Collecting pollen by bees
Dust collector from a milk package.
In the individual sector, more than 1.6 million bee colonies. Next to honey and wax, a valuable product for an amateur is flower pollen. For nutritional value it can not be compared to any other product of natural origin. Collecting this rare product miracle, even for the beekeeper’s family, his relatives and acquaintances, will make it possible to enrich the home diet considerably.
I – the bottom of the frame; 2 – a packet of milk; 3 – elongated holes cut in the bag; 4 – a dust-collecting grating; 5 – cover; 6 – side walls of the frame; 7 – grooves under the incoming board of the multi-hull; 8 – windows for the exit from the beehive of bees, drones, uterus; 9 – curtains on the windows.
During the active period, bee colonies collect honey and pollen much more than they consume during the year, although they often remain springtime without protein-vitamin food for one reason or another. However, many fans do not prepare pollen. Some underestimate its importance as feeding for bees and food, and others, not being able to acquire a pollen collector, do not dare to make this “wise” device on their own. In the meantime, taking away from a normally developed family to 2-3 kg of pollen per season, the owner will not harm her and will provide her family with a nutritious product, and in the spring, in case of need, will prepare bees with full nutritional supplement.
Pollen collectors are used to collect pollen from the factory or from their own production. Despite a significant number of designs, they have functionally similar elements: a frame, a pollen grate, a pollen receiver, a lid. The pollen grating can be made of plastic, plexiglas and other materials. The diameter of the holes should not exceed 4.9 mm. Place the grate in the pollen collectors vertically, horizontally
The figure shows the pollen collector from the milk bag. At the bottom of the frame 1, made of multilayer plywood with a thickness of up to 10 mm, a rectangular package 2 is set up from under the milk with cut out holes 3. The grate 4 is fixed in the frame and covered with a removable cover 5. In the side walls of the carcass, slots 7 height and length correspond to the size of the landing board of the multi-hull. Before installing the bag in the pollen collector, a grid with very small cells is placed on its bottom, due to which the pollen is better ventilated.
The main disadvantage of a vertical grate is the crossing of the flight paths of bees in opposite directions, because of which their movement slows down and they are bought up near the incoming board of the hive. To ensure free access of the bees from the hive, the flight of drones and uterus, in the side walls of the frame, the windows 8 are cut out, to which the outer curtains are glued on top 9 from the outside.
When the pollen trap is installed, the flight board must go into the grooves 7 to the stop, and the ends of the side walls of the frame fit snugly against the front wall of the hive. The bees, passing through the holes of the pollen grating in the hive, lose the pollen, which through the holes 3 comes into the package. Bees and drones, leaving the hive of the hive, meet on their way the lattice, bypass it, and open the side curtains, go outside. Since they can not get back to the beehive along this path, the bees pass through the lattice, and the drones remain outside the hive.
At the time of swarming, when the master needs to leave the apiary for a while, a window is placed on the hive board of the hive of the family that is digging, a window is covered with a wooden stopper, and other flasks are closed. If the family releases the swarm, the uterus does not pass through the opening of the grid and the swarm will return to the hive.
In the apiary, where hives are used, the hinges are attached to the pollen collectors and hung on the front wall before the tap, and the grooves are not cut out.
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