How to care for bees as a beginner beekeeper. Caring for winged insects

If your bee colonies are well prepared for winter, then you can visit them only 1-2 times a month without worrying about anything. We will tell you in this article how to prepare your pets for winter and protect the hive from rodents.

Preparing bees for winter

Incentive and preventive therapeutic feedings begin to be given immediately after pumping out the last honey. Feed the toilers well-fed, and along with the feeding, give them medicine.

It is not difficult to grow a colony, which means the strength of the bee colony: in the fall, place in each nest towards the end of the main bribe - this is the bees' prey, collected in a hive of 2-3 frames, partially occupied by honey with the best cells for bees. In them, the queens will be able to lay eggs uninterruptedly. By resorting to such a trick, the beekeeper helps the queen think not about the offspring, but about food.

Caring for bees in winter

IN winter period It is important for the beekeeper to control and regularly check the humidity and ventilation in the hives, as well as to remove dead bodies in a timely manner (for those who are just starting a difficult business - beekeeping, dead bodies are the bodies of drones and bees that have naturally ended their lives).

November-December are relatively calm months when bees are quiet. Under normal weather conditions, without sudden changes, you can check the winter hut only once a month. In January, it is better to visit the families twice; in February, the hive should be checked every 10 days. In March, the awakening begins, so you should visit the bees every 4-5 days. During this period, brood may begin to breed, which means that twice as much food will be required, and accordingly, the temperature of the nest will increase. The beginning of spring is the most important period in the wintering of bees.

How to check winter shelter

Noise. Upon entering the winter hut, do not rush to visit your families. To begin with, listen to the hum, pay attention to the places where an even and calm noise is coming from - in these hives the bees are happy with their winter, and everything is fine with them. If you hear a general increased noise, check the temperature of the winter hut - most likely it is increased. The quiet rustling of bees indicates that families are hungry.
The cause of noise when normal conditions maybe honeydew honey, which they simply forgot to replace in the fall. In this case, it is urgent to give the bees a kandi cake - made from powdered sugar or sugar syrup prepared with snow water.
Humidity. Damp dead will indicate high level humidity in the hives and poor ventilation. Due to dampness, honey oxidizes, the walls of the hive can become moldy, and the bees begin to get sick. Poplar charcoal helps improve the microclimate of the hive.
Mice. If you find droppings in the sea and headless corpses of bees, be sure to place poisoned bait for rodents in the winter hut.

Beehives whose wood rots - the best place for mice to live in. Make sure that bees do not live in such hives at all. Otherwise, the mouse will build its nest in them and disturb the bee colonies.

Watering bees

In winter, bees need additional water. To do this, hang a bottle of water near the upper entrance. The linen wick is moistened, and then one end is inserted into the bottle, the other into the tap hole.

Help for a motherless family

A family that has been left without a queen for the winter behaves restlessly and noisily. If you do not have spare queens, it is better to take such a colony out of the winter hut so that it does not disturb other bee colonies. If you can give the family another queen, do it quickly: without dismantling the nest, take it out into the vestibule and place the nucleus with the queen and bees inside. Wait until the family calms down, and only then bring it back to the winter hut.

Finally, it is worth noting that inspecting a bee colony in winter is an extreme measure, and your actions should pursue a specific goal. You shouldn’t bother your pets unnecessarily, and if you really need to inspect the hive, use only a flashlight with a red filter.

You can also learn about wintering bees from the video

Carambola - Growing the Fruit Summer budding fruit trees How to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse - video

Every person involved in beekeeping must imagine all the responsibility that falls on him. He will have to constantly look after bee colonies. Honey yield directly depends on the quality of life of bees. It is especially important how they tolerate the cold season. It is necessary to try to provide high-quality wintering for all insects in the apiary so that they can resume your life activities with the arrival of spring, they began to create high-quality honey rich in vitamins.

Extension - important stage in the life of a swarm of bees. It is important because the fecal load will be approximately two times lower, which means that the bees will be able to safely survive until spring. Bees do not fly around in winter; this makes bees less sick and better adapt to difficult situations.

For working insects that collect and produce honey, there are mandatory procedures that must be completed before the onset of frost:

First. Immediately after the last honey is pumped out, it is necessary to prepare the bees for wintering. At first bees need to be inspected, in winter there will be no time for this, and to understand what exactly the apiary should receive. It is best to start fertilizing. Because of them, it will be easier for many insects to adapt to new conditions, since the place where bees overwinter is different from their usual apiary. Tired from long work, they need to receive different nutrients and vitamins. In nature, usually at the end of summer the special food - bribes - runs out. This is what they need for normal life and reproduction.

The beekeeper needs to continue feeding, since only in this case the queen will continue to actively lay eggs. But it is worth understanding that deadlines must also be met proper feeding. Many people know how to care for bees and how insects hibernate. But proper feeding in beekeeping is one of the most important actions. It must be carried out in August and must be stopped in September. During the first frost, insects should not be overfed, as this will only harm them.

Second. Simultaneously with the incentive feeding, which is necessary during growth, therapeutic feeding should also be carried out. Bees need to be given a dose of medication periodically, which can cure some cases. For example, medications for nosematosis must be taken before wintering. It is very important to ensure that insects are not affected by mites; because of them, there can be many problems and the apiary will suffer greatly in winter. This fact can significantly undermine their health and affect their performance in the future. There are a lot of drugs that can cope with this problem, and they have different ways applications, for example:

vapor sublimation;
elevated temperature;
strips;
healing herbs.

Stripes have proven themselves best. They can be bought in specialized veterinary pharmacies. These are thin wooden plates that are impregnated with some potent substance. They are placed in the hive for several weeks. When the flyover of the territories begins, the insects will begin to fly out of their houses, and the stripes will need to be removed.

Third. It is necessary to ensure that the frames on which the food is applied are light brown in color, as this is very important. This will guarantee that they are not infected with anything and will be able to provide bee colonies with a quality winter. The main condition is that you need to take care of changing queens every year, since the previous ones have already exhausted their resources and to improve the health of the offspring, their replacement is necessary.

Ways to organize wintering

After the bees have been fed and treated, you need to start preparing for winter. To do this it is necessary to arrange appropriate place, where they can wait out the frosts. There are several ways to keep insects in winter - this can be done in above-ground, underground or semi-underground buildings. All of them can perform the main function - to prevent the bees from freezing from frost or strong wind. In regions with different possible winter temperatures, it is worth choosing the most suitable option.

Many people are interested in the question of what bees do in winter; this can be answered in special literature on beekeeping, which every breeder should read from time to time.

It is best to keep bees in winter, if possible. basement, since this is where they will be most comfortable. Having chosen the place where the hives of the families will be located, it is necessary fulfill some requirements:

If all the conditions for proper wintering are met, then insects are not afraid of any natural disasters. The main thing is that their hives always remain clean and properly ventilated, then nothing will grow on their walls. plaque harmful to bees in the form of mold or something else.

You should not feed bees in winter, this is harmful to their health, since they need to rest properly before new spring, and with a full stomach they will not be able to do this.

Wintering bees outdoors

To avoid the hassle of moving bee houses indoors in the fall and out of the room in the spring, you can try spending the winter outdoors. This is convenient to do if there are not very many bees yet or if it is not physically possible to move the hives.

Getting ready organize the wintering of bees on outdoors The main thing to remember is that caring for bees in winter is different. It is important to ensure that the area is not blown from all sides. You can build a shelter for bees or leave the hive to overwinter without an additional roof. If you organize small barriers from strong winds, for example, cover a couple of sides of the hive with straw or plywood, the insects will be quite comfortable and cozy.

Required temperature conditions in wintering

In the northern regions, where it is simply necessary to create winter huts for bees to wait out the frosts, it is necessary to maintain a temperature level in them of 1 to 3 degrees below zero. This is very important, because with more high temperature the bees may not be comfortable, and at a lower temperature they may simply freeze. If the air temperature drops too much, the bees will have to consume more amount of feed provided, which can negatively affect their general condition and lead to various disorders and diseases. A crowded intestine in bees is always a sign that it will be difficult for them to adjust to proper wintering; they may have increased activity and will not gain strength before the new warm season.

Required humidity level

In the winter hut, in addition to the air temperature, it is also necessary to take care of the humidity, since in a too dry room it becomes difficult for the bees to breathe. But too much humidity may also play a role. If it is too high, various harmful deposits may form, which will serve as a breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria.

Proper room ventilation does a good job of preventing rising humidity. This is especially true in the second half of washing the bees, since it is now that you should take care of them as diligently as possible. At this time, the bees produce offspring, which should get stronger by spring.

Spring care

When warming begins, insects require increased attention. Their wintering period is ending, which means that soon they will be able to leave their hives and go look for food for themselves.

First of all, when it gets warmer outside, beekeepers should start preparing for the awakening of the bees as actively as possible. After the exhibition, the bees are released from the winter hut. Insects fly over territories, this is very important. Most importantly, while the bees are busy, beekeepers should try to spend as much time as possible deep cleaning their houses from the plaque accumulated over the winter. Only a clean hive can continue to be a habitat for a bee family. It is also necessary to check the walls of the structure for strength and, if necessary, carry out quick repairs.

Today, many beekeepers involved in breeding and keeping bees are trying to use new technologies in their business. Also, much attention is paid scientific literature. On the pages of thematic magazines or books you can always find answers to the question of how best to organize the wintering of bees and provide them with maximum comfort.

Attention, TODAY only!

Spring is a busy time for any beekeeper. At this time, it is necessary to carry out a lot of work, eliminate the consequences of wintering and create a favorable environment for the cultivation and development of strong families. This requires a sufficient supply of food up to 12 kg per hive, optimal thermal conditions, high-quality honeycombs and young, highly productive queens. In strong families, by the end of spring, the queen begins to lay about one and a half thousand eggs per day, which is why the number of brood (eggs, larvae and bees that have not reached maturity) in the hives increases. Failure to meet at least one of the above conditions can sharply reduce the efficiency of the apiary. The article will discuss the technology of caring for bees.

After the bees have woken up, cleaned themselves (have gotten rid of the feces accumulated over the winter) and have flown around, you should immediately clean the hive and, to preserve heat, wrap it on the outside, lay or renew the covering, and add food. Such care for bees will help protect a bee colony that has successfully overwintered from extinction in the spring.

In order not to irritate or distract the bees from their duties, there is no need to disturb them unless absolutely necessary by frequently inspecting the hive. This is useless and harmful and can lead to bee theft, freezing and subsequent death of the brood. To carry out all apiary work in a short time, you need to draw up a plan in advance, prepare equipment that may be required, food supplies and honeycombs.

Preparing the site for the apiary

First of all, you need to calculate required area so that all the families that survived the winter could comfortably accommodate it. Ash will help quickly remove snow in places where it is impossible to clear it, since it does not reflect sunlight. The most optimal distance between hives is 4 meters, 2-3 will be enough.
To prevent the bees, returning from their first flight, from landing on the still unheated surface of the earth and catching a cold, it is necessary to scatter straw or hay around the point; roofing material is also suitable for this purpose. Moisture sometimes accumulates under it, which can lead to infection of the bees. To avoid this, you need to remove it after each flight.

After preparing the place, you need to prepare stands for the hives, which you can make yourself or buy ready-made. Car tires or pegs are often used for this. It is necessary to position the stands in such a way that there is a slope on the side of the tap hole.
To ensure that nothing prevents bees from moving freely around the area, it must be cleared of debris and large fallen branches. Once the weather is good, you can set up the hives.

Exhibition of hives from winter hives

Once the temperature outside is comfortable for bees, within 14 degrees Celsius in the shade, the hives can be set up. This usually happens in the second ten days of April or early May. In order to detect the presence of varroatosis or nosematosis, you can send up to 50 young bees from each family for examination to a veterinary laboratory.
Immediately before removing the hives, you need to close the entrances and place insulating pillows on the nests, while trying not to disturb the bees. After installing the hives, the entrances are opened, starting from the back rows. In order for the bees to better remember the place where their home is located, bundles of straw are laid out on the landing boards. There is also a gangway leaning against them, along which it is convenient for bees freed from feces to enter the hive from the ground.

Before removing the hives, it is necessary to prepare a frame with 3 kg of honey and bee bread for each family, so that they do not cool the nests; they are left in the warm room to keep warm.

Bee care for beginners

Cleaning nests and disinfecting the hive

Caring for bees in the spring involves a number of activities. First of all, the nests are cleaned of traces of diarrhea, wax and propolis growths, since they create unsanitary conditions in the hive and make it difficult to disassemble the nest, which is necessary for inspection. Since this is a long and labor-intensive job, it should only be done after warm weather has arrived, with temperatures at least 16 degrees in the shade.
So that during cleaning work do not damage the uterus; it is first protected by covering it with a special cap. When cleaning the hive, it is necessary to remove dirt from its walls and bottom, and from the frames. To do this, the hive is moved some distance back, and an already disinfected one is placed in its place. Next, the frames are removed one by one, and the bees are shaken off them into a new hive. The cleaned frames are covered with canvas and inserted into the new hive. The remaining bees in the hive are carefully swept onto the gangway of the new one so that they can enter it on their own.
After the hive has been released, it must be washed and disinfected by special means and dry under the sun. It is also recommended to burn it with a soldering iron lamp until the walls are slightly browned. Once this work is completed, another bee colony can be placed in the hive. Having a few spare hives available will help prevent delays.

When cleaning frames, you should Special attention Pay attention to removing stains from diarrhea, as they contain pathogens of infectious diseases and Nosema spores. Bees will clean dirty frames on their own, causing nosematosis and other diseases. Old darkened honeycombs containing sugared honey, clogged with beebread and affected by mold are removed from the nest. Since the procedure for cleaning frames is quite labor-intensive, some beekeepers who have a sufficient supply of them prefer to melt dirty frames into wax.
If there is a shortage of food, frames with candied honey, previously opened and sprinkled with water, are placed behind the diaphragm. Spraying is carried out daily until the bees have collected all the honey.
The outside walls of the hive are carefully puttied and painted. After transplanting the colony into a new hive, it must be insulated. Maintaining a constant temperature of 36 degrees in the hive will help the colony thrive. This can be achieved using special pillows, which are placed on top of the canvas and on the side behind the insert board. They must be made from durable material, for example, burlap, and filled with some kind of insulation.
Placing hives on car tires filled with sawdust, which accumulates the heat of the sun, allowing them to maintain required temperature even at night, without cooling much. With the correct thermal conditions, bees spend food more economically, they wear out less, and colonies develop faster.

Narrowing of nests

To in early spring make it easier for the bees to warm the brood and maintain optimal temperature in the hive, you need to narrow the streets as much as possible to 9 mm, instead of the usual 12 mm. In addition, it is necessary to remove from the hive all frames that are not covered with bees, damaged by mice or infected with mold, as well as with a large number of drone cells.

Expansion of nests

The increased number of brood and young bees in the spring leads to the fact that the colony becomes crowded in a narrowed nest. She needs more and more comb frames to lay her eggs and store the collected nectar.
After the spring inspection, the beekeeper must monitor the development of the colony and, as necessary, add frames to the hive, thereby expanding the nests. If you are late with this procedure, the growth of the family will be delayed.
To expand the hive, you should add light brown, smooth, clean frames in which at least 2 generations of brood have already hatched; they should not have drone cells. In such honeycombs, which retain heat well, the queen is more willing to lay eggs. Frames should be added approximately every 5 days. IN strong families, adding 2 pieces at a time, placing them on both sides of the brood.

Checking bee colonies

First spring inspection It is better to conduct colonies in the late afternoon in calm and warm weather, so as not to disturb the thermal regime in the hive and not embitter the bees. This procedure is necessary in order to identify the sanitary condition of the nest, determine the strength of the bee colony and the quality of the queen, as well as the quantity of brood and the quantity and quality of food. P
If its supply is insufficient (up to 4 kg), the family will be weak, and the queen will not be able to lay many eggs. A food supply of up to 12 kg will help the family to be well formed for the main honey harvest. Frames with spoiled honey are removed from the hive, and the bees are fed with sugar syrup.

The quality of the queen is determined by the amount of brood. A bad queen, which does not place brood compactly in the combs or brings a lot of drone brood, is removed from the nest and replaced with a new one. If the bees are sick with nosematosis, the beekeeper may not find brood in the combs if the queen is present; in this case, she is removed from the nest, and the family is left with urgent help as queenless.
By appearance the uterus can also determine its condition. Untattered wings and healthy paws, more light color due to the covering of the body with hairs and rapid movements indicate that the uterus is young and of high quality. Old queens darken as body hair begins to fall out and become sluggish. The vicious queen lacks claws on her hind legs and has a raised abdomen. Such queens urgently need to be replaced with benign and young ones in order to achieve strengthening and rapid growth families.
In a hive, bees occupy spaces between frames called alleys. If a family occupies 8 streets, it is considered strong. On 6 or 7 streets there are average families, on 5 - weak ones. Only a strong family is able to collect a large volume of honey and produce other bee products in large quantities.
For a strong family, up to 10 kg of honey and 2 frames of beebread are left for food. This will encourage the queen to intensively lay eggs, and worker bees to energetically collect the spring bribe and raise babies. In addition, such a reserve will allow the beekeeper to disturb the bees as little as possible by looking into the hive to check.

Caring for bees in spring video

Fixing queenless families

For high apiary productivity, it is necessary that each bee colony has a healthy and young queen, otherwise she will sharply weaken. The queen may die if she develops nosematosis or diarrhea, if the hives are damp or the colonies are disturbed by mice, or if the beekeeper moves the hives carelessly.
A bee colony can be corrected by connecting it with another colony that has a queen, or by replanting a fertile queen. The second method is preferable, since in this case the family is restored rather than liquidated. Spare queens are taken from the nucleus, which is a colony consisting of hundreds of bees and a queen. Once she is included in the queenless colony, the remaining bees are also added to the neighboring colony.

Usually bees, left without a queen, easily accept a new fertile queen into their colony. If this does not happen, it means that a vicious queen has gone unnoticed in the hive and needs to be removed.

Leveling the power of bee colonies

For an apiary to be effective, bee colonies must have approximately the same strength. Power equalization changes in better side mechanisms of development of bee colonies, which cease to depend on the quality of the queen. At the same time, the amount of brood increases, by the end of June honey reserves can increase to 45 kg, and the overall weight gain in June also increases, even in bad weather. In addition, the timing of swarming is shifting.
There are three ways to level the force. The first involves transferring several frames with brood from a strong colony to a weak one; in the second method, not only the brood, but also the bees are transferred; in the third case, only the bees are transferred.

The first option is more convenient to implement and leads to good results, as a result, both families become almost equal in strength. This cannot be said about the other two ways in which weak families still do not develop quickly enough, and strong ones begin to lag a little behind in it.

For beekeeping to become successful business bees need to be looked after all year round. These insects are quite capricious and require careful care, but having learned all the intricacies of working in an apiary, you can not only feast on a medicinal product, but also make money by selling honey.

As soon as the temperature outside reaches eight degrees Celsius, the hives are placed outside and the bee families can begin to be transplanted. This is done this way:

The hive is removed from the ruts and set aside at arm's length. A clean hive is put in its place.
They print out the honey frame and place it in the new hive.
Print out old house and check the condition of the first frame. If it is dirty and bees are sitting on it, then they need to be shaken off and the frame should be placed in portable box. Then they check the next one. The frame that is not deflated and contains honey is transferred to a clean hive.
Next to the honey frame they place the printed one, and then the one containing the brood. Thus, you need to transfer all suitable frames from the old hive to a clean one, and then the bees and the queen.
Honeycombs that are worn out and covered with mold are thrown out of the old hive.

Now you need to see how much honey is in the nest; if it’s less than eight kilograms, then you need to add a couple more frames with honey, but not printed ones. These families may not be examined for a month.

Apiary with bribes

If the apiary is located in a place where there are no bribes in the spring, then after the bees have been transplanted, a month later it is necessary to replenish their reserves of beebread and honey, which means that the nest needs to be expanded. A second body is added to the hive, no brood is placed there, only frames with honeycombs, each should contain two kilograms of beebread and honey, and seven frames with foundation are also placed in the body. Next, the family needs to be covered and insulated. If both bodies are not joined tightly, then the joint is lubricated with clay, which is mixed with sawdust. Now you don’t have to examine your family for another two weeks. Over the summer and autumn, the colonies should grow to such a size that the total weight of the bees is about three kilograms.

If the hives are placed as early as possible, then by the time the willow blooms, it will be time to expand the nests. During this period, frames with dry land are placed to expand the family. You can add a little foundation so that bribes are used more. Willow honey crystallizes very quickly and is therefore not suitable for wintering. After the bees collect honey from the willow, the apiary is transported to where the yellow acacia grows.

Caring for bees in summer

Summer for a beekeeper begins from the moment the insects are ready to swarm, this is approximately the beginning of June. You need to monitor the swarming and help the bees with this, otherwise they will not provide any income, and in winter they will completely die from hunger. You can only take one swarm from a hive. The first hatch occurs when the bees have feathered queen cells; the weather on this day is always clear, since good uterus is sensitive to weather. Before the first bee appears, the bees fly out of the hive and fly around it in a cloud, then the queen appears and the swarm joins her. At this moment, the beekeeper stands nearby until the bees sit on the hive, and then caring for the bees after swarming is as follows:

Using a scoop and a scoop, the beekeeper collects insects. The scoop must be kept in right hand and shake off all the bees at once if possible, the movements should be light and bouncing. It would be good to immediately catch the queen, then the bees will enter the swarm themselves.
Bees that do not want to fly into the swarm are driven by smoke, which is blown from the bottom upward towards the swarm.
The swarm must be taken to a dark room and left for an hour, then listen to see if the bees have calmed down; if they are noisy and restless, most likely there is no queen with them. Sometimes the howl of a swarm means that there are several queens with them, then the bees need to be shaken out, all the queens found, left for them only one, and the rest put in cages.
If the swarm does not have its own queen, then someone else’s is given to it, this is done in the evening. In the head of the hive you need to put pieces of sushi and a layer of honeycomb with a worm; as a rule, bees do not fly away from such a hive.

Towards the end of August, it is necessary to review all the hives to see how ready they are for wintering. Stores need to be removed, honey should be stored in dry boxes, dried food should be stored separately from honey on a shelf so that it is not damaged by moths.

Autumn bee care

Before sending the bees for the winter, you need to check the quality of honey and its reserves. If the autumn is dry, the bees can collect not from bribes, but honey rose and honeydew - sweetish excrement from aphids and scale insects. And the end result is honeydew honey. He has dark color, stringiness and unpleasant taste, it is not suitable for wintering bees; after eating such honey, insects begin to get sick. To determine whether there is honeydew in honey, you need to take a little sample from different families and places in the hive. You can take these samples to the laboratory, or you can determine them yourself; there are several methods:

Take honey and water in equal proportions and stir until completely dissolved. If there is a residue in the water in the form of flakes, then there was honeydew in the honey.
Take part of distilled water and the same amount of honey and add two parts of lime water, put on fire and bring to a boil; if flakes fall out, it means there is honeydew in the honey.

When honeydew is discovered, honey is pumped out of this comb, but not thrown away, but left for spring feeding. And in place of this frame they put a good honey one or with dry food; you can feed the insects with sugar syrup.

It is very important that all bees have strong families before winter so that the insects can winter well, great importance has the last bribe, even a small one. It can be provided by honey plants that bloom late, such as buckwheat and sweet clover.

In the fall, it is also necessary to replace all old queens with young ones. And here is the brood late autumn not always needed. If it gets sharply cold, the young bees will not have time to fly around and empty their intestines and will not overwinter well. It is not recommended to feed bees with sugar stimulants in the fall; such bees fly out weakened in the spring and are not willing to take the first bribes.

Nests are collected for the winter in various ways:

Completely on honey.
Partially on honey. In this case, you need to remove the honey frames from the hive and block the nest. There is no need to be afraid that the bees will become crowded; anyway, until spring the insects that are now in brood will be capable. Old bees are used to process the syrup.
On sugar syrup. It is given only twice at night every other day, about 5 liters per nest. To prepare the syrup, you need to dissolve 1.5 kg of sugar in a liter of water and cool.

In early September, the nest is collected for the winter:

Two frames with brood and honey are moved to the partition.
They are joined by layering with helper queens.
Make sure that the bees completely cover the frames on all sides.

Caring for bees in winter

The main technology for caring for bees in winter is to maintain the temperature in the wintering area at least zero degrees. A temperature of about 4 degrees Celsius is considered the most comfortable for insects. If it gets warmer, you need to increase ventilation. If it starts to get warm outside, then the doors in the winter hut are opened wide so that people can come inside. Fresh air. In this case, the bees should be in complete darkness.

Comfortable humidity for wintering bees is 80%; if it is higher, the honey will sour and the colonies will begin to weaken and die. Humidity is reduced through ventilation. If, on the contrary, the indicators are below normal, then the honey will begin to quickly crystallize and the bees will become thirsty. You can increase the performance by hanging wet rags or placing a container of water nearby.

In addition, bees must be provided with:

Complete rest, any sudden noise or light will lure the bees out of the hive, especially if the temperature is positive.
The absence of rodents that can damage the hives and disturb the rest of insects with their vital activity.
The tapholes should be cleaned once a month to prevent the ventilation from becoming clogged. You need to clean it using a wire that looks like a poker, perform all movements carefully so as not to disturb the bees and make sure that human breath does not get into the entrance. Deadheads need to be examined; if there are bees without heads, it means there is a mouse in the hive; wet deadheads indicate humidity; swollen bellies indicate nosematosis.

You need to constantly listen to the noise in the hives; if everything is normal, then the sounds should resemble the noise of the forest; if the sounds are too loud, then the air is dry, the temperature is elevated or the honey has crystallized. If there is no noise in some colony, this means that the bees are starving and need to be fed.

If bees spend the winter in the wild, then caring for them consists of covering the hive with snow, the layer of which should be at least half a meter. After the thaw, you need to immediately remove the ice crust, loosen the snow, while trying not to make a lot of noise. In the spring, the snow is cleared off, the entrance is opened, and straw is laid on the snow in front of it. You can watch the video for more information about caring for bees.

Declining to start an apiary, the beekeeper reads a mountain of literature and studies videos with information on how to properly care for bees for beginners. As a rule, the matter does not stop there - those who seriously decide to take up beekeeping work for a year as apprentices to an experienced beekeeper, helping, keeping an eye on, noticing the intricacies of this interesting activity.

The technology of caring for bees is a very broad topic, and experienced beekeepers, before starting this difficult but interesting business, are advised to turn to the works of such famous beekeepers as N.I. Krivtsov, V.I. Lebedev, V.G. Kashkovsky.

Vladimir Georgievich Kashkovsky offered novice beekeepers a whole video course of lectures on caring for these insects, since he himself has not only a huge practical experience, but also theoretical basis on beekeeping.

Mistakes of a novice beekeeper

In order to properly care for insects and, as a result, obtain healthy and tasty beekeeping products without harm to insects, the beekeeper must avoid about a dozen major shortcomings in his activities.

Ignorance of the basics of beekeeping

Many people want to engage in beekeeping, but do not know whether they can do it or not.

First, you need to check if you are allergic to bee venom. If everything is in order, then you can proceed. Secondly, it is worth acquiring the necessary equipment, which is used not only by beginners, but also by experienced beekeepers. Apiary farming must have:

brush,
chisel for removing propolis and for many other purposes,
bee knife,
smoker for fumigating bees,
personal protective equipment for beekeepers.

Incorrect placement of hives

You must choose a place for your apiary, following the basic rules. It should be a quiet place in a corner of the garden, with plenty of fruit trees. When arranging the hives, the hive should not be allowed to skew; it should stand exclusively straight. Only the entrance can be tilted down so that raindrops roll off it.

The hives should not be installed with the entrance to the north; it is best to turn the entrance to the east or south-east side. With this arrangement, the bee’s working day is significantly lengthened - it begins with the first rays of the sun and ends with the last. The novice beekeeper carries out all these activities while there are no bees.

Destruction of drones

Drones fertilize the queen and can migrate up to 50 km per day; they are accepted in any hive. Drones cannot be destroyed in large quantities, since a bee colony is a large organism whose activities cannot be disrupted. If you destroy the drones, the bees will be inactive in the honey collection.

Wrong choice of bee breed

Before you get bees, you need to decide on the breed of bees, and then buy them. The species must fully comply with climatic conditions. Bees are purchased in bee packages. You cannot buy a package from an apiary located closer than 15 km, so that the bees do not return home. There must be a queen in the bee bag. This can be determined by the presence of brood.

The age of the uterus is controlled, this is done by the color of the mark - the uterus is marked with a certain color every year.

The frames in the bee bag must be fixed. When transporting the bee package there must be a ventilation mesh. During transportation, insects become restless, consume a lot of food, the temperature in the nest rises greatly and the bees become exhausted. When purchasing a bee package, you must check the sanitary and veterinary certificate.

The wrong way to unite families

An inexperienced beekeeper may accidentally lose the queen, without which the colony is doomed to death. This problem can be solved by combining two families. The body with the queenless colony is placed on the body with the queenless colony, and newspaper is placed between them. After 3 days, gradually exchanging smells, the families will unite.

Far from honey plants

Before keeping bees, it is necessary to analyze the presence of honey plants near the apiary, within a radius of at least 3 km.

A prerequisite is the presence of flowering honey plants in the spring: raspberries, acacias, willows. You can plant flowers, for example, dandelion.

Delay in placing frames

As the swarm develops, frames need to be added. This must be done on time, otherwise the bees will rebuild their tongues, and they could rebuild the frames with honeycombs.

Honeydew honey

Bees live 45 days in summer, and winter bees must live 6 months to raise their offspring. When there is a shortage of honey plants, bees begin to harvest honeydew honey. The beekeeper must monitor this and prevent honeydew from appearing in the food supply.

There are even simple methods for analyzing honey for the presence of honeydew. When consuming honeydew in winter, bees become ill with nosematosis and emerge sick and weakened after hibernation.

Lack of food in winter

In winter, the beekeeper must provide the bee colonies with a sufficient amount of honey and bee bread. Also in winter, beekeepers use methods of feeding bees with sugar syrup. The syrup is given to the bees in quantities strictly for 1 day. To prevent diseases, medicinal and vitamin supplements are added to the syrup.

Improperly organized wintering

Bees are not afraid of the cold, they are afraid of hunger. If there is enough food, then the hive will be warm in winter, since by feeding on honey, the bees generate heat and overwinter without falling into suspended animation.

By following these basic simple rules, a novice beekeeper will organize proper care of bees in his apiary, and this will allow him to have strong families that are actively working during the main harvest.

Legislative regulation of the apiary order

All apiary activities are protected by the Federal Law “On Beekeeping” dated November 20, 1998. All existing laws on beekeeping are on the side of beekeepers, but, on the other hand, according to the law, the beekeeper is obliged to comply with a number of rules that ensure the safety of people. For example, you need to surround an apiary area with a two-meter fence to protect residents of neighboring houses from bee stings.

Also, in compliance with the provisions of the law, the beekeeper does not have the right to set up an apiary near roads, children's institutions and crowded places. If there is a neighbor’s bee farm near the apiary, then the law will be on the side of the owner who previously occupied this place.

The apiary must be located in a dry place with a slope on the sunny side, but the hives need to be shaded a little. There should be no power lines nearby, as bees are very sensitive to them.

There must be some kind of landmark in the apiary - it could be a tree, a building, a high fence;
It is advisable to organize an apiary with a migration trip to the summer honey plants. That is why it is important to provide convenient access to the apiary site for a vehicle to transport a trailer with hives or a bee pavilion.

How to care for bees and which hive to choose

Beehive lounger

The most simple for beekeeping, and therefore the most suitable for beginners, is considered to be a hive-bed hive. For proper care for bees, especially if work in the apiary is aimed at breeding queens and strengthening families, experienced beekeepers advise using it. Modern sun loungers consist of 16 or 25 standard frames.

The advantage of the bed is that in the spring the bees develop horizontally; only store extensions are placed on top of the frames. The bed has a large volume, so the bees swarm less in it and develop quickly.

Caring for bees in a hive is not difficult, but taking such a hive out for migration is quite difficult.

Langstroth-Ruth Hive

To quickly increase the apiary, the Lagstroth-Ruta hive or multi-hull hive would be most suitable. It consists of several cases, five or six, each case has 10 frames measuring 230 by 435 mm. It is believed that the Rutov hive is suitable for a novice beekeeper to care for bees. A beekeeper working with such a hive pumps honey throughout the season, separating the queen and eggs with a separating grid in the brood part.

Dadanovsky hive

You can use the Dadan-Blatt hive. The operating principle of beekeeping in such a hive is based on periodic pumping of honey, while the bees replenish the reserves they need for wintering. When the bribe begins, frames with foundation are provided for the bees, then more store-bought frames are added on top.

When the magazine frames are full, they are raised and another body is placed between the magazine and the body. The height of the hive frame is 300 mm, the height of the club is 25 mm. There is little space left for food reserves, so it is best to place such hives in a winter hut for the winter.

How to arrange a wintering for bees: a way to organize an omshanik

A novice beekeeper must organize a place for a winter hut or omshanik. Very interesting video materials can be found online on its device. For example, they set up an omshanik in the ground (like a dugout).

A recess in a clay mountain, measuring 14 m² and 2 m high, is lined with auxiliary materials: poles, branches. Shelves are arranged on which the bodies of the multi-hull hive are displayed. There is an order in which hives are placed, for example, strong families winter in the middle of the omshanik, weaker families winter higher up, where it is warmer.

The interior of the omshanik is whitewashed with lime mixed with bleach so that bees are not disturbed by insects and rodents in winter. Sand and small pebbles are poured onto the floor, and expanded clay is placed around the edges so that the floor does not creak and disturb the bees. In February, before the exhibition of omshanik nests, when checking, the beekeeper will not disturb the bees, walking on such flooring completely silently.

Ventilation holes must be installed around the perimeter of the omshanik, at the bottom, in the middle part and at the top.

Finally

It doesn’t matter which hive you choose, in any case, it should be spacious and warm. The most best care looking after the bees means not disturbing them unnecessarily, not taking honey from the hive during honey harvest, but only in spring or autumn, leaving at least 25 kg per family for wintering. You should not overuse feeding with sugar syrup, since it does not contain the nutrients necessary for the full development of insects.

Bees are highly developed creatures, with their own world and their own hierarchy in it. Their entire life is built on the laws of nature, and human intervention in their lives sometimes leads to disastrous consequences, especially if bees are cared for in violation of natural law.