Only strong groups can produce high yields, but strong groups are not "permanent cards". If you are not careful, strong groups will become weaker. Not only will they not be able to obtain honey, but they may even lose their old capital and escape from their spleen. We have raised Chinese bees for many years. Based on our experience and lessons, we have summarized a few points for reference for beginners to raise Chinese bees.
1 Excessive honey
Honey flow period boldly obtain honey, which is the main means for breeders to obtain high yields. However, "bold" must grasp a "degree", which is to judge the degree of honey extraction based on the flowering period of the honey source plant at that time (early, peak, and late) as well as the weather at that time and the distance of the next honey flow period, that is, whether it is taken or extracted. For example, if a large plant has just bloomed and the weather forecast is sunny in recent days, then take it all, or if there is a king's spleen, you will not take it; if the flowers are finished, take the weather and draw it, and take 2 to 3 spleens in each group. We must have the emotion of "love bees like children", keep enough feed, ensure that bees are not hungry, and must not treat bees as financial slaves, regardless of their life or death to plunder their "life-saving food". We are located in the urban area, and honey sources are scarce. Be careful when picking honey in June. Some years do not take it at all, because the next three months of summer is the high temperature and many enemies. If there is a shortage of feed, you must collapse.
2 Inspect and detachment
Maintain a strong swarm, one of the measures is to not divide bees or control the detachment. The main method of not distinguishing bees is to remove the drone and remove Wangtai . Picking the King's Platform seems simple, but it is not easy to do, because after picking it many times, worker bees will "hide and seek" and build the king's Platform at the corner. In addition, in the spring, the worker bees and drones on the spleen are piled up in two or three layers, so it is very difficult to find the King's Platform. If you keep dozens or hundreds of bees, you will not have so much time or energy to find the queen bees. Once the king (or Taiji) is left behind and there is a strong "bee-dividing fever", the queen bee will lay eggs in the Taiwan, and once the bee-dividing worker bee loses a small part of it, the group situation will suddenly decline. If you encounter a honey-flowing period or are close to a honey-flowing period, you will undoubtedly reduce your production.
3 No king slacking
Take honey or check, sometimes you will lose the king. There are probably the following situations for losing the king, one is that the bee shakes and hurts the king. There are many strong groups of bees, and it is difficult to find the king with honey, so I picked up the honey and shook the bees. Little did they know that if you shake hard, the queen bee would be thrown heavily on the bottom of the box, which might be injured or killed. The second is to fall to the ground carelessly. The spleen is shaken, and the bees are frightened and run around. If the queen bee is cut with wings, it may fall to the ground. The author once put on reading glasses to look for the king. He saw clearly on his spleen but couldn't see clearly on the ground. When the scene ended, he found a small bee ball on the ground. The queen bee was on the ground and had been trampled to death by accident. The third is that he died in shock. The queen bee is frightened and sometimes flies out of the box. As long as the status quo is maintained, the queen bee will fly back into the box in a few minutes. However, it is often difficult to be discovered. Once the box cover is covered, it is difficult for the queen bee to return to the box through the nest door. A bee friend told the author that after checking the bee once, he found a queen bee on the screen behind the box. He immediately grabbed the queen bee in the palm of his hand, then unboxed it, and after about 1 min, he put the queen bee back into the box. However, the next time he checked, he found that the king had been missing for a long time. It turned out that he had a odor in his hands. After a long time, the queen bee also had a odor in his body. When he returned to the box, he was deemed an enemy by the worker bee and was executed. If the bee swarm has no king, it will be in chaos and the collection power will drop rapidly.
4 Changing the king and discontinuing production
The king must be changed every year for raising Chinese bees, but changing the king will suffer losses. Because it takes more than 40 days for a new king to leave the house and lay eggs to the first batch of new workers' bees to become feathered. If the first virgin fails to mating and cultivate another queen bees, it will inevitably take more than 20 days for another queen. There is such a long period of mortality, and the mortality rate of workers' bees during the honey period is high, the group situation will decline by "collapse mode". In order to shorten this "fault period", we often take some remedial measures to try to make the queen bee "stand the last shift". The best way is to organize several small mating groups, such as cutting off the mature king platform, inserting its head into the king cage, and hanging it between the two spleens of the mother (Guanwang) group (may be more or less). After the virgin leaves the room, cut the boy's spleen and add a small number of worker bees to organize several small mating groups. After the new king's mating successfully lays eggs, he will intervene in the bee swarm that needs to change the king.
5 Feeding and discontinued production
The most troublesome thing about raising Chinese bees is the sharp decline in honey source plants. The urban area where I live is in the late 20th century, and there are still several big honey sources every year, but now they are gone. All of them are only citrus in April, and 2 small honey sources: privet in June and salt-skin wood in September. Under such conditions where the honey source is extremely scarce, if you do not pay attention to re-feeding, the queen bee will stop production, the crowd will soon become weaker, and even the whole group will escape.
6 Lost control and recruit enemies
The natural enemies of Chinese bees are mainly nest . The author has carefully observed that the wax moth lays eggs. It has an egg-laying tube that extends from its tail, which is very flexible and can be extended into the gap of the box. Even if it does not enter the box, it can "send" waxworm into the box. Beginners are prone to ignore this, and it is out of control after one or two or three generations of reproduction.
There are many introductions in books and magazines to deal with nest insects. We have tried them all, but they are effective but not ideal. We believe that the key lies in prevention, such as culprit, strengthening beehives, changing boxes frequently, etc. If the nest insect has spleen and a large number of white-headed pupae appear, the best way is to put it in the freezer in batches for freezing. The so-called "batch" refers to the frozen nest spleen when it is put into a beehive and then replaced with another batch. The spleen should be removed completely and completely eliminate the reproduction of pests.
Of course, many examples can be given to the strong Chinese bee colony become weaker, but in the final analysis it is poor management. Management is a science, and to master this science, we mainly understand it in 2 words: ability and diligence. "Enjoy" means learning the relevant knowledge of raising Chinese bees and having the ability to manage; "diligence" means having the emotion of "loving bees like children", always take care of it, and ensure that it has sufficient feed. As the saying goes, "A rich man in the Feng family will prosper." Remember: Management is productivity.
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