Detailed Explanation of the Organization and Management Methods of Mating Nucleus Colonies

A mating nucleus colony is a small colony organized for a new queen bee to live and mate in; the time is on the 10th day after removal or the 7th day after the queen cell is sealed.

To organize a mating nucleus colony, first prepare a mating box. You can use 2 or 3 partition boards to tightly divide a standard beehive into 3 or 4 small compartments. Each compartment can hold 2-3 combs, and entrances 1-3 mm long and 8 mm wide are opened in different directions. The hive wall in front of each entrance is painted with different colors such as yellow, blue, and white, so that the queen bee can identify its own hive. In each compartment of the mating box, place one frame of sealed brood comb with young bees and one frame of honey-pollen comb to form a small mating nucleus colony.

The method for obtaining sealed brood combs with young bees is: prepare a beehive, take one or two frames of sealed brood combs from each strong colony and put them into the box. Put 8 sealed brood combs with bees in one box, cover the hive lid, and place the beehive far away from other colonies. After a few hours, the flying bees fly back to their original hive, and most of the sealed brood combs are larvae. Check the colony the next day, cut off emergency queen cells, and then introduce mature queen cells. Using a queen cell protection ring made of silver wire is the safest way to introduce queen cells. The conical queen cell protection ring has a small cylindrical feeding tube at its lower opening, @#@255@#@ cannot enter from the lower opening. Because when bees destroy a queen cell, they bite through the wall from the side of the queen cell and then stab the queen pupa to death. The queen cell protection ring precisely protects the side wall of the queen cell. The covering cloth of the mating nucleus colony is placed directly on the top bars of the combs, then the inner cover and outer cover are put on, so that the bees of adjacent mating nucleus colonies are completely isolated, preventing bees from mingling and biting each other. Mating nucleus colonies should be placed at the edge of the apiary, far away from other colonies, in a place with open surrounding space and obvious landmarks. Adjacent mating boxes should be more than 2 m apart and placed facing different directions.

On the 11th day after larval grafting, that is, the day before the new queen bee emerges, introduce artificial queen cells into each mating nucleus colony. The queen cells to be introduced should be selected in advance, choosing those that are sturdy and well-formed, then position them upright and gently and steadily stick them respectively to the middle part of the combs of each mating nucleus colony. During operation, the queen cell must be kept in a downward-hanging state, and vibration should be avoided.

Mating nucleus colonies have few bees and a weak ability to regulate and maintain hive temperature, so it is not suitable to introduce queen cells too early, in order to avoid delaying the time of queen emergence. When taking the queen-rearing frame out of the queen-rearing colony, it must not be placed upside down or have the bees shaken off. A smoker can be used to puff a small amount of smoke to drive away the bees around the queen cells, and a bee brush can be used to sweep the bees away. In a warm room, cut the queen cells off the slat, or cut off the triangular iron pieces under the queen cells. Eliminate small and curved queen cells, and introduce the thick and straight queen cells separately using protection rings, or stick the queen cells directly to the middle-upper part of the brood combs of the mating nucleus colony.

On the day after introducing the queen cells, check the emergence of the queen bees, eliminate dead queen cells and virgin queens of poor quality, and immediately supplement the mating nucleus colonies with spare queen cells. In order not to hinder the queen bee's mating flight and mating, try not to open the hive for inspection; the condition of the mating nucleus colony can be learned through external observation. If you find a small cluster of bees biting each other in front of the entrance or a small number of bees bitten to death, open the hive for inspection. If the queen bee is balled, rescue it immediately. If the queen bee is not injured, put it back on the comb; if it is already injured, do not keep it. For a mating nucleus colony without a queen bee, another queen cell can be introduced, or it can be merged with an adjacent mating nucleus colony. Under normal weather conditions, a virgin queen generally mates 3-7 days after emergence and begins laying eggs around the 10th day. Therefore, 10 days after introducing the queen cell, choose before 10 o'clock or after 18 o'clock to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the mating and egg-laying conditions of each mating queen bee. If it is not due to the influence of low temperature and continuous rainy days, virgin queens that still have not mated or laid eggs after more than half a month should be eliminated immediately.

For mating nucleus colonies, good work must be done in heat preservation, shading, and preventing robber bees. Keep feeding sufficient; if insufficient, carry out rewarding feeding and supplement honey combs. Mating nucleus colonies have weak colony strength and many young bees. Once robber bees appear, they have no defensive ability and are prone to the queen bee being balled and killed or injured. When nectar sources are lacking, even more attention should be paid to preventing robber bees, reducing the entrance to only allow one or two bees to pass in and out.

For new queen bees that have been laying eggs for about a week, select them once more. Use queen bees with high egg production and large egg-laying areas for artificial swarming or to replace old queen bees, and eliminate drones and queen bees with low egg production. However, for micro mating nucleus colonies organized with several hundred bees, the new queen bee must be taken out after laying eggs for one or two days; otherwise, due to lack of egg-laying space, the queen bee will fly away.