Special feeding of queen bees

In the spring-summer period, supplementary fertilizers are used to replace natural maintenance honey, or to cause increased activity of bees, or to give bees medicinal substances.

Addition of bees during the withdrawal of queens.

It has long been known that in the breeding of queens, the entry of fresh nectar and pollen into the hive is of great importance, therefore, in order to obtain high-quality queens, it is necessary to proceed to the withdrawal of the queens at a time when honey and pollen plants blossom in nature. But often, in order not to miss the terms, the beekeeper is forced, especially in the spring, to remove the queens in the absence of honey collection. It is also possible the sudden cessation of honey harvest due to unexpectedly changed weather. In all such cases, in order to somehow replace the natural honey collection, supplementary feeding of the families that raise the queens is used. Such feeding of families-educators is absolutely necessary in specialized matkivodnyh farms, where the method of continuous (in-line) withdrawal is used, and any cessation of the honey should be compensated by artificial feeding.

Distribution of bees daily small portions of sugar syrup does not reach the goal. The Institute of Apiculture conducted a test of the effectiveness of fertilizing the families-educators in the distribution of 0.3, 0.5 and 1 kg of 50% sugar syrup every other day. It turned out that none of these fertilizing (pure sugar) did not improve the quality of the queens compared to control families who did not receive top dressing; Only slightly increased the number of pawns laid. Apparently, sugar syrup as a purely carbohydrate feed does not give bees enough protein and other food components necessary for growing the queens.

Naturally, after that, we began to test the feeding of the family-educators with sugar syrup with an admixture of protein and other

substances assimilated by bees, which would increase the nutritional value of the feed.

Such an experience, which lasted throughout the entire matukovodny season (from 3.05 to 8.08), was carried out in the experimental apiary of bee-breeding farm. At the same time, I group of eight-family families, on all days in the absence of honey collection, received 0.3 liters of 60% sugar syrup, in which 50% of the water was replaced by whole cow’s milk; II group of 8 families gave the same amount of sugar syrup without milk impurities.

Experience has shown that families who received sugar syrup with a trace of milk took twice as many larvae and raised better queens than families that received pure sugar. With the onset of even a small honey crop, the use of top dressing no longer had any effect. It is interesting to note that families (conventional, with uterus), who received a sugar-feeding supplement, raised an average of 1.9 kg of bees. Consequently, feeding with milk, in the absence of a gain in the weight of the control hive in the apiary, had a significant effect on the increase in quantity and on the quality of the queens. However, the greatest effect was given by feeding the nursing families with the medopergic mixture, which will be discussed in the next section.

Recently, new opportunities for improving the quality of the queens have been identified, if they need to be withdrawn in the absence of honey harvesting – this is the so-called day nutrition of the families of educators.

Feeding with liquid sugar syrup has a double effect on the bee family: it improves the nutrition of the bees and simultaneously excites the family, increases the flights of bees, especially the flights of intelligence bees that begin to search for sources of honey. It is usually customary to give top-dressing to bees in the evening. But with such a top dressing there can not be a stimulating effect on the flights of bees, as in the evening the years of bees cease, and by morning the family is already calming down. Fertilization is shown more fully and more efficiently if given at 8 and 13 hours.

The first experiments with daily feeding of families-educators were carried out on the experimental apiary of bee-breeding farm. The allocated 16 bee colonies were divided into 2 equal groups and proceeded to withdraw the queens in the same way at the same time. All the days when the increase in the weight of the control family in the apiary was less than 0.3 kg, the families of Group I were given 0.4 liters of sugar in the evening, while the same group II families, on the same days, were given 0.2 liters of sugar syrup at 8 and 13 hours. During the experiment, 15 broods of queens were received.

Families who received evening supplementation, raised 15.8 uterus on average for one brood, and received daily supplementation, gave to 18.7 uterus. At evening feeding 54 were received, and at day time – 101 uterus weighing more than 200 mg; the average weight of the queens was also higher. In a second experiment, conducted the following year, compared the daily top dressing with evening dressing during the whole matkivodny season and again received a noticeable increase in the quantity and quality of the queens that are removed in the absence of honey. So, for example, in June, 251 uterus were received from the families who received feeding in the evening, and 309 during the day; more than half of all the queens had a mass of more than 200 mg.

Daily feeding of families-educators increases the overall activity of the family and bringing fresh nectar, pollen and other substances necessary for growing the queens. Calculations showed that in the morning, without feeding, flew to the beehive of 1-2 bees with a refresh for 1 min. In the family, excited by the morning feeding, 8-10 bees arrived with the update. The greater activity of the family results in the reception of more larvae and their better nutrition in the larval stage. Daily nutrition of families-teachers was tested in the conditions of Siberia. The queens were removed by a double change of larvae. During the period when the control family showed a loss, the work of the families-educators was characterized by the following data (Table 24).

Table 24. Quality of the queens bred for evening and daily feeding

As can be seen from Table 24, feeding the families of female teachers with a 50% sugar syrup at 8 and 13 h for 0.2 l increased the quantity and quality of the cultured queens. And this means that the higher the mass of the uterus and the more egg tubes in her ovaries, the more eggs the uterus can lay and the more bees in the family will be grown to the main honey collector.

Extra nutrition for the planting of queens.

The arrival in the hive of fresh nectar and pollen favors the reception by the bees of a new planted uterus. During a strong harvest with buckwheat, you can, for example, replace the old uterus with a young one by placing a mature printed queen cell between honey combs (the old uterus should not be selected at the same time). In most families, the bees take the uterus emerging from the mother liquor, and it remains in the family, and the old one dies. However, in the absence or a small transfer of nectar into the hive, this method of substitution does not give good results.

Feeding bees with liquid sugar syrup can to some extent imitate the flow of nectar into the hive and facilitate reception by the bees of the implanted uterus. The first time give sugar top dressing (for 1 liter of water 1 kg of sugar) 2 days before the selection of the uterus, the second – during the selection of the uterus and the third – a day after the selection. Each time give 1 liter of fertilizing.

Feeding of cores in the hatcheries.

The direct giving of sugar syrup to nucleuses is associated with great inconveniences and additional labor costs. Small families very slowly take the sugar syrup, and in the absence of honey, their feeders are always attracted by bee-thieves. To supply the cores with food, it should be prepared in usual strong families. Frames in nucleus hives should be arranged so that the four combined together they enter inside the normal nest frame.

This arrangement of the frames has great advantages both in the formation of nuclei and in the care of them. Cells in all the frames must necessarily be directed upwards – the bees are more likely to put food in them. From a normal strong family, all honeycombs that do not contain brood are selected, and instead they are put into the beehive prepared frames with nucleus frames in the middle. In the evening, such a family is given sugar syrup (1.5 kg of sugar per liter of water), in which 20% of water is replaced by whole milk. A good family in a warm time takes up to one bucket of syrup per day. After 5-7 days 16-20 or more nucleus frames with partially or completely sealed food will be ready.

Nucleated feed frames should be prepared in advance. If there is little feed in any nucleus, then it is not given to the syrup in the feeder, but to the frame with the harvested food. This greatly facilitates and lowers the content of nucleus families.

In farms specialized in the production of bee-parcels, in advance, from the summer, prepare frames containing 1.5 kg of printed honey. Such frames are stored until the spring and put two at the sides of the box during the formation of bee-parcels; The remaining honeycombs are given with brood, and the bees are additionally shaken to the established condition. In the advanced farms for bee-packs, prefabricated frames containing 1.5 kg of sugar-condensed sugar syrup in sealed cells are prepared in advance. According to data from Kabardin and Tuapse beekeepers, the feed consumption for 6 days is 128-134 g per day per 1 kg of bees.

Bee-pouches sent without honeycombs are supplied with a can of 1 l capacity filled with a thick sugar syrup (per 1 liter of water 2 kg of sugar). The can is strengthened at the top of the box, where bees usually gather. In the lower side of the can make two holes with a diameter of 0.8 mm, through which the bees are gradually sucking the food. Consumption of bees in honeycomb packs is about 100-190 g per day per 1 kg of bees and depends on the outside temperature (in cool weather the feed consumption is less) and on the mode of transport (the calmer the bees, the less is the consumption).

Feed for the transfer of queens.

To feed the queens and accompanying bees during the transfer, the uterine cells are supplied with a sugar test or honey. The dough is used for near shipment within similar climatic conditions, cells with honey – For long-distance shipments within different climatic zones.

Correctly cooked saharom dough should not drip or dry. The most reliable it can be prepared in the following way. A good flower honey is placed in a water bath and warmed to 50 њ C. Powdered sugar is added to the board or in a bowl at the rate of 4 parts of powder for the first part of honey. The heated honey is slowly poured into the powder, all the while wetting it and stirring like an ordinary dough.

The saramene mixture is stirred with hands until it stops sticking to the hands.

A ready-made saccharide dough should have a shiny wet surface and not blur on the table; to bring it to such a state, when necessary, add powder or honey. Store the finished dough only in a glass jar with ground glass stopper.

When charging cells, the feeding compartment is covered with a thin layer of paraffin. For this, boiling paraffin is poured into the stern compartment for several seconds. On top, the food is covered with a piece of waxed paper, in the middle of which a hole (diameter 8-10 mm) is made for the access of bees.

To intensify the pollinating activity of bees, use aromatized sugar syrup, which is infused on the flowers of the plant that the bees want to guide (bee training). This technique is especially effective for pollination by bees of testes of meadow clover, the flowers of which the bees fly reluctantly. Training is also used when pollinating bees of alfalfa, flax, vineyards, strawberries and strawberries.

For the preparation of flavored syrup, make a sugar syrup (per 1 liter of water 1 kg of sugar) per 100 g of sugar per family. In the evening, the blossoming flowers of the pollinated culture, freed from the green parts (sepals), are lowered into the warm syrup. The flowers should occupy about a third of the volume of dishes with sugar syrup. By morning the syrup will be saturated with the aroma of flowers. Give it to bee families daily early in the morning (before the start of the bee flying in the field) during the entire flowering time of the pollinated culture. A fresh aromatic syrup is prepared for each morning.

Medicinal fertilizing is used to combat diseases of bees. In the treatment of families affected by European or American foulbrood, take 1 liter of syrup (in a concentration of 1 kg of sugar per 1 liter of water), to which one of the following drugs is added: sodium norsulfazole – 1 g, sulfantrol – 2 g, sulcimide – 2 g, penicillin – 900 thousand units, biomycin – 500 thousand units, neomycin – 400 thousand units. The listed preparations are first dissolved in a small amount of warm water (38-40 њ C), and then poured into sugar syrup.

The prepared medicinal syrup is given by 100-150 ml per litter of bees every 5-7 days until complete recovery. Prior to the beginning of feeding from the nest, the honeycomb with the affected brood is selected.