Association of bee colonies
The method of combining bee families described in the literature consists in the gradual rapprochement (0.5 m per day) of hives. If these families are at different ends of the apiary, this will require a lot of work and time.
I do this. I look at the families planned for the association. If necessary, I delete both queens or one of them. If I delete one, then in another family I put the uterus in the uterine cell, which I place between the frames in the center of the nest. In that hive where the uterus is left, I carry the entire brood from the attached family and add the necessary number of nesting and feeding frames. The remaining frames are pushed aside so that the bees do not gather on the walls of the hive. If the frames are not enough, I add any cells.
I conduct this preparatory work in the morning. In the evening, after sunset, when the years of bees cease, I bring the beehive to the beehive to the beehive, where the family is located, to which I am going to attach it. Both families sprinkle the syrup into which I add a decoction of thyme or mint. Then I put a plywood sheet to the hive of the hive with the uterus and with a sharp thrust I shake the bees from the attached family. Remaining on the walls of the hive I drove the whisk.
After this, using the same broom and smoke I direct the bees to the tap, which I pre-spray with syrup. The bees are not very fast, but they go unhindered into the hive, and after one or two hours the family is relatively calming down. Then the hive from all sides densely covered with branches with foliage or other improvised materials.
The next day the bees usually do an approximate circling and no longer return to the previous place. Nevertheless, the remaining empty hive should be removed from the apiary.
Covered with branches of the hive I leave in this state for up to three days. Then delete the branches, and the united family
A day later, and sometimes earlier, the bees release the uterus. Cases of her death was not.
If I combine two bezmatkochnye families, and I give the uterus from the spare, then I do everything as described above. Only in the aft hole of the cell I put honey, taken from the open cells of the formed nest. I do not hurry to let out the uterus, but daily, without using the smoke, I will check the attitude of the bees to it and the presence of food in the cell of the cell. Making sure that the bees take the uterus, I release it also through the wax, but after three or four days.
If during the unification of families in nature there is no bribe or it is very weak, it is desirable for bees to give one or two times 1.5-2 liters of syrup.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)Association of bee colonies