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Video: Spring Work In The Apiary
2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47
And a bee flies out …
As I noted in the article on preparing bees for wintering, my hives with bees are in the pavilion, and from November to March I usually do not go there. Therefore, spring care for bees begins in March.
In the spring, at the end of March or at the beginning of April, I remove the bee moron from the hives. For the convenience of this work, it is necessary to equip the bee houses so that they are equipped with a retractable bottom. I took care of this, and therefore, without disturbing the bee colony, which may still be in the club, I carefully push out the bottom of each hive and throw away all the bee dead that accumulated over the winter. As a result, in spring my bees do not waste their time and energy on self-cleaning of the hive of dead bees.
When the weather permits, and for this it is necessary that the temperature outside is above 13 degrees Celsius, I do the initial examination of the bee colonies. I remove from the hive: net, burlap and sticks, which I put on the top bars of the frames in the fall when I was preparing the bees for winter. I cut the nest: I remove the extra frames with honey that are not covered by bees from the hive. On the frames that I left in the bee's nest, I put a 100 micron thick film. As a result, the warm air will not all leave the nest, and the bees themselves will now remove excess moisture from the hive through the entrance.
I carry out the insulation of the bee nest: I put additional foam inserts on the side walls of the hive. The top of the hive is well insulated with felt and cotton pillows. This makes it possible for the bee family not to spend a lot of energy on heating their homes, which means that many bees are released, which in the hive can do other things. For example, warm brood, fly for water or pollen.
After shortening and insulating the bee nest, I put strips from varroatosis according to the instructions. I mainly use the drug Varropol with the active ingredient amitraz or the drug Fumisan with the active ingredient fluvalinate. But so that ticks do not get used to the medicine, you can use other drugs that have different active ingredients.
If necessary, the frames with honey, which I removed during the first examination, are gradually substituted back into the hive, one at a time. But since the honey in the frame is very cold, and this can lead to cooling of the bee housing, and the bees will have to spend a lot of energy to warm it up, I myself heat the honey frame in a home-made thermostat to + 30 ° C.
If everything is normal in the bee colony, then the queen begins to worm early. Therefore, in addition to honey frames, I substitute a frame with bee bread from the reserve, also preheating it in a thermostat to + 30 ° С. Basically, bee brood needs bee bread, but sometimes bees feed on this “bread”. According to experts, the nurse bees mix it with honey and feed the larvae, which are already three days old, with this mixture. The larva will only receive this mixture for a few days. But since there are a lot of vitamins in bee bread, the larva grows up much during this time.
It should be noted that spring bees are not as spoiled as summer bees, which leave their hive only when the weather is warm and good. A family of bees that have just come out of hibernation needs to develop rapidly, and in order to survive, spring bees have to fly out of the hive at temperatures of + 8 ° C. Some of the bees try to bring not only pollen to their families, but also water. In early spring, the water in reservoirs is always cold. Therefore, many bees die: having collected cold water, it cannot even take off. Therefore, to minimize the loss of bees, I install warm drinking bowls with fresh and salt water in the hives.
Dmitry Mamontov, Moscow
Author's photo
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