and accumulation over time to develop a set of Chinese bee breeding and management techniques suitable for your local area.

Seventh, prevention and treatment techniques of diseases and pests.

One of the most important reasons for putting the treatment and prevention of diseases and pests last is that, under normal circumstances, our Chinese bees do not need special drugs for treatment.

The main thing is that beekeepers, in their daily beekeeping operations, are directly related to the causes of pests and diseases. Of course, qualified beekeepers must also have the ability to treat infectious and bacterial infections.

4. Northern Chinese bee breeding technology

The three-month feeding and management from the time when the queen bee resumes laying eggs after the bee colony overwintered to the reproductive stage on the eve of the flowering and nectar secretion of the main nectar and pollen source plants such as Robinia and Wolfthorn is called spring management.

The main tasks of spring management are: take positive measures to ensure that new bees can smoothly replace overwintering old bees, and cultivate a large number of excellent bees of appropriate age for collecting honey for the first major nectar source plants of the year, such as Robinia pseudoacacia and wolfberry. By the beginning of summer, the bee colony should have 8 to 10 honeycombs, and the double-king colony should have 12 to 16 honeycombs, striving for high yield and efficient pollination of the first honey source bee products of the year.

Spring reproduction of Chinese honey bees is the foundation for high yield of bee products and efficient pollination throughout the year. It is a key link in beekeeping production throughout the year and the most difficult stage for the recovery and development of bee colonies. Therefore, effective measures must be taken for spring reproduction.

1 Early spring stage

The bee colony has gone through a long wintering period and the feed in the nest has been consumed. In order to protect the bee colony from loss, the following work should be done well.

1.1 Comprehensive inspection

After the beginning of spring, take advantage of the sunny, warm and windless weather with a temperature of 8-10℃, when a large number of bees leave the nest to fly and excrete, and conduct a comprehensive inspection. The inspection content includes: the number of honeycombs, the amount of honey stored, the strength of the colony, whether the queen bee is alive, etc. Detailed records should be kept to provide a reliable basis for feeding and management.

1.2 Dealing with the Lost King Group

When some bee colonies lose their queen, you can temporarily extract a queen from other double-queen colonies to calm the mood of the colony.

1.3 Dealing with the lack of honey bee colonies

In some bee colonies, the honey on the middle comb has been consumed. You can put the outer comb close to the bee cluster to be careful not to hurt the queen bee; in some bee colonies, the feed in the nest has been consumed, and there is no honey and pollen source outside. You can't feed it, you can only add honey combs. If there is no extra honey comb, you can draw it from other honey colonies.

1.4 Preventing bee colonies from stealing

Chinese bees have a keen sense of smell. If there are holes in the beehive or the nest door is too large, it is easy for the bee colony to steal from each other. Use mud to seal the gaps in the beehive, plug the holes, and reduce the size of the nest door.

2 Overwintering bee replacement stage

After more than three months of wintering, the old bees gradually die, the colony strength is seriously weakened, and the remaining bees are also old and weak. This is the weakest period of the colony. In order to restore the colony to a strong state, the following work should be done.

2.1 Start the process at the right time

The main nectar and pollen sources such as Robinia and Lycoris radiata bloom and secrete nectar around the beginning of summer. Around the beginning of summer, the Chinese honey bee colony will have 8 to 10 honey bees in a single queen colony and 12 to 16 honey bees in a double queen colony. After the whole field is adjusted, the colony will have 11 to 12 honey bees on average, and the production is no less than that of the Western honey bee. Therefore, the breeding season starts 75 days before the nectar source, that is, during the Rain Water.

2.2 Development Standards

3-comb bees have 3 combs. If they do not meet the standard, they can raise a double queen colony. 3 combs, except for the part that is bitten by the bee colony during the winter, are actually only 2 combs, which can still maintain more bees than combs. For weak bee colonies, raise a double queen colony based on the "mother-daughter co-nest" characteristic. The new queen has strong egg-laying ability, and 2 combs are placed in the large area close to the queen excluder. The old queen has weak egg-laying ability, and 1 comb is placed in the small area close to the queen excluder. In fact, it is still a colony of bees, but there is an extra queen excluder in the middle.

2.3 Preventing nest insect damage

Wax scraps are food for nest worms, so they must be thoroughly removed from the bottom of the nest. For a single-queen colony, take out the insulation of the small area, clean the small area with a scraper, then move the bee colony to the small area, and then clean the large area; for a double-queen colony, prepare an empty beehive, move the bees from the large area into the empty box, clean the large area with a scraper first, and then clean the small area.

2.4 Let the bee colony repair the damaged honeycomb and breed larvae

During the spring breeding season, Chinese bees are good at renewing old honeycombs and repairing new nests for larvae. Therefore, the damaged honeycombs cannot be taken out, and the black base can only be cut off with a sharp knife, and the honeycombs and bees are put back into the large area close to the queen fence for breeding, shrinking the bee path to 0.8 cm. The worker bees will repair it while the queen bee will lay eggs, and it will still be a good brood comb.

2.5 Strengthen insulation

During the bee colony breeding period, the temperature of the insect breeding area in the nest is maintained at 33-35℃. In early spring, the temperature is low and cold currents are frequent. In order to maintain a constant temperature in the nest, inherit the advantages of the old method of raising Chinese bees, the bee colony has 2 boxes and 1 group: one box sits north and faces south, and the other box sits west and faces east. The front of each box is exposed, and the box cover is inlaid with dry bricks, and then paste it with wheat straw and mud. For a single-queen colony, the small area is filled with insulation, and the frame beam is covered with cloth and a small quilt; for a double-queen colony, the large area has a large space, and a few washed and worn clothes are stuffed, and the top is covered with cloth and a small quilt.

2.6 Feeding pollen

Pollen is a protein feed for bee colonies to raise their young. In early spring, when there is no pollen source outside or it is rainy for a long time, it is difficult for bees to collect pollen, so pollen should be supplemented for the bee colony. If there are pollen clumps shed in the autumn of the previous year, they can be mixed with honey water to form a cake and placed on the frame beam for bees to eat. If there is no pollen source, substitutes such as fried soybean powder and milk powder can also be used.

2.7 Feeding water and salt

In the early spring, when bee colonies reproduce, forage bees have to go to the river to collect water to mix bee food and feed the larvae. However, due to the cold weather, they often freeze to death, so they have to be fed water in the nest and a small amount of salt should be sprinkled in the moist area behind the hive for the worker bees to feed.

2.8 Reward Feeding

Reward feeding can stimulate the queen bee to lay more eggs and increase the enthusiasm of worker bees to build honeycombs, raise larvae, and collect larvae. Practice has shown that the number of bees in reward-fed colonies can be more than doubled compared to non-reward-fed colonies. Therefore, reward feeding can be carried out when there are sporadic sources of nectar and pollen in the outside world. For single-queen colonies, place the feeder on the insulation of the small area; for double-queen colonies, place it on the outside of the partition of the large area. Feed 200-300 g of 1:1 syrup every night or every other night, and place a float on the syrup. Continue reward feeding until the main nectar and pollen source blooms and secretes nectar.

2.9 Add honeycombs and expand the nest in time to prevent the queen from laying eggs

More than 20 days after the start of breeding, there are 3 honeycombs in a single queen colony. If the queen lays eggs at one end of the honeycomb, the middle honeycomb can be turned upside down first; if the middle honeycomb is full, a side honeycomb can be moved to the middle; when the 3 honeycombs are full, new bees are leaving the room one after another, and the outside of the partition is full of "bee beards", a high-quality empty honeycomb or honeycomb foundation can be added. Add honeycombs in sequence later without delay. In a double queen colony, the 3 honeycombs are basically full, and an unfull honeycomb in the large area can be transferred to the small area, and the honey and pollen honeycomb on the outside of the large area partition can be transferred to the inside of the partition, and then a honey and pollen honeycomb can be placed on the outside of the partition. When the outside of the large area partition is full of "bee beards", a high-quality empty honeycomb or honeycomb foundation can be added, and honeycombs can be added in sequence later without delay. During the breeding period of northern Chinese bees, 5 to 6 honeycombs are added to a single queen colony, and 7 to 8 honeycombs are added to a double queen colony. However, it is better to be late than early, otherwise it is easy to cause "spring decline".

3. Rapid development stage of bee colony

After the "Spring Equinox", new bees have basically replaced the overwintering old bees and the system has entered a stage of rapid development. The following tasks should be done well.

3.1 Increase feeding amount

When there are many young bees in the nest and more pollen and less honey outside, the feeding amount should be increased. If there are large honey combs, they can be placed outside the partition.

3.2 Accelerate the reproduction of weak groups

After the Spring Equinox (March 20), young bees will leave the hive in large numbers. It is necessary to promptly extract the strong colonies from the hives to bring bees to the weak colonies, accelerate the reproduction of the weak colonies, and strive to develop them into productive colonies before the honey source of the vitex.

3.3 Early breeding of drones

7 to 10 days after the "Spring Equinox", worker bees begin to build drone cells. Use Italian honeycombs. If Italian honeycombs are not available, use Chinese honeycombs with more drone cells. Breed drones early in queen bee colonies that can maintain strong colonies, high honey and pollen production, and strong disease resistance, in preparation for early breeding of queen bees.

3.4 Adding nest foundation to build new spleen

After the Qingming Festival (April 4), willows, rapeseed, and cherries begin to produce pollen and honey. The bee colony has grown to 5-6 combs. As long as white wax marks appear on the frame beams, you can add foundations to build new combs. Do not add combs that were bitten by bees during the winter to repair them, because at this time the queen bee produces a large number of unfertilized eggs, and the worker bees will build some drone cells to repair them.

3.5 Early breeding of new queen bees

In order to control swarming, strive for high yield of the first honey source bee products, replace old, inferior and sick queens and prepare for artificial swarming. After the Qingming Festival, when the artificially bred drones leave the hive, a batch of new queens can be bred early by artificial transfer of insects according to the number of bee colonies in the field.

3.6 Produce drone larvae and pupae in a timely manner

Around the Qingming Festival (even earlier in the south), when worker bees are actively building drone cells under the comb and at the two corners, and the queen bee is laying a large number of unfertilized eggs to breed drones for the swarming period, we should seize this opportunity to use the entire bee colony to produce drone larvae and pupae (it can also be produced at other times, but we must use old queen bees, but the effect is not as good as this time). This is a considerable income, which can control drones and save feed.

3.7 Preventing “swarming fever”

After the "grain rain", the bees in the nest are overcrowded and the temperature is basically stable. For a single-queen colony, take out the insulation in the small area. If there are many worker bees fanning the air to cool down at the nest entrance, you can also remove the small quilt. For a double-queen colony, take out the insulation in the large area and remove the small quilt to prevent "swarming fever".

3.8 Timely balance of group forces

As the summer begins (May 5), the main sources of honey and pollen in the north, such as Robinia and Lycopodium, are about to bloom, the honeycombs in the boxes are full, and new bees are leaving the cells one after another. The bees in the double-king colony are crowded, and the colony strength needs to be balanced at this time. The honeycombs and bees that are leaving the double-king colony are added to the single-king colony, so that the colony strength of the entire bee colony is maintained at 11 to 12 honeycombs.

3.9 Producing royal jelly to prevent “swarming fever”

Around the "Grain Rain" (April 20) of the Chinese honey bees in the north (even earlier in the south), when the worker bees actively build royal cells in the depression of the middle honeycomb and the queen bee lays eggs in the royal cells to cultivate new queen bees for the swarming period, we should seize this opportunity to use the whole bee colony to produce royal jelly (it can also be produced at other times, but old queen bees should be used, as the effect is not good at this time). At this time, the worker bees of the right age secrete a large amount of royal jelly, and it is easy to obtain high yields of royal jelly, which can not only increase the income of the bee farm, but also prevent "swarming fever".

Bee colonies in the Northeast and Northwest regions need to cultivate collecting bees of appropriate age in time for the production period from June to July.