For farmed bees, we all know that the queen bee only mates for a period of time when she is just out of the house, and then uses the sperm stored at that time for life. Due to the hierarchical differentiation of bees, different types of bees are developing in the direction of benefiting their own usefulness, which makes the male bees useless to the bee colony except for the presence of the queen bee who needs to mate in the bee colony, so some beekeepers in order to save the feed in the bee colony, use the way of killing male bees to reduce the honey consumption in the colony.
A queen bee in a bee colony, we can see at a glance, because the size is too large, and it is a big belly, so even a novice can easily distinguish the queen bee, it is difficult to distinguish between the worker bee and the male bee, in fact, it is also for novices, because the male bee in addition to the size of the worker bee, the general color is darker, usually in bee breeding is called black bee.
Obviously, the above method of distinguishing male bees and worker bees is to distinguish between the appearance of adult worker bees and male bees, the main purpose of eliminating male bees in the bee colony when we breed bees is to reduce the feed consumption in the bee colony, and the development of bees, even if it is a male bee, is generally through the eggs, insects, pupae, adult insects four stages, for the egg stage, although the eggs do not consume nutrients, but also need to keep warm, and insects and pupas are in need of nutrition, if we wait until the male bees out of the room before eliminating the male bees, Theoretically, it is not the most cost-effective, so some friends wonder, is there any way to know that the male bee will be a male bee in the future when it has not grown up? If so, we can indeed save more feed, in fact, we have a way to judge.
On April 23, 2018, "This year's flowering season caught up, God helped again, and in good weather, my lychee honey was going to be harvested again."
<h1>Larval stage determination male bee method</h1>
Although we can't distinguish between male bee eggs and worker bee eggs, there may be subtle differences, but because the volume is too small, it may not be with the help of professional equipment, we are still difficult to find, but this does not mean that we can not distinguish between male eggs and worker eggs.
In fact, if we want to judge whether a bee egg is a male or a worker bee egg during the egg stage, we have a way, that is, by the size of the nest. When the queen bee lays eggs, whether to lay male eggs or worker eggs is mainly judged by the size of the nest room, the male bee nest room is a little larger than the worker bee nest room, and the male bee nest room is generally in the corner. If we see such a nest room in the corner of the bee's spleen, it is a male hive room, as long as we see that there are eggs in it, it is destroyed.
Although this is a feasible method, it is almost not used by beekeepers in actual farming, which shows that this feasible method is more problematic. First of all, the individual of the egg is small, and it is difficult to extinguish, and secondly, in the egg stage or even the larval stage, the bee larvae worker bees and male bees are not obvious, it is usually difficult to attract the attention of beekeepers, and the time to generally eliminate the male hive room is mostly after the male bee is covered.
<h1>Reliable method</h1>
Since the use of larval stage to exterminate male bees seems reasonable, but in fact it has little effect, how do we avoid too many male bees in the bee colony in actual breeding? In fact, we can start from the biological characteristics of bees, because the bee colony is a whole, no matter what changes, there is a reason, we must first find the cause of male bees in the bee colony, and then according to these reasons to find a solution, then we can divide into two steps to solve this problem.
Step 1: Find out what causes male bees in the colony
As mentioned above, the appearance of male bees in a bee colony indicates that a new king is about to be produced in the bee colony or that there is already a new king, so it is not difficult for us to find that according to the biological characteristics of the bee, there are the following situations in the bee colony to produce male bees.
(1) Bee separation: When the bees are separated, the old king in the bee colony is separated, producing a new queen bee, and the new queen needs to mate before it can lay eggs normally, so it needs male bees.
(2) Bee colony alternation: When the bee colony alternates, the old queen bee is difficult to lay eggs, and it is necessary to breed a new queen bee, and also needs male bees to mate, so male bees are also produced.
Step 2: Fundamentally solve the problem of male bee production
Since the cause of male bees has been found, it is not difficult to find a way to prevent the production of male bees in the bee colony, generally in the following way in bee breeding.
(1) Breeding high-quality queen bees: This is a way to avoid too many male bees, if it is a queen with excellent genes, the number of worker bees laid when spawning is large, the quality is good, the number of male bees is small, and it can be used for a long time.
(2) Artificial bee division: As mentioned above, if a bee colony is large, there will inevitably be natural bee division, when the natural bee is divided, the queen of the bee should bee in the bee colony, then the number of male bees will also increase, so in the case of excessive bee colony, the use of artificial bees is also a way to avoid the production of male bees in the bee colony.
(3) Regular change of the queen: or the above problem, the queen bee is too old, the bee colony is easy to alternate, there is a special situation here that we should pay attention to, that is, the queen bee is disabled, because the disabled queen will also be replaced, so we should also pay attention to the queen bee not to be injured while ensuring that the queen is young and high-quality.
Luoyang, Henan: "Bee Couple" chase flowers and release bees tired and sleepy with bees stinging waists and legs to refresh their minds
Changing queens regularly ensures that the queen is young and spawns vigorously, because such a queen does not need male bees, so the number of male bees in the bee colony is naturally controlled.
If we want to control the number of male bees in bee breeding, the above methods are the more fundamental solution, but we must understand that no matter how high-quality the queen bee, there will be a small number of male bees in the bee colony, which is an emergency way in the bee colony to avoid the sudden loss of the queen of the bee colony.
A beekeeper places a queen bee cage on a hive.
<h1>Is the method of eliminating male bees feasible? </h1>
From the perspective of bee breeding, in fact, the method of eliminating male bees is not used by many people, generally for some novices or enthusiasts, if it is a professional farm, the number of bees is too much, there is no time to do this at all, so want to become a professional beekeeper, in fact, the method of manually eliminating male bees is not reliable, and there are also studies that prove that by eliminating the swarm of male bees and the swarms of bees that do not eliminate male bees, the difference in feed consumption in the swarm is not large, so the best way to avoid male bees occurs. Or from the biological characteristics of the bees to solve, is to let the queen bee not lay male eggs, rather than let the male eggs hatch by artificial elimination.
The above is the method of judging male bees when the eggs are shared by the small editor of the bee tribe today, what do you think about this? Welcome to leave a comment below, like a friend to click a follow, we will see you tomorrow.