The most comprehensive scientific breeding methods and techniques for bees

Bees are the collective name of bee insects, many species of products or behaviors and medicine (such as honey, royal pulp, bee venom), agriculture (such as crop pollination), industry (such as beeswax, propolis) has a close relationship, the most familiar is the artificial domestication of Italian bees and Chinese bees, let's take a look at the scientific breeding methods and technologies of bees!

First, the growth and development of bees

1, bee eggs: banana-shaped, milky white, the egg membrane is slightly transparent, the slightly thinner end is the end of the abdomen, and the slightly thicker end is the head. The eggs laid by the queen bee, the slightly thinner end is the bottom of the nest room, the slightly thicker end is facing the nest mouth, and the embryos inside the eggs hatch the larvae after 3 days of development.

2, larvae: white worm-like, at first C-shaped, with the growth of the insect body, the insect body straight, the head towards the nest, fed by the worker bees, fertilized eggs hatched into female larvae if they are fed a large amount of royal jelly uninterrupted will develop into a queen bee.

3, bee pupae: the larvae 6 days later by the worker bee to seal the nest mouth wax cover, pupal stage is mainly to transform the internal organs to be transformed and differentiated into various organs into bees, gradually showing the head, chest, abdomen 3 parts, appendages are also exposed, the color from milky white gradually becomes darker.

4, adult bees: mature pupae off the pupal shell, bite through the nest room cover, feathered into a bee, just out of the room of the bee exoskeleton is softer, the villi on the surface of the body is very tender, the body color is lighter, soon the bones are hardened, the four wings are straight, and various organs in the body gradually mature.

Second, the life habits of bees

1. Metamorphosis: Bees belong to the social insects of completely metamorphosed group life, and the three types of bees have gone through 4 development stages of eggs, larvae, pupae and adult worms (adult bees), and the 4 stages are not the same in morphology.

2, oligositivity: bees completely pollen and nectar, nectar by bees sucked into the honey sac at the same time that is mixed with the secretions of the upper jaw gland, after repeated brewing of honey juice and non-stop fan wind evaporation of water, transformation and concentration until the honey is fully mature.

3, sociality: although bees live in groups, but the swarm and the swarm do not collude with each other, in order to defend the invasion of the swarm of bees and other insects and animals to form the ability to guard the hive, the sting needle is the main self-defense organ.

4, nesting: bees nesting instinct is complex, nesting location, time and nest structure is diverse, such as bee genus, thornless bee genus, wheat bee genus and other species with their own secretion of wax as a spleen.

5, social: bees live in groups, there are three types of queen bees, worker bees and male bees in the bee group, and there is a queen bee (with some exceptions there are two queen bees), 10,000 to 150,000 worker bees, 500 to 1500 male bees.

(1) Queen bee: The queen bee is a female bee with reproductive ability, responsible for breeding offspring, according to the needs of the large family of the group, laying fertilized eggs to develop into female bees (worker bees without reproductive ability), and can also develop into male bees after 24 days of laying unfertilized eggs, with a lifespan of 3 to 5 years.

(2) Male bees: Male bees are bees developed from unfertilized eggs, larger than worker bees, full of hair, usually male bees are 12 days old after feathering out of the room, and have the opportunity to mate with the queen of male bees, but after mating, they die.

(3) Worker bees: Worker bees are female bees that lack reproductive ability, eat royal jelly in the first few days of the larval stage, and then eat ordinary honey, and in the same hive are divided into three kinds of conservation bees, nest bees and bees, with a life span of 5 to 8 weeks to 6 to 7 months.

Third, the breeding conditions of bees

1, rich honey source: honey source is the material basis for the survival and development of bee colonies, so it is required to have at least one or two large areas of major honey source plants within 5 kilometers of the bee farm throughout the year, and also to have a variety of auxiliary honey powder source plants with staggered flowering periods.

2, the climate is suitable: the bee field requires leeward to the sun, the terrain is high and dry, there is no accumulation of water, microclimate matters, sufficient sunshine, alpine summits, canyons that often appear strong air currents and swamps and deserts that are prone to water accumulation are not suitable for setting up bee farms.

3, sufficient water source: around the bee farm should have a clean water source for honey to collect water, but not close to the reservoir, lake, river, so as to avoid bees or queen bees when the tail is blown into the water and drowned, in the vicinity of the sewage source can not set up a bee farm.

4, convenient transportation: the traffic of the bee farm must be convenient, which is conducive to the transfer of bee colonies and bee products, but also conducive to the life of beekeepers.

5, less predator: bee predators such as rats, wasps, etc. seriously threaten the safety of bee colonies, so the bee around the bee farm has less predator.

6, the environment is quiet: the bee farm should be far away from the railway, factories, mines, schools and other noisy environments, as far away as possible from the night light places and high-voltage lines.

Fourth, the selection method of bee swarm

1, honey source investigation: honey source is the basis of beekeeping, before setting the location of bees to investigate the type, area, flowering period and other conditions of honey source plants, usually a group of bees need about 2 to 4 acres of honey source plants, but also to understand the flowering period of various honey source plants and the honey production of the past years.

2, bee species selection: bee species must be selected according to the local honey source, climate and other conditions, China's northwest, north China, northeast plains can choose Italian bees, northeast mountains can choose cold-tolerant northeast black bees, if located in mountainous areas can choose the middle bee.

3, bee purchase time: bee purchase time is best in the early spring when the temperature is rising and tends to be stable, when the honey source plants begin to flower, the purchase of this period is conducive to the reproduction of the bee colony, when it can also be purchased in summer and autumn, but there should be at least one main honey source in the same year.

4, the quality of the bee colony: the age of the queen bee should not exceed two years, if you buy bees in summer and autumn, it is best to choose the new king of the year, the whole bee colony should be healthy and disease-free, the number of bees in early spring should not be less than 2 boxes, summer and autumn should be more than 5 boxes and have a certain spleen.

5, bee release location: bee release site should be selected within 2 kilometers of the main honey source plants, the bee farm closer to the honey source plants, the better, there should be a clean water source nearby, should be selected in the flat, dry, sunny, southeast open, no obstacles in the place.

6, beehive arrangement: when the beehive is placed, if the site is spacious, it can be arranged in a single box, requiring the front row and the back row to be staggered, the distance between each row is 2 to 3 meters, the distance between the beehives is 1 to 2 meters, the site is small, the double box can also be juxtaposed, and the nest door can face south or east, but not west.

5. Daily inspection of the bee colony

1, check whether the queen bee exists: can not see the queen of bees can not see the eggs, the bees crawl around and make a wing-like call is the performance of the king, there are many eggs in the nest, more than the wall of the room and very messy indicates that the king has been lost for a long time, to confirm that there is no queen before you can put in the new king.

2. Check the queen bee spawning situation: the worker bee is orderly, and the eggs can be seen on the nest spleen, indicating that the queen bee is laying eggs. The large spawning area on the splenic indicates that the queen bee is vigorous in spawning and the colony is normal. If there are no eggs on the spleen, but there is a natural throne, it indicates that the bees will be divided.

3, the relationship between bees and nest spleen: on the secondary cover, outside the partition, the side of the spleen is crowded with bees to indicate that the bees are more than the spleen needs to add spleen, such as the nest spleen is rare, there are no bees on the partition plate to indicate that the nest spleen is more than the bees, if there are more bees on the partition and fewer bees on the nest spleen, it means that the temperature in the nest is high and the humidity is low.

4. Check the honey storage in the box: open the nest cover to see that there is a raised white beeswax honey room cover in the upper part of the spleen of each nest to indicate that the honey foot in the box is notch, such as the bees show uneasiness or panic, the spleen is light and the bees fall to indicate that the lack of honey in the box, such as the phenomenon of abandoning the spleen indicates that the lack of honey is serious.

6. Bee breeding tools

1, beehive: beehive is the most basic beekeeping tool, its specifications and sizes are not the same, but the structural principle is basically the same, beginner beekeepers can buy beehives used by others from beekeepers, you can also make your own beehives according to the specifications.

2, bee cap: bee cap is a beekeeper's protection tool, mainly to prevent beekeepers head and neck from bee sting tools, in a variety of forms, but the principle of production is to ensure light and durable, clear vision.

3, honey shaker: honey shaker is a special tool for beekeeping, this tool can separate the honey in the nest spleen into the barrel of the honey shaker through the action of centrifugal force, the honey shaker material sold on the market is different, and the common plastic honey shaker and stainless steel honey shaker are common.

4, the scraper: the scraper is forged from high-quality steel, one end is a curved blade, the other end is a flat blade, mainly used to pry the secondary cover, the following box, the nest frame, the partition plate and clean the bottom of the box, remove the spleen, male hive and shovel propolis and other work.

5, the queen plate: the queen plate is used to limit the queen bee spawning special tools, the use of the queen bee and worker bee chest thickness is different, the width of the barrier is designed between the queen bee and the worker bee, so that the worker bee can pass freely, and the queen bee activity can be restricted.

6, bee sweep: bee sweep is a special tool to brush off the bees, mainly used to clean the nest spleen attached to the bees, generally require the bee brush soft and moderate, so as not to brush the bees, so it is best to use horse mane or horsetail made.

7, the nest frame: the nest frame is a wooden frame, can fix the nest foundation, so that the bees to build a nest spleen, the specifications are strict, otherwise the nest frame can not be interchanged between the beehives, will bring great trouble to the management of breeding, the application of beekeeping machinery and other aspects.

8, nest foundation: nest foundation is the foundation of the artificially manufactured honeycomb room, for bees to build the basis of the nest spleen, there are mainly wax nest foundations and plastic nest foundations, the current beekeepers mainly use wax nest foundations, respectively for Chinese bees and Western bees to use.

7. Spring management of bees

1, strengthen heat preservation: early spring heat preservation is not good, bees in order to maintain the temperature required for the development of larvae will eat a lot of honey and increase activity, so that the wintering bees overwork and premature death, not only caused excessive consumption of feed, but also caused the spring decline of the bee colony, serious will freeze to death of larvae and pupae.

2, reward feeding: reward feeding is a way to promote the development of bee colonies, but to have a certain amount of honey storage conditions in the nest, early spring each nest spleen should have 0.5 kg of honey storage, if the honey storage should be a one-time feeding to make up, and then a small amount of reward feeding.

3, expand the egg circle: beekeepers often adjust the queen bee has been full of eggs of the nest spleen before and after, so that the egg circle quickly extended to the whole frame, if the rear is covered honey or the spawning circle is limited by the outer ring cover honey, it is necessary to use boiling water to hot fast knife to cut the honey cover.

4, control of the bee: the bee has 7 ~ 8 frames, the bee has 4 ~ 5 boxes will appear when the bee will appear, the appearance of the cover of the royal platform, the reduction of the queen bee abdomen, the amount of eggs significantly reduced to stop spawning is the omen of the bee, pay attention to the occurrence of the bee in the main honey flow period will disperse the swarm.

8. Summer management of bees

1, honey period preparation: honey period as far as possible to make a large number of worker bees in the bee colony in an active working state, concentrate on collecting nectar, must be based on the beekeeping production plan, local conditions, the start date of the main honey source and the connection of various honey sources to fully prepare the work.

2, the organization of bee swarms: the amount of honey collected by strong groups is much higher than that of weak groups, the honey source period can artificially adjust the bee colony and hive, the organization of some strong groups of honey collection than each group of honey collection yield is much higher, in addition to the merger of weak groups before the honey flow period, it is more simple and easy to use the main and secondary collocation method.

3, summer management: summer climate is hot, lack of honey powder source, serious predators, poor feeding management of the group will be greatly weakened, on the surface it is caused by high temperature, but in essence is the result of the lack of honey and powder source, as long as there is honey, powder source is sufficient, the queen bee is not completely discontinued.

Autumn management of bees

1, breeding worker bees: age-appropriate wintering bees refer to worker bees that have not participated in collection activities and have carried out excretion flights, and many wintering bees of the right age are overwintering safely, less feed consumption, and the spring swarm develops rapidly, on the contrary, it is difficult to overwinter, worker bees die early, and spring reproduction is also slow.

2, storage feed: in the last major honey harvesting period of the first time to take honey, select four or five nest spleen flat, no male hive by the breeding of several generations of bee nest spleen on the edge of the successor box and expand the bee path, to the second time to take honey these honey spleen have been covered can be put forward for storage.

3, the treatment of mites to prevent disease: autumn bee swarm spleen rapidly reduced and the number of bee mites but a large increase, in order to ensure the safety of wintering mites should start before the breeding of wintering bees, while in the reward feeding and feeding feed to add antibiotics, sulfonamides and other preventable infectious diseases.

4, storage of nest spleen: in autumn from the bee swarm to extract the nest spleen to scrape the propolis and wax chips on the nest spleen with a scraper, use a fast knife to flatten the protruding room wall, and then use 5% of the new clean and extinguishing aqueous solution spray disinfection, to be dried after the liquid is stored, and properly stored.

5, other management: autumn honey source is lacking, it is more likely to occur bee theft, improper treatment of mites is also prone to bee theft, so beekeepers should do a good job of prevention, in addition to low temperatures should pay attention to the insulation of the nest, appropriately shrink the nest door, keep the number of bees appropriately dense.

10. Winter management of bees

1, hive arrangement: the overall requirement of the wintering hive is that the number of bees is appropriately dense, the honey spleen is neat and light brown, and the arrangement of the honey nest and relaxing the bee path can be used in cold areas, the honey spleen is enlarged in the nest, and the bee path is enlarged to 15 mm, so that the bees are filled in the bee path until the following border.

2, nest insulation: winter depending on the region and the group situation for appropriate insulation, generally in the honey spleen outside the insulation partition, the outside of the insulation frame or grass, cotton and other insulation, the yarn cover covered with several pieces of paper or cover cloth with good insulation and moisture absorption, and then use grass and cotton pads and other insulation.

3, outdoor wintering: outdoor wintering bee colony wintering site should choose leeward to the sun, relatively dry place, packaging generally with grass curtains to the left and right of the hive and the back of the fence, the bottom of the box pad grass, between the box, the top of the box cover and behind the hive depending on the temperature and then add grass or grass pad.

4, indoor wintering: after the outdoor start to freeze, put the hive on the indoor bee rack more than 40 cm from the ground, generally put three layers of bees, strong swarms below, weak swarms on the top, room temperature is maintained between -4 ~ 4 ° C, relative humidity 75 ~ 85%, keep indoor dark and quiet.

5, bee colony management: wintering bee colony should pay attention to both heat preservation and air circulation, to prevent the bee colony from being stuffy, rather cold and not hot, the nest door in addition to the following box overwintering group should be appropriately larger, on the side of the no bee colony on the back box corner cover cover cover folded up a corner for ventilation.

11. Prevention and control of natural enemies of bees

1. Wasps

【Hazard】 Vespa is an important enemy of bees, especially in mountainous and hilly areas, field bees are often harmed by vespas, and bee colonies that are seriously harmed by vespas abandon their nests and flee.

【Prevention】You can use fly flapping to beat, you can also cut off the male bee along the lower edge of the nest spleen and mix it with the rodenticide zinc phosphide (you can also use the pesticide furandan but do not mix too much) scattered around the bee farm, and the wasps will bring back to the nest to feed their larvae, so that they will be poisoned and die after eating.

2. Ants

【Hazard】 Ants often crawl near the hive, enter the hive from the hive gap or nest door, eat honey and pollen, attack the bees, and interfere with the normal activities of the bees.

【Control】After finding the nest, fill it with kerosene and then fill it with soil. Lay 1 stake in each of the four corners of the hive and coat the stake with asphalt or tung oil. The anticlin has a special effect on ants and is harmless to bees.

3. Moths

【Hazard】 Adult insects hide in the dark during the day, fly out at night to find nectar or honey for food, once they smell the honey fragrance, they sneak into the hive from the nest door to steal honey, which has little impact on western bees, and once the moth sneaks into the middle bee colony, it will cause the bees to abandon the nest and flee.

【Control】Add 3% crystalline diphtheria 1000 times solution to the syrup and pour it into the sponge carrier, put it around the bee farm at night, retract it in the early morning of the next day, and can also use honey and wine to put it into the container to induce it to drown.

12. Disease control of bees

1. American larval rotting disease (rotten disease)

【Symptoms】 Most of the larvae after death are the capping larvae, the larvae 24 hours after hatching are most susceptible to disease, and the surface of the capped spleen of the diseased bee colony is often moist, shiny and sunken and has a needle-sized perforation, forming the so-called "piercing confucius spleen".

【Prevention】When the disease is mild (the rotten area is less than 30%), the insect carcass can be manually removed and disinfected with a cotton swab dipped in 75% alcohol, and the spleen should be completely changed when the disease is severe, and the beehive and nest spleen should be incinerated.

2. European larval rot disease

【Symptoms】 After the 3-4 day-old larvae are infected, they are initially pale and flat, lose their normal fullness and luster, and then gradually become yellow or even black brown, and the larval corpses are dissolved and decayed, with a sour odor, and the infected larvae mostly die before capping.

【Prevention】Feeding strong swarms, hive insulation, feeding protein feed, improving the resistance of bee colonies, when the disease is mild, the insect corpse can be manually removed and disinfected with a cotton swab dipped in 75% alcohol, and when the disease is severe, the spleen should be completely changed and the beehive and nest spleen should be incinerated.

3. Cystic larval disease

【Symptoms】 The onset of the disease is mostly 5 to 6 days old or newly covered large larvae, about 1/3 of them die before capping, and 2/3 die after capping. The larvae are yellowish brown after death, the corpse is not decayed, non-sticky, and has no odor, the epidermis of the insect corpse thickens and becomes rough, and the insect corpse is filled with granular liquid.

【Prevention】Strengthen feeding management, dense bee colonies, timely merge too weak bee colonies and pick out insect corpses, disinfect the nest room with alcohol cotton swabs, and change the box for the more seriously ill bee colonies, and incinerate the beehives and nest spleens that have been replaced.

4. Jujube flower disease

【Symptoms】 Collecting bees died, the onset period was about 20 days, the sick bees began to show abdominal expansion, loss of ability to fly, limbs out of balance, slow response to the outside world, and then as the disease worsened, often lying on the ground, the abdomen constantly convulsed, and finally spasms and died.

【Prevention】Strengthen the work of bee colony heat prevention, the beehive is tight, the top of the frame, around the hive and the bottom of the box are often sprinkled with water, the beehive shade prevents direct sunlight, timely honey is taken, the empty spleen after shaking the honey is irrigated with cool water and then inserted into the hive, and the jujube flowers are fed pollen to the bee colony during the honey flow period.

5. Wax borer

【Symptoms】 Wax borer is a kind of harm to the nest spleen of larvae moths, appearing in March to April, hidden in the cracks of the box during the day, mating with female and male moths at night, laying eggs in the cracks of the hive or the wax residue at the bottom of the box, which can cause bees to fly away when serious, especially the bees are seriously affected.

【Prevention】Raise strong groups, merge groups, often clean the wax chips in the box, and replace the old nest spleen in time. When nest worms occur, they are removed manually, and drugs can also be smoked, and common drugs are carbon disulfide, glacial acetic acid, sulfur dioxide and so on.

6. Bee mites

【Symptoms】 Bees are stunted, physically weak, and the bee colony that is seriously endangered by bee mites cannot produce healthy new bees, and adult bees die in large numbers, and the swarms weaken rapidly, and the collection power is seriously reduced, and even causes the death of the whole group.

【Prevention】Prevention and control of bee mites should be familiar with the habits and laws of bee mites in order to achieve more with less, any agent is difficult to kill the bee mites and eggs and nymphs in the nest room, because the best way is to implement drug therapy or physical therapy without a cap in the nest.