How to get started in beekeeping

It is advisable to buy two small balls at the same time. As far as climate is concerned, it is best to choose spring and autumn, and the temperature is between 20-30℃. At this time, the external climate is mild, bees are active, and rich nectar plants bloom. Buying bees at this time will breed faster. Beginners of beekeeping began to study and practice, so that their knowledge was gradually consolidated in practice, and bees gradually increased in reproduction, laying a solid foundation for expanding beekeeping in the future.

Second, how to buy a good bee colony?

When buying a bee colony, you should first observe the outside of the hive. For example, worker bees are diligent, and the proportion of worker bees with pollen returning to their nests is large, which is generally good; When unpacking, if the bees are quiet and don't jump on people, it means that the bees are docile and easy to manage; Worker bees are bright in color and neatly covered with spleen, which shows that the bee colony is healthy; The queen bee is strong, steady in action, neat in laying eggs, quick in action, full of fluff and bright in color, which shows that the queen bee is young and healthy. In addition, we should also observe the proportion of old bees and young bees, sugar spleen and spleen, and bright body color. A good bee colony is one with a large proportion of young bees and young bees. In addition, beginners should buy some empty nests and spleens when buying bees.

Third, how to choose the ideal beekeeping place?

The selection of beekeeping sites, such as fixed feeding, transfer feeding, group breeding and wintering, is the key to the success or failure of beekeeping production. The ideal beekeeping farm should have the following basic conditions: rich honey powder source, good water source, convenient transportation, high and dry terrain, open terrain, no other bee farms within 2-3 kilometers of Fiona Fang, and no pesticide pollution. If you keep it in a fixed place, you must choose a sunny place, with an open south slope in front, mountains blocking the northwest wind in the north, and southerly winds blowing in summer, which is a place that is warm in winter and cool in summer. At the same time, it should be considered that there should be at least one main honey source and a variety of auxiliary honey sources, and the flowering period should be staggered throughout the year to ensure the reproduction of bee colonies and obtain a large number of bee products. However, if the bee farm is highly concentrated and the density of bee colonies is too high, even if the honey source conditions are no matter how good, there will inevitably be a situation of "more than enough porridge". Therefore, beekeepers must consider these factors. In addition, the environment of the bee farm must be quiet and clean, and it is not suitable to set the bee farm near the railway, pasture and places where bees are harmful, especially near pesticide warehouses and bee product processing factories (because a large amount of honey fragrance will float out when processing honey, attracting bees, and it is easy to get in but difficult to get out, resulting in a large number of bee deaths). Beekeeping in mountainous areas should also pay attention to flood control and fire prevention.

Fourth, how to check the bee colony?

With the change of seasons and the alternation of external honey sources, different changes will take place inside the bee colony. Before the upsurge of bee distribution in spring, the beginning and end of the main honey collecting period, as well as the preparation of bee colonies before wintering, we should carefully check the bee colonies in order to better grasp the situation of bee colonies and take corresponding management measures. According to different situations, inspection can be divided into three methods: comprehensive inspection, local inspection and unpacking observation.

1, comprehensive examination: the examination of the spleen of each hive is called comprehensive examination. Comprehensive inspection should be carried out when the temperature is higher than 65438 04℃. Tools should be prepared before inspection, and inspectors must only stand on the side of the hive with their backs to the sun. Careful operation, steady, accurate and light. When the hive is full of spleen, the second spleen should be taken first, temporarily placed next to the hive, or placed in a spare box. If the box is not full of spleen, push the side spleen into the box. When examining the spleen of each fossa, hold the ears of the spleen frame with both hands and lift the spleen vertically. Observe the spleen side of the fossa first, and keep a distance of about one foot from the eyes when observing. After looking at one side, erect the upper beam, turn it outwards for half a turn with the beam as the axis, and then look at the other side with both hands flat. Observe insects, eggs, bees, pollen and queen bees. The bee season depends on whether there is a natural platform. Be careful not to squeeze bees when returning to the nest and spleen, and make the bee path wider and narrower.

2, local inspection: only need to know something about bees, or in the case of low external temperature, no honey source, not suitable for comprehensive inspection, only check a few nests and spleens, called local inspection. If honey is found in the corner of the nest and spleen during inspection, it means that there is no shortage of feed; There is a new nest in the middle of the nest spleen, indicating that there is a queen bee; New wax appears on the nest spleen, indicating that the bee colony has the ability to build the nest spleen.

3. observation outside the box: observation outside the box can judge the situation of bees by patrolling the hive and observing the activities of bees at the door of the nest. If bees are busy going in and out, collecting a large amount, or even returning to their nests and landing on the pedals with a click, it means that they have entered a period of great honey flow; Worker bees crawl back and forth at the door of the nest, looking anxious, and may lose the performance of the king; If young bees with broken wings are found in the nest from time to time, it is a symbol of being hurt by bee enemies; Spiders and powdery feces are often found inside and outside the box, which is a symbol of the harm of nesting insects; No matter what the climate is, bees fly out of the nest at any time, and a dead bee is found one or two meters in front of the nest. It feels very light to lift the hive, which may be due to the lack of honey in the nest. It is necessary to observe outside the box in early spring or winter to know the situation of bee colony in time.

5. What are the main uses of beekeeping?

Beekeeping equipment includes: beehive, nest frame, honey shaker, nest base, bee broom, honey cutter, scraper, insect-transmitting needle, bee hat, cigarette watering can, etc.

Six, the use of the main equipment of beekeeping

Honeycomb: Honeycomb is the nest of bees, which can prevent the invasion of external natural enemies of bees and protect bees from wind, rain and high temperature;

Nest frame: it is the outer frame that fixes the nest base;

Nest base: a mold used to induce bees to build nests;

Nest room: it is the place where the queen bee lays eggs and makes honey;

Honey cutter: when taking honey, if the nest containing honey has been covered, you need to cut the cover of the nest with a honey cutter to shake off the honey.

Honey cutter: a tool for shaking honey in the nest room;

Bee broom: a tool to sweep bees away from the nest and spleen when taking honey;

Scraper: it is a common tool for checking and managing beehives. It can be used to pry the adhered nest frame, scrape propolis, remove excess spleen and wax chips, and lift nails and clips.

Bee hat: a hat worn to prevent bee sting when unpacking inspection, managing bees and taking honey;

Insect transfer needle: a tool for transferring queen platform larvae;

Smoke-spraying pot: a tool used to prevent bees from stinging and spraying smoke when encountering a bee explosion when unpacking inspection, taking honey and collecting wild bees.

7. What are the reasons for the failure of beekeeping?

For novices who lack beekeeping experience, the most likely cause of beekeeping failure is pests and diseases. For experienced beekeepers, miscalculation in choosing the place to put bees, bad weather and accidents are all the reasons for failure.

Eight, how to merge bees?

In some cases, there is often a phenomenon that the strength of the bee colony is very different or the queen bee is lost, so it is necessary to adopt a merger method to deal with it. However, the merger can only be established on the basis of weak or no queen colony and queen colony. If there are two groups of queen bees, we must first eliminate the inferior queen bees and then merge. The direct merging method can be used when bees are displayed in a fixed place during the honey flow period and before early spring, late autumn and winter. When merging, choose an evening time, put the bees without queen bee colony and spleen into the hive with queen bee colony, so that the two bee colonies are separated by one inch, then spray all the honey liquor solution once to make the two boxes smell the same, and then combine the nest and spleen together the next day. At this time, if there is no struggle, the merger will be successful.

In order to be safe and reliable, the indirect merging method is generally adopted, that is, the iron mesh plates are opened together before merging, and after a day and night, when the two groups of bees smell the same, the iron mesh plates are removed and merged, or newspapers can be used instead of iron mesh (punching holes in newspapers), so that bees can bite through the newspapers and naturally merge.

If the bee colony loses its king for a long time, it is better to fill in one or two frames to cover the spleen before merging.