A detailed explanation of new queen bee rearing techniques: master the scientific method of raising queens

The queen bee, also called the "mother bee" or "queen", is a female bee with fully developed reproductive organs, developed from a fertilized egg. Usually there is only 1 in each colony. Its body is 1/3 longer than that of a worker bee, its abdomen is longer, with a sting at the tip, no wax glands under the abdomen, and its wings cover only half of the abdomen. Its legs are not as sturdy as those of worker bees, and its hind legs have no pollen baskets; it has the effect of attracting bees. The queen bee's lifespan is 3~5 years. Because the reproductive rate gradually declines, it is often artificially culled in beekeeping.

Introduce high-yield breeds

To increase yield, the first thing is to improve the breed. Introduce high-yield queen breeds, buy high-yield mother bees, and make use of their high-yield, good-quality genes. Order mature queen cells from high-yield apiaries.

Purify and rejuvenate, and breed new queens

Conditions must be created for the queen-rearing colony: ① The queen-rearing colony must be strong; if it is not strong, reinforce it with emerging brood; ② Nutrition must not only be sufficient but also good; colonies lacking honey and with little pollen cannot rear excellent queens; ③ Wax must be completely removed. Colonies with concealed problems often produce new queens with poor nutrition, or even with broken wings and crippled legs; ④ Reward-feed every night to raise the colony's enthusiasm, prompting worker bees to secrete more royal jelly and giving the young better nutrition; ⑤ The number of queen cells for rearing queens must not be too many (should be about 30), because if there are too many queen cells, nutrition is dispersed and the quality of the new queens is poor; ⑥ Use double grafting. First graft larger larvae, and after 24 hours remove them and graft in young larvae; in this way there is more royal jelly stored in the cell and the quality of the new queen is better; ⑦ After the queen cells are sealed, inspect them carefully; queen cells that are sealed too early or too late, curved and crooked, or short and small should be removed, leaving only excellent queen cells.

For the new queens reared by the above method, after 1 and a half months of evaluation, select queens with high royal jelly output, good genetic performance, strong reproductive capacity, and good disease and stress resistance as mother stock, and then carry out crossbreeding to rear queens. In the process of rearing queens, great importance must also be attached to the rearing of drones.

Start spring reproduction early at the right time, so that reproduction does not fall behind the flowering period

Because rapeseed varieties have been renewed, especially because winter climate has warmed, rapeseed flowering has been promoted to start earlier, resulting in the situation that colony reproduction cannot keep up with the flowering period. Move spring reproduction earlier from around the Beginning of Spring to before the Great Cold, so that colony reproduction and the flowering period are synchronized. However, starting spring reproduction early will place spring reproduction in the coldest period of the year, so the colony must be strong, the feed must be excellent, management must be diligent, and warmth preservation must be good.

Improve the queen's egg-laying capacity

Change the tradition of rearing only spring queens to rearing new queens in all seasons of the year, and promptly cull old and inferior queens. Because new queens have strong vitality, a full body, high egg-laying enthusiasm, large egg circles, strong cold resistance, and stop laying later, autumn reproduction can produce more overwintering age-appropriate bees. According to experiments, with the same colony strength, new queens can produce 80%~120% more overwintering bees than old queens, laying the foundation for strong colony spring reproduction the following year.

Speaking of queen bees, I think everyone is still very familiar with them. In the process of beekeeping, the rearing of queen bees is very important, so breeders must master some beekeeping techniques, which are very important for breeding, so as to effectively increase honey yield.