How to breed bees?

There are hobbies that, in addition to pleasure, can generate income. These include the breeding of bees, which does not require large financial costs and the cost of labor and time.

However, in fact, without knowing the basic conditions for growing these hardworking insects, nothing will come of it. To organize your own apiary, you need to get acquainted with the principles of their behavior, the rules of breeding and care, the procedure for carrying out work. To make a profit in the future, you will still have to invest serious funds in organizing the business: you will need special equipment to provide bees with comfort.

Preparation for arranging an apiary

In any business, it is worth being fully armed in front of unforeseen factors. That is why you should prepare not one swarm at once, but several, in order to gradually increase your beekeeping economy later.

The optimal amount for starting a business is considered to be three bee colonies. However, over time, it will take about 50 families to transform their favorite occupation into a serious business and make a profit, and each of them may have a different number – from 20 to one hundred thousand bees.

It will be interesting for a novice beekeeper to know that each swarm brings up to 20 kilograms of nectar during the day, 10 kg of honey is obtained from it. It will not hurt to join the beekeepers’ association, where there is an opportunity:

  • get qualified help;
  • advice on how to breed bees;
  • learn the subtleties and nuances of the craft;
  • acquire irreplaceable manuals and manuals.

For some beginners, bee breeding at home is afraid of the threat of stings. In fact, insects cannot sting for a reason: after that, inevitable death awaits them. To avoid this, it is recommended to comply with certain conditions:

  • avoid impulsive energetic gestures;
  • do not make shrill sounds;
  • come to the apiary in clean light clothes;
  • strictly monitor the absence of extraneous odors.

In addition, experienced beekeepers, in order to calm insects, use an additional device – a smoker. Gradually, the bees will begin to recognize their owner, who will be bitten in isolated cases.

The specifics of beekeeping at home

Before starting a new business, the discoverer decides where to start. Having mastered the theory, the beginner proceeds to the practical development of the foundations of modern beekeeping. Its initial actions should be:

  1. in the selection of a place for an apiary that meets the necessary conditions;
  2. in the purchase of beekeeping equipment;
  3. in the selection of a highly productive breed suitable for the surrounding climatic conditions.

Breeding bees for beginners consists in observing some primary conditions. It is necessary:

  • make sure the neighbors don’t mind;
  • organize an apiary away from the highway, noisy places (bees cannot stand loud sounds);
  • be sure to surround the apiary with a high fence;
  • place hives at a distance of 50 meters from the housing and 10 meters from the edge of the site;
  • choose a site surrounded by trees – this will avoid a lot of bee diseases;
  • place the apiary in a quiet, convenient place, protected from the wind;
  • set a series of hives every 5-6 meters, and leave gaps between rows of 4-5 meters;
  • turn the houses with a slight slope to the south for better illumination.

Areas with high humidity or near industrial enterprises are unsuitable for the location of the apiary – these factors can lead to frequent morbidity of bees. It is advisable if honey plants grow in the vicinity of the hives, but this is not necessary: ​​bees can be moved from time to time to more favorable places for collecting nectar.

Log apiary

Modern beekeeping is due to the high investment of time and attention of beginners. You can help minimize the problem using the deck method. Breeding bees in logs assumes the least invasion of insects, which have absolute independence. That is why this method is most suitable for beginners: they only have to collect honey.

The advantage of such an apiary lies not only in economy, but also in the fact that the insects in them are healthier. In the log, the bees arrange housing the way they want, they themselves set the size of the honeycomb, often having a large size and located next to each other. The number of inhabitants of such a hive is also often more than usual. A novice beekeeper will have to deal with such hives only twice a year: collect honey in the fall, and put things in order in spring, replacing the small black combs, in which young insects cannot develop normally. Honey begins to pump only a year after the settling of bees in the log. When certain rules are followed, the results can be impressive.

Pavilion keeping of bees

The advantage of breeding insects in special pavilions over placement in the open air is the ability to maintain a favorable temperature in the hive, protected from the vagaries of the weather. The pavilion with wheels removes the problems of loading and unloading from the beekeeper, provides mobility in the process of delivery to the fields with flowering plants and continuity in the collection of honey throughout the spring.

Important!

The disadvantages of this method are the frequent gatherings of bees in neighboring swarms, the loss of queens and an increase in the threat of diseases in case of crowding of bees.

The choice of a bee breed depends on their performance, endurance, peaceful nature, frost resistance and honey growth. In the northern regions, insects accustomed to heat will not take root. For many beekeepers, the ability of bees to extract honey from certain flowers is important. When buying, they pay attention to character: they try to choose the most peaceful, non-aggressive, as well as disease-resistant.

Many breeds have been created to meet these requirements. Recently, a new species of bees, Buckfast, has appeared, which has gained recognition from amateur beekeepers rather quickly. The insects turned out to be more resilient and profitable than planned. Outwardly, they resemble the Italian look.

Beekeepers prefer buckfast bee breeding due to many factors, for example, accelerated development in comparison with other types. Their essential dignity is considered to be their peaceful nature. These insects do not suffer from bad weather, they adapt perfectly in any conditions. The breed is characterized by high fecundity of queens, which allows to quickly increase the swarm and its productivity. Serious disadvantages of bees are the inability to tolerate low temperatures and the difficulty of reproduction of queens.

Breeding technologies for queen bees

The queen is considered the progenitor of a family of bees of one hive, her main task is to reproduce the swarm. Other insects guard and take care of her. Although she lives longer, beekeepers tend to change her to a young one after two years. There are five female reproduction techniques:

  • natural;
  • fistulous;
  • artificial;
  • through an insulator;

Bucket method

The natural method is considered the simplest, suitable for beginners. It consists in creating the prerequisites for the transition to the swarm for the bees. Three frames with brood are placed in the house by closing the entrance and removing the frame. There it is necessary to lay the mother liquors, from which the layers will later be formed. However, the method may not give any result. The quality of the swarm also cannot be guessed in advance.

With the artificial method, following the determination of a strong colony, the frame is taken along with the eggs and young bees. Having made a hole on top of the frame, it is placed in a family without a queen. Literally after 3 days, uterine bookmarks are formed.

If it is necessary to simultaneously breed several females, the third order is used, which consists in finding a strong family and breeding new queens on its basis. In this case, the family is placed in an insulator containing two frames, two more are added to them. One is intended for ripe offspring, the next for egg laying. To eliminate the possibility of the escape of the bee, the structure should be covered with frames and attached to the hive among the frames with brood.

In the fistulous method, three frames are used, to which worker bees are added. The uterus is implanted. The frame is placed back in the female’s home. After 3 days, the bookmark is checked and the fistulas are removed. After 7 days, it is necessary to cut out the mother liquors and wait for maturation. The main advantage of this method is the ability to remove bees in the required time frame. The method is recognized by beekeepers and is systematically practiced to increase the number of individuals.

Cebro’s technique is also popular among specialists. It consists of the following actions:

  1. dissection of honeycombs installed on the roof of the hive;
  2. selection of a piece with the presence of two-week-old larvae;
  3. attaching strips to the grafting frames at the bottom of the well;
  4. installation of anti-swelling layers after the appearance of bees.

The specifics of breeding insects in multi-body hives

For a long time, qualified specialists prefer to use such hives, which greatly facilitate their work. In addition, the technique makes it possible to expand families, rearing young animals and wintering field workers without significant damage. The owner will have to:

  • apply all your knowledge and diligence;
  • systematically regulate the way of life of insects;
  • look after them depending on the season;
  • move the frames in accordance with the time of the honey collection and the actions of the bees.

The effectiveness of this type of breeding of bee colonies is due to the arrangement and filling of the houses. The rhythmic functioning of the apiary is ensured by the presence of several sets of components that allow you to change frames in time, disconnect the parts of the hives and attach superstructures to the boxes.

Key principles of keeping bees in the winter and spring seasons

In order to grow strong bee colonies capable of producing an abundant collection of nectar, it is necessary to carefully look after them in winter and spring. Such supervision involves regular monitoring of the temperature, the state of the brood, the well-being of the queens and bees, and the number of podmor. It is necessary to provide comfortable living conditions for insects in their home, sufficient nutrition, the ability to fly around to perform cleaning functions. In winter, it is definitely worth observing the hives, and such attention will give positive results.

Technology of keeping bees in sunbeds

This method of breeding insects is practical, rational and simple. Its merits are:

  • ease of transportation;
  • in the absence of the regular need for special lifting of the bodies;
  • in the heat capacity of the type of construction;
  • in additional possibilities of sunbeds to breed a nucleus;
  • in high egg production of queens;
  • in the possibility of keeping a large number of strong families;
  • in anticipation of anti-war measures (use of a special diaphragm to form layering).

The principles of breeding bees in the country

The best place for organizing an apiary is a summer cottage with a sufficient number of plantings of different crops, which will ensure the production of high-quality honey. The best option would be to have an orchard at the summer cottage. It is advisable to place the hives in the shade of trees. In an open place, you can arrange shading using various devices to protect the bees from the heat.

The installation of houses on the roof and a shed allows you to create an omshanik for wintering insects.

Breeding bees is a rather complex activity that requires serious preparation and the acquisition of the necessary equipment. For success, it is advisable to learn the basics, consult with experienced professionals. Only after that is it worth deciding whether to start an apiary.

Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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