A Detailed Guide to Practical Techniques for Getting Started with Chinese Honey Bee Beekeeping
The Chinese honey bee, also called the native bee or Chinese bee, is a breed unique to our country, with advantages such as strong foraging ability, relatively high utilization rate, a long honey-gathering period, and strong adaptability and resistance to mites and diseases, making it deeply loved by beekeepers. Below, we will explain practical techniques for getting started with Chinese honey bee beekeeping.
1. Management of strong colony rearing
(1) Queen selection
It is advisable to select breeding queens scoring above 70 points and at least second-grade, replace the queen in spring or winter, and replace the queen once or twice a year to maintain a strong colony.
(2) Two-queen colonies and two-box rearing: advocate two-queen colonies and two-box rearing
Use the Chinese bee ten-frame standard hive or FWF-type Chinese bee hive, use a frame-type queen excluder to divide the space inside the hive into 2 compartments, rear 1 colony in each compartment, with the entrances all set facing the front of the hive. Normally, rear two-queen hives in a single box; during the honey flow period, supers can be added to harvest honey. When adding a super, one should take 3 to 4 frames of capped brood or 1 frame of large larvae and 1 honey-pollen frame from the brood box and place them on one side of the super, add a divider on the outside, supplement empty combs within the hive body, add a queen excluder between the brood box and the super, and let the queen lay eggs in the brood box. During the honey production period, a queen excluder should be added between the brood box and the super.
(3) Keep sufficient feed within the colony
When nectar and pollen are scarce outside and there are no reserves in the colony, sterilized pollen should be poured into combs for feeding, or a pollen substitute made into pollen cakes should be placed on the top bars for feeding. When honey is lacking, use a feeder filled with honey placed inside the hive for feeding. Feeding should preferably be done at night, and the amount fed each time should be enough for the colony to consume for 2 to 3 days.
2. Management during the reproduction period
(1) Reproduction period
It is generally divided into spring-summer and autumn reproduction periods. During the reproduction period, attention should be paid to keeping warm, supplying enough feed, promptly expanding colony strength, and using artificial queen rearing and two-queen rearing in the same hive.
(2) Artificial queen rearing
Select colonies with more than 5 frames, use a queen excluder to divide the colony into a queen-rearing area and a reproduction area, keep the queen in the reproduction area, and place honey-pollen combs and larvae combs in the queen-rearing area, with the queen-rearing area occupying 2/3 of the original combs. Alternatively, temporarily remove the queen of the queen-rearing colony, and put her back after the queen cells are accepted. Use narrow-style queen-rearing frames with an inner diameter of 200 to 250 mm and a height of 200 to 220 mm. Install artificial queen cups with a diameter of 8 mm and a depth of 11 mm on the queen-rearing frame, with a distance of 9 mm to 10 mm between cups. Transfer 15 to 20 larvae within 24 h into each frame, and immediately place them into the queen-rearing area after transferring. The next day, take out the queen-rearing frame again, remove the larvae in the cup bases, and transfer larvae of 18 h to 24 h from the mother colony to rear them into queens.
(3) Organizing mating colonies
Select improved breeds that are not related by blood to the mother colony or introduced from other places, and rear drones 20 days before artificial queen rearing. Ten days after double transfer of larvae for queen rearing, take 1 to 2 frames of capped brood with plenty of pollen and honey from a strong colony, and place them with bees into 1 high-quality queen cell to form a mating colony. If the queen is lost after mating, place another mature queen cell.
(4) Rearing after artificial colony splitting
Take one frame of capped brood, one frame of honey-pollen comb, and one frame of larvae comb from the original colony and place them on one side of the divider board, open a side entrance and place a mature queen cell. After the new queen successfully mates, a new colony is formed. The new colony and the old colony are reared in the same hive, preferably with mother and daughter in the same hive or sisters in the same hive. If worker bees gather too much in one colony, adjust colony strength, change the entrance direction, promptly add foundation to build combs, expand the hive, and replace old combs with new ones. When the colony develops to 5 combs, it should be changed to single-box rearing; during the honey flow period or when the temperature is above 25°C, it should be changed to single-box rearing.
3. Management during the summering stage
(1) Preparation for summering
From the end of July to the end of August, nectar and pollen sources in the wild are scarce and high temperatures persist. During this period, weak colonies of fewer than 2 frames should be merged, each colony should be adjusted to a strength of 4 to 5 frames, wax moths in the hive or on the combs should be removed, and the colony should have 1 to 2 frames of capped honey combs.
(2) Cooling management
The hive should be moved under tree shade or under eaves, or a shade awning should be built for shade. During the high temperatures at noon, water can be sprinkled around the hive to cool it, and ventilation windows should be opened and the entrance enlarged to help the colony cool down. When the temperature exceeds 35°C, feed the colony water and sprinkle water outside the hive to cool the colony.
(3) Inspection
In high-temperature weather, outside-hive observation should be the main method. If worker bees are found to be foraging little, choose to open the hive for inspection in the evening and promptly improve conditions inside the hive.
(4) Control of natural enemies
During high temperatures in summer, the hive should be raised to prevent toads and ants from harming the colony, and natural enemies such as hornets should be frequently caught and struck.
(5) Inspection after summering
In early September, sporadic nectar sources appear in the wild, and the colony begins to reproduce. A timely comprehensive inspection should be carried out, colony strength adjusted, wax moths removed, weak colonies merged, and stimulative feeding carried out.
4. Management during the colony overwintering stage
(1) During the honey flow period of the last nectar source, reserve capped honey combs for the colony. Merge colonies and replace old queens with poor egg-laying ability.
(2) When the last nectar source is about to end, use bees and capped brood from strong colonies to supplement medium and small colonies, and at the same time withdraw surplus combs from the colony, keeping bees and combs proportionate or with slightly more bees than combs.
(3) Maintain sufficient egg-laying space and honey-pollen feed in the hive, and carry out stimulative feeding.
(4) For overwintering, choose a location with high terrain, dry conditions, shelter from wind, quietness, and half shade and half sun under deciduous trees to place the colonies. After the trees shed their leaves in the middle and later periods, the colony can receive sufficient light. In the early overwintering period, it is only necessary to add insulation material on the inner cover. In the middle and later overwintering periods, carry out insulation inside the hive. When the winter temperature drops below 0°C, the colony stops rearing larvae, forms a cluster, and stops foraging activities, and insulation measures such as wrapping the hive and leaving the entrance open should be taken.
(5) Management of overwintering colonies. Frequently conduct outside-hive observations to promptly discover and handle abnormal conditions in colony overwintering. If you listen at the side of the entrance and hear the colony making a slight “buzzing” sound, or lightly tap the hive wall and it makes a “buzzing” sound and then immediately quiets down, this is normal. If outside-hive inspection finds worker bees entering and leaving the entrance while shaking their wings, and the sound inside the hive is chaotic, it indicates possible queen loss. The hive should be opened for inspection at noon on a clear and warm day. If the queen is lost, a reserve queen should be introduced or the colony merged into another colony. If outside-hive inspection finds the colony noisy and restless, with dead bees with broken heads and missing wings being carried out from the hive, and fragments of comb, there may be pest damage, which should be promptly driven out and killed, and blocked holes should be checked. If outside-hive inspection finds the colony restless and agitated for a long time without stopping, it may be due to lack of water or honey. If the bee cluster disperses, it indicates lack of honey, and honey combs should be added. If crystallized honey is carried out from the entrance, 0.2% salt water can be fed at the entrance.