Analysis of Native Honey Prices Before the 2020 Chinese New Year, Beekeeping Techniques and Cost
Among the many tonic foods, honey should count as a relatively common agricultural product with few dietary restrictions, and native honey is especially popular. So do you know how much a jin of native honey cost before the 2020 Chinese New Year? What are the techniques for keeping bees? And how much does it cost?
I. How much a jin of native honey cost before the 2020 Chinese New Year
The price of native honey in Luoding, Yunfu, Guangdong is 84 yuan/jin, in Longmen County, Huizhou it is 50 yuan/jin, and in Huazhou, Maoming it is 88 yuan/jin.
The price of native honey in Yuanjiang Hani, Yi and Dai Autonomous County, Yuxi, Yunnan is 80 yuan/jin, in Jingdong Yi Autonomous County, Pu'er it is 89.9 yuan/jin, and in Jianshui County, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture it is 150 yuan/jin.
The price of native honey in Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Huaihua, Hunan is 150 yuan/jin, in Liling, Zhuzhou it is 80 yuan/jin, and in Yizhang County, Chenzhou it is 88.5 yuan/jin.
The price of native honey in Gangnan District, Guigang, Guangxi is 71.5 yuan/jin.
The price of native honey in Ma'erkang, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province is 85 yuan/jin.
The price of native honey in Yanshi, Luoyang, Henan is 125 yuan/jin.
The price of native honey in Xifeng County, Guiyang, Guizhou is 83 yuan/jin.
II. What are the key technical points of beekeeping
1. Selecting breeds
At present, the bees kept in China are mainly divided into two categories, of which nine tenths are European imported bees, including Italian bees and Northeast black bees, and one tenth are Chinese bees. Italian bees are distributed in North China and Northeast China, have strong physiques, and are suitable for breeding; Northeast black bees are cold-resistant and are mostly distributed in Northeast China. Chinese bees are distributed in Northeast, Northwest, North China, and Southwest China, and their honey production is less than that of Italian bees.
2. Buying bee colonies
The best time to buy is in early spring, and when buying, pay attention to choosing a queen bee under two years of age. A strong queen has a large abdomen, a slightly pointed tail, and all four wings and six legs complete; healthy worker bees are large in size, bright in color, gentle in temperament, and do not fly around randomly. You can also buy in summer and autumn, but you must choose a colony with a new queen from that year and ensure that there is a honey source that year for the bees to overwinter.
3. Choosing a honey source
A honey source means flowering plants, such as rapeseed, sweet clover, alfalfa, jujube trees, pagoda trees, and chaste trees. One colony of bees needs 2-4 mu of honey source as a guarantee. The site selection requires a quiet environment, abundant water, and avoidance of places such as schools, enterprises, and construction sites.
4. Preparing beehives
A beehive is the habitat of bees, and its internal structure includes the outer cover, straw curtain, cover cloth, inner cover, comb frames, and partition board. The beehive can be made of sturdy wood that is not easily deformed, such as red and white pine, Chinese fir, and Cathay poplar. The comb is the bees' workplace; one beehive has 3-5 combs, and each comb contains about 1-2 jin of beeswax. The partition board is a grating board that controls the queen's egg-laying and activities, separating the brood-rearing area from the honey-producing area, ensuring that larvae, pupae, and pollen do not mix with honey, while worker bees can pass through freely.
Beehives need to be checked regularly: first, to see whether the queen is still there; second, to see how much honey is stored; third, to see the queen's egg-laying situation; and fourth, to see whether the number of bees is large enough and whether there are enough combs. Opening the hive for inspection is generally done once every 15-20 days.
5. Feeding time
When the beeswax on the comb is less than 1 jin, high-concentration syrup should be added to prevent the bees from starving. Feed in the evening, not during the day, and the feeding amount should be based on finishing it that night.
6. High-yield techniques
Before spring reproduction, supplement the bees with pollen. After worker bees eat fresh pollen, they become excited, actively secrete royal jelly to feed the queen, and prompt the queen to lay eggs.
Supplement protein feed in a timely manner, such as eggs, to strengthen the bees' physique. 3. During the main honey flow period, build more new combs to prompt the queen to lay a large number of eggs, which can increase the enthusiasm of worker bees for collecting honey.
III. Cost analysis of beekeeping
Different bee placement modes, breeding scales, and bee species all affect the benefits of beekeeping. The average cost of raising each colony of bees is about 500-600 yuan, and the average income is 800 yuan.
Among different bee placement modes, fixed-location breeding has the lowest cost. Under the “large cross-provincial migration” mode, beekeepers chase the flowering period and obtain the most bee products, with the greatest income, about 900 yuan per colony. For different breeding scales, large-scale breeding of more than 150 colonies has the highest cost-profit ratio, with a net profit of about 300 yuan per colony. This shows that beekeeping has a phenomenon of economies of scale. The influence of bee species on the cost-benefit ratio is not very different. The breeding cost of Italian bees is twice that of Chinese bees, but the income is also twice as much.
With the development of the beekeeping industry, many stories of becoming rich through beekeeping have emerged. Many people are eager to try, but due to a lack of understanding they still hold a wait-and-see attitude. The editor especially suggests that farmer friends had better first conduct market research so that they can analyze specific situations specifically and avoid losing money due to blind beekeeping.