1, understanding of bees. Before beekeeping, let's learn about bees. At present, there are 7 million bees in China, 90% of which are European bees introduced from abroad, including Italian bees and northeast black bees. And 10% is China bee. Italian bee, Italian bee for short. Widely raised in North China and Northeast China. The queen bee of Italian bee has strong ability to lay eggs, and the worker bee has strong ability to breed insects, which not only plays an important role in production, but also is an important breeding material. Black bees in Northeast China are an excessive type of European black bees. Strong reproductive ability and good wintering performance in cold areas. However, it is impossible to maintain a strong group in low latitudes. Chinese bee, referred to as Chinese bee for short, is suitable for living in northeast, northwest, north, east and southwest regions. Chinese bees are agile in flying, sensitive in smell, diligent, disease-resistant, cold-resistant and heat-resistant. However, the honey yield and the ability to secrete royal jelly are slightly lower than those of European bees. Through the introduction, we can choose suitable varieties and take corresponding feeding measures according to the specific conditions of each region.
2. Bees are social insects. A swarm of bees usually consists of a queen bee, 1% drones and 99% worker bees. The queen bee, the male peak and the worker bee have their own full-time jobs in the group, and they are interdependent. The queen bee is the female bee in the bee colony. Under normal circumstances, there is only one queen bee in a group of bees. The queen bee's duty is to lay eggs. Once the queen bee copulates, the sperm stored in the fertilization bag can meet the needs of lifelong reproduction. Spawning begins 2~3 days after mating. A queen bee can lay 1500~2000 eggs a day and night.
The queen bee lays two kinds of eggs. One is a fertilized egg that can develop into a worker bee, and the other is an unfertilized egg that can develop into a male peak. The queen bee is developed from fertilized eggs in the queen bee's room. The queen's room is also called the queen's platform. The eggs in the queen bee's room grew up eating royal jelly, so they developed into queen bees. As we all know, there can only be one queen bee in a group of bees. The queen bee can live for 3-5 years. In order to maintain a high spawning rate, a new queen bee will be replaced in a year or so. There are several main reasons for the emergence of a new queen bee in the bee colony:
① The queen bee in the colony is lost or dead, and the development of the new queen bee takes about 16 days.
② If the bee colony is too large, it needs to be grouped.
③ The old queen bee needs to be replaced.
The work of cultivating new queen bees is usually carried out in autumn (usually in summer) to prepare for high yield in the coming year. When there are two queen bees in the bee colony, they will fight with each other until there is only one queen bee left. Worker bee is an underdeveloped female bee in the bee colony. After the worker bee larvae hatch, the adult worker bees are fed royal jelly for the first three days, and the mixed feed of honey and pollen is changed on the fourth day. Due to the change of nutritional conditions, reproductive organs are inhibited and lose the ability to lay eggs. The role of worker bees is to undertake all the work inside and outside the nest. And the division of labor varies with age. When they hatch from the house, they are pale, unable to fly or take on other jobs, so they are called young bees. 1~3-day-old young bees began to keep warm in the nest and clean the nest room. 4-5-day-old young bees are responsible for feeding large larvae. 6~ 12-day-old worker bees have mature royal jelly glands, which are responsible for secreting royal jelly and feeding larvae. 13- 18 worker bees have developed wax glands, which are responsible for secreting beeswax to build nests and spleen, making honey, cleaning nests, carrying dead bees and defending hives. /kloc-worker bees after 0/8 days old are mainly responsible for collecting nectar, pollen, gum and water until they die. Worker bees can live for 30~45 days during honey flow. It can live for about half a year in the wintering period in the north.
The male peak is different from the worker bee. It has no instinct to work, and it mates with the virgin queen bee full-time. Most male peaks begin to fly at the age of 7~ 10, and are sexually mature at the age of 12. Mating usually takes place in sunny afternoon 1~5 o'clock. Died shortly after mating Although the life span of Xiongfeng can reach 3-4 months, because of its large appetite, Xiongfeng was driven out of the nest and died of hunger and cold after the end of the honey source period in late autumn.
The development of each bee goes through four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult bee.
6. After the queen bee gives birth to fertilized eggs in the hive, the worker bees will instinctively secrete some royal jelly around the eggs within 6 hours. After 3 days, the egg membrane will rupture and hatch into larvae. Larvae molt every 36 hours after hatching. Molt four times and become pupa after six days. After pupation, the larvae do not move or eat, but consume the nutrients stored in the body. After 1 1~ 12 days, they bite open the roof, climb out of the hive and become young bees. The whole development process: the queen needs 16~ 17 days; Worker bees need 20~2 1 day; Drones take 22-24 days. Mastering the development cycle of bees can facilitate us to cultivate age-appropriate bees according to local nectar plants, thus improving the yield of bee products.
Equipment needed for bee breeding
Let's take a look at the equipment needed to keep bees: beehives, which we often say, are places where bees live, breed and store food. The beehive is composed of a big cover, a straw curtain, a cover cloth, an auxiliary cover, a nest spleen, a partition board, a king partition board and the like. There are thousands of hexagonal beehives on both sides of the spleen, which are arranged neatly and connected with each other.
1, spleen The spleen is fixed on a wooden frame, which is called nested spleen. According to the number of honey, pollen and larvae on the nest spleen, they are called honey spleen, powder spleen and child spleen respectively. The spleen of a big boy can be divided into egg spleen, worm spleen, covered spleen and empty spleen according to age. The beehive equipped with 10 frame is the most widely used standard beehive. Beehives can be expanded in time by overlapping relay boxes.
2. Bee Road. The distance between the nest and the spleen is called the bee diameter.
3. Separating the insect breeding area from the honey storage area with a partition is beneficial to honey ripening and honey collection, and improves production efficiency.
Preparation before beekeeping
Understand the general situation of bees, and make the following preparations before starting beekeeping.
1. Plants that can be used by bees to collect nectar and pollen are called nectar plants. Honey source is the basis of beekeeping production. Before determining the place to release bees, we must investigate the species, area and flowering period of honey plants. The main honey source plants that can collect a large amount of commercial honey are: rape in oil crops, sweet clover and alfalfa in grass green manure, jujube in fruit trees, Sophora japonica in forest trees, Vitex negundo in shrubs and so on. Usually, a group of bees need about 2 ~ 4 acres of nectar plants. It is also necessary to know clearly the flowering period of various honey-source plants and the situation of releasing bees to produce honey over the years. The place where bees are released should be within 2 kilometers from the main honey source plants. The closer the bee farm is to the nectar source plants, the better. There should be clean water near the bee farm. Such as lakes and streams. Channels and so on. Ensure that bees collect water and beekeepers use it. Beehives should be flat, dry, sunny and open to the southeast without obstacles.
2. It is best to have a hillside or a house and fence in the northwest. Places with horns, street lamps and insect traps nearby are not suitable for bees.
3. When buying a bee colony, you must choose the kind of bees according to the local honey source, climate and other conditions. In the northwest, north China and northeast plain areas, the summer is dry, the honey source is large, and the honey flowing period is long, so Italian bees can be selected. Winter is long and cold in the mountainous areas of Northeast China, and spring is short, and the main nectar sources bloom early. You can choose northeast black bees with strong cold tolerance. If the local area is located in a mountainous area and there is no concentrated honey source, you can choose Chinese bees.
4. The best time to buy bees is early spring, when the temperature rises and tends to be stable, and honey plants begin to bloom. Buying in this period is beneficial to bee reproduction, and it was effective that year. You can also buy it in summer and autumn, but you should pay attention to at least one main honey source in that year. In this way, even if we can't get a lot of commercial honey, we can at least ensure the feed reserve needed by the bee colony for wintering. Note that it is not advisable to buy bees after the honey source is over all the year round. Because at this time, in addition to the purchase cost, you have to buy sugar to feed the bees. In winter, bees may die. We should also pay attention to the quality of bees when buying them. The queen bee cannot be more than two years old. If you buy bees in summer and autumn, you'd better choose the new king of that year. The queen bee with good quality has a big belly, a slightly pointed tail, four wings and six feet, and is steady in action. The spawning area is large and tidy. High-quality worker bees are large in size and bright in color. I don't climb around when I open the box to lift my spleen, and my temperament is docile. The whole colony should be healthy and disease-free. The number of bees in a bee colony should not be less than 2 in early spring, but more than 5 in summer and autumn, with a certain number of offspring and spleen. For example, a bee colony with 5 frames should have 3-4 sub-colonies, at least half of which should be covered by sub-colonies. In addition, it should be noted that there must be 0.5~ 1 kg feed spleen on each litter. Don't be too old-fashioned There should not be many male peak rooms on the nest and spleen.
5. After the bees are shipped back, if the box is noisy, you can put the box cover overhead, put it on the auxiliary cover for ventilation, and spray water on the nest door. If the space is spacious, the beehive can be arranged in a separate box. It is required that the front and rear rows should be staggered, the row spacing should be 2-3 meters, and the beehive spacing should be 1-2 meters, which is convenient for bees to recognize their nests and managers. If the space is small, double boxes can also be juxtaposed. Two boxes in a group, 20 cm apart. When arranging a beehive, the direction of the beehive door is generally south or east. Pay attention to the nest door not facing west, so as to avoid direct sunlight on the nest door in the afternoon and make the nest temperature too high.
6. Bee sting is a self-defense instinct of bees. When the management action is rude, or when standing in front of the beehive to block the bee path, or when the beekeeper has an odor, it will cause bee stings, which is harmless to people. If you accidentally get stung, don't beat it nervously with your hand. You should calmly scrape off the sting with your nails. Don't pull out the thorns by hand, so as not to let the venom enter the skin more. The stung part can be washed with water. Then apply a little ammonia or soapy water,
Above, we have a preliminary understanding of bees and made preparations for beekeeping. Next, let's look at the daily management of bees.
Daily management of bee colony
1, bee colony check
Through the inspection of bee colony, we can master the changes of bee colony, so as to take timely measures and make adjustments to create favorable living conditions for bees. Inspection methods are divided into unpacking inspection and observation outside the box. When unpacking and checking the bees, in order to avoid being stung by bees, wear light-colored clothes and masks. People should turn their backs on the sun. When the lid is started, pry it gently with a scraper, and then push the lid with your fingers to separate it from the propolis stuck in the box mouth. Turn over the auxiliary cover and lay it flat in front of the hive. One end is placed on the door panel of the nest, which is convenient to assist the bees on the cover to climb back into the nest. Gently stir the partition and the nest frame with a scraper to separate the frame ear from the groove of the box body. Pinch the frame ears at both ends with your thumb and forefinger, and carefully lift the nest spleen vertically. Note that the nest and spleen can't touch each other, so as not to scratch the queen bee or stimulate the bees. There are two ways to check the spleen.
① Raise the fossa and spleen to the height of sight, first look at the facing side, and then turn around to look at the other side with the beam on the fossa and spleen as the axis. Pay attention to the fact that the nest spleen is always perpendicular to the ground when it is turned over to prevent honey and pollen from falling out of the nest room.
② Look at the side facing the line of sight first, then lower the fossa and spleen, and the upper part of the fossa and spleen inclines 45 degrees to the line of sight, then look at the other side.
When checking the nest spleen, it must be carried out above the hive, especially the double queen bee colony, and it is best to observe it above the spleen side to avoid the loss caused by the queen bee falling. Because bees are crowded, it is not conducive to observation. When the nest spleen is lifted away from the mouth of the box, it can be quickly vibrated up and down by wrist force, and the bees can be shaken off by inertia. If there are many bees on the nest spleen, you can brush them off gently with a soft bee sweep.
2, need to check the content
① Check whether the queen bee exists. Raise the nest spleen from the center of the bee colony. If you can't see the queen bee or the eggs, the bees will crawl around and make a flapping sound. This is the performance of the bee colony losing the queen bee. If there are many eggs in the nest room, and most of them are spread on the wall of the house, which is very messy, it means that the worker bees began to lay eggs very early. After two or three inspections, it is confirmed that there is no queen bee before the new king can be released. Otherwise, once two queen bees meet, they will lose both sides and bring losses to farmers.
② Check the queen bee's oviposition. When the lid is opened, the bees work in an orderly way, and eggs can be seen on the nest spleen, indicating that the queen bee is laying eggs. In a single queen bee population, the ratio of eggs, larvae and spleen cover should be 1: 2: 4. Namely: egg spleen 1 piece, worm spleen 2, cover spleen 4, honey powder spleen 1 ~ 2. If the area of laying eggs on the spleen is large, it means that the queen bee lays eggs vigorously and the population potential is normal. If the queen bee's chest and abdomen are smaller and darker, she limps and lacks wings, which shows that this is an inferior queen bee. If there are no eggs on the spleen, but there is a natural queen bee platform, the bees will be idle, which indicates that they will be separated. If the spleen area is small, the development of bee colony is slower than other bee colonies, indicating that the queen bee has poor spawning ability or is at a low tide.
③ Check the relationship between honeycomb and spleen. Open the sub-cover, and if you find that the sub-cover, partition and lateral spleen are all crowded with bees, it means that there are more bees than the nest spleen, and you need to add spleen. If there are few bees on the nest spleen and there are no bees on the partition, it means that there are more bees on the nest spleen. If there are many bees on the partition, but few bees on the nest spleen, it means that the temperature in the nest is high and the humidity is low, and the bees leave the spleen.
(4) Check the storage of honey in the box. Open the nest cover, you can smell the fragrance of honey, and you can see that there is a raised white beeswax honey roof on the upper part of each nest spleen. I feel heavy when I lift my side spleen. It means there is enough honey in the box. If, after unpacking, bees show anxiety or panic, feel light when lifting their spleen, and some bees fall down, it means that there is a lack of honey in the box. Not sick, but the bees on the spleen were irregular, indicating that there was a lack of honey at that time. If the spleen abandons bees, it means that there is a serious lack of honey.
3. The fossa and spleen return to the original position.
After the examination of the nest and spleen, it must be put back in place. When put back, pay attention to the bee diameter should be kept at 8 ~ 9 mm, insert the partition, and gently shake the auxiliary cover up and down to urge the bees to leave the box edge. Finally, cover the box. The unpacking inspection is generally conducted once every 10~ 15 days, preferably at noon in early spring and at 4 o'clock in the morning and afternoon of 10 in summer.