Practical Tips for Choosing Bee Species in Beekeeping
The honeybee is a kind of insect. Some people feel terrified at the mere thought of bees, because we often hear about cases of bees stinging people. In fact, honeybees do not sting people at random. Just look at those who keep bees: they live together with tens of thousands of bees every day, and yet can still produce very good honey.
Conditions for Choosing Bee Species for Beekeeping
The bee species to be kept must adapt to the local climate and nectar-source conditions. You also need to consider whether beekeeping is a side business or a professional operation, whether the hives are kept in a fixed location or moved, and your level of management skill. Northern Northeast China, eastern Inner Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and high-cold regions are suitable for keeping black bee varieties; in the subtropical regions of the Southwest and South China, Western honeybees have difficulty overwintering and are not suitable for fixed-location keeping. Subtropical regions and vast mountainous areas are suitable for keeping Chinese bees (Apis cerana). In other plains and low mountain areas rich in nectar sources, keeping Italian bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) can give full play to their excellent production performance.
When starting out in beekeeping, it is more suitable to buy 5-10 colonies. If there are too few colonies, it is hard to multiply and replenish them after losses; if you keep too many colonies without sufficient technical experience, it is easy to suffer huge losses; as your skills improve, you can gradually expand the number you keep. It is best to buy bee species from a breeding apiary or bee research institute in your own province. In late spring and early summer, when colonies are in their development period and nectar sources are available outside, it is a suitable time to buy bee species. In subtropical regions, it is best to buy in November-December.
What to Check When Buying Bee Species1. The queen bee should be within 1 year of age, large in body, broad in thorax, full and round in abdomen, and quick and steady in movement;
2. Worker bees should be robust, healthy and free of disease;
3. The brood combs should have a large area, and the sealed brood should be neat, in solid patches and disease-free;
4. The combs should be flat and even, with few drone cells, and not blackened;
5. The hive box should be sturdy and tight, and the frame dimensions should be standard and uniform.
Tips for Buying Bee Species for Beekeeping1. For an original colony: 8-10 frames of bees (each frame with more than 70% bee coverage, same below), 6-8 frames of brood (each frame with more than 60% brood, same below), and 10 combs. 2. For a split colony: 4-5 frames of bees, 3-4 frames of brood, and 5 combs. 3. For Chinese bees: 3-5 frames of bees, 2-3 frames of brood, and 5 combs.
How to Make Bees Split Quickly
1. Splitting within the same colony and same hive: one week in advance, open an additional entrance, and according to the colony's condition, adjust the brood combs and honey-pollen combs on both sides to be even. Use a divider board to split the hive into two from the middle, and the next day introduce 1 laying queen or a virgin queen cell into the queenless side.
2. Splitting between a super box and a bottom box: set up the bottom box, and place the super box on top of the flat box. Then take out 2-3 combs with bees and brood from the colony and put them into the prepared bottom box or super box, and the next day introduce 1 laying queen or a virgin queen cell.
3. Splitting when relocating an apiary: before relocating the apiary, prepare the laying queen in advance. After relocating and settling in, before the bees have done their orientation flights, move combs with bees into prepared empty hive boxes, at least 2-3 combs, and the next day introduce 1 laying queen or a virgin queen cell.
4. Splitting during the queen-replacement season: 2-3 days before the queen cell emerges, take out 2-3 combs with the original queen, bees and brood to serve as a reproduction colony and continue reproducing; introduce 1 virgin queen into the original colony to let her mate; the split colony can be used as a reproduction colony and can either be moved away from the original apiary or placed at the original apiary.
As demand in today's honey market is very large, and many people know that it is hard to buy truly pure honey on the market, since much of the honey has many things added by merchants in order to make profits and thereby raise the price of the honey. So genuine native honey is very popular with the public on today's market.