Nomadic apiary: description, features, choice of location, transport

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

Probably every person interested in beekeeping has heard of a nomadic apiary. The pros and cons of such a decision have been fiercely debated for years. We will give a detailed description listing the advantages and disadvantages so that every novice beekeeper can decide whether this option suits him or whether it is better to give preference to classical, sedentary beekeeping.

What is this?

As the name implies, a nomadic apiary on wheels is a farm that does not just stand still, but moves from site to site throughout the warm season. In some cases, the hives are unloaded for several days or even weeks, while in others they do not make long stops, so all the hives remain in the transport. But the bees get freedom of action - they fly around the apiary, collecting honey from the nearest honey plants.

Why transport bees?

A beginner will probably have a quite predictable question: "Why is this even necessary?" And indeed, because the hives can perfectly stand still all the warm season, providing the owner with a large amount of honey.

The answer is quite simple: a nomadic apiary allows you to constantly be present as close as possible to honey plants. After all, it is impossible to find plants that would continuously bloom from May to September, generously endowing bees with pollen and nectar. Some trees, herbs and shrubs bloom in late spring, others in summer, others in early autumn. Bees have to spend a lot of time and effort to find the appropriate fields and extract honey.

Yes, these tiny workers are able to fly many kilometers, reaching the goal. But how long does it take to travel? And how much nectar does she have to eat to compensate for energy costs? A nomadic apiary can significantly reduce the time and cost of nectar. The hives immersed in transport are transported directly to the place richest in honey plants at a particular time of the year. For example, in spring, willow, willow, and vine are the first to bloom - rich honey plants. Then they are replaced by flowering gardens - cherry, apple, bird cherry, plum give quite a lot of nectar. And a huge number of flowers allows the bees to work from morning to evening, collecting valuable raw materials. When they fade, it's time for acacia and meadow grasses and flowers.

Knowing the geography of the area and the seasonality of the blooming of honey plants, an experienced beekeeper will make sure that his nomadic apiary with sunbed hives is always in the most suitable place.

Key Benefits of Nomadic Beekeeping

Why are beekeepers willing to spend a lot of effort, time and money, giving preference to nomadic beekeeping? There are several reasons for this.

To get started -the bee season is extended. After all, it is possible to transport an apiary tens and even hundreds of kilometers from the usual habitat, significantly shifting to the north and south and keeping up with harvesting the maximum harvest.

From here follows the second plus - a significant increase in the volume of collected honey. As studies show, in some cases, honey collection increases up to 30%! An excellent indicator for which experienced beekeepers will spare no effort or time.

There is the possibility of making mutually beneficial deals with large agricultural enterprises. After all, any farmer wants to get the richest harvest from his plot. The presence of a mobile apiary in the immediate vicinity increases the intensity of pollination, which allows to increase the yield. This is especially true for gardens.

Flaws

However, giving a description of the nomadic apiary and listing its advantages, the existing disadvantages should also be noted, so that it is clear why all beekeepers have not abandoned settled beekeeping.

The main disadvantage is the serious financial costs. To organize the transportation of bees, you need to have the appropriate transport, which is very expensive. Of course, over time, additional honey will compensate for these costs, but it will take a long time.

In addition, a settled apiary is mainly a passive way of earning. That is, the owner has an excellent opportunity to work at the main place, taking care of bees in his spare time, performing large amounts of work onweekend. If you are going to focus on nomadic beekeeping, you will have to leave the main place of employment or hire assistants who will do most of the work themselves, which will result in serious additional costs. After all, you need to follow the bees in an unfamiliar place, you often have to leave hundreds of kilometers from home.

You need to foresee the possibility of any trouble in order to be prepared for them. For example, if one of the hives was damaged for some reason, all the tools for repair should be at hand. It's rare for a newbie to get everything they need without turning the car into a warehouse with no room for bees.

Finally, the constant change of terrain has a negative effect on the bees themselves. Constant transportation leads to the fact that they are disoriented, because of which the number of dying bees increases significantly. As a result, strong families are drastically weakening, and weak ones can die.

How to choose a place to stop

It would seem that the answer to this question is quite obvious. You need to choose a place where there is or will soon appear a large number of flowering honey plants. After all, it is precisely for the sake of this that the organization of a nomadic apiary is being started.

However, there are certain pitfalls that you should definitely be aware of. Moreover, they are regulated not only by the benefit for the beekeeper, but also by the safety for the bees, others and consumers of honey.

For example, you can not stand at a distance of less than 3 kilometers from anothera stationary apiary or 1.5 kilometers from a nomadic one. Everything is clear here: the bees will simply interfere with each other, conflicts will arise, because of which none of the beekeepers will get the desired result.

The next requirement is that the parking lot should be located no closer than 100 meters from children's, educational and medical institutions, railways and highways. Otherwise, the bees may pose a certain danger to others.

Finally, the distance from the apiary to the chemical or confectionery production should be more than 500 meters. Otherwise, emissions from chemical production will affect flowers and nectar - accordingly, the bees will be poisoned, collect honey that is dangerous for the he alth of the consumer. Well, bees will simply fly to confectionery sweets, preventing local employees from working fully.

Of course, the chosen location should not be treated with chemical poisons or fertilizers that could be dangerous to bees.

Organize the optimal placement

So, you arrived at the place with your mobile apiary. The site is rich in honey plants - varied or identical. How to proceed?

First of all, you should make a marking of the territory - at least mentally. It is advisable to install the hives as close as possible to the bribe, which is quite logical - the less time the bees spend on the way, the more honey they can collect. They should be located at the same distance from the bribe, preferably parallel to it. Experiencedbeekeepers specially paint the hives in different colors so that it is easier for the bees to navigate, so that they do not get confused, do not climb into other people's hives.

There must be a source of water near the stopping place - a pond, a river, a stream. Otherwise, you will have to organize it yourself - bees cannot do without water for a long time.

Transport regulations

It's worth saying right away that bees should be transported only at night, after sunset, when the whole family has gathered in the hive. After that, the notch is closed, and the hive is transported. Too large crossings are undesirable - experts advise limiting night transportation to 30 kilometers. With proper planning of the route, this is quite enough. But at the same time, you can not make the first stop less than a kilometer from the usual habitat. In this case, there is a high risk that the bees, having found the old place, will simply return there, leaving the hives empty.

Before transportation, it is very important to securely fix the hives with a cord or wire. They should not sway, as this can become a source of stress for the bees - they will become more aggressive, and their performance will be drastically reduced.

For transportation, it is desirable to use hives of a special shape - with a flat roof. This allows you to make bee houses in two tiers, significantly saving space. Of course, in this case, special attention should be paid to reliable fixation - an overturned hive with a flying cover will cause many serious problems for beekeepers.

Which breed of bees to prefer

Nowwe come to another important question: "What breed of bees is best suited for a nomadic apiary?". Here, all experts agree that the Carpathian bee will be the best choice. It has several important benefits.

One of them is the presence of a long proboscis - up to 7 millimeters. This allows the bees to collect honey from almost any honey plants, including those that are inaccessible to other breeds. According to this indicator, they are second only to Caucasian bees.

However, unlike the latter, the Carpathians can boast of a peaceful character - they rarely attack beekeepers. Therefore, even during the honey collection, experts often do without a smoker. In addition, Carpathian bees easily tolerate transportation and moderate shaking.

Suitable vehicle for transportation

The next important question is: "Which car is ideal for a nomadic apiary?". There are quite a few options here, but they are all quite expensive. Therefore, manual work is indispensable.

Have you just started to master beekeeping from a small nomadic apiary? An option that at this stage satisfies all the requirements may be a conventional trailer. For a larger apiary, any truck is suitable, the body of which has been modernized to transport bees and convenient honey collection. In some cases, the bodies of old buses are used. Additional holes are cut in the sides, guides are arranged to make it easy to fix the hives. Of course, everything superfluous is removed. Let such a transport for a nomadic apiary look not too elegant, but itconvenient, practical and, most importantly, relatively inexpensive.

Conclusion

Our article is coming to an end. Now you know enough about nomadic beekeeping, its pros and cons. And you can also organize a move, choose a suitable place and get the most honey from your workers. Good luck!