The first spring works in the apiary

Tasks of the spring care for bees.

The life of all plants and animals is inseparably linked with the conditions of the external environment in which they live.

The life and development of bee colonies depends most closely on the conditions of nutrition and climate. Therefore, the methods of keeping bees and caring for them is determined mainly by the presence and diversity of honey fields, as well as the climatic conditions of the area. Proceeding from this, the seasonal plan of the basic works on the apiary is also planned.

Practice has shown that only strong families can provide pollination of crops, it is good to use the coming bribes and give a lot of honey and wax.

Taking care of the development of families, one must start from the calendar plan, compiled on the basis of studying the local conditions and the time of the onset of a bribe. The growth and development of families should be directed so that they have the greatest force for all bribes.

Hence it is clear that the beekeeper must know the local conditions of the bribe, be aware of what kind of honey beans are in blossom, and, depending on this, put the bees in such conditions and apply such care to them so that families can develop most successfully and be strong all year round.

Care of bees before the exhibition of them from the winter hut.

At the end of wintering, the beekeeper must visit the hibernate at least once or twice a week and closely monitor the condition of the bees, whether they suffer from stuffiness, dampness, hunger, anxiety, etc.

All the observed shortcomings should be quickly corrected. If the temperature in the winter hovel is increased or the bees are thirsty, the winter hut should be cooled, the excess insulation must be removed from the hives, the upper flaps fully open and the lower ones extended; Sometimes at the same time slightly bend the edges of the coverslips

or carefully lift one two ceiling dostochki.

If after that some families do not calm down and continue to make noise, then they need to give water. If found in the hives of dampness, it is necessary to increase the air exchange in them by expanding the tapholes, and in the absence of upper trays, allow air to escape from the hive through the top of the nest. Hungry families must be given food. More details on correcting such deficiencies are given in the chapter “Wintering of bees”.

If there is snow on places, which often happens in the middle and northern regions, snow must be scattered or traveled by sleighs, so that it melts to the day of the exhibition, otherwise the bees will sit on the snow and stiff from the cold.

Sometimes, to accelerate the melting of snow, it is sprinkled with ashes, peat dust, and earth. Then you need to inspect the pegs or portable stands on which the hives are put and rotted to replace strong, clean the point of rubbish, leaves, etc. In addition, it is necessary to prepare trolleys and stretchers for transportation and transportation of hives, etc.

Stands or pegs are checked by level. With a cold skid, the hive is placed with a slight inclination forward, so that it is easier for bees to pull out any litter, for example, lumps of spoiled penguins, corpses of dead bees, etc., and that rainwater does not flow into the hive.

With a warm skid, the hives are placed strictly vertically, without any bias, since when the hive is tilted the honeycombs can be improperly rebuilt.

When the bees are wintered in the yard under the snow, the latter is discarded from the hives as soon as the snow melts. The flavors are cleared of the undermount and again pritenyayutsya planks, which, when the warm days are completely removed. On the eve of the exhibition bees should be placed at least two drinkers for each apiary point, one of them with slightly salted water (for one liter of water, 5 g of table salt). The drinking bowl should be installed away from the anthill.

The simplest water bottle can be a bottle of water that is turned upside down on a wooden board with grooves for water, but it is better to have a barrel with a tap, from which water falls on the wooden board drops and flows down. Drinkers in the future periodically disinfected.

Fig. Drinking bowl for bees

If the roofs of the hives were removed for the winter, then they should be carried to the places where the hives will stand.

For better insulation of the nests, it is necessary to fill the space under the hives with warming material.

In this case, the warming material prepared for this purpose must also be brought to the parking places of the hives.

Time of the exhibition of bees.

With a safe and short wintering, the main condition for the exhibition of bees is to recognize the onset of warm days. If bees sit very calmly, provided with food and do not suffer from diarrhea, then in the southern regions of Ukraine with the exhibition you can wait until the buds of trees and bushes turn green, alder, hazel and snowdrops blossom.

However, in most areas of Ukraine, where the wintering of bees is more prolonged, one should not be late with an exhibition of bees. It should be remembered that in the spring in the yard well-rounded families, whose nests are properly insulated, feel much better than those families who are still in the hibernate during a prolonged wintering.

Previously exhibited and fleeting families, if he created and other good conditions (warming, the availability of sufficient supplies of feed), dramatically increase their livelihood and quickly come into force. And this is what we should strive for, especially if there are early bribes in the area.

If the bees are restless, rustle loudly, jump out of the hives, which happens with excessive “stuffiness” and thirst, or suffer from diarrhea or fasting, and it is impossible to help them in the hibernate, then in all cases it is better to use the first suitable day and put them out so that the bees fly around.

If bees hibernate in casual, poorly adapted rooms, where, with the onset of warmer days, it is impossible to maintain a temperature of 2-5 њ C, and bees begin to suffer greatly from excessive stuffiness or thirst, they also have to be put out early.

Part of the apiary, designed for accelerated breeding, is taken from the winter hunter for 20 days before the exhibition. To do this, before the southern side of the house, it clears the snow in advance, so that the land warms up better with the sun, and the snow in front and on the sides of this area is covered with straw.

Fragmented families in the nest puts on one honeycomb filled with sugar syrup of medium density (1 part of sugar one part of water) or a full honey, after which these families are taken to the winter quarters. Such a super early flight of bees and top dressing dramatically improve the state of bee colonies, and they begin to develop rapidly.

Exhibition of bees.

The exhibition of bees from the winter hut should be planned so that the bees can fly around immediately after the exhibition. This is caused by the fact that the bees overflow in the intestines over the winter; in addition, an exhibition of a bee, are very worried. Therefore, if they fail to fly around on the day of the exhibition, diarrhea may develop.

Hence it is clear that bees should be set on quiet, warm days, when in the shade there will be not less than 10-12 њ of heat. In the event that you have to expose bees before temporarily, you must choose a quiet, sunny day with a temperature in the shade of at least 7-8 њ C. In Ukraine, the time for the exhibition of bees falls on the second half of March or early April.

Bees should be exhibited in the morning, and not in the evening. In the morning it is easier to determine by the weather, whether bees can fly on this day or not, which can not be foreseen from the evening. Weather over night can change for the worse, and cold or bad weather can drag on for several days. At the same bees, disturbed by the exhibition, do not fly. As a result, some families will suffer from diarrhea.

Fig. Over-flight overflights of strong bee colonies. Hives with bees are on display in the apiary in a sunny, sheltered place from the wind.

The exhibition of bees should not be stretched for two or three days, but it is better to do it right away, in one day, so that all bees find themselves in the same conditions, otherwise the bees that have been exposed may attack the newly exposed beasts that did not have time to fly around. Finish the exhibition of all bees until noon so that they can all fly around in the warmest hours of the day.

The exhibition of bees from the winter hut is made as follows. Preparing for the exhibition bees lanterns, stretchers and other necessary equipment, quietly enter the winter hut and close the flaps in the light of the lantern in all hives, trying not to disturb the bees.

When the tapes in all the hives are closed, all the doors in the hibernate are opened wide and they start to take out the hives. Hives with detachable donja should be taken under the very bottom.

Hives can be carried out alone on their hands or on stretchers, tap into the rear porter. At the same time, shocks and shocks should be avoided so that the frames do not hang and do not press the bees.

In the case of bees coming out of any beehive, the porters should stop, quietly and calmly lower the stretcher with the hive to the ground, after which it is necessary to close the detected gap.

Hives can be placed anywhere in new places, but it is still better to put them on last year’s places, since not all bees during wintering completely forget their old places; In addition, if in the apiary the hives from year to year stand in their previous places, the beekeeper more strongly imprinted all the features of a hive and better remembered the distinguishing features of a particular family.

If the hives are placed at a normal distance, that is, 4-6 m from each other, then you can immediately open the hives with them as the hives show up. The same can be done when the hives are removed from the winter hut, not in a row, next to each other, but scattered at different places in the apiary. As long as they have time to put a neighboring beehive, the bees of the first hive already manage to fly around.

At distances between hives less than 4 m (which should be avoided), the vents should be opened one or two.

To accelerate the flight, it is necessary to open the full-width tapes, since light and heat cause the bees to fly faster. If it suddenly turns cold, then, of course, you should not encourage the bees to fly.

Observation over the flight.

The beekeeper must follow the overflights of all families, since on the fly you can judge the condition of the bees.

A friendly flight of mass of departed bees testifies to the well-being and strength of the family. On the contrary, families that have suffered in the winter and have lost a significant part of the bees, that is, exhausted, fly around weakly – few of them fly out of the bees.

Bees, suffering from diarrhea, will defecate at the tap. Bees of iceless families fly around weakly, unfairly, randomly run around the tap and on the wall of the hive, sniff each other, as if they are looking for something.

If it is noticed that some beehives do not fly out of some beehives, they should be examined immediately to find out the reason for the flight. It is possible that the family was badly affected by mice, hunger, diarrhea, or other causes.

However, it happens that some well-overwintered families do not feel the need for immediate cleansing of the intestines and therefore do not rush with flying around. They can be disturbed by slightly opening the top of the nest, so that they too soon flew around. Before proceeding to describe the main work in the apiary, it is necessary to set out general rules for the treatment of bees.