Transportation of bees for pollinating crops
It has long been observed that the best yield of fruits or seeds of crops and the greatest honey harvest are when the apiary is on the area of flowering crops or in the immediate vicinity of it. That is why for pollination of plants and increase in yield, as well as for honey harvesting, it is necessary to bring bees to flowering crops.
At a long distance, the bees bring less nectar than when close and in connection with the flight range many more bees are razed, especially in windy weather.
When removing the apiary from the pollinated crops by 2-2.5 km, both pollination and honey harvesting will be weak. Therefore, when more than 2 km away from the medonas in a straight line, it is necessary to transport the bees and place them on an array of flowering honeycombs or on the other side of it, so as to bring the bees closer to the honeycombs while increasing the distance from the former apiary station.
The advanced beekeepers in Ukraine usually transport bees several times a season, and the greatest number of traffic falls on the summer. When organizing travels with bees, it is very important to choose an apiary point.
The general plan for the transport of bees is planned for the winter, when the apiary’s production task is being compiled. During the season, this plan should be clarified. The beekeeper should always not only know the state of the honey fields and the surrounding area, but, most importantly, in every possible way to improve the food base for bees.
Much in this direction can be done if even when planning the allocation of areas and the timing of sowing honey plants (buckwheat, sainfoin, sunflower, etc.), the possibilities of their better pollination and use for honey harvesting will be taken into account, as well as the practice of sowing special honey plants to fill the impotent periods, in combination with the widespread use of travel.
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However, the apiary standing on the flight is “profitable” only until the end of the bribe, and then it can be attacked by the bees of other apiaries, if the bribes suddenly interrupt. On buckwheat it often happens that in the morning the bees perfectly go to the field. But the south-easterly wind (dry winds) blew and “burned” buckwheat flowers. In this case, the bribes immediately cease. The bees have to go home with nothing. If they have to fly through someone else’s apiary, the latter can suffer greatly, especially if the flying bees are from a large apiary. First, bees attacked the weaker, not well-off families that were not well-off and not in order, and robbed them, and then attacked the strong ones.
During the trips to the apiaries we had to observe such a picture. A whole cloud of bees curls around the hives. You see, some beehive is already covered with them. Another minute – and the hive is no longer visible. Some live mass is boiling, making noise, bubbling and worrying. Bees that have been attacked are sometimes desperately defended. They boldly use the sting. Thousands of corpses cover the ground near the hive, but all is in vain. Thousands of new bees are climbing into the place of the slain. They quickly break into the hive, kill the uterus and attack the honey. Sometimes in an hour or two the whole apiary turns out to be “demolished”, and in the hives and near them there are piles of dead bees.
In order to avoid such phenomena, the apiaries, taken out under the bribe, must be placed so that none of them becomes a different one on the flight.
In addition, when choosing an apiary point, one must adhere to such basic rules.
1. The Pasey point should be located closest to the main massifs of cultural honey-plants, which are used for nomadic migration, and, if possible, even among flowering crops. Practice shows, for example, that apiaries standing in large massifs of flowering red clover often produce a significant amount of marketable honey, whereas in cases of remoteness of the apiary from such massifs, bees are pollinated and use this honey is extremely reluctant.
2. When choosing an apiary point, it is necessary to give preference to a place from which other beet moths could use bees, besides basic ones. This is especially important with the migration to buckwheat, as it only secrete nectar in the morning, and if there are no other meados that can be used in the afternoon, the bees are largely inactive.
3. When choosing a place, it is necessary to take into account the flowering time of the surrounding mead and give preference to such places from which the bees could use several later medonoses without excessive transport (for example, buckwheat of another, later sowing period) if the area of these meadows is nearby not more than 1 – l, 5 km from this point).
4. It is advisable to place the apiary for the time of the main bribe somewhere in the bushes or between the trees if they are near the main array of flowering honey-plants. This would largely protect the bees from heat, as well as from other adversities (storms, etc.). In addition, such a locality would serve as a good natural guide for bees when they memorized the locations of hives.
Well, if there is water near. But if it is not, then it is usually much more profitable to organize a cartload of it in the right amount than to leave a large array of honey-plants with dusty and unused bees.
5. When choosing an apiary point, it is necessary to take into account the overall saturation of the bees of a given locality. In this case it is necessary to take into account not only bees of their apiary and neighboring large apiaries, but also small homestead apiaries, which sometimes are many. It is necessary to try to put an apiary on that edge of the area of the honey-plants, where the bees of other apiaries can be the least.
In most cases, it is unprofitable to have a greater saturation of honey bees with this beet than is required for its pollination, otherwise the honey will be low.
At one puffer point during the main bribe there should not be many bee colonies. In the conditions of Ukraine on the bush point it is better to have no more than 60-70 bee colonies.
Advanced beekeepers, such as P. A. Tishchenko and others, quite correctly do, breaking an apiary in 60-65 bee colonies for the time of the main bribe by 2 points, for 30-35 bee colonies. In this way they achieve better use of bees for pollination of crops and much better honey collection.
Before moving the bees to the selected point, it is necessary to accurately mark the places where the hives are parked. Hives should never be placed very crowded. The distance between the hives should be no less than 4-6 meters. It is good to apply the arrangement of hives in groups of 2-3 hive, this facilitates the bees’ orientation, and the beekeeper is easier to work with such arrangement.
Considering that the nomadic period occurs during the period when there is the greatest heat, the hives should be set mainly with flaps to the north. This is doubly advantageous: bees in the daytime suffer less from heat and earlier fly out for a bribe, and also finish the years, because in such a location hives in the summer rising in the northeast and setting in the northwest sun will illuminate the hives’ bees used to start and finish flights later. As a result, the effectiveness of their activities is significantly increased.
With the location of the point in the open place, one must thoroughly take care of the advance harvesting and placement of landmarks in the apiary (stuck trees in the ground, etc.). Arrangement of landmarks should be completed before bringing bees, and in any case – before the opening of the tapes of the brought hives with bees. It is clear that they should be explored in advance and, if necessary, the ways of access to the point are improved.
Of great importance is the choice of time for moving to this array. Often beekeepers lose a lot on this, being late with a nomad.
Exporting bees to a nomadic point is necessary before the flowering of the main array of honey-plants, so that after the flight of the bees, the first, subsequently increasing, bribe begins. This follows from two reasons. Firstly, the first flowers of plants give off much more abundant nectar than the subsequent ones, and secondly, in the first days of flowering, the role of honey bees as pollinators is particularly great, since wild insect pollinators at the onset of flowering of large massifs of honey canes are relatively few. In any case, it is better to go with bees to the array of honey trees one or two days earlier than at the same time to be late.
When transporting, follow these rules.
1. In spring and summer, families that repeatedly flew around, or bees from which flew from this place to bribes, should be transported at a distance no closer than 4 km. When transported to a closer distance, almost all flight bees will return to the old place and, if they do not find their beehive, part of them will be scattered along neighboring beehives if they are left, will partly perish.
When forced to move to a closer distance part of the hives with bees should be left in place.
Only immediately after the first spring flight, while the bees did not fly far and did not get acquainted with the terrain, it is possible to allow a closer transportation, but no closer than 1 km.
In autumn, with the termination of the flight of bees, it is possible to carry out transportations at any distance, but such transportation should be avoided, since it disturbs the bees and if they do not then fall, they will not be able to winter well.
Especially avoid the transport of bees in winter. The fact is that the transportation is very disturbing for bees and excites them to cleanse the intestines. They can not fly around at this time, and therefore the matter may end in diarrhea with all its harmful consequences.
If during transportation the light penetrates into the hive and there is not enough air in the hive, the bees are very worried why in a beehive with a strong family it becomes so hot and stuffy that sometimes honeycombs break off, and bees are “steamed” or are crushed by broken cells. Transportation at night is more successful.
2. It must be borne in mind that the old honeycombs, as well as the honeyless ones, are easier to carry than the young ones, filled with honey. However, taking out all the young honeycombs and beehives before transportation is not always possible. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to the correctness of packaging and the provision of beehives with bees by ventilation.
3. Particular attention should be paid to the health of the hives and the packaging of bees. Repair the hives should be in advance. All frames and plug-in boards prepared for transportation of hives must be fixed motionless
It is necessary to properly strengthen the framework so that they can not move from their places and do not suppress bees.
If there are no dividers on the frame, two square squares should be inserted between the frames, about 10-12 cm long and 12 mm thick. A strip of strong tin with T-shaped protrusions is attached to one end of the 6py piece, or carnations are driven in. Brusochki will hang on their shoulders, not falling down. The last frame, or plaque, if the hive is not completely filled with frames, must be fixed with nails. From the top across the frames nailed fixing their planka. Vse parts of the hive, such as: the floor, the body, the roof, must be firmly fastened so that in the way they could not move. To do this, often resorted to either screws and nails, or to loops, staples, etc.
In the Kuban, fastening of hives by a so-called yoke is common. This clamp very quickly and firmly holds all parts of the hive.
4. During transport, the fans in the roofs of the hives must be open to the full width, but are screened with grids. The flaps are closed tightly or covered with special devices, for example, Shishikin’s liner, Popov’s lattice. Some beekeepers use overframe grids when transporting bees; At the same time, a canvas is removed and a frame, tightened by a grid, is superimposed on top. At night, the hives are transported without roofs.
5.If the lids are not removed and do not have cracks, in beehives with strong families, the canvas or the wooden planking must be removed at least partially: the bees will go under the roof and the transportation will pass very well. In cold weather, the canvas is not removed. Spacious bee-hives with wooden ceiling boards are often transported without any ventilation, especially if the family does not occupy the entire volume of the hull; in this case, transportation is better if the bees are given the opportunity to go into the free space behind the pluggable board.
At present, most apiaries are carried on motor vehicles when carrying out travel. This is the best mode of transport for bees. Hives on the machines are loaded in 2-3 tiers of them tightly tied with ropes.
When transporting on the carts, the preparation of the hives for roaming should be particularly thorough so that in the way the bees can not get out anywhere through the crack and attack the horses or oxen. When transporting live tax, it is necessary that in the way all the time at the ready there were grids, a kindled smoke and mixed clay to cover the gaps found in the path.
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