Bringing queen bees: conditions, best ways and methods

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In beekeeping, breeding queens is one of the most needed skills. Therefore, its study should be taken seriously. There is even a whole industry called matkovodstvo. If you are going to make an apiary, you should definitely familiarize yourself with all the features and subtleties of beekeeping.

Requirements for bee colonies

You need to read them thoroughly. If you are interested in breeding bees, then you definitely need to study a certain scheme. The whole process begins with the selection of families. The characteristics of all offspring will depend on the quality of parents, queens and drones. Young individuals are responsible for the productivity of families. That is why they are given priority. You need to choose queens from the most he althy, strong and high-quality individuals. Only in this case there will be a result. Scientists who have been engaged in beekeeping for a long time say that it is possible to breed young queens on their own even in small apiaries.

Selection criteria

It is worth highlighting the main ones:

1. Honey productivity of the family comes first.
2. Cold tolerance.
3. Familymust be strong and enduring.
4. Good sound bee he alth and high disease resistance.

Data on each family in the apiary can be found in the register. Every responsible beekeeper should have such a document.

Where to start?

The bee colony should be prepared about a year before hatching. During this period, you can further increase the strength of the family before wintering. A number of preventive measures should also be taken: check the quality of the honey produced by the family, clean and disinfect the hive, give the bees stimulating top dressing and thereby protect against nosematosis, and also give food that does not crystallize.

It is worth saying that a person can get more than just honey from bees. Today, bee products such as wax, propolis, perga, royal jelly, and bee venom are widely used. In the spring, before breeding young queens, it is necessary to replace the finally overwintered old individuals with new bees. In this way, you will be able to carry out the hatching of young queens without orphaning the family.

Complete the replacement process with the onset of the last month of spring. If insects are additionally stimulated by special feeding, consisting of proteins and carbohydrates. You can also improve the living conditions of insects. It is also worth installing wind protection or insulating the hive. In addition, you need to put the bee house out of the wintering place early. When you have completely replaced old queens with young ones and have sealed brood, you need tostart families. In the future, it is they who will be engaged in the education of young larvae. According to experienced beekeepers, a new colony should include at least 2.5 kg of bees, 11 kg of honey and 4 frames of perga.

How to breed drones?

Bee breeding necessarily includes the process of breeding drones. This process is usually done by beekeepers in the very first days after moving the hives from the wintering place. Somewhere within a month, puberty occurs. For the withdrawal of drones, it is recommended to choose the best colonies from the entire apiary. The nest in such a family must be narrowed to a minimum size. Only those frames that are occupied by bee bread and honey are left in the hive. As a result, the queen will not be able to fully lay eggs. After that, drone honeycombs must be placed in the center. In apiaries where systematic breeding is carried out, special cages with insulators can be used. Usually they are placed on each frame. The drone combs should be placed in the isolator when it is in the center of the nest. About 4 days later, the queen will lay her eggs. The insulator then needs to be moved to the community nest and new combs put in. Every day, a family in which drones are hatched must be fed with sugar syrup and honey satiety. Periodically, it is necessary to strengthen the family with frames with brood.

Bringing queens: step by step instructions

In this process, you must adhere to certain recommendations. Before breeding queens from scratch, an inexperienced beekeeper should study the instructions. The whole process begins with the extraction of a block, which is separated from the main family by a Hahnemannian lattice. Then you need to move the frame with the queen there. There should be about four frames in this block, two with open brood and one pair of coverts. The queen should be left there for a while to rest. A week will be enough. After that, four more frames with the brood of other families are placed there. The resulting family, when the young bees are released from the brood, will make a large number of queen cells. This will happen in about 9 days.

After another five days, other families are also divided into two equal parts using a partition with a Hahnemannian lattice. This block should be used as layering for 9 days. During this time, open brood will be sealed. After that, an insulator is made for the first frame. For some time, a new sushi should be prepared from the foundation. You don't need to fill it with food, just hang it in this frame.

A week after the rest, the queen can be transplanted into this empty frame. Place a Hahnemannian lattice on the edge. After that, leave an empty frame with the queen in the maternal family. Many eggs will be laid on one side in the next couple of days. Four frames must be delivered from the mother hive to the spare. Then it will be possible to transplant the queen from the insulator into such a hive. Usually, brood with bees and half a liter of water are also added to the honeycombs for breeding queens. From the insulator, the cells are moved to a room with a high temperature. After that, it is cut into strips. Need to crush every twoeggs. Every third should be left. Thus, the mother liquor is thinned out.

Next, you need to take special grafting frames. Honeycombs, pre-cut into strips, are attached to their slats. These frames must be distributed in such a way that they alternate with the usual ones in the maternal family. To complete the growth of insects, it is necessary to place three frames from the queen cell in the previously separated hives. There are no eggs in them, since the queen was moved behind the partition. A grafting frame is placed in each half of the hives. After that, the family of bees will grow queen cells and bring them a sufficient amount of milk. One of the vaccination frames must be left in the maternal family. In the empty hives at the end you will have layering. They can be transferred to the open area 11 days after the queen has been placed in the isolation room. Honeycombs should be attached to each layer. Closed queen cells must be attached to empty hives. Maternal families should be placed on two layers. Queen cells should be kept as spare material.

Natural Ways

Breeding of queen bees can also be carried out naturally. This is the easiest way. It is necessary that the family of insects be in a swarm state. If you provide the family with comfortable conditions, this process can be significantly accelerated. It is necessary to place three frames with brood in the hive and cover the tray. Barren structures should not exist at all. It remains only to wait until the queen cells are laid. On the new framework it is necessaryform slips. The disadvantage of this method is that it is impossible to correctly predict the laying of queen cells. Nothing can be said about their quality.

Using fistulous insects

How else can queens be hatched? The methods may vary. The use of fistulous queen bees has become widespread. The main advantage of this method is that insects can be bred by a certain date. Currently, this method is very popular among beekeepers. For its implementation, insects are forced to postpone fistulous queen cells. To do this, you need to choose a fairly strong colony, find a queen in it and transfer it, along with frames with brood, to a new hive. Bees need to be shaken into it in several frames. As a result, you will receive a finished layering. It can be placed in a separate hive. Without a queen, bees will lay fistulous queen cells. However, you need to ensure that they are only on mature larvae. The quality of queens obtained in this way is better than in the first described method.

Artificial output

This is quite an interesting way. How is the artificial removal of queens done by hand? It is necessary to take the frame with eggs and young brood from the strongest family. From above, cut a hole with a diameter of 3 to 4 centimeters. All lower walls of the cut must be removed. It is enough to leave only two larvae. Then put the frame into place. After a few days, you can check the bookmark. To cutfistulous queen cells can be started when the bees lay the right amount. If you do not find them, then most likely something is wrong. The insemination of queen bees should go without any problems. This method allows you to get high-quality material.

There is another way, using which you can carry out the withdrawal of queens. They are used when it is necessary to simultaneously receive 5-10 insects. To do this, the queen should be placed in a two-frame insulator in a he althy bee colony. Here it is also necessary to put a frame with cells for laying and brood. Close the whole structure from above with frames. So the queens can't get out. The insulator should be placed back between the frames and the brood. The next step is to create a nucleus. It consists of three frames with honey and sushi. Individuals should be added there and the uterus should be placed from the isolator. Take the frame with the brood into the house. After that, after a few days, you will need to check the bookmark and remove all fistulous queen cells.

Other methods

We have described the simplest methods of transferring the queen bee. They are the most popular among beekeepers. The rest of the methods are usually based on those mentioned above. It is also possible to hatch queens without transferring larvae.

Conditions for development

If you want to get a good queen for insect breeding, then you need to purchase it only from well-established beekeepers. Before breeding, she must be allowed to rest for several days, isolating her from active bees. Rested uteruswill produce larger eggs. The temperature in the vaccination frames should be at least 32 degrees, and the humidity should be 75-90%. It is better to distribute queen cells evenly between different families. This will allow them to grow and provide royal jelly. It is recommended to organize the growing process in half of the hives, which will then be used as layers.

How to choose the time for hatching?

If you have preferred a certain method and created all the necessary conditions in which the queens are hatched, you will need a special calendar. Using it, you can determine when it is necessary to carry out a particular procedure. This will allow you to achieve maximum results.

Kashkovsky method

What is the point? The withdrawal of queens according to the Kashkovsky method allows you to achieve maximum results in a short time. In addition, it helps to solve the swarming problem by changing queens every year. In addition, the method provides for a sharp expansion of the hives. Families prone to swarming are culled. This method is especially widespread in Siberia.

Conclusion

In this review, we reviewed the main technologies for breeding bees. When creating favorable conditions for bees and observing all the requirements, you can achieve an excellent effect. Experts recommend paying special attention to the Kemerovo technology, also known as the withdrawal of queens using the Kashkovsky method. It involves the complete replacement of all queens. The effectiveness of this technology has been confirmednumerous scientific studies.