CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Practical techniques for the breeding and management of Chinese honey bees (video on practical techniques for the breeding and management of Chinese honey bees)

1. A lazy person’s method of raising Chinese bees in the wild?

Step/Method 1

The lazy man's method of raising Chinese bees in soil: one is to raise them in live frames,

Step/Method 2

The second is empty box breeding.

Step/Method 3

The third is live beam breeding. Live beam breeding is an intermediate type between live frame breeding and empty box breeding.

Step/Method 4

The greatest advantage of the Chinese bee breeding method of soil hiding is that the Chinese bees will not develop living frame discomfort syndrome when hiding in the soil, and ants will not enter the beehive to harm the bee colony, even though soil hiding is equivalent to placing the beehive on an ant nest.

Step/Method 5

Cement beehives are the most suitable for the Chinese honey bee breeding. Of course, earthenware beehives are better if conditions permit. Because wooden beehives buried in the soil for a long time are easy to rot and be eaten by ants and insects, and will be scrapped in about 1 year. Of course, earthen beehives can also be built with bricks. For earthen breeding, cement beehives, earthenware beehives and brick beehives are all economical and affordable, which can be said to be a long-term plan and a permanent solution.

2. 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.

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. 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.

5. How to raise Chinese bees well?

Chinese bees refer to the Chinese honey bees, and their breeding and management are as follows;

1. Selection of beekeeping site

The apiary for releasing Chinese honey bees should be located on secluded hillsides, half-hillsides, or at the edge of forests, away from factories, mines, roads, etc., and away from harassment or vibration interference from humans and animals. There should be sufficient and clean water sources near the apiary.

Chinese honey bees are not very strict about bulk nectar sources, but they have more requirements for the types of nectar and pollen plants. The nectar source flowering period is continuous, and there is not too long a honey-free period. Because Chinese honey bees are good at using scattered nectar sources, the scattered nectar and pollen from the outside world are constantly supplied, which avoids bee theft and facilitates management.

2. Placement of bee colonies

Because Chinese honey bees have been domesticated for a short time, are wild, have poor orientation, and are easily lost, they cannot be placed in rows, neatly and closely, and in the same direction as Western honey bees. When placing Chinese honey bee colonies, the distance between colonies should be farther, staggered front and back, and the direction of the nest gates should not be consistent.

Avoid bees from different colonies from being thrown into the wrong place, which may cause fighting and killing. Especially for mating colonies, the distance between large colonies should be increased to prevent the queen bee from being killed by the wrong place. Each box should be padded with wooden stakes to prevent ants from invading the Chinese honey bee colony and causing the bees to escape.

3. Prevent contact with odor

Chinese honey bees have a keen sense of smell and are very sensitive to odors. It is best to use a beehive used by Western honey bees to raise Chinese honey bees. Or choose a new beehive made of odorless wood. Before using the new beehive, apply a small amount of beeswax to eliminate the wood odor, which will help Chinese honey bees accept it and prevent it from flying away.

Do not use drugs with strong odors to prevent and treat bee diseases. After the beehives and beekeeping tools are disinfected, the odor must be completely eliminated before they can be used again. Try to disinfect the beehives by burning to prevent the odor from irritating the bees and causing them to escape.

6. What is the fastest and most productive method for breeding Chinese honey bees?

1 Organize a strong group to collect honey

Organizing a strong colony to collect honey is the basis for high yields. The Chinese bee requires that each colony have 5-6 frames of bees and 6-8 honeycombs. The colony is too strong. It is easy to cause swarming. Strong colonies have many field bees and a high attendance rate, which is conducive to high yields. This is because the work in the nest of a strong colony will not increase much, that is, it mainly increases the field collecting bees. On the other hand, a strong colony has high work efficiency and fast honey intake, which can quickly reduce the area of ​​brood combs. It can provide sufficient honey storage cells and reduce the feeding work in the nest, allowing more bees to go out to collect. A strong colony is also conducive to ventilation in the nest, making it easy for the moisture in the honey to evaporate and discharge out of the box, accelerating the maturation of honey and improving the quality of honey.

First, the breeding of forage bees of suitable age begins about 40 days before the nectar flow. Because it takes 20 days for worker bees to hatch from eggs, and 18 days after hatching, they are at their peak of forage capacity, so the colony is at its peak when the nectar flow begins. A considerable number of forage bees of suitable age, housekeeper bees of various ages, and a large number of brood combs have accumulated in the colony, and the productivity is strong.

Secondly, you can adjust the capped honeycombs to organize the honey-collecting group. 15 days before the honey flow, take out capped honeycombs of different ages from other groups to strengthen the honey-collecting group. When the honey flow begins, more than 1/2 of the young bees will leave the cells and participate in the work in the nest; the remaining young bees will leave the cells one after another during the honey flow period to replace the dead old bees so that the colony strength will not weaken. The time for adjusting the caps should not be too close to the honey flow period or too much at a time, so as to avoid having more indoor bees than outdoor bees and consuming more feed honey.

Third, transfer field bees to organize honey-collecting groups. Before the honey flow, gradually bring the two adjacent groups closer together. Choose sunny weather during the honey flow period. At 10-12 o'clock in the morning (when field bees go out of the nest to collect honey in large numbers), move the weaker group away, and then the field bees of the weak group will come back to collect honey. If they cannot find the original group, they will fly into the strong group. At this time, add empty combs, nest foundations and capped combs to the strong group as appropriate to promote more honey collection. The replenishment of field bees to the honey-collecting group must be carried out during the peak honey flow period. Because in the early or late stages of the honey flow, when the amount of honey flow is not much, even if there are many field bees, not much honey can be collected. At the same time, because there is not much honey in the nest, the worker bees are highly vigilant, and the worker bees of the weak group enter the strong group, and a fight will occur. It should also be noted that field bees should not be transferred out for bee colonies that are too weak.

2. Correctly handle natural swarming

Since Chinese honey bees have a strong tendency to swarm, it is particularly important to know how to deal with natural swarming during the heavy honey flow. This is because, before and after natural swarming, the bee colony will experience two completely different situations: on the one hand, when the bee colony has swarming fever, whether it is reproduction or honey collection, there will be a phenomenon of passive sabotage; on the other hand, after the natural swarm is separated, the worker bees work more actively, and all kinds of work in the bee colony are full of vitality. Therefore, during the heavy honey flow, swarming fever should be handled correctly, and negative factors should be turned into positive factors. The dividing line can be whether the natural swarm can be separated before the heavy honey flow period arrives. The following treatments should be performed respectively:

The bee colonies that can be separated from the natural swarm before the arrival of the big honey flow period should be separated. The original colony should be moved to any place 2 meters away from the old site, and the separated colony should be introduced into another beehive and placed in the position of the original colony. Due to the change of position, after about 3 days, the field bees of the original colony basically return to the original site and enter the box of the newly separated colony. At this time, all the natural queen cells of the original colony can be removed and merged into the newly separated colony. Or keep a mature queen cell with 2 frames of bees in the original colony, and form a mating colony after the new queen leaves the room. After successful mating, it can be used for reproduction or to replace the old queen. The remaining honeycombs are merged into the newly separated colony.

For bee colonies that cannot swarm naturally before the arrival of the big honey flow period, you can introduce mature queen cells to them. On the one hand, it can encourage the bee colonies that have time to swarm to swarm; on the other hand, it can encourage the bee colonies that have not time to swarm to destroy all the queen cells themselves, completely eliminating swarming fever.

3 Reduce the amount of feeding work in the nest

During the honey flow period, the number of eggs and larvae can be properly controlled, the feeding work in the nest can be reduced, and more worker bees can be engaged in collecting and brewing honey, which can achieve higher yields. The following methods are effective.

Limit the queen bee to lay eggs. For strong colonies, you can use a queen excluder to limit the queen bee to lay eggs on only one comb about 10 days before the first honey shake during the high honey flow period. Remove the queen excluder one night before the honey is collected. This way, you can ensure that there are a certain number of brood combs in the nest, while the area of ​​the brood combs is not too large.

Use virgin queen bee honey collection groups to collect honey. In order to solve the contradiction between queen bees producing honey and worker bees storing honey in the nest during the peak honey flow period, the old queen bees in the honey collection group can be taken out, and a small breeding group with 1-2 frames of bees can be formed. Virgin queen bees or mature royal cells can be introduced into the original box to form a virgin queen bee honey collection group. The advantage of using virgin queen bee colonies to collect honey is that there are queen bees or mature royal cells, but they do not lay eggs temporarily, which can stabilize the worker bees and allow them to concentrate on collecting and making honey. After the new queen bees mate successfully, they start laying eggs and continue to reproduce. Doing so can greatly reduce the feeding work in the nest on the one hand, and on the other hand, because the new queen has more queen substances and the worker bees work actively, a higher yield can be obtained.

In reducing the feeding work in the hive and increasing the production, two things must be noted: First, the queenless group cannot be used for honey collection. When lifting the honeycomb to shake the honey, the loss of virgin queen bees must be prevented. Second, the group cannot be completely without brood combs. The absence of a queen or brood combs will cause the bee colony to be uneasy, greatly reducing the amount of honey collected. The absence of brood combs may also cause the bee colony to escape. After the virgin queen bee honey collection group is formed for 10 days, the capped honeycombs can be appropriately supplemented.

4. Bees need to be densely packed

During the honey collection period, bees should be densely packed, that is, there should be slightly more bees than combs, which is conducive to normal honey collection. This is a characteristic of Chinese bees that is different from Western bees. Western bees can collect honey normally when there are more combs than bees, but Chinese bees often have poor honey collection, which affects the yield. Therefore, if there are not enough bees, reducing some combs during the high honey flow period can achieve higher yields.

5. Create favorable working conditions for the bee colony

Reduce the distance bees fly. If the bee colony is far away from the main nectar plants, you can move the beehives closer to the nectar plants in advance to reduce the time bees spend on going back and forth to collect nectar, increase the number of times they collect nectar every day, and improve work efficiency.

Shake the honey in time. During the peak honey flow period, the bee colony takes in a large amount of honey quickly. As long as the honey is mature, the honey comb should be lifted and shaken. Generally, the honey is very full, half of the cells are capped, and the honey does not splash out when the bees are shaken, indicating that the honey is mature and should be lifted and shaken in time. The advantage of shaking the honey in time is that the cells can be emptied in time, making it easier for the bees to store honey; the honey left in the honey comb after shaking the honey has a rewarding effect on the bees. It stimulates the enthusiasm of the bees to collect honey.

Shaking honey should be staggered with the busy time of bees. Each nectar plant has its own time to secrete honey. Therefore, the busy time of bees is different in different nectar flow periods. For example, buckwheat sheds honey in the morning, so honey combs should be extracted in the evening; Chinese tallow sheds honey from 10 am to 5 pm, so honey combs should be removed and shaken at 9 am. Regardless of the nectar flow period, bees are generally busy for 3-4 hours a day. If bees are shaken and honey is shaken during the busy time, the normal collection activities of the bee colony will be disrupted, resulting in a decrease in honey production.

Improve ventilation. In the process of making honey from nectar, bees need to flap their wings to remove a lot of water. The nectar collected by bees from flowers has a water content of about 80%, while the water content of mature honey is less than 20%. Therefore, the bee colony must discharge several kilograms of water from the beehive every day. The speed of water evaporation is related to ventilation. Therefore, during the period of large honey flow, the ventilation of the beehive should be improved to make the water evaporate easily and accelerate the maturation of honey.