CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What are the techniques and methods for raising bees in spring? (What are the techniques and methods for raising bees in spring?)

1. Top ten tips for beekeeping beginners?

1. Discussion on bee species

1. Italian Bee: Italian Bee is a high-honey-producing bee species introduced into my country. Its advantages are strong colony strength, weak swarming, not easy to escape from the colony, and high honey production. Its disadvantages are weak adaptability to my country's natural environment and susceptibility to bee mites and wasps.

2. Chinese honey bee: Chinese honey bee is an excellent bee species native to my country. Its advantages are that it has strong adaptability to my country's natural environment and is good at utilizing scattered nectar sources. Its disadvantages are small colony size, low honey production, easy swarming, easy migration, and susceptibility to attack by nest insects.

Beekeeping

2. Beekeeping Tools

1. Beehive: The beehive is the most basic tool for beekeeping. Its main function is to provide a place for bees to reproduce and live. Due to different design ideas, there are two types of beehives: traditional beehives and movable frame beehives. Due to different suitable bee species, there are several types such as Chinese bee beehives and Italian bee beehives.

2. Bee hat: A bee hat is a special tool for beekeeping. Its main function is to prevent bee stings when managing a bee colony. There are many styles of beekeeping hats, but no matter what style, the beekeeping hat must be light, durable and have a clear field of vision.

3. Others: Beekeeping also requires a lot of supporting tools, mainly including honey shakers, bee sweepers, scrapers, queen cages, queen excluders, escape prevention sheets, feeders, smokers, queen traps, etc. If queen bees are artificially bred, queen breeding sticks and worm transfer needles are also needed.

Beekeeping

3. Beekeeping Site

1. Environment: The area around the beekeeping site must be quiet. For example, sparsely populated fields or orchards are suitable for beekeeping. It is not suitable for beekeeping near roads, railways, factories, schools, etc. In addition, places with frequent smoke, noise, vibration, etc. are also not suitable for beekeeping.

2. Climate: The microclimate of the beekeeping site must be suitable. The temperature and wind force have the greatest impact on bees. In terms of temperature, it must face the sun in winter and spring to prevent cold waves, and in summer and autumn it must be shaded to prevent heat. As for wind force, bees should not be kept on mountain tops or in valleys where strong winds are common.

3. Nectar source: There must be abundant nectar source near the apiary. Since the effective collection radius of bees is only three kilometers, there must be abundant nectar source within a three-kilometer radius of the apiary. The most ideal nectar source condition is that there are several small nectar sources interspersed between large nectar sources.

4. Pests: There must be as few pests as possible near the bee farm. For example, hornets and frogs will attack the bee colony. Hornets are particularly harmful to honey bees. Therefore, the apiary should be built in a place with fewer hornets nearby. If someone is raising hornets nearby, it is not suitable to raise bees.

Beekeeping

4. Bee colony feeding

1. Supplementary feeding: Supplementary feeding is to supplement the bee colony with the food necessary for survival. For example, before the wintering period arrives, the beekeeper must supplement the feed needed for the entire wintering period for the bee colony. When the nectar source is scarce and the honey storage in the hive is insufficient, the beekeeper must also provide supplementary feeding to the bee colony.

2. Reward feeding: Reward feeding can stimulate the queen bee to lay eggs and motivate worker bees to raise larvae. For example, reward feeding is needed during the spring and autumn breeding periods. The reason is that the reproduction rate of the bee colony is regulated by the nectar source. Reward feeding can give the bee colony the illusion that there is an abundant nectar source.

3. Soothing feeding: Soothing feeding can help a chaotic bee colony stabilize quickly. For example, timely feeding after the bee colony is transferred to the hive can help the colony quickly secrete wax and build honeycombs. Merging bee colonies or introducing a new queen and timely feeding can also help the colony order quickly return to normal.

Beekeeping

5. Four Seasons Management

1. Spring: The focus of bee management in spring is spring breeding, the purpose is to encourage the overwintering bee colonies to quickly recover their strength, otherwise they may not be able to utilize the spring nectar source. The breeding time is 60 days before the first large local nectar flow period. The method is to reward the bee colony with feeding once every evening.

2. Summer: The focus of bee management in summer is heat prevention. In fact, high temperature is also the main factor restricting the development of bee colonies in summer. The solution is to move the beehives to a cool place or build a shed on the beehives to protect against the sun. If necessary, sprinkle cold water or put ice bags in the beehives to cool them down.

3. Autumn: The focus of bee management in autumn is autumn breeding, the purpose is to encourage the bee colony to quickly cultivate bees of the right age for wintering, otherwise the bee colony may not be able to successfully overwinter. The breeding time is 60 days before the last local nectar flow period. The method is to reward the bee colony with feeding once every evening.

4. Winter: The focus of bee management in winter is insulation. For example, the beehive can be wrapped with insulating materials such as crop straw. The box can also be filled with insulating materials when necessary, but it must be "better to be cold than hot" because excessively high temperatures during the wintering period are far more harmful to the bee colony than low temperatures.

Beekeeping

6. Disease prevention and control

1. Hornets: Hornets are particularly harmful in mountainous areas and hilly areas. You can use a fly swatter to kill them, or you can cut off the drone brood combs at the bottom of the honeycomb and mix them with pesticides to prevent them from spreading around the beehive. When the hornets finish feeding and bring them back to the hive, they can poison the entire hornet colony.

2. Broodworms: Broodworms (larvae of wax moths) mainly harm Chinese honey bees, especially weak bee colonies are more susceptible to damage by broodworms. In mild cases, it will affect the normal development and honey production of the bee colony. In severe cases, the bee colony may even be unable to resist and have to abandon the nest and flee.

3. Sac brood disease of Chinese honey bees: Sac brood disease of Chinese honey bees is the most harmful disease to Chinese honey bees. There is currently no specific medicine for it. Prevention must be the main approach for this bee disease. In addition, antiviral drugs such as adamantane hydrochloride can play a certain auxiliary therapeutic effect.

4. Bee mites: Bee mites are the most important parasite of Italian honey bees. Severely endangered bee colonies will be rapidly weakened, their collecting capacity will be severely reduced, and they may even cause the death of the entire colony. The best way is to kill the bee mites in the beehive with highly effective miticides when the lid is not sealed.

2. What are the techniques and methods of beekeeping?

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.

3. How to attract bees in spring?

The peak season for swarming of bee colonies is in autumn and spring. At this time, the bee colonies have gone through the summer period of subsistence and the winter period of hibernation. After a period of reproduction and development, as the external nectar source gradually increases, the bee colonies can collect sufficient feed to feed the larvae. Beekeepers help the bee colonies add honeycombs and expand the nest. As the queen bee's egg laying volume increases, the number of new cells emerging from the colony gradually increases, the bee colonies become larger and larger, and strong colonies begin to show swarming fever, which also gives beekeepers the opportunity to trap bee colonies.

4. Three ways for bees to reproduce quickly in winter?

Factors Affecting the Rapid Reproduction of Honeybees

1

Selecting high-quality queen bees

As the main breeder in a bee colony, the quality of the queen bee is very important for the rapid reproduction of our bee colony. It can be said to be an important factor that determines the rapid reproduction of our bee colony. So how should we choose the queen bee? Mainly consider the innate factors and the acquired factors.

First, the queen bee's ancestors are of high quality, which ensures the queen bee's high-quality inheritance. We can select relatively strong and excellent bee colonies in our own apiary as the mother colonies for breeding queen bees, and select excellent bee colonies as the father colonies to breed queen bees; second, we can ensure the quality of queen bees in the colony by purchasing high-quality queen bees from agricultural institutions or professional breeding institutions; third, we must pay attention to the queen bee being strong and having strong egg-laying ability. If we do these things well, our queen bee problem can be solved.

2

Maintain a strong group

Many of our new beekeeping friends are too impatient and blindly increase the nest foundation and swarm the bees. In the end, the bee colony not only fails to reproduce quickly, but also causes diseases because the colony is too weak. A strong bee colony not only has a certain degree of defense against diseases, but also cannot be easily harmed by ordinary enemies. To give a simple example, wasps are a common natural enemy of honey bees, but for a strong colony, due to the large number of guard bees, the worker bees protect the colony by attacking together. Generally, a single wasp cannot harm such a colony, but if it is a weak colony, a wasp may harm the entire colony. A strong bee colony can provide sufficient nutrients for the queen bee and is also quite perfect for the feeding of young bees. It can be seen that maintaining a strong colony is important in the beekeeping process.

3

Plenty of powder

Many of our new beekeeping friends like to take all the honey when collecting it, and at the same time they don’t pay attention to feeding. This causes the worker bees to abandon the larvae, the queen bee to reduce or even stop laying eggs when the bee colony is short of honey, and in severe cases, the bee colony may even flee. Therefore, when collecting honey, we must pay attention to whether there is enough honey in the bee colony, and if there are a large number of larvae, we must also pay attention to whether there is enough pollen. At the same time, we must also pay attention to feeding reward feeds and supplementary feeds scientifically.

4

Replace the old spleen and clean the house promptly

Chinese bees have a characteristic, that is, they like to bite the spleen, and they like new spleens and hate old spleens. Those of us who have raised Chinese bees can find that there are often wax scraps in the beehives of Chinese bees. If these wax scraps are not cleaned up, they can easily become a breeding ground for nest worms. Nest worms can be said to be the biggest enemy of Chinese bees. In the past, they can be said to have brought great disasters to the development of Chinese bee breeding in my country.

For Chinese bee breeding, it is best to replace the honeycombs once every six months or so, and clean the wax scraps in the bee colony frequently. The benefits of replacing new honeycombs are that they reduce the possibility of worker bees biting the honeycombs, and secondly, the new nests are larger, and the worker bees bred are also larger and stronger than the worker bees in small hives. Their honey collection and feeding abilities far exceed those of worker bees produced in small hives.

5

Proper honeycomb ratio

Chinese bees are social creatures and like to stay together, so during the breeding process, we should not blindly increase the nest foundation just to make the bee colony look bigger, which will only prevent the larvae in the bee colony from getting adequate feeding and insulation. Therefore, in Chinese bee breeding, we should try to make the number of bees slightly more than the number of honeycombs or the number of bees and honeycombs proportional. If the number of bees and honeycombs in a bee colony is proportional, not only will the speed of honey collection be fast, but the time for honey to mature will also be advanced, and the honey production will also be increased, especially in winter, which will help the bee colony to survive the winter safely, and in summer, it can also better protect the bee colony and help it survive the summer safely.

6

Good summer management

Many friends only pay attention to the bees' wintering, and completely ignore that summer is also a disaster period for bees. If the summer overcoming work is not done well, the damage to the bees will not be worse than the wintering. Therefore, in the summer, we should pay attention to shading the bees and provide sufficient water. For the natural enemies of bees, if they are too serious, we have to remove them manually.

New method for bee breeding in spring

1

Tight spleen spring

During the spring breeding season, choose a dry, sunny and windproof site, and place two beehives side by side. In the evening without wind, feed each group with 250-300 ml of sugar water or honey diluted with water. After 2 hours, the bees will be excited and dispersed, and the temperature in the box will rise, so you can shake the bees and tighten the spleen. No matter how many spleens there are in the original group, only one can be selected and all the extra spleens are removed to make the bees more than the spleen. This can promote the queen bee to lay eggs quickly. Generally, the queen bee can lay eggs 1-3 days after tightening the spleen, preventing the attack of low temperature and cold wave in early spring, so that the egg-laying circle will not be frozen, and the bees will develop healthily. At the same time, it also allows some bees to rest and prolong their lifespan.

2

Reward Feeding

After tightening the combs, reward feeding is carried out from the bottom of the hive every night. Sugar water or honey water is put into the feeder at the bottom of the hive and extended into the hive through the nest door. This does not require opening the hive, and the operation is also convenient. The temperature in the hive is kept constant. The first feeding can be slightly more, generally 350-400 ml per group. In the future, it depends on the number of bees and the size of the egg-laying circle. It is appropriate to have a small amount of horn honey on the combs. Feed frequently, once every night without interruption, and the feeding amount should not be too much.

3

Add artificial pollen

In early spring, there is very little pollen naturally. If many queen bees start to lay eggs, in order to ensure the pollen supply in the bee colony and expand the egg-laying circle, artificial pollen combs should be added (natural pollen combs are better if available). The first comb added should have an empty nest cell on one side and a pollen cell on the other side. The method of adding combs depends on the relationship between the bees and the combs. For a colony with a large number of bees, the pollen side should face inward; for a colony with an average number of bees, the nest cell side should face inward. When the queen bee has laid eggs in the empty nest cell of the artificial pollen comb and has eaten half of the artificial pollen in the first pollen comb, a second artificial pollen comb should be added next to the first pollen comb. The third and fourth combs can be added in this way. In this way, the colony develops rapidly, and a strong colony can be obtained in time for production.

What to feed bees to speed up reproduction

1

Letting bees eat more fresh nectar can improve their reproductive capacity. If you want bees to have a large amount of fresh nectar to eat, you must ensure that there is sufficient nectar source from the outside. If the external nectar source is not good, you can transfer the breeding in time and move the apiary to a place with abundant nectar source.

2

When there is insufficient nectar from the outside, artificial feeding is needed to improve the reproductive capacity of bees. It is best to feed them a mixture of pollen and honey produced locally. Such feed is safe, nutritious, and easy for bees in the hive to accept. As long as they can get enough nutrition, they can provide a lot of food for the queen bee, and the queen bee's egg-laying ability will also be enhanced, followed by an increase in the reproduction rate of the hive.

3

The reproduction of bees is not just the queen bee's job, it also has a lot to do with the worker bees. Therefore, the hive should be insulated and cooled in time to provide the worker bees with a good living environment. They will have strong working ability, and the larvae in the bee colony will have sufficient food and grow quickly, which is most effective for the reproduction of the bee colony.