Every beekeeper strives for the maximum productivity of his apiary, constantly improving the methods and technologies of beekeeping. One of the most fashionable and, at the same time, the most controversial ways to increase productivity is the technology when two-queen bees are kept in a multi-hive hive.
The content of the article
- 1 The crux of the matter is biology
- 2 Purpose and content issues
- 3 Best content technology
The crux of the matter is biology
The main subject of controversy is the question of whether it is possible to call a bee colony, in which two queens live and work for some time in one hive, a two-queen bee?
From the point of view of biology, two queens cannot live in the same bee colony, except for a short period when the bees themselves quietly replace the old “queen”. That is, in this case, we are not talking about a two-uterine family, but about two bee colonies, which are kept according to a special technology in an ordinary two-body or specially equipped single-body hive, which is called a double-uterine hive.
Purpose and content issues
The main idea of double-queen keeping is to help the bee colonies to increase the total weight to the main bribe up to 6-8 kilograms or more, which is not always possible for one “queen” to do.
At the same time, such a large family should not be allowed to swarm. And at the same time, care must be taken that all free combs are not filled with brood by the time of the main bribe, which will make it impossible for the beekeeper to obtain marketable honey.
Best content technology
Therefore, the most productive technology for multi-hive hives is the following.
Important! Timing in different regions may vary significantly. And in one area, due to weather conditions, the flowering dates of honey plants are shifting from year to year. Therefore, you need to focus on local current conditions.
If you can get early fetal “queens” from the southern regions, you can use them. This will increase the period of the double-queen keeping and the bee colonies will gain the maximum possible strength.
Read: How to properly plant a uterus
If females of their own production are used, you need to wait until the families gain enough strength to produce layering, and the queens fly around.
Work order:
- Approximately in the middle of May, layering with young “queens” in the upper buildings is made.
- Then the beekeeper waits for the brood to print in the layers and replaces the blank bottom with a net. At the same time, frames with dryness and foundation are added to the body with layering. For about a day, the bees “communicating” through the mesh acquire the same smell.
- After that, the body with the branch is lowered down, a dividing grid is installed on it. The rest of the buildings with the old family are placed on top.
- After 3-4 weeks, the queens actively sow brood. Then an inspection and evaluation of their work is carried out. If the young queen sows satisfactorily, the old queen is removed from the main colony.
Thus, the young uterus in the lower body will produce offspring, which will then go into the winter. And the brood from the upper hulls will gradually turn into a flight bee. And, without being distracted by heating and feeding the ever-shrinking brood, it will work as productively as possible on the main feed, flooding all the combs freed from the young with nectar.
Important! If the old queen bee is not removed in time, even adding new hulls with dry land, we will not get a large harvest of honey, since the main energy of the bee colony will be spent on growing the brood. And at the end of the bribe, the overgrown family will eat a large percentage of the honey brought.
With a timely selected uterus, it is quite possible to pump out up to 3 or more bodies of honey from the main bribe. However, a lot here depends on the region and the number of available honey plants.
