How Young Complete Bee Colonies Collect Honey and Key Management Points During the Honey Collection Period

I believe everyone knows about honey and has tasted it. But do you know how young complete bee colonies collect honey? For beekeepers, what are the key points of bee colony management during the honey collection period?

1. How do young complete bee colonies collect honey?

1. Collection tools

Bees collect honey through their mouthparts. Mouthparts are the mouths of insects, and the honeybee's mouthparts belong to the chewing type. Its mouthparts retain a pair of symmetrical axe-shaped mandibles, capable of chewing solid pollen and building honeycombs, while the lower lip is elongated, forming a slender tube together with the lower jaw and tongue, with a long groove in the middle that aids in sucking. If this tube is inserted deep into a flower, it can continuously draw nectar. With such mouthparts, bees can both collect pollen and suck nectar.

2. Finding nectar sources

Bees start collecting honey by first finding nectar sources. Before a large number of worker bees go out to collect, a few “scout bees” always go out first to search. Once a “scout bee” discovers a flowering nectar source, it descends into the flowers and uses its tube-like mouthparts (proboscis) to suck nectar into its honey sac (stomach). After filling the honey sac, it flies back to the nest and first distributes the brought-back nectar bit by bit to the surrounding companions, letting them taste and become familiar with the nectar and sweet fragrance. At the same time, it also vibrates its wings, sways its body, and dances a “round dance” or “waggle dance” on the comb, using “dance language” to tell its companions that it has found nectar, in which direction it is, and how far away. After receiving the information, field bees fly in large numbers to the nectar source and begin busy and intense collection of nectar.

Bees not only collect nectar but also collect pollen. Their legs are their good helpers.

Among the various insect legs, the hind tarsi of honeybees are especially enlarged, with a groove on the outer side surrounded by long, dense fine hairs, forming a “pollen basket.” When bees shuttle among flowers collecting pollen and nectar, their furry legs become covered with pollen; then the “pollen comb” on the hind tarsus combs the pollen down and collects it in the “pollen basket.” Finally, honey is used to fix the pollen into balls. This kind of pollen-carrying leg of bees is called a pollen-carrying leg.

3. Colony honey collection

The radius within which bees collect nectar is usually within 2-3 km of the hive. If there is a lack of nectar sources near the apiary, the flight distance is even farther.......

An Italian bee weighs about 100 mg on average, and the amount of nectar collected in one trip is about half its body weight. If 10,000 worker bees each collect nectar once, 500 grams of nectar can be obtained. A colony of 40,000 bees can collect 5 kg of nectar a day.

4. Brewing honey

Most of the honey-brewing work is done by indoor bees. When brewing honey, these indoor bees turn their honey sacs and mouthparts into little “processing workshops.” They continuously suck in and spit out the nectar received from field bees, while mixing the invertase secreted by the salivary glands with the nectar. Under the action of invertase, the sucrose in the nectar is continuously broken down into monosaccharides——fructose and glucose. The digestive tract also absorbs part of the water in the nectar. At the same time, another group of indoor bees arranges itself in a certain formation along the passages inside and outside the nest, simultaneously vibrating their wings to fan air so that airflow quickly passes through the hive to carry away a large amount of water from the nectar and concentrate it. Honey-brewing work

When the outside weather is good, nectar sources are good, nectar intake is fast, and the nectar is thin, indoor bees keep brewing honey while accelerating storage. They divide the nectar into small droplets and hang them separately on the tops of many cells, in order to increase surface area and speed up water evaporation.

2. What are the key points of bee colony management during the honey collection period?

1. During the honey collection period of the main nectar source, it is necessary to adapt measures to local conditions and, as far as possible, use the methods of “strong colonies for honey collection, weak colonies for reproduction, new queen colonies for honey collection, old queen colonies for reproduction, single-queen colonies for honey collection, double-queen colonies for reproduction” to resolve the contradiction between honey collection and reproduction and pursue maximum economic benefits.

2. At the beginning of the flowering period, if colony strength is insufficient, field bees can be used to strengthen honey-collection colonies for concentrated honey collection. First arrange the colonies in groups according to main and auxiliary pairing. New queens or excellent queens are for strong colonies. At the peak of nectar flow, move the auxiliary colonies away so that field bees mistakenly join the main colonies, then add combs or add supers according to colony strength. Honey can be taken in a few days. For the moved auxiliary colonies, because the field bees have been lost, the vacant combs can allow the queen to lay eggs fully, and because nurse bees have not been weakened, they can still reproduce and rear bees, creating good conditions for the next nectar source period or overwintering.

Only by promptly and effectively eliminating swarming fever in strong colonies can high yields from strong colonies be ensured. The general methods are:

(1) Collect honey promptly to reduce the stored bee food in the combs, so that swarming fever lacks a material basis.

(2) Remove queen cells promptly, strictly prohibit the emergence of new queens, and eliminate the leaders of swarming.

(3) Frequently cut out drone brood to eliminate the accomplices of swarming and also reduce unnecessary consumption of honey.