CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Bee breeding and management experiment report (summary of bee breeding and management experiment report)

1. Chinese bee breeding technology and management?

The breeding site must be south-facing, dry and ventilated. The beehive must be tight and seamless. The next step is reasonable management, including bee species selection, queen bee management, group temperature control management, and bee colony feed management.

The last step is moderate production. Wait until the honey on the honeycomb is capped and mature before taking it. Only in this way can the honey be high-quality honey.

2. Bee breeding and management?

When raising bees, it is necessary to establish a breeding place in a place with abundant nectar sources, good water quality, and sheltered from the wind and facing the sun. In the spring, the bees must be kept warm by covering the beehives with windproof cloth. In the summer, it is necessary to take cooling measures for the bees and place sunshade nets on the beehives to prevent the bees from dying after being exposed to the sun.

How to raise bees

1. Breeding sites

When raising bees, it is necessary to establish a breeding place in a place with good water quality, sufficient water source, and sheltered from the wind and facing the sun. In addition, different plants should be selected in different seasons to provide nectar sources for the bees and facilitate their nectar collection. For example, in spring, plants such as rapeseed or peach trees should be planted near the place.

2. Spring maintenance

Spring is the breeding season for bees. When raising bees in spring, you need to keep them warm. You can place windshield cloth on the beehive and install a heating plate under the beehive to keep the temperature inside the beehive at around 34 degrees to facilitate the breeding and growth of bees. In addition, you should clean the bees when the weather is clear.

3. Summer maintenance

The temperature is higher in summer, which affects the number and quality of eggs laid by the queen bee. When raising bees in summer, it is necessary to take cooling measures. You can place shade nets on the beehives to prevent the bees from being exposed to direct sunlight, and you should also replace the old queen bee with a new one if her reproductive ability has deteriorated.

4. Winter management

The low temperature in winter can cause the death of bees. When raising bees in winter, you need to provide them with food. You can use sugar water made by mixing sugar and water, or honey water made by diluting honey with water. In addition, you should place a double layer of warm cloth on the beehive to allow the bees to survive the winter smoothly.

3. How to raise a large hive of bees?

1. Selection of queen bee. Since we want to raise a strong colony, the queen bee's egg-laying ability must keep up, and a double-queen colony should be cultivated at the same time. Once a poor-quality queen bee appears in the colony, it should be replaced immediately.

2. Raising double queen colonies is a common method for Italian bees, but it does not mean that it cannot be raised for Chinese bees. It is just that once swarming fever occurs, it is more troublesome to manage.

3. Ensure sufficient feed. For bees, as long as the number is large and there are many larvae, the amount of feed consumed will naturally be large, so the strong colonies we raise must provide sufficient feed for the bees.

4. Bee breeding management and methods?

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.

5. How to raise bees, bee raising techniques and bee raising methods?

Beginner beekeepers need: 1. beehives 2. bee tools 3. bee species 4. four-season management 5. disease prevention and control, etc. There is a lot of content but space is limited, so I will just briefly introduce some of them.

1. Beehives, nest frames, nest foundations, honey shakers, scrapers, beehive nets, smokers, queen excluders and other appliances.

Standard beehive box. At present, the beehive commonly used in my country is the 10-frame standard box, also known as the Lang's beehive. It is composed of 10 nest frames, a box body, a box bottom, a nest door board, a sub-cover, a box cover and a partition. Ten-frame box: It can be made of strong and durable wood such as red and white pine, fir, and poplar that do not deform. The thickness of the board is not less than 2 cm. The inner circumference of the box is 465 mm long, 380 mm wide, and 245 mm high. There is a buckle on the outside of the front and rear walls for easy transportation. A groove with a width of 8 mm and a depth of 25 mm is opened on the upper part of the inner side of the front and rear walls. An iron sheet guide is nailed on the notch, and the upper edge of the guide is 17 mm away from the upper edge of the box body. 2. Box cover a, beehive cover b (sub-cover) yarn cover. 3. Box bottom.

2. Beekeeping tools

There are many tools for bee breeding and management. In addition to the beehive, there are also nest foundations, honey dividers, nets, scrapers, bee brooms, queen excluders, etc. They are all necessary and should be selected according to the size of the bees. Other bee tools such as tools for producing royal jelly and bee pollen can be purchased as needed.

1. Nest foundation

The foundation is installed in the nest frame for bees to build honeycombs. It is a piece of artificial beeswax pressed by a foundation machine, and has a base for the bottom and wall of the honeycomb. There are Italian honeycomb foundations for raising European honeybees; drone honeycomb foundations for producing drone pupae; and Chinese honeycomb foundations for raising Chinese honeybees. Honeycombs built with foundations are neat, flat, and solid, with fewer drone cells.

2. Face net

A face net is a tool used to protect the operator's head and neck from bee stings when managing a bee colony.

3. Use the scraper

A special tool for beekeeping. One end is a curved blade, the other end is a flat blade. Use it to pry, scrape, and shovel things, such as prying the sub-cover, scraping dirt inside the beehive and on the nest frame.

4. Smoke emitter

It is a tool for taming or driving away bees. It consists of two parts: a smoke tube and a net box. When using it, light paper, hay or linen, put it in the smoke tube, cover the mouth, and blow the bellows to make it spray out thick smoke, but not sparks.

5. Bee Broom

It is mainly used to clean the bees attached to honeycombs, boxes, queen raising frames and other beekeeping tools. It is a long fan-shaped long-bristled brush. Generally, there are two rows of bristles, the bristles are 65 mm long, and are made of white horsehair or horsetail hair that is not easy to absorb water.

6. Beehive stool

It can be used to store beekeeping tools and record books, and can be used as a bench when inspecting the bee colony.

7. Queen excluder

The queen excluder is a grid that controls the queen bee's egg-laying and activities. It strictly separates the bee colony into the insect-raising area and the honey-producing area, so that larvae, pupae, pollen, etc. will not be mixed with honey, and worker bees can pass freely. The lead wire queen excluder made of No. 14 lead wire is strong and durable, and not easy to deform; the gap between the two lead wires is about 4.4 mm, and the queen bee cannot pass through, but the price is relatively expensive. The bamboo wire queen excluder made of bamboo wire with a diameter of 7.5 mm is easy to obtain in southern my country, easy to process, and low in cost, but the firmness is poor and it is easy to deform. The queen excluder is divided into a flat queen excluder and a frame queen excluder. The flat queen excluder separates the insect-raising nest and the honey storage super box, which is convenient for taking honey and improving the quality of honey. The frame queen excluder is inserted in the beehive to control the queen bee to lay eggs on several combs.

8. Feeding utensils There are many kinds of utensils for feeding honey, syrup or water. Commonly used ones are:

(1) The nest door feeder, also known as a bottle feeder, consists of a wide-mouth bottle and a base. The bottle cap is nailed with several small holes with inch-long nails. The bottle filled with honey is turned upside down and inserted into the base. Under atmospheric pressure, the honey can be sucked out by the bees without dripping. At night, the base of the nest door feeder is inserted into the nest from the nest door. It is suitable for reward feeding and can avoid bee theft. For weak colonies that are not full, it can be placed outside the partition in the beehive for feeding. The plastic cup feeder developed by the bee farm of Hebei Agricultural University is easy to carry. After filling it with syrup, cover the bottom cover, turn the bottom cover over and lay it flat facing down, and insert it into the nest from the nest door.

(2) Frame feeder

It is a long flat feeding trough similar in size to a standard nest frame. It can be made of wood, plastic, or thick bamboo. Inside the trough, there are thin wooden floating strips for the bees to stand on and suck when feeding. The frame feeder is suitable for supplementary feeding. In addition, a rectangular shallow groove is chiseled on the upper beam of the nest frame, which can also be used to feed a small amount of honey.

(3) Nest top feeder

It is a large feeder placed on top of the beehive. It is similar in size to the disc of a shallow super and is suitable for emergency feed supplementation and wintering feed feeding. It can hold 5 to 10 liters of syrup at a time.

9. Queen bee attractor

Commonly used queen bee attractants include wooden sleeve attractants, safety attractants and frame attractants.

(1) Wooden trap

The wooden trap is a flat iron cage with a small hole on the wooden plug at one end, which is equipped with a removable iron sheet. A thin wooden board is inserted into the open end of the iron cage.

(2) The safety attractor, also known as the honeycomb attractor, is a rectangular silver silk gauze cage with iron teeth on the lower part of the four walls that can press the honeycomb into place. There is a removable iron sheet at the lower part.

(3) Full frame decoy

The frame is made of wooden or iron plates, and the two large sides are equipped with lead wire mesh. The internal width is about 43 mm and the height is 245 mm, which can just fit a honeycomb and has a pull-out plate on it.

(4) Queen Bee Cage

It is a rectangular cage made of lead yarn, with a volume of about 23 tm × 33 mm × 50 mm. There is a round hole on the iron wall, through which the queen cell or queen bee can be placed. There is a sliding iron cover on the round hole, and a wooden feed trough that can be opened and closed is installed at the bottom, and refined sugar can be placed in the trough. It can be used to lure in the queen cell or queen bee, and can also be used to imprison the queen bee. In recent years, a queen bee cage made of bamboo silk has been widely used. Plastic sheets with small holes drilled around them are used as the upper and lower ends. Bamboo silk with a diameter of 2 mm is inserted into the small holes to form a rectangular cage with a volume of about 20 mm × 33 mm × 50 mm. The distance between each bamboo silk is 3 mm. One of the bamboo silks is longer and movable, and can be pulled out. The queen bee is placed here. It is mostly used in late autumn or winter to lock the queen bee of the bee colony in a bamboo silk queen bee cage to stop the queen bee production, which is convenient for the prevention and control of bee mites.

3. Bee species

Choose bees. The main bee species raised now are hybrid bees of Italian bees and black bees. For those who are new to beekeeping, in early spring, they usually buy about four boxes of bees, three to four boxes of bees, and then they can be raised.

(1) Oriental honey bee

There are many natural species of Oriental honey bees, such as Indian bees, Javan bees, Japanese bees and Chinese honey bees.

Chinese honey bees (Apis cerana) are native bees in my country. Worker bees are 10 to 12 mm long; the dorsal plate of the abdominal segments is black with obvious or unclear brown-yellow rings. The abdomen of Chinese honey bees in high latitudes and high mountainous areas is black; the color of those in low latitudes and plains is yellowish. The whole body is covered with short gray hairs. The beak is 4.5 to 5.6 mm long. The drone is 11 to 14 mm long, with a black or dark brown body color and gray hairs all over the body. The queen is 14 to 19 mm long, with black and brown-red body colors, and the whole body is covered with black and dark yellow hairs.

Worker bees have a keen sense of smell, can quickly find nectar sources, are good at using scattered nectar sources, are agile in flight, actively collect, do not collect gum, and wax does not contain gum. They are strong in resistance to bee mites, have strong thieving and swarming abilities, and are prone to flying away when nectar sources are scarce or when pests and diseases invade. They are weak in resistance to nest insects and love to bite and destroy old honeycombs. They are susceptible to cystic brood disease and European brood disease. The queen bee has a weak egg-laying ability, and the daily egg-laying volume rarely exceeds 1,000 eggs, but she can adjust the egg-laying volume quickly according to the changes in the conditions of the nectar and pollen sources. When the queen bee is lost, worker bees are more likely to lay eggs.

Because the Chinese honey bee is a native bee species in my country, it has a strong adaptability to local climate and nectar conditions, has stable production and is suitable for fixed-location breeding, especially in the mountainous areas of the south, and it has an irreplaceable position that other bee species cannot.

(ii) Western honey bee

There are three types of honey bees: European, African and Middle Eastern. The honey bees raised in my country are all European, and we often call them European honey bees.

1. Italian Bee

Italian bees are yellow in color. The abdominal plate of worker bees is yellow chitinous, and there is a yellow ring on the front edge of the dorsal plate of the second to fourth abdominal segments. The body length is 12-14 mm, and the hairs are light yellow; the beak is 6.2-6.9 mm long. They have weak swarming ability and can maintain a strong colony; they are good at collecting large nectar sources that last for a long time. They build honeycombs quickly and produce a lot of wax. They are mild in nature, not afraid of light, and bees are quiet when the honeycombs are lifted for inspection. They have strong resistance to nest insects. Italian bees are easy to get lost in the nest, love to steal, and have weak resistance to bee mites. The queen bee has strong egg-laying ability, and the worker bees secrete a lot of royal jelly and have strong feeding ability. They can maintain a large area of ​​honeycombs from spring to autumn and maintain a strong colony.

Italian bees are the main bee species raised in my country. Their wintering performance is not as good as that of the Northeast black bees and other European black bees. Except for the difficulty of oversummering in the subtropical areas of South China and the fact that they are not raised in Tibet, Italian bees are raised all over the country.

2. Carniola

The size and shape of the Carpathian bee are similar to those of the Italian bee, with a black abdomen, gray hair on the body, and a beak length of 6.4 to 6.8 mm. Carpathian bees are good at collecting early nectar sources in spring and early summer, and can also use scattered nectar sources. They are highly swarming, cold-resistant, and have strong directional ability, and collect less gum. They are mild in nature, not afraid of light, and are quiet when the comb is lifted for inspection. The queen bee has a strong egg-laying ability, and the colony develops rapidly in spring. During the main honey-collecting period, the queen bee's egg-laying is easily restricted by the honey intake, which compresses the egg-laying circle. 3. Carpathian bee

It is a local species of Carniola bee, with the same morphology and biological characteristics as the Carniola bee.

3. Northeastern Black Bee

Northeastern black bees are raised in Heilongjiang Province. They are a hybrid of the Carcharodon carcharias and the European black bees, and have some Italian bee blood. They are similar in shape to the Carcharodon carcharias, with black abdominal segments, gray hairs, and an average beak length of 6.4 mm. They are weak in swarming, cold-resistant, mild, and not afraid of light. The queen bee has a strong egg-laying ability, the colony develops quickly in spring, and is good at collecting nectar sources with large nectar flows.

4. European black bee

The worker bee is 12 to 15 mm long, with a thick abdomen and a black back plate. Some have yellow-brown spots on the back plates of the second and third abdominal segments. The hair is dark brown and the average length of the beak is 6.4 mm. It has a strong swarming tendency. It collects a lot of gum and is afraid of light. When inspected, the bees crawl around. The queen bee has a strong egg-laying ability. The colony develops slowly in spring and is good at collecting the main nectar sources in summer and autumn. The European black bees raised in the Yili area of ​​Xinjiang, my country are also called Xinjiang black bees, most of which have been mixed with Italian bees.

(III) High-yield bee species selected and bred in my country

1. Zhejiang Agricultural University No. 1 Italian Bee Variety

The No. 1 Italian bee variety of Zhejiang Agricultural University is a high-yield Italian bee variety of honey and royal jelly, which was bred by the College of Animal Science of Zhejiang Agricultural University, the Bee Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Bee Science Department of Fujian Agricultural College, and the School of Life Sciences of Peking University. In 1995, it won the second prize of the National Invention Award and the gold medal of the Second China Agricultural Expo. According to expert appraisal, the royal jelly production of the No. 1 bee of Zhejiang Agricultural University is significantly higher than that of other bee varieties (strains) raised in my country; the colony growth rate is relatively large in spring, and more pollen is collected and used; the honey production is comparable to that of other strains of Italian bees, and changes have also occurred in morphology and isozymes. It is a high-yield variety of royal jelly and honey. One kilogram of bees (4 frames of bees) in early spring can produce 4 kilograms of royal jelly in a production period of 7 to 8 months.

2. Baishan No. 5 triple hybrid bee

Baishan No. 5 triple hybrid bees are excellent hybrid bees successfully bred by the Jilin Provincial Beekeeping Science Research Institute. This species has won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. The reproduction capacity of Baishan No. 5 triple hybrid bees is 18% higher than that of ordinary Italian bees, the honey production is increased by more than 30%, the royal jelly production is increased by more than 20%, the weakening rate of wintering colony strength is reduced by 10%, and the wintering feed consumption is reduced by 25%. It has the advantages of fast proliferation, strong colony strength, high yield, low consumption, and safe wintering.

3. High-yield hybrids

The high-yield honey hybrid (Guofeng 213) and high-yield royal jelly hybrid (Guofeng 414) bred by the Bee Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have increased honey and royal jelly production by 70% and 60% respectively over that of ordinary Italian bees.

4. Pinghu Royal Jelly High-yielding Italian Bee Strain

Pinghu Royal Jelly High-yielding Italian Bee Strain is a high-yielding royal jelly strain bred by Zhou Liangguan and Wang Jin, professional beekeepers in Pinghu County, Zhejiang Province, after more than 20 years of targeted breeding. Experts have identified that Pinghu Italian bees produce 30% to 228% more royal jelly than ordinary Italian bees raised locally, with an average increase of 87%. In periods when the nectar source is poor or even lacking nectar and pollen sources, high royal jelly yields can be obtained by feeding, which is suitable for long-term production of royal jelly in fixed locations and can achieve higher economic benefits.

5. Xiaoshan Royal Jelly High-yield Italian Bee Strains

Xiaoshan Royal Jelly High-yielding Italian Bee strain was developed by Hong Dexing, a professional beekeeper in Xiaoshan County, Zhejiang Province, after 18 years of targeted breeding in the Tianmu Mountain area. Xiaoshan Italian Bee has a strong ability to produce high royal jelly. As long as there is sufficient pollen source or artificial pollen, it can obtain high and stable royal jelly production. This bee species also has the advantages of weak swarming, easy to maintain strong colonies, and strong honey collection ability.

6. The two double-cross bees, Songdan No. 1 and Songdan No. 2, were bred by the Jilin Provincial Beekeeping Science Research Institute. Their honey production increased by 73% and 56% respectively, their royal jelly production increased by 14% and 26% respectively, their wintering colony weakening rates decreased by 12% and 7.5% respectively, and their feed consumption decreased by 33% and 12% respectively.

There are a few things to keep in mind when keeping bees:

First, starvation prevention generally refers to the fact that bees are hungry in winter when flowers are blooming. Whether the feed is of high quality and sufficient in quantity during the entire wintering period is the basis for the success or failure of bees' wintering. If the feed is of high quality, most of the food will be digested by the bees, and the bee colony will be quiet and stable, with a long life span, no spring decline, and rapid spring reproduction; if the feed is of poor quality, the bees will digest less after eating, leaving more residues, and the feces in the intestines will easily cause big belly disease, which will cause partial death in mild cases and the whole colony to perish in severe cases. High-quality feed should be extracted from the honey comb when the cap is sealed in late autumn, with locust honey and jujube honey being the best; after the honey flow, high-quality syrup or white sugar liquid should be fed early to allow the bees to fully brew.

2. Heat protection The suitable temperature for bees to overwinter is 2-8℃. The bee colony stays together in the box and relies on honey to survive, and is in a dormant state. However, the temperature is above 8℃ for many days during the winter. The bees are very active, consume a lot of feed, and the worker bees age quickly, making it difficult for them to reproduce in the spring. Therefore, heat protection is necessary. The method is to use ventilation, watering or electric fans to cool down.

3. Cold prevention: The activity of bees overwintering in temperatures below -2℃ will also increase, mainly by increasing their food intake and swinging their abdomens constantly, generating heat to resist the severe cold. This not only consumes a lot of feed but also causes the worker bees to age and shorten their lifespan. The method of cold prevention is: small bee colonies should get more sun during the day, keep the nest door as small as possible at night, and fill the box gaps and wind tunnels.

Fourth, prevent dryness: In the long dry winter without rain or snow, water should be sprayed in the apiary to increase humidity to prevent the bees from thirst and the feed from drying and crystallizing. Because bees have no teeth, the feed will be hard and crystallized and cannot be eaten.

5. Moisture-proof: The humidity in the beehive is preferably 70%-80% in winter. When the humidity is above 80%, the feed will become thin and deteriorate, and the bees will have diarrhea after eating. If the humidity in the apiary is high, a layer of plastic film should be placed under the beehive, or quicklime and dry slag should be sprinkled around the beehive. You can also let the bees fly and defecate in a planned manner on sunny days above 10℃.

6. Light protection: Bees are phototropic and will fly out of their hives when the light is strong. In winter, if the apiary is outdoors, it should be covered and protected from light to minimize the energy consumption of bees by flying in the air.

7. Prevent suffocation: Bees need fresh air when they hibernate in the hive, so be sure to prevent dead bees and debris from blocking the hive entrance and suffocating them. On snowy days, be sure to prevent snow from clogging the hive entrance.

Bees like a quiet environment and are afraid of vibration (sound), especially in the late winter when they are weak and can hardly stand the accumulation of feces in their abdomen. If they are frightened by vibration, they often lose their spleen and freeze to death. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to hit instruments that make violent noises and set off firecrackers in the bee farm.

Nine, prevent diseases and enemies. Keep the beehives clean and sanitary, pay attention to disinfection, and prevent diseases and pests such as bee mites. If mice are found in the bee farm in winter, they should be killed with poison bait, equipment, etc. As long as you do the above points, you can keep bees.