Expansion of nests
The main task in the field of beekeeping throughout the spring period is to provide bee families with the best conditions for their fastest growing and development.
In the system of measures that promote the growth and development of bee colonies in most regions of Ukraine, the main place is taken to provide bees with a good, stable and uninterrupted feed base, that is, the mead-bearing plants that are sources of nectar and pollen.
It must be firmly remembered that no methods of bee-keeping can produce proper results for the productivity of bee colonies unless bees in the spring and summer are provided with a good fodder base.
The main concern for improving the food base for bees should be manifested from early spring, in conjunction with spring work in the apiary.
Work with bees after the main spring audit.
Bee families, provided with feed and spring bribe of nectar and pollen, with good warming of the nests and proper conduct of all other works are growing rapidly. Especially well developed families who had at the exhibition 8 or more streets of bees, left the wintering in good condition. In such families, the overwintering bees mostly live in the spring for much more than a month and their gradual decrease significantly overlaps with the newly born young bees. In 20-30 days after the exhibition, the nests of such families become crowded; there is a need to expand the nest, that is, to increase its volume by placing cellular frames stored in it in the reserve.
Expansion of the nest of a bee family should be made in a timely manner, that is strictly in accordance with the strength and development of the family and the weather conditions and bribe.
The timely expansion of the nest is of great importance for the bee family, it contributes to its fastest growth. With this expansion of the nest, the area of the honeycomb is increased to fold
Untimely expansion of the nest delays the growth of the family. So, if the expansion of the nest is carried out early, when the bees in the family are not enough to fully sit and heat the frames, the nest will excessively cool and the bees will have to lose a significant part of the energy for heating it, as a result of which the feed consumption will increase; The temperature conditions in the nest deteriorate; deterioration of the feeding of the bees of the uterus; the number of broods will decrease and its feeding of bees will worsen.
If, however, the extension of the nest is significantly late, then because of the absence of free cells in the nest, the nectar and pollen will decrease; the uterus, for the same reason, will have to reduce the worming, therefore, in a few days the amount of the brood rearing will decrease, that is, the growth of the family and in this case will be delayed.
The first expansion of the nest should be made when the bees completely and densely sit around the entire frame of the nest and when there are no free cells in the nest, that is, they are not occupied with honey, perga, nectar or brood.
A very important indicator of the need for the first expansion of the nest is the laying of eggs on the inner side of one of the covering (extreme) frames of the nest.
When expanding the nest, one should also take into account the weather conditions. With a sudden cooling, it is better to wait a few days, and then, when good weather sets in, immediately set the frame. It is desirable that during the first expansion of the nest was at least a small bribe.
Usually the first expansion of the nest is done by placing in it one frame of good sushi of brown color, but still quite transparent. It is good to expand the nest with a few mediocre frames, and if there is not enough honey in the beehive – honey. Substituted in the nest empty or malomedny honeycomb should be abundantly sprinkled with liquid sugar syrup or at least water. This greatly facilitates and accelerates the cleaning of bees cells and preparing them for laying eggs by the uterus.
With the expansion of the nest, the honeycomb frame is usually placed between the covering frame and the extreme nest, on which there is brood. In the event that on the extreme frame there is already produced by the uterus zasev – given frame should be put behind it, so as not to divide the brood. Also, a honey frame is placed on the edge.
In some cases, if the first expansion of the nest coincides with the presence of a good bribe, for example, from the gardens, instead of a frame with a sushi, you can put a frame with an artificial wax; it will be quickly and qualitatively rebuilt and used by the uterus to lay eggs.
Further expansion of the nest is carried out as necessary, according to the development of families.
When families significantly increase and will occupy and densely sit on 10 or more frames, in warm weather, expanding the nests, you can give them not one, but two frames at a time.
In warm weather in strong families one of the framed frames can be put in the center of the nest. In this case, it will be quickly mastered by the family and sown with the uterus.
With the onset of early bribes, for example, with winter rapeseed, sainfoin, white acacia, meadow grasses, buckthorn, etc., the expansion of the nests is carried out both as a frame with a dry land and artificial wax, combining one with another depending on the strength of the family, bribe and availability built-up spare honeycombs or an artificial honeycomb. Thus, preparing an apiary for transportation from the oak and meadow to the sainfoin, considerably widens the nest with dry land: in families occupying 14-15 small streets, it gives 3-5 frames of land, placing it on both sides of the brood portion of the nest. This ensures the most complete use of a bribe from a sainfoin in the first period of its nectar secretion, which is the most abundant, and at the same time eliminates the need to disturb the bees immediately after transportation. In the future, we expand the nest with an artificial wax, which bees are rebuilt with bribes from sainfoin very vigorously. A frame with an artificial wax is placed between the covering frame and the extreme brood frame.
On the bar of each framed frame with an artificial wax, it is desirable to mark the date of its setting.
The framed frame with an artificial wax after the detachment of the cells is approximately half-moved to the center of the nest, through two or three frames. On its vacant place, another frame is placed with an artificial detachment for detachment, after which it is also moved to the center of the nest next to the first, etc. Thus, by the middle of the summer season, the middle part of the nest of bee families will consist of honeycombs built this year. In them, several generations of bees manage to be taken out in autumn and they become the most valuable framework for the apiary. The darker, older honeycombs are removed by the new ones to the edge of the nest and, if the case is convenient, they are discarded.
It is impossible to put an artificial wax directly into the middle of the nest, since it can be stretched or torn due to the high temperature and accumulation of a large number of bees on it. This procedure for setting up an artificial honeycomb and rearranging the newly built frames is the most profitable.
The detachment of honeycombs into the reserve. In well-developed families, during spring bribes, two frames with artificial wax should be placed on both sides of the brood portion of the nest. In this case, with the detachment of an artificial honeycomb about half the depth of the cells, one of these frames, sown with eggs, is left in the nest and the other, not sown, is taken out of the nest and stored for storage. Such a framework gives bees to completion and use during major, later and abundant bribes.
In the conditions of Ukraine, a bee family can be considered full-fledged only if it is provided with no fewer than 38-20 well-built nesting honeycombs with bees kept in hives-loungers or have an adequate supply of honeycombs while keeping bees in beehives of other systems.
The stock of honeycombs should not be created during the main bribe, but long before it, due to the detachment of the artificial wax during all the auxiliary bribes preceding the main one. During the main bee bribe, families should only complete the cells of previously built up honeycombs to the required depth and use them mainly for folding nectar and honey. If the main (main) bribe in this area is one of the early bribes, then the stock of cells for this period should be created mainly in the previous year, and this year – for the next season, etc.
In addition, a large number of rebuilt cells is necessary for the organization of the layers and their development to the level of families in the season of the year. The larger the growth plan, the more beetles of new honeycombs should be rebuilt by families, proceeding from the fact that each new family should be full-fledged by the end of the season, that is, to occupy at least 8 streets, to be fully provided with forage for the winter-spring period and, most importantly, have a complete set of built-up combs-18-20 frames.
In the summer, sometimes frame with an artificial wax in the center of the nest, between the brood. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that those sheets of an artificial honeycomb that are placed near the open brood, and also closer to the tap hole, are built up faster and better. But even in this case, it is better to put artificial wax first at least one day on the edge of the nest, and then move it to the center of it.
If bee families build honeycomb themselves, without using an artificial honeycomb, then in the overwhelming majority of cases they do cells of honeycomb not bees but drone. Therefore, an artificial wax should be given to bee colonies within the framework waxed with whole sheets, rather than strips.
Framing frames not with full sheets of an artificial honeycomb is permissible only in certain cases: when staging them with swarms or layers with young fetuses; but such cells can easily break off during transportation and need additional reinforcement after the detuning, which is inconvenient and reduces the quality of the honeycombs. Therefore, in this case it is better to frame the frames with whole sheets of an artificial honeycomb, or, as the beekeepers say, “in a full sheet.”
Change of nests.
The development and productivity of bee colonies depends to a very large extent on the quality of the honeycomb nests. Cells should be properly rebuilt to the full depth of cells throughout their area. Families in which badly built honeycombs predominate, have much less brood and lag behind in growth.
The age of the cells, that is, the period of their use, is of great importance. After all, it is known that with the deduction of each generation of bees, the honeycomb is aging: it accumulates the remains of cocoons and feces of brood. The more generations of bees are deduced in cell cells, the more cells grow old. Cells of old honeycombs are much narrower than new ones. The cell volume of the old honeycomb is on the average 10-15% less than the volume of the newly built cell. There is reliable scientific evidence that both bees bred in old honeycombs have much smaller sizes, and each bee is less developed, and therefore has less strength. Such bees bring less nectar and are less resistant to unfavorable living conditions. The productivity of families with old honeycombs is reduced.
The “age” of the honeycomb and its suitability for further use is easy to determine if you look “against the sun” as far as it is showing through. It is established that honeycombs, in which 12 or more generations are excreted, do not appear translucent. Such honeycombs are completely unsuitable for further use in hives and are subject to culling and felling to wax. The replacement of old honeycombs by a new way of culling out old honeycombs and detaching bees from new honeycombs is called a nest change.
Timely nest change:
A considerable part of the bees are released from cleaning of old honeycombs and used in other works;
The sanitary condition of the apiary improves, because the old honeycombs are the main focus of many infectious diseases and especially brood diseases;
The size (weight) of cultivated bees is increased, their quality improves and productivity is increased;
The aspiration of the apiary is improved, since more wax can be obtained from the same frame of the rejected old land than is required for the production of an artificial wax sheet.
The culling of old honeycombs is done mainly two times per season: in spring, for the reduction of nests after wintering, and in autumn, when assembling nests for the winter. Part of the subject to change the framework, especially badly rebuilt, can be culled and overturned at any time of the season.
The number of frames of the bee family, annually subject to change, mainly depends on the hives of which system the bees are kept. If bees are kept in 12-frame hives with shops, on average on each breeding saute for a year can be deduced 5-6 generations of bees. It is clear that in such a hive the frames should not serve more than two seasons, that is, half of all nesting frames should be replaced annually. The shop frames can serve for a very long time, since brood in them is usually not displayed.
In hives-beds, with sufficient supply of honeycombs, each frame can serve not 2, but 3 seasons, for a considerable part of the frames is occupied with food and in 2 years will not grow old. In this case, a third of all frames are rejected annually.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)Expansion of nests