The bee belongs to the superfamily of insects. Like ants, bees live in large families. Depending on the time of year, the number of individuals in the family varies. In the summer, when the main honey collection occurs, there are more than 80 thousand of them. After wintering, by the beginning of spring, from 10 to 30 thousand remain in the hive.
Bees are characterized by the following basic family composition: one queen and a large number of worker bees. In summer, young queens and drones (males) are born. Queen bees are raised either to replace an old queen or to form a new colony. Drones serve to fertilize the uterus.
The only developed female in the nest is the queen; all other individuals are not capable of producing offspring. In the warm season, all she does is lay eggs. It can lay up to 2 thousand per day. The mass of eggs always exceeds the own weight of the uterus.
Not all eggs laid in the cells are fertilized. Unfertilized ones produce male bees - drones, and fertilized ones are intended for the birth of worker bees or queens. It all depends on the food that the hatched larvae will eat.
The queen is much larger in size than other individuals, so worker bees enlarge the cell for her larva. The newly born young queen can fly away with the newly formed swarm to another place of residence. From the time the egg is laid until the appearance of the young continuer of the family, 16 days pass.
The majority of the hive population consists of worker bees. It takes 21 days for them to be born. After hatching from an egg, the larva turns into a pupa over time. Bees seal the cell with the pupa. After the transformation, a worker bee emerges from the pupa and independently gnaws its way out to the honeycomb.
First, the young bee works inside the hive. It feeds the brood, and when wax production begins, it helps build honeycombs. She begins to leave the hive and makes flights. Each time they become longer, and soon, the bee, strengthened and familiar with the area, begins to fly for nectar.
IN good years with a large bribe, many bees die from work, but every summer day they are replaced by more than a thousand young individuals. The nectar collected by the long proboscis is placed in the insect's crop. Under the influence of enzymes it turns into honey. An insect that flies into the hive regurgitates the bribe, and the bees working there put it in the honeycomb. The filled cell is sealed and the honey undergoes further ripening.
Drones feed throughout the warm season in the hive. Those that mate with the female die, and the remaining worker bees are driven out by the cold weather. They also throw out unborn drone larvae.
Bees They belong to the class of insects, number more than 20 thousand species, and are distributed evenly on all continents, except icy Antarctica. The first fossil finds date back 40 million years or more. Dimensions vary from 2 mm to 4 cm. They feed exclusively on nectar and its products. Almost all species have a recognizable cross-striped color - yellow-black or orange-black and a pubescent abdomen.
Classification
Currently grouped into a superfamily along with the related sphecoid wasps.
Bee structure
The insect's body is divided into three parts. Called the head, abdomen and chest. The head is crowned with two antennae, there are two complex faceted and three simple eyes. The mouth contains a proboscis and strong jaws - mandibles. The chest bears two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs. The wings are arranged in an interesting way - when folded they are on top of each other, but in flight they act as a single whole. The legs have numerous devices for removing and storing pollen and wax. Inside the abdomen are the digestive system and reproductive apparatus, at the end there is a sharp jagged sting with poisonous glands.
Organization of bees
Bees are considered highly organized family insects; everyone is familiar with the concepts of hives, queen bees, and drones, but this is not always the case.
There are solitary bees, that is, the female lays eggs herself and feeds the offspring. They do not produce wax or honey, only mix nectar and pollen to create a nutritious mixture. Such specimens live in earthen burrows or tree bark, create several hundreds, place one egg in each, add a nutrient mixture and seal it. Once the female has finished laying eggs, she dies. Males hatch 2 days earlier and are ready to inseminate females.
The organization of social and semi-social bees is very interesting. In the nest there is the main bee - the queen, the only one reproducing offspring, worker bees (from hundreds to several thousand) - always females and drones - males, suitable only for fertilizing the queen. No longer performing any functions in the nest.
Honey production
Some species, honey bees, are domesticated by humans and are used to obtain useful bee products - honey, wax, propolis, bee bread and royal jelly.
Useful qualities
Bees are the main pollinators of plants. Bee products are widely used in pharmacopoeia and cosmetology. Even the venom from the sting is used to treat rheumatism.
If this message was useful to you, I would be glad to see you
If you hear a busy hum on a warm summer day, it means that a bee is flying nearby, having just emerged from a flower where it was drinking nectar. It is easily recognized by its furry body, surrounded by black and yellow stripes. Habitats - gardens, meadows, fields, forest edges; Today, thanks to humans, they are distributed throughout the world.
A bee belongs to the phylum Arthropoda, class Insects, order Hymenoptera and family Bee. The body length of the queen bee is 22 mm, that of drones is 20 mm, and that of worker bees is 16 mm. The queen bee lives 7 years, drones - 4-5 weeks, and worker bees - 6-8 weeks.
Science knows more than 20,000 various types bees; they live in many parts of the world. Those bees that can be seen in a garden or in a clearing in the forest, as a rule, belong to the two most common in middle lane species: honey bee and common bumblebee.
Bees are social insects: they live in a large colony called a swarm. A man finds a swarm in the forest and takes it to his estate, where the swarm finds a new, man-made home - a beehive. In such a hive, bees construct a nest consisting of rows of wax cells in a perfectly hexagonal shape.
Today, quite a lot is known about the habits of bees and the structure of the bee community. Biologists, for example, have found that bees see very well. And since they feed on pollen and nectar, it is important for them to be able to recognize the food source. The language of bees was studied by biologist Karl Frisch. He found that a bee, having discovered a food source, flies into the hive and performs a dance there, “informing” it with its movements about the location, distance, abundance and type of food.
The body of a bee may seem soft in appearance, but under the outer fluffy cover there is a hard shell that covers the entire body, consisting of three main parts.
The first of these parts is the head, on which the bee has a tubular tongue, in other words, a proboscis: with it the bee can suck out the nectar hidden at the very bottom of the deep flower cup.
There are three small eyes at the front of the head, and two larger ones on the sides. Each of these two compound eyes has more than 6,000 lens facets, thanks to which the bee can see not only what is directly in front of it, but also what is happening on the sides and even behind. This is not only an extremely useful, but also a necessary property: the bee needs to notice food sources from afar and be on alert in case of a possible attack by predators. The bee sees ultraviolet radiation (invisible to humans).
Inside the bee's nest there is complete darkness, so the bee navigates there with the help of two antennae located in front of the head. By crossing its antennae with its antennae, a bee can transmit silent signals to its comrades.
The second part of the bee's body is the chest (scientific name - thorax); Six legs extend from this part of the body. The back pair of legs differs from the two front ones - they have wide flat segments covered with long hairs, which are called “baskets”; they are designed specifically to carry pollen.
The third and largest part of a bee's body is the abdomen. In the abdomen of the female bee there are glands that secrete wax, as well as the only weapon of defense - a sting. The long tube located under its tip contains poison. Be careful and remain calm when you hear bees buzzing. If you don’t pay attention to the bee, it will most likely not pay attention to you and will calmly fly about its business - looking for nectar.
Only female bees can sting because this organ, called the ovipositor, was once used to lay eggs. A bee cannot be poisoned by its own sting, since the substances that form the poison mix only at the moment of the sting.
Bees have two pairs of wings - one main (front wings) and one pair of small ones (hind wings). It is their vibration that produces the buzzing sound that accompanies the flight of a bee.
Without insects such as bees, the reproduction of most of the earth's vegetation - flowering plants and trees - would be seriously hampered.
Bees are flowers' best friends. This may seem strange, since bees drink the nectar of flowers and carry away most of their pollen. However, these actions are precisely that part life together flora and fauna on which the survival of flowering plants on Earth depends.
Like most living things, plants must constantly reproduce offspring to replace outdated generations. For this to happen, pollen must come into contact with the tiny germ cells produced by the flower's pistil - then, and only then, can the plant's seeds mature. This process is called pollination.
The flower itself cannot do this - it is deprived of the ability to move. The best type of transport for carrying pollen is the furry bee, flying in search of nectar.
For nectar, the bee climbs into the very cup of the flower, and the shaggy hairs that cover its body collect pollen on itself. Usually the flower is quite crowded, and when the bee gets out, most of the pollen falls off. But now the pollen falls precisely on those parts of the flower that need to be pollinated in order for the seeds to ripen.
The bee provides the same vital service to trees. For example, pollen from male apple flowers must be transferred to female flowers. The flowers bloom in the spring and emit a sweet scent that attracts bees, who fly from tree to tree to collect as much nectar as possible.
Pollen from male trees sticks to the bee's hairy body and is partially shed when the bee lands on the flowers of another apple tree. So if it weren’t for the bees, there would be neither apples nor apple trees!
Inside any bee nest there is a constant flurry of activity - worker bees carry out their vital duties. important responsibilities.
The responsibilities of bees in a swarm are strictly distributed. Several males (drones) fertilize the queen. The queen bee lays eggs. Thousands of worker bees perform various tasks in the hive. Young workers clean the hive and make sure it is ventilated. Having matured, these same bees provide food for the queen and larvae. As they get a little older, these bees receive a new task - to guard the entrance to the nest. Having become even older, worker bees are engaged in storing honey. And finally, the oldest ones become forager bees.
What kind of life does an ordinary worker bee lead? The role of these bees in the life of the colony is extremely important: in fact, without them, the bee colony could not exist. There would be no honey in the nest, nor the nest itself. But although all these bees are females, unlike the queen, they cannot lay eggs.
In one bee colony there can be up to 60,000 worker bees. They eventually become foragers, required to seek out flowers and collect nectar and pollen from them. Having collected the maximum amount that can be carried, they return home, where they are freed from the load, and then fly again in search of flowers; This is repeated many times a day, from sunrise to nightfall.
After sunset, worker bees go to rest, and at dawn they wake up again, ready for a new working day. To maintain the existence of a nest or hive, a huge number of these tireless workers is needed.
Bees find their way from the nest to the nectar collection site and back by the position of the sun in the sky. They can also tell each other the location of a large number of flowering plants, performing a kind of dance. If a bee dances in a circle, it means nectar is nearby. However, if she flaps her belly, it means she will have to fly far for nectar.
The buzz that the bee makes at the same time indicates the quantity of nectar and its quality. If it buzzes loudly, it means there is a lot of nectar. The dancing bee also brings a sample of this nectar so that other bees can identify it.
Male honey bees are larger than workers, but there are many fewer of them in the colony; they are called drones and do not do any work. Their only job is to mate with the queen so she can lay eggs. Males usually die immediately after mating.
But even worker bees have a short lifespan—for example, the average honeybee lives only six or seven weeks. However, this entire short life is devoted to tireless work. It is not surprising that they say about a person engaged in hard work: “Works like a bee!” Typically, a colony of honey bees lives for seven years, although sometimes a new queen may replace the old one during this period.
Queen of honey bees, lives in a hive. Without her there would be no other bees. For only she can lay eggs; and therefore the rest of the bees fuss around her all day, licking and cleaning her, making sure that the main bee is always well-fed.
The queen is almost twice the size of any other bee in the hive. When she was small, she was fed huge quantities of the nutrient mixture that worker bees produced inside their bodies. This mixture is called royal jelly.
Fertile queens, like the queen, live four or five years, much longer than other bees. The queen secretes a special nutrient fluid called queen matter, which the worker bees share among themselves, passing it on to each other. Only queens and drones are capable of reproducing. Other bees are generally unable to reproduce.
The queen queen rarely leaves the hive - only to mate with males. When she flies out, her scent attracts drones. The queen mates in flight and then returns to the hive. She lays thousands of eggs and this takes up most of her time. Each egg must be laid in its own cell, where it will mature in complete safety. The queen mates only once in her life, and those mated with non-males die.
Worker bees build thousands of hexagonal cells from wax to form a honeycomb. The queen lays one pinhead-sized egg in each cell. Most of these eggs are fertilized; females will be born from them. Unfertilized eggs hatch into males.
Three days later, larvae called hatchlings emerge from the eggs. Newly hatched larvae feed on a mixture of honey and pollen. Five days later, the nurse bees seal the combs containing the larvae with wax caps. The larvae receive royal jelly in very small quantities and therefore do not become queens. There is only one queen in the hive!
After a few days, the larvae grow so large that they fill the entire cell, and then the nurse bees seal them with wax caps. Now each larva gradually turns into a pupa, similar to a white bee without wings, and after two weeks an adult bee emerges from the honeycomb.
Twelve days pass before she is old enough to chew her way out of the wax chamber.
Soon there will be many young bees in the hive. When there are too many bees in a hive, it is time for some of them to leave. Many worker bees gather around the main queen and they fly out to start a new colony.
The queen queen will leave her colony when a new queen takes her place. She needs to be raised in the largest cell because the new queen will very quickly grow to twice the size of the worker bee.
When the queen is ready to fly out of the hive, a number of worker bees fly away with her to get food for her. A few drones will fly away with the swarm, but the rest will remain in the hive and mate with the new queen.
The swarm usually flies out on a fine sunny day, around noon. Meanwhile, the new queen remaining in the hive will kill with sting injections all rival queens if they appear among the newborn bees.
The entire swarm leaves the hive at the same time, producing a loud buzzing sound. Hundreds of bees gather into a dense, buzzing clump that flies to the nearest tree to rest.
Before the swarm left the hive, several scout bees were sent to find a new home. When they found a place suitable for a new nest, they announced this to all the bees in the swarm by performing a special dance - just as they announced the discovery of food sources. Whether they found a tree with a hollow or a nest abandoned by a bird or mouse, it doesn’t matter, the queen will soon settle there, and the worker bees will build new honeycombs in which the queen queen will lay new eggs.
Wild bees live in tree hollows. Bees usually make their nest where there are a lot of flowers and flowering trees nearby. A beekeeper (a person who keeps bees) builds special wooden houses for them - hives. In English, a hive is called "apiary"; this word comes from the Latin name for the honey bee - Apis.
First, several scout bees fly out of the nest in search of sweet nectar and pollen. Having found a suitable food source, they return to the nest to tell others about their discovery. This information is conveyed through a special dance, which contains all the necessary instructions. If a scout bee makes small circles, this means that the flowers are no more than 25 meters from the nest. This is great luck! However, if she writes figure eights, this means that she will have to fly a little further for nectar, perhaps even 100 meters from the nest.
When a worker bee reaches a flower, it crawls inside its calyx and sucks out the nectar with its long proboscis. The nectar enters a special stomach called a crop. When the crop is full, the bee flies back to the nest.
The nectar is processed by bees working in the nest. First they ventilate it to evaporate the water. Then, when the nectar becomes thick and sticky, it is transferred to specially prepared honeycombs. A few days later, the beekeeper removes the frames with honeycombs from the hive and selects honey with a special machine - an extractor. Of course, he has to put a special hat with a mesh or a mesh mask on his head and dress in a protective suit to protect himself from bee stings. Bees don't really like it when anyone, even a beekeeper, takes their honey!
People have been engaged in beekeeping since ancient times. Before people began to extract sugar from sugar beets and sugar cane, honey was the only sweet ingredient in food.
In addition to honey, bees produce wax, which is used to make candles and polishes. They also secrete a substance called propolis, a special kind of resin that bees use to strengthen their honeycombs. Propolis has healing properties for humans.
The air in a bee hive should always be fresh - this is usually monitored by a beekeeper. But if it gets too hot in the nest, the bees themselves take care of the “air conditioning” - they ventilate the hive by sitting in the exit hole and flapping their wings quickly and quickly.
One of the most terrible enemies of bees is the death's head hawk moth. He is constantly trying to get into the hive and steal the honey. Bees are also hunted by birds, dragonflies and some wasps.
In addition to social bees, there are a huge number of solitary bees, in which each female builds a nest herself and supplies the larvae developing there with food. The largest solitary bee in Europe is the xylocopa (carpenter bee), which nests in wood, gnawing there long tunnels.
In spring, on sandy slopes you can find huge colonies of hundreds of andren bee burrows. Many solitary bees make nest cells from clay. Few people know that some Egyptian pyramids are covered with thick “plaster” of mason bee nests, possibly having thousand-year history.
Honey bees are one of the few insects that humans have been able to “tame.” In apiaries, a person creates the most favorable conditions for the development of bee families, provides them with special houses - hives, feeds them in winter, when there is no nectar and pollen, fights diseases and pests and at the same time receives from bees such irreplaceable products as honey, wax, pollen , propolis, bee venom, royal jelly.
Honey bee
Observations on the life of a bee
The honey bee is one of the most interesting and accessible objects for simple observations.
When starting to observe the honey bee, it is advisable to establish when spring begins in a given area. flight and when it ends in the fall. At what time does the honeybee's working day begin and how long does it last in May, June or July? What plants do bees visit most often in May, June, July, August?
In spring blooming garden it is convenient to observe and monitor the work of bees, especially on apple trees, pear trees, plum trees and other trees and shrubs.
Watch how a bee collects pollen. Examine the bee's hind legs through a magnifying glass. Observe in the apiary what the bees do at the hive, at the entrance after returning with a burden (nectar and pollen). Try to establish in which direction (during observations) the bees fly to collect the burden. Write down your comments and illustrate them with drawings or photographs.
How do bees live?
Human-raised and forest-dwelling honey bees live in families. Forest and “domestic” bees have no differences between themselves and can live and work in exactly the same way both in forests and in apiaries. Bees are social insects. When living together, they can more easily endure adverse weather conditions, long and cold winters and have a greater opportunity to provide themselves with sufficient supplies of food (honey, pollen). Each family of honey bees throughout the year consists of one queen, a large number of worker bees (underdeveloped female individuals), and in the summer (when young queens appear) also drones (male individuals). Bees of full-fledged colonies (with fertile queens) do not leave drones in the winter, but expel them from the hives after the end of honey collection (an instinct to save food prepared by bees for wintering is manifested). As a result, the drones die from cold and hunger.
The majority of worker bees are found in colonies in the middle of the summer season, when the main honey plants that provide food for the insects bloom. At this time, in each strong family there are 50-60 thousand or more worker bees (5-6 kg), and in early spring and late autumn - approximately 20 thousand (2 kg). In a family, there is a strict division of functions between its individuals: if the queen bee only lays eggs in the cells of the honeycomb to produce new offspring, then the worker bees perform all the work necessary for the full functioning of the bee colony. Drones are needed by families only to fertilize young queens (they do not perform any other functions).
The bee family acts as if on the principle of a single biological organism, the existence of which is possible only under the indispensable condition of the joint life of all its members. Not a single individual of the family can live or work separately from it; each individual, being outside the family, soon dies. At normal conditions a bee colony can live for an unlimited amount of time, because instead of gradually dying bees, new ones are born that continue the continuous existence of the community.
Each bee family has its own individual qualities and hereditary characteristics unique to it. Therefore, it is almost impossible to find completely identical bee colonies in an apiary. Each family, to one degree or another, differs from the other in terms of the intensity of bees’ growth in honey production, the pace and quality of building new combs and accumulation of honey in the hive, in their tendency to swarm, in their peacefulness, adaptability to wintering conditions, susceptibility to disease, etc.
But these individual qualities of the family are preserved only as long as the given womb remains in it. After the queen changes and new offspring of worker bees appear, the family acquires other qualities inherited from the new queen. In the nest of each hive, a specific smell is established, by which bees easily distinguish individuals of their own family from individuals of others.
Bees breed in natural conditions also whole families by swarming. If bees did not have the ability to form new families as a result of swarming, they would have died out long ago from diseases, natural disasters and other reasons, since new families could not appear in place of dead families.
The life of bee families is closely connected with their environment - climatic conditions and honey-bearing vegetation, which serves as a source of existence for them.
Bees live and benefit humans only where there are flowering plants that provide them with food - nectar and pollen. In turn, honey plants can exist only in the presence of pollinating insects that promote the formation of seeds and the reproduction of these plants. Over many millennia, in the process of evolutionary development, natural selection occurred, as a result of which the families of bees that were most adapted to the conditions of their environment survived.
Later, as knowledge about the life and work of bees accumulated, beekeepers themselves learned to artificially create new families and began to pay attention to selecting the best bee families for the tribe.
Reproduction and development of bees
Reproduction of bees. In honey bees, reproduction consists of separate processes consisting of the reproduction of similar individuals in the bee colony and swarming.
The reproductive organs of all individuals of the bee family are located in the abdomen. In queen bees, the reproductive organs (ovaries) are very developed. Each of the two ovaries consists of 180-200 oviducts: eggs are born and developed in them. Paired oviducts depart from the ovaries, connecting into one unpaired oviduct, with which the spermatheca is connected by a small seminal canal. In drones, the formation of sperm (germ cells) occurs in paired testes (small bladders) - the main part of the genital organs. Bees are females with underdeveloped reproductive organs. Each of the two ovaries has only 3-5, sometimes up to 20-24 egg tubes. Bees cannot mate with drones (they do not have a spermatheca to store sperm), therefore only drones are born from unfertilized eggs laid by bees. Bees that lay eggs are called polypores.
Mating of queens with drones occurs during their flight in the air at a distance from the apiary at a distance of up to 5, sometimes up to 6-7 km or more. Typically, queens and drones fly out to meet at the warmest time of the day at a temperature of at least 25°C. Drones reach sexual maturity on the 8-14th day of their life, sometimes later, and the queen begins to fly out for mating (“nuptial flights”) on the 7-10th day after she leaves the queen cell. The duration of its flight is approximately 15-20 minutes. Somewhat earlier than these flights, the young queen makes approximate flights to familiarize herself with the terrain and location of the hive in which she lives. Unfavorable weather can delay the mating of queens and drones for several days.
The queen retains the ability to mate with drones for about a month. After this period, the unfertilized queen becomes a drone queen: only drones develop from the unfertilized eggs she lays. When queens mate with drones, the drones' sperm, containing a huge number of sperm (sex cells), enters the spermatheca of the uterus, where it is stored during her life (five or more years).
As was first established by V.V. Tryasko, in order to accumulate a sufficient supply of sperm to fertilize eggs laid over several years, during one flight the queen mates not with one, but with several drones, and the queen can fly out to meet the drones more than one once. This was then confirmed by F. Ruttner (Austria, 1955), I. Woike (Poland, 1962), etc.
After mating with the queen, the drone dies: part of its genital organ is torn off and remains in the form of a “trail” in the genital tract of the uterus.
Since the queen receives sperm from several drones, among which there may be males of different populations, the composition of the bees of one family may be heterogeneous in origin. Among dark bees, individuals with yellow rings, for example, may appear in the family, and vice versa.
Development of bee colony individuals. 2 - 3 days after mating, queen bees begin to lay eggs. At first, young queens lay a small number of eggs, but then their number quickly increases.
The eggs laid by the uterus pass from the ovaries first through the paired oviducts, and then through the unpaired one. If at the same time the queen lays eggs in bee cells or bowls (the bases of future queen cells), then spermatozoa (8-12 pieces each) will penetrate into them from the seminal receptacle and the eggs will be fertilized. When eggs are laid in drone cells, sperm is not released from the spermatic receptacle and such eggs remain unfertilized.
Consequently, the uterus lays fertilized and unfertilized eggs. From unfertilized eggs, only males develop - drones. The latter, therefore, do not have a father and inherit only the properties of the mother (parthenogenesis or virgin reproduction).
From fertilized eggs, queen bees and worker bees develop. They inherit the properties of both the queens that laid their eggs and the drones with which these queens mated.
Why can both queen bees and worker bees develop from completely identical fertilized eggs? It depends only on the food and the feeding habits of the larvae. When raising worker bees, the larvae receive milk from the nurse bees, secreted by the maxillary, pharyngeal and other glands, only during the first three days. For the next three days, until the bee larvae are sealed, they are fed a mixture of honey and bee bread. The larvae, from which the bees raise queens, are supplied in abundance throughout the entire period of their development with royal jelly, which differs in chemical composition from the jelly that is fed to the larvae of worker bees. In addition, unlike worker bee larvae, queen bee larvae continue to consume food remaining at the bottom of the queen cells even after they are sealed (during cocoon spinning).
Based on the position of the eggs in the cell, the approximate time at which the queen lays them can be determined. Eggs, just laid by the queen in cells or queen cells, are glued with their lower end perpendicular to the bottom. As the embryo develops, the eggs gradually tilt: by the end of the third day they are already lying on the bottoms of the cells.
During this period, nurse bees place a drop of milk secreted by their glands on the bottom of the cell. The shell of the egg softens and a small larva hatches from it.
Subsequently, the larva is abundantly supplied with food. She literally swims in the milk and swallows it during a slow circular motion. The larval stage ends in queens after 5 1/2 - 6 days, in worker bees - after 6 days, in drones - after 6 1/2 - 7 days. At this time, the bees seal the cells with the larvae with porous lids made of wax mixed with pollen. In a sealed cell, the larva spins a cocoon. It is formed from the secretions of the spinning gland, which harden in the form of threads, with which the larva surrounds itself. Before spinning the cocoon, the larva cleanses its intestines, depositing its contents in the corner of the cell.
After undergoing complex changes, the larva turns into a pupa; The organs of the larva disintegrate and new organs of the future adult insect develop. The protein substances necessary for the nutrition and growth of the cells of the pupal organs come from the fatty body present in its body. Being initially white, the pupa then gradually darkens.
Queen bees are raised in large honeycomb cells specially built for this purpose - queen cells. Bees can also build them on ordinary (bee) honeycomb cells, which contain young bee larvae 1-3 days old. Bees lay such queen cells after the sudden death of an old queen in order to breed a young one. Queen cells built on bee cells with larvae and the queens emerging from them are called fistulous. When preparing bees for swarming (during which the queen flies away with the swarm), the old queen lays eggs for hatching young queens in bowls pre-built by the bees - the bases of future queen cells. Bees usually build them on the edges of the honeycomb. Such queen cells and the queens that emerge from them are called swarm cells.
After three days, the egg laid in the queen cell hatches into a larva, which, as already noted, is fed generously by the bees with special royal jelly before sealing the queen cell (the queen cell contains 100-300 mg of jelly). The larva grows quickly and 8.5-9 days after the egg was laid, the bees seal the queen cell. In it, the larva turns into a pupa, and then after 7.5-8 days (after sealing) into an adult insect - a young queen. Thus, the development of the uterus from egg to adult insect lasts 16-17 days.
Worker bees develop in the bee cells of the honeycomb. For the first three days, their larvae are supplied with milk, which differs in composition from the milk received by the larvae of future queens.
In the following days, these larvae are fed by the bees with a mixture of honey and beebread. After 6 days, the larvae grow so large that they occupy the entire volume of the cells. 12 days after the cells are sealed, an adult young bee develops from the pupa. She gnaws through the lid of the cell and emerges from it onto the cell.
The development of a worker bee from the time of laying an egg to the emergence of an adult insect lasts for 21 days, of which the stages are: eggs - 3 days, larvae in an open cell - 6 days, larvae and pupae in a sealed cell - 12 days.
Eggs and larvae in open cells are called open brood, while larvae and pupae in sealed cells are called sealed brood.
If the queens suddenly die and there are no larvae in the nest, the nurse bees consume the food intended for them themselves, which causes them to develop ovaries. Therefore, from the unfertilized eggs laid by such bees (in bee cells), only drones develop, and small, abnormal ones at that. Bees with functioning ovaries are called polypores. A family with tinder bees is doomed to gradual extinction if the beekeeper does not help it in time necessary help.
Drones, as already noted, develop from unfertilized eggs, which the queen lays in honeycomb cells that have a slightly larger volume compared to ordinary bee cells. Larvae hatch from eggs after 3 days. For the first three days, nurse bees feed the larva with milk (its composition differs from the milk that the larvae of queen bees and worker bees receive), and then with a mixture of honey and bee bread. The larval stage in an open drone cell lasts 6 days, and the larval and pupal stage in a sealed cell lasts 14 days. Consequently, the complete development of the drone lasts for 24 days.
Food and digestion of bees
Bees feed on nectar and pollen collected from plant flowers. They contain proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and mineral salts. Bees consume water. All these substances are required by bees for raising brood and their normal functioning. Nectar, which is a carbohydrate food, contains up to 50% sugar, the rest is water. Bees obtain nectar from plant flowers. The oral appendages of bees are designed in such a way that they allow the spoon of the tongue to easily lick the smallest droplets of nectar in flowers and extract it from the recessed corollas of flowers using the proboscis formed by the lower lip and lower jaws.
Nectar collected from flowers passes through the mouth and esophagus into the honey sac of the bee, in which it delivers the nectar to the hive, where it passes it on to young receiving bees. Depending on the strength of honey collection, a bee can bring 35-45 mg of nectar at a time.
The nectar entering the hive is processed by bees into honey. This process comes down mainly to the evaporation of excess water from the nectar (18-20% remains in honey) and the decomposition of cane sugar into simple sugars (glucose and fructose). By processing nectar into honey, bees give it an acidic reaction. Pollen grains found in the nectar from the honey crop are sent to the midgut for use as food. A small amount of pollen remains in the honey.
Protein food for bees is pollen. Approximately 25% of flying bees actively collect it. These bees do not show much interest in nectaries; they are more attracted to the anthers of flowers. They fly out of the hives for pollen with a supply of food in the honey crop, which they need during the flight.
When bees visit flowers, a large number of pollen grains remain on their body. During the flight, the bees clean them with brushes on their legs and place them in baskets (recesses on the hind legs). When collecting pollen, the bees are somewhat moistened with nectar, due to which the pollen grains are retained in baskets in the form of dense balls called pollen. The mass of two pollen is 20-24 mg, each of them contains up to 1-1.5 million pollen grains.
In the hive, bees drop the lumps of pollen they bring into the cells of the honeycombs (one bee cell can hold up to 18 pollen pollen). Young bees immediately compact the pollen with their heads, and when the cell is almost full, they fill it with honey. As a result, beebread is obtained from pollen - a source of protein nutrition for the bee colony.
During honey collection, bees obtain water in sufficient quantities from the nectar brought to the hive. But if the hive does not receive nectar, and the family is raising a lot of brood at this time, the bees feel a lack of water and are forced to bring it to the hive.
The digestion process in bees occurs mainly in the midgut (stomach). Food taken by the proboscis passes through the pharynx and esophagus into the honey crop, and from it enters the stomach. It is digested in it, and nutrients enter the blood through its walls. The undigested part of the food moves to the large (hind) intestine, which is the last section of the bee's intestine. Bees do not defecate in the nest, therefore, in bad weather (cold, stormy weather) and in winter, when they do not fly out of the hives, significant amounts of excrement accumulate in the hindgut. They stand out when the bees first fly out of the hive.
Products collected by bees from plants
Nectar is a sweet, clear juice secreted by special glands in a flower called nectaries. Some plants (for example, cherry, vetch, cotton) also have extrafloral nectaries located on the leaves, stipules, leaf petiole, and at the base of the flower calyx. In many plants, nectaries are located in different places flowers and have different shapes. The main elements of nectar are sugars, nitrogenous substances, mineral salts, essential oils, acids, etc. Moreover, there are plants in whose nectar only cane sugar or only fruit, grape, and other sugars predominate. The presence of essential oils in nectar facilitates the quickest detection by insects of flowers with nectar of such a smell.
The amount of sugar in nectar usually ranges from 5 to 70%. In most plants, nectar contains about 50% sugar. The availability of sugar is variable and depends on weather conditions and the type of plant. Even throughout the day, sugar content can change significantly. Observations have established that bees visit flowers more actively and take nectar if half of it is sugar, and do not take nectar at all if its sugar content is less than 5%. Bees absorb very thick nectar into the honey crop more slowly.
The release of nectar by plants is affected by air temperature and humidity, sunlight, soil conditions, agricultural technology of honey crops, time of day and much more. A more intense release of nectar and its collection by insects occurs during a period when the weather is warm, sunny and calm with an air temperature in the shade (in the central zone) from 25 to 30 ° C and a humidity of 60-80%. Some plant species (linden, buckwheat, and a number of others) produce nectar abundantly even at higher air humidity. However, the amount of sugar in the flowers in this case remains at the same level and the nectar becomes more liquid due to an increase in its water content. There are plants (clover, motherwort, meadow cornflower) that produce nectar well even in drier weather. In most plants, nectar secretion stops at temperatures below 20° C.
The activity of nectaries is negatively affected by cold nights, shading of honey plants, strong winds, cloudy and rainy days. Less nectar is released and its sugar content decreases in the last phase of flowering of the plant. Advanced technology for cultivating agricultural honey crops and fertilizers have a positive effect on nectar productivity. Plants produce the main amount of nectar in the first half of flowering, so apiaries for honey collection should be brought to them before flowering begins.
In the hive, the bees turn the nectar they bring into honey. Forager bees, returning to the nest with nectar, pass it on to receiving bees, who process the nectar: evaporate excess water and enrich it with various substances.
Bees need plant pollen as protein food. They feed on it themselves and spend large quantities on feeding larvae and for the formation of wax. Bees collect pollen mainly in the morning. The color and shape of pollen grains are very diverse and depend on the plant species from which they are collected. When bees visit different plants, pollen pollen contains grains of different colors.
Fall. During the hottest dry time During the summer season, bees sometimes bring to the hives, in addition to nectar, a sweet, thick liquid collected from the leaves of plants. Honeydew is secreted by aphids that live on the leaves of trees (oak, linden, elm, hazel, ash, maple, aspen, willow, etc.) and feed on their sap. The excrement of these insects contains a significant amount of sugar, which attracts bees. When there is a large accumulation of aphids on the leaves, drops of sugary liquid form and fall down (hence the name honeydew). In forested areas, bees often collect and bring significant quantities of honeydew to the hive and produce honeydew honey from it. According to researchers, up to 25 kg of this liquid can accumulate on the leaves of a large linden tree.
Honeydew - sweet liquid plant origin(exudate), formed on leaves without the participation of insects. It appears during periods of sharp fluctuations in daily air temperature, i.e., when hot days and cold nights set in.
Bees prepare propolis from resinous substances collected from the buds and trunks of trees (poplar, birch, pine, etc.). These substances, like lumps of pollen (pollen), are brought by bees to the hive in baskets on their hind legs.
Pollen-bearing plants for bees
From early spring to late autumn, when young bees are growing in the hives and new honeycombs are being built, bee colonies are constantly in need of pollen. Pollen is rich in proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals necessary for the life of the bee colony.
Typically, bees collect pollen from entomophilous plants, which also secrete nectar. But during certain periods of the season (especially early spring), when honey plants are not yet blooming or there are very few of them, bees obtain this food from wind-pollinated plants. Of these, the most valuable for bees are hazel, alder, elm, oak, birch, walnut, aspen, castor bean, lupine, corn, mullein, hemp, quinoa and many other plants. According to V.N. Andreev, even rye pollen grains are found in bee pollen. Of the entomophilous plants, good pollen carriers are dandelion, sunflower, rapeseed, willows, yellow acacia, and white clover.
Pollination and fertilization of flowering plants by bees
In higher plants, the reproductive organ is the flower. It contains its main parts - the pistil (the female organ of the flower) and the stamens (male organs), located around the pistil. The pistil consists of an expanded hollow lower part, called the ovary, an elongated column, which ends in an extension - the stigma. The fruit develops deep within the ovary of the flower. The stamen consists of a thin filament and an anther (pollen sac) located on top of the stamen. Pollen is produced in the anther. When it is ripe, the anthers open and the pollen grains are transferred to the sticky surface of the stigma. This process is called pollination. The pollen that lands on the stigma of the pistil germinates into the cavity of the ovary, in which the male and female reproductive cells merge, resulting in fertilization and the birth of the fetus.
Depending on the method of pollen transfer, plants are divided into wind-pollinated (anemophilous) and insect-pollinated (entomophilous). In the first case, pollen is transferred from one plant to another by the wind, in the second - by insects visiting flowers to collect nectar and pollen. Along with this, entomophilous plants also attract insects with the aroma of flowers, their bright color and the shape of the inflorescence. About 20% are wind-pollinated, and about 80% are insect-pollinated.
Wind-pollinated plants (rye, corn, birch, poplar, oak, hazel, pine, etc.) usually have small, inconspicuous flowers and emit a large amount of light pollen. During the flowering of these plants, one can observe a huge accumulation of pollen in the air, when it moves with the air flow it ends up on the stigmas of the flowers. Pollination requires pollen grains many times less than the amount released by plant stamens, so the rest of the pollen dies.
The situation is different with the pollination of entomophilous plants. They produce much less pollen than wind-pollinated plants. Their pollen is sticky, heavy and can only be transferred from flower to flower by insects. This method of pollination is more reliable. Insects carry pollen grains on their bodies male organs some flowers directly onto the female organs of other flowers.
Particularly good results are obtained when bees transfer pollen from plants of the same species, but growing in different conditions of soil nutrition, microclimate and topography. In these cases, a mixture of different quality pollen from a large number of plants falls on the stigmas of the pistils, and only the pollen that best meets the plant’s requirements germinates, that is, selective fertilization occurs.
Plants grown from seeds obtained through repeated visits to flowers by bees in the first and second generations are characterized by better development, greater power and increased growth. Such plants produce more viable seeds and produce fruits with better commercial qualities.
The advantages of cross-pollination of plants by insects and the positive effects of their repeated visits to the flowers of plants growing in different conditions were identified in the middle of the last century by Charles Darwin.
When pollen falls from the stamens onto the stigma of its own flower, self-pollination occurs. The transfer of pollen from the anthers of one plant to the stigmas of flowers of another plant of the same species is called cross-pollination. Cultivated plants reproduce by self-pollination, for example, wheat, vetch, soybeans, peas, barley, etc. Plants such as buckwheat, red clover, sainfoin, and most varieties of apple trees require only cross-pollination. It should be noted that cross-pollination helps produce more powerful, fertile and viable plants. There is a group of plants that have retained the ability to self-pollinate (sunflower, alfalfa, cotton, raspberries, gooseberries and some others), but they also produce higher yields when cross-pollinated by insects.
Many plants, in the process of long evolutionary development, have developed a number of adaptations that prevent self-pollination and promote cross-pollination. In a whole group of plants, self-pollination is impossible, because in them female flowers with pistils develop on one specimen, and male flowers with stamens on another (unisexual). Such plants are usually called dioecious. This group includes willow, poplar, hemp, strawberry, etc. There are plants whose flowers, like dioecious plants, have either stamens or pistils, but they are on the same specimen. Such plants are called monoecious.
An obstacle to self-pollination is the non-simultaneous maturation of stamens and pistils located in the same flower (bisexual flower). So, in sunflower, gooseberry, fireweed, the anthers ripen earlier than the stigma, and in apple, pear, plantain and others, the stigma ripens earlier. In these cases, pollination occurs with pollen from other flowers transferred by insects. In a number of plants (buckwheat, lungwort, loosestrife), self-pollination is difficult due to the fact that the flowers have differently columnar organs: some have long stamens and short pistils, others, on the contrary, have long pistils and short stamens. Therefore, within the flower, pollination with its own pollen, as a rule, does not occur.
Some plants (red clover, sainfoin) exhibit self-sterility (self-sterility). In this case, the own pollen on the stigma of the flower does not germinate or germinates much more slowly than that which came from another flower. Self-sterility occurs in apple, pear, cherry and a number of other fruit and berry crops, in which fertilization occurs only if the stigma of the pistils of one variety receives pollen from flowers of another variety. To create conditions for normal fruiting of these crops, it is necessary to have appropriate varieties of fruit trees in the gardens that provide intervarietal pollination.
Equipment used in caring for bees
The apiary smoker is intended for pacifying bees with smoke during inspection of their nests and for fumigating bee colonies with medicinal preparations for certain diseases. It consists of a cylindrical outer body, an inner glass with a lattice bottom, a bellows and a lid.
The smoker should be kept in a dry place protected from rain and the holes in the lid should be cleaned regularly to remove carbon deposits.
An apiary chisel is used to separate the components of a hive, move apart its frames, clean the bottom, walls of the hive, frame bars, folds, etc. It consists of a blade made of stainless steel and wooden pads attached to the middle part of the chisel on both sides sides
Apiary chisel.
The frame cleaner is used to clean hive frames from wax structures and propolis. Consists of steel scrapers, shield parts and fastenings. Compared to a chisel, a frame cleaner is more convenient and productive. While the frames are being cleaned, it is firmly secured to the workplace.
The queen cell is designed to temporarily separate the queen or queen cell from the bees. It is used for replanting queens and isolating mature queen cells during queen hatching. The cage is made of tinned metal mesh. A hole is made on the top of the tin plate for hanging the sealed queen cell. When kept in a uterine cell, this hole is closed with a valve. Food for the queen is placed in a hole made with inside movable block.
Queen cages.
The queen cap is used to cover the queen on the honeycomb when she is introduced into the bee colony. The cap consists of a rim made of tinplate, a metal mesh attached to the top of the rim, and three spikes to secure the cap to the honeycomb.
The separating grid is used to separate part of the nest when it is necessary to limit the laying of eggs by the queen, as well as for the manufacture of insulators used when hatching queens. The grille is made of tinplate with rows of oblong holes 28 mm long and 4.4 mm wide. For these purposes, a wire or plastic grill is more convenient.
A spatula scraper is used to clean the bottoms of hives. It consists of a blade made of stainless steel and a wooden handle connected to the blade.
Feeders are used to feed sugar syrup to bees when it replaces part of the feed honey and in case of a lack of food in bee colonies. There are several types of feeders. The most convenient are wooden box-type feeders, installed on top of the nest. A wooden frame feeder (4 liters) in the form of a nesting frame has also become widespread. To prevent the bees from drowning in the syrup, the feeder is equipped with a light wooden raft.
The entrance barrier is used to limit the size of the entrance and protect the nest from mice entering through the entrance. When transporting bee colonies, the entrance gap in the hive is closed with a barrier. The barrier consists of a metal body and a freely moving valve with holes for the passage of bees.
Roevna is used during the natural swarming of bee colonies for the collection and temporary maintenance of swarming bees. There are several types of swarmers, having different shapes and sizes. Currently, they produce wood frames, the frame of which consists of a strip of three-layer plywood. The frame is covered on both sides with wire mesh, attached to it using a plywood rim. The lower expanded part of the slat on one side is folded down to half the lumen of the frame. In the center of the upper part of the frame, a wire loop is attached for hanging the swarm. Roevny length 490 mm, width 310, height 220 mm.
An apiary hole punch is necessary in apiaries to pierce holes in the side bars of hive frames through which the wire stretched in them is passed. They make holes in frames with permanent dividers, as well as in frames without dividers. Companies that produce hives produce frames with holes for wire. When making frames directly on farms, they try to mechanize this labor-intensive work using four-sew machines operating with electricity.
Wire for frames. Light steel wire with a diameter of 0.4-0.5 mm is suitable for these purposes. It is produced in metal coils of 250 and 500 g. The wire of a 250-gram coil can be equipped with approximately 65 nesting frames (435x300 mm), and a 500-gram coil can be equipped with 130 frames.
A pattern is required when performing work on welding frames. It consists of a board 18 mm thick (for laying on frames without dividers - 12 mm). On the bottom side of the board, two transverse bars are nailed, which protrude 25-30 mm beyond its edges and serve as support for the frames. The length and width of the pattern board should be slightly less than the internal clearance of the hive frames.
A combination roller is used for attaching sheets of foundation to frames in apiaries that do not have devices for electric coating. The skating rink consists of a grooved roller, a metal toothed disk (spur) and a metal rod. To prevent the spur from jumping off the wire, a ring groove is made around its circumference.
Hive clamps are used to fasten individual parts of the hive in apiaries that do not have containers. Enterprises produce two types of fasteners: belt and metal tape. Belt fasteners with a locking device - a hook - are more convenient. The tapes of these clamps are cut 4-5 cm wide, their length is determined by the size of the hive to be fastened.
The container for transporting hives is a welded metal structure consisting of an upper frame, a pallet and two clamping devices. Each such device includes a special nut and a chain, to one end of which a bolt is attached. Containers are usually made for 3-4 hives. The container's carrying capacity is 400 kg for 3 hives, 500 kg for 4 hives. The weight of the structure is 30 and 36 kg, respectively.
In the apiary, it is also necessary to have a blowtorch for disinfecting hives, a brush or quill pen for sweeping away bees, a working box for equipment, a box for carrying frames, thermometers and psychrometers for measuring temperature and humidity, etc.
Bee care techniques
Almost all the work performed by beekeepers to care for bees, in one way or another, involves inspections of bee colonies related to identifying their condition, eliminating detected deficiencies and creating the necessary conditions for normal development.
Beekeepers of homestead and small public apiaries, who have enough free time, usually adhere to methods of keeping bees that are based on individual service for each bee colony. A significant part of the operations is associated with large labor costs that do not have any impact positive influence on the vital activity and productivity of bee colonies. It should be noted that in some cases, individual maintenance of bee colonies causes harm to them (causes severe anxiety for the bees and an interruption in their work). It is known that frequent long-term inspections of bee colonies in the spring with the complete breakdown of their nests lead to a reduction in brood rearing, and in the summer - to a less efficient use of honey collection.
Inspecting bee colonies, especially after completely dismantling their nests, should only be done if emergency. It was established that bee families that were inspected 4 times during the season (after the exhibition from the winter hut, during the formation of layering, before the start of the main honey flow and in the fall when assembling nests for wintering) were superior to families of similar strength that were inspected every 6 days in intensity oviposition of queens by 43.4% and in gross honey collection by 43.8%. Since dismantling nests sharply disrupts the work of bees in collecting nectar, pollen, secreting wax and feeding larvae, bee colonies on the day of their inspection brought an average of 30.1% nectar and 29.1% pollen to the hives. fewer families, which were not examined.
Foreign and domestic experience of large bee farms (apiaries) indicates that increasing labor productivity and increasing the production of beekeeping products per average annual worker can be achieved by simplifying the care of bees, standardizing apiary work and reducing detailed inspections of nests to a minimum. Progressive technology provides for keeping only strong, highly productive bee colonies in apiaries and culling all weak ones at the end of the season, providing bees with abundant supplies of food, keeping young high-quality queens in families, placing apiaries in best places for honey collection, etc.
Bee colonies should be inspected only when absolutely necessary. At the same time, during each inspection, it is important to carry out all current work, so as not to dismantle the nests of bee families for as long as possible and not interfere with their development and honey collection. Inspections of bee colonies using industrial methods of beekeeping are mainly associated with the following work: spring inspection of colonies, formation of new families, installation and removal of extensions (cases), preparation of bee colonies for winter.
With intensive methods of keeping bees, it is important to use group care for bee colonies, which consists of simultaneously performing each regular work in all families of the apiary. However, this technique is effective only when all families have approximately equal strength. In order to equalize the strength of bee colonies, bees and brood from stronger ones are transferred to colonies that have weakened over the winter in the spring. In the future, the colonies are aligned during the formation of layering and when preparing the bees for winter. Measures should also be taken to prevent the wandering of bees, their flights and raids. This can be achieved by painting the hives and flight boards in different colors and arranging the hives in relation to natural landmarks (trees, shrubs). To determine the time for the next bee care work in the apiary, a random check of several bee families is carried out and, depending on their condition, weather conditions and honey collection, an appropriate decision is made.
No buildings are built at temporary sites for hives with bees, and to perform the next job, beekeepers take with them the necessary equipment, various materials, frames, feeding, etc., on each trip.
At apiary estates and temporary points, bee families are placed in groups of 3-4 hives with a distance between groups sufficient for a truck to pass. With this arrangement of hives, the beekeeper and his assistants can work side by side with several colonies at the same time. It is important that the hives are of the same type, with standard interchangeable components. To form new families (layers) and other needs, each apiary should be kept sufficient quantity spare hives. Work not related to the direct care of bees is performed at the central estate.
With progressive technology for caring for bees, well-equipped apiary farms and assigned beekeepers a car, one beekeeper with two seasonal assistants (or two permanent beekeepers) can serve up to 300-400 families. This technology has been successfully used for a number of years in the apiaries of the collective farm “Zavety Ilyich” in the Lipetsk region, a number of farms in Bashkiria, Primorsky, Altai territories, etc. At the same time, the output per average annual worker is relatively high here. The advantages of progressive technology for keeping bees and producing honey are also evidenced by the experience of large foreign industrial beekeeping farms. In a number of countries, many beekeepers of industrial apiaries serve 500-600 bee families.
Inspection of bee colonies. Before each inspection, it is necessary to prepare the necessary equipment, honeycombs for expanding nests, food supplies, frames with foundation, spare clean hives, cases, store extensions, bottoms, etc. At the same time, you should clearly understand what work must be performed during the inspection bee family.
When inspecting colonies, bees usually behave restlessly and get under the clothes of beekeepers, making their work difficult. To avoid these inconveniences and in order to increase labor productivity, the beekeeper should work in the apiary in overalls (or a robe) and always have a protective face net on his head.
Face mesh
Overalls are made from light, light, smooth fabric (fleecy and dark clothing irritates and embitters bees), loose and not restricting movement. Face nets are usually made from light chintz and black tulle. It is more convenient to work in a mesh made entirely of black tulle, which ensures good air circulation in it. The lower edge of the mesh should be in tight contact with the neck using tape so that the bees cannot penetrate under the mesh.
When working with bees, a smoker is required. To create smoke, first a small amount of flammable material is placed in it (birch bark, shavings, etc.), then it is filled with material that produces little flame but a lot of smoke (rotten mushrooms, wood fungi, tinder fungi, mullein, etc.). A stream of smoke exits through the conical lid of the smoker, the internal holes of which should be cleaned more often to remove carbon deposits. Bees pacified by smoke sting less, since with the appearance of smoke in the nest, the bees collect honey in their crops, and with a full crop it is difficult for them to bend their abdomen to sting. You need to smoke bees as little as possible, and when working with Caucasian and Carpathian bee families, it should be very limited.
Bees usually glue the frame hangers with propolis to the folds of the hive walls. Therefore, before removing the frame from the hive, it must be moved slightly. This is easy to do with a beekeeping chisel, which is also used to clean the frame slats and walls of the hive.
To carry flammable material and small equipment, use a special work box, which is often made in the form of a stool. If during work the beekeeper needs frames with honeycombs or foundation, he places them in advance in a special portable box. Cases and store extensions are transported around the apiary on a cart, scooter or car.
Handling bees requires certain skills. Colonies should be examined, if possible, on warm, windless days, when bees are actively flying out of the hives (in the shade it is usually at least 15° C). Only in exceptional cases, when it is necessary to provide urgent assistance to the bees, is inspection at a lower temperature allowed. You need to work with bees calmly, without sudden movements. Fast movements, swatting away bees, various strong odors, especially crushed bees, greatly irritate and embitter the bees.
While inspecting a colony, individual bees may sting the beekeeper. In such cases, you should calmly return the frame to the hive and pick off the sting with your fingernail. By constantly working with bees, beekeepers develop immunity to bee venom and do not feel severe pain from stings.
Bee colonies are examined as follows. Approaching the hive with bees and placing the working and portable boxes behind it, the beekeeper blows small streams (two or three) of smoke into the hive. Then he stands at the side of the hive, removes its lid and insulation. Having lifted the edge of the canvas (or the outermost ceiling board), blow a small stream of smoke along (and not from top to bottom) the upper bars of the frames. Instead of the removed solid ceiling, a spare canvas is placed on the frames. The insert board and the first outer frame (after inspection) are temporarily moved into the free part of the hive so that it is convenient to remove the next frames. If the hive contains a full set of frames, then the outermost frame is temporarily placed in a portable box. After this, the canvas (ceiling boards) is lifted further (if the bees come up, they blow a little smoke along the frames again) and the next frame is pulled out for inspection. The frames should be grasped with your fingers by the shoulders of the top bar and removed from the hive smoothly, without sudden movements. You need to inspect the honeycombs only above the nest. When examining the opposite side of the honeycomb, it is transferred to a vertical position and, holding the frame by the shoulders of the upper bar, the honeycomb is rotated 180°. If you hold the honeycomb flat, liquid honey may leak out of the cells and pollen that has not been compacted by the bees may fall out.
If it is necessary to free some frames from bees, then with a sharp movement they are shaken off into the empty space of the hive. From frames filled with a significant amount of food (heavy) or fresh nectar, bees are swept into the hive with a hair brush or goose feather. When examining bee colonies, pay attention Special attention to provide bees with food, the availability and quality of queen bees.
Accounting for the condition of bee colonies. After each inspection of bee families, basic information about them is recorded in the apiary journal, on a separate page for each family. The numbers on the hives are made removable on tin plates, approximately 10X10 cm in size. They are hung at the top of the hives, usually in the right or left corner. Numbers are assigned not to hives, but to bee colonies (queens). If a family is moved to another hive, then its number is also transferred at the same time. The family number is also saved for a swarm that leaves with an old queen and settles in another hive.
To take into account the age of the queens, the development of bee colonies, their provision of honeycombs, food supplies, as well as the productivity of the families, entries are made in the family card.
These data are used when carrying out breeding work in the apiary and determining the period for replacing queens. In large apiaries, where beekeepers serve a large number of bee families, you can limit yourself to a more simplified accounting.
In large beekeeping farms, records are kept, as a rule, not separately for each family of bees, but as a whole, point by point. They record the time of their visit, the number of bee families at the point, what work was done and what needs to be done, general information about the condition of the bee families, etc. In some large beekeeping farms, maps are drawn up on which the locations of the apiaries are marked.
Bee care supplies and equipment
Caring for bees with maximum productivity is possible only if the bees are provided with a full set of necessary beekeeping tools and equipment. There are tools and equipment used for: inspecting the nests of bee colonies, equipping hive frames with wire and foundation, feeding bees, removing queens, swarming, sending bees and queens, pumping out honey and processing wax raw materials, as well as general-purpose equipment.
Workwear. Honey is a food product, therefore, when receiving it from bees, the beekeeper is obliged to comply with the necessary sanitary and hygienic rules. When working with bees and pumping out honey, the beekeeper must wear a clean robe or overalls and a face net. The work suit should protect the beekeeper from being stung by bees, not restrict his movements and be as light and well ventilated as possible.
The beekeeper's robe (overalls) is made from light, lightweight but durable fabric. Elastic bands are inserted into the sleeves or laces are sewn to them, tightly covering the wrists.
The face net serves to protect the beekeeper's head and neck from stings. Make a mesh from cotton fabric in light colors. A piece of black tulle is sewn into the front part. An elastic band is inserted into the upper edge at the front, allowing, if necessary, to fold back the tulle part and open the face without removing the mesh. A face mesh made entirely of tulle will allow air to pass through better. To prevent the mesh fabric from sticking to the face, the top of the mesh is made in the form of a wide-brimmed hat, into the edge of which a wire circle is inserted; the same circle is threaded into the lower part of the mesh.
Face mesh:
A - tulle; B - metal
A strip of fabric is sewn to the very bottom of the face mesh, into which a cord is inserted, which is tightened around the beekeeper's neck. This prevents bees from crawling under the mesh.
Main dimensions of standard mesh, cm:
side margin width 8
front brim width 10
Hat brim width at back 6
height of the side part of the hat head 9
width of the bottom of the hat head 13
length of the bottom of the hat head 16
mesh back length 44
width of the folding visor of the front part of the mesh 9
tulle insert width 30
braid length 110
In the USA, a folding metal mesh is recognized as the most convenient for inspecting bees. Nets of this design are stronger than tulle ones.
Bee inspection equipment
Smokers are devices used to generate smoke that pacifies bees while inspecting their nests.
The DP smoker consists of a metal body and bellows. The latter is attached to the body with the help of a bracket and is formed from two boards covered with leather on the sides; On the inside, a metal spring is strengthened between the planks, which straightens the fur after it is compressed.
There is a hole for air in the lower part of the board facing the body. The same hole opposite the hole and the plate is also present in the metal case. The top of the housing is closed with a lid hinged on it, consisting of a cage, a grille and a pipe with a hole for the exit of jets of smoke. The pipe extinguishes sparks generated during the combustion of flammable material in the smoker. A metal cup is inserted inside the case, the lattice bottom of which does not come into contact with the base of the case, but rests with its edge on the protrusions of the lower rim of the case. The double wall of the body protects the beekeeper’s hands from burns during prolonged use of the smoker. Small shavings, dry peat or other material are placed at the bottom of the glass, which emit a lot of smoke when burned. Special briquettes are convenient for this purpose. A stream of air coming from the bellows drives the smoke through the upper part of the body and the lid pipe and out. You should not use wooden lumps, resinous shavings, dry branches and other materials that produce a lot of heat during combustion, which quickly leads to damage to the smoker. In addition, using a smoker in such cases is unsafe in terms of fire safety.
Smoker DP:
A - general view; B - in section
Smoker parameters, mm: smoker height 220, width 118, length 250, outer body diameter 100; weight 980 g.
Beehive smokers DPR, DPS, unlike other designs of smokers, have fur shields made of aluminum sheet.
Main dimensions, mm: DPR DPS
length 245 235
width 120 120
height 240 232
Weight, kg 0.95 0.95
The volume of the glass filled with smoke-forming material is 780 and 884 cm3. These smokers are an improved design of the apiary smoker, which provides for: increased durability (the warranty period is increased by 1/2 year), the capacity of smoke-forming materials by 20% without increasing the mass of the smoker, which helps to reduce the beekeeper's auxiliary work time, improve safety during operation and presentation of the product.
Electric smoker I. A. Bilanich. It consists of a housing, a hinged lid, a smoke generator, a battery case and a fan designed to supply air. The fan is driven by a microelectric motor (rotation speed 1500 min), powered by a flashlight battery. To supply air when the fuel is ignited in the smoker, the fan is turned on, but when the fuel begins to burn strongly, it is turned off. To do this, use a special button located in the smoker.
Instructions for using smokers.
1. When operating the smoker, smoke-forming materials are used in accordance with beekeeping recommendations.
2. When working with a smoker, to avoid burns, avoid touching the body and lid. When the smoker is lit, you can open and close the lid only using the hook.
3. To guarantee the passage of smoke, you should periodically clean the lid grille from carbon deposits.
4. It is prohibited to light or operate a smoker near flammable materials and substances.
5. The smoker should be stored (freed from residual smoldering materials) in a dry room.
Of the foreign smokers, the “Vulcan” device attracts attention, in the bottom of which a winding mechanism with a fan is mounted. The mechanism is started with a key. At the bottom of the body there is a lever that controls the operation of the winding mechanism and the air supply to the smoke generator. The device works in all positions.
A beekeeping chisel is a tool that a beekeeper cannot do without when working with bees. It is used to expand the frames in the hive, cleaning them from wax and propolis. Using a chisel, scrape and clean the walls, bottom, folds of the hive, ceilings, and dividing boards. Using a chisel as a lever, the beekeeper separates the upper body of the hive from the lower one or the magazine extension from the body. A chisel is made from tool steel.
The bee chisel with linings SPM consists of a blade and wooden linings fastened together with aluminum rivets.
The straight, wide end of the chisel is sharpened on both sides; the other end is bent at an angle of 70-85° and sharpened on the outside.
The main parameters and dimensions of the chisel must correspond to the following data, mm: blade thickness - 2.5, cutting edge width 45, front width 24, length 200, width 45, height 26; the angle of the bent part is 85°. Weight 0.16 kg.
The universal chisel has a file and a hole, which ensures versatile use when inspecting bee colonies. The hole is necessary for hanging the chisel and removing nails.
The steel file is attached to the chisel with a rivet and, when not in use, is folded onto its blade. Dimensions of the chisel, mm: length with the saw blade folded 180, with the file unfolded 252, width along the blades 55.
The scraper-spatula is used for cleaning the permanent bottoms during inspections of the nests of bee colonies. Its dimensions, mm: length 225, height 45, blade width 80, thickness 1.2. Weight 130 g.
Chisels:
A - with SPM overlays; B - regular; B - universal; G-scraper-spatula
Uterine cells:
A - standard; B - universal; B - caps for replanting queens
The queen cell is designed to separate the queen or queen cell from the bees for some time. It is used for replanting queens and isolating mature queen cells when removing queens. The standard CT uterine cell has become widespread (see figure). Its base is a metal frame 1, the walls consist of a tinned mesh 2. On top, the cell is limited by a tin plate in which two holes are made - one 3 for planting the queen or hanging a mature queen cell, the other 4 for the passage of bees. Both holes, if necessary, are closed with a metal latch 5. A wooden block with a recess for food 6 is movably attached to the bottom of the cage frame. Dimensions of the cage CT, mm: length 36, width 28, height 57. Dimensions of the mesh opening 3X3 mm. Weight 15 g.
Universal cage for queen bees. Designed for isolation of queen bees and queen cells during transportation, postal delivery and replanting in bee colonies.
Consists of a body, cover and insert made of plastic (see figure).
There are three chambers in the body, separated by partitions: one working 2 and two aft ones 3, 4. Ventilation slots are made in the middle part of the body and the lid. There is a hole for the queen cell / in the outer end wall of the working chamber. Working chamber. communicates with stern openings measuring 8X8 mm. The outer end walls of the feed chambers have holes 5, 7 for the shellfish. The bottom of the case is equipped with two round holes for the legs of the lid.
The insert consists of a cylindrical part 6, separated by a solid partition, and a bottom with a shaped protrusion 8. The bottom protrusion has a hole through which only worker bees can pass. Queens and drones do not pass through this hole.
Two holes 9 are cut out in the end walls of the lid for the queen cell, one of which is simultaneously used for the exit of bees and queens from the cage. The upper wall of the lid is equipped with legs for fastening tiers of cells.
Using a cage for mailing queen bees. There should be no cracks in the cell. The feeding chamber is filled with sugar and honey dough. 0.05 g of cotton wool is placed in the liner cylinder, which is poured drinking water, and the liner is placed in the feed chamber, inserting its cylinder all the way into the outer end hole of the chamber.
Place 12-15 bees in a cage and close it with a lid so that the holes for the queen cell in the body and lid are blocked. Next, the uterus is allowed into the cell. In this case, the cell is held with the thumb, index and middle fingers of one hand, closing the holes in the end walls. The body is pushed out with the second hand to half the height of the walls, the cage is shaken so that the bees do not leave the cage, and the queen is admitted through the hole closed with the index or middle finger. After the uterus enters the working chamber, the cage is completely closed.
Replacement of queen bees into families. You can place the queen in the cage through wax or sugar-honey dough with the preliminary retention of the queen in the cage, giving her the opportunity to enter the colony without the intervention of a beekeeper. To do this, the liner should be rotated around the cylinder axis in the direction of the bottom of the cell, thus obtaining holes of the required size. The cell is placed in the hive between the combs, pressing it into the comb so that a few drops of honey moisten the ventilation holes.
Using a cage to work with queen cells. The cage is supplied with food and water, but the liner is placed in the feeding chamber. The cell body is closed so that a hole is formed in the end outer wall of the working chamber in which the queen cell is strengthened. Cages with queen cells are placed in a nursery frame until the young queens emerge. To open the small hole of the bottom of the liner, the protrusion of the bottom is moved towards the cage cover to open the large hole, and the protrusion is moved in the opposite direction.
The cap is used for placing queens directly onto honeycombs in the nest, as well as for temporarily isolating them. The rim of the cap is made of tinplate, and the mesh embedded in its upper edge is tinned. The bottom of the rim is equipped with spikes to secure the cap to the honeycomb. The case diameter of the currently produced cap is 141 mm, the height of the rim is 16 mm, the studs are 9 mm. The cap, attached to the honeycomb, is placed between the frames of the nest without disturbing the size of the street.
Dividing grids:
A - standard; S - section of wire grid
Dividing grid. It is used to separate part of the nest when it is necessary to limit the laying of eggs to the queen. Drone traps and insulators used in hatching queens are made from such a lattice. The grille, measuring 448X X 250 mm, is made of tinplate with oblong holes 28 mm long and 4.4 mm wide. Its mass is 0.21 kg. A dividing grid made of wire or plastic is more convenient for bees to pass through.
The RRP separation grid consists of galvanized steel holders and galvanized or steel wire with anti-corrosion coating. The plastic grille is made from polystyrene. The main parameters and dimensions of the gratings are shown in table.
Main dimensions of gratings
Beekeeping knives. Necessary for cutting honeycombs from frames, cutting off wax growths, and unsealing honeycombs. The knife consists of a wooden handle and a blade made of stainless steel. The cutting edges of the knife are sharply sharpened along the entire length of the blade. The blade's shank is shaped like a herringbone and fits tightly into the handle. Beekeeping equipment factories produce beekeeping knives with regular and enlarged blades. When using these knives, the blades are preheated to hot water.
Ventilation mesh SV. The ventilation mesh is designed to improve ventilation in the hive in the summer.
Parameters of bee knife blades, mm
It consists of tinned mesh, edged on four sides with aluminum clips. The cages have four holes through which the mesh is attached to the hive body. Mesh weight 0.5 kg, length 494 mm, width 494, thickness 6 mm.
Before use, the ventilation mesh should be washed in warm water and wiped with dry cotton cloths. The holes for attaching the mesh to the hive should not be clogged, and the corners of the cages should not be deformed or bent.
Device for catching queens PLM-177 (see figure above). It is intended for catching queens in families. Provides quick capture of the queen and transplantation of her into a transfer cage, made from a housing with a spring /, holes for the free exit of bees 2 that got into it when catching the queen, and two legs 3. Overall dimensions, mm: length 70, width 45, height 20 Weight 0.02 kg.
Operating instructions. Before use, the device for catching queens must be removed from grease, washed, wiped and dried;
catch the queen manually;
Upon completion of work, the device must be wiped.
The device for catching the queen bee N. E. Potemina consists of branches spring-loaded relative to one another. Each branch has front and rear parts, also spring-loaded relative to one another. On the back of one of the branches there is a limiter for the proximity of the branches, made in the form of a protrusion. The parts of the jaws are interconnected by spring inserts made of flat steel with a cross section of 0.3X7 mm. The proximity limiter can be made in the form of a screw. The length of the branches is 110-120 mm, the width of the front part is 8-10 mm. Elastic pads are attached to the front ends of the branches.
Devices for catching queens:
A - device for catching queens PLM-177; B-device N. E. Potemin for catching the queen
The device for catching the queen works as follows. The branches are adjusted using spring inserts, then the device is directed to the uterus and grabbed by the breast with the front parts of the branches.
The presence of spring-loaded parts ensures soft and reliable gripping of the uterus and virtually eliminates its injury.
Brushes for sweeping bees from honeycombs and hive walls. Brushes with a narrow block are used, on which tufts of bristles or hair are placed in 2-3 rows. Brushes with thick and blonde hair: They are less irritating to bees. You can use goose feathers to sweep away bees. If contagious diseases occur in the apiary, it is not recommended to use bees with common brushes or feathers.
Brushes for sweeping hive bottoms are made slightly differently - the handle to the block is attached vertically. The bristles on them are short and hard. To remove debris when cleaning hive bottoms, use a small iron scoop.
Portable boxes are needed in apiaries to carry frames. The basis of the box is a frame made of wooden blocks, covered with plywood. It is equipped with a tightly fitting lid and handle. On the end walls of the box, on the inside, at the top edge, there are strips nailed onto which the frames are hung. Most often, portable boxes can hold six frames. Drawer length 450 mm, width 225 mm, height 350 mm. A stretcher box with 20 frames is convenient for working with bees. Unlike a regular box, it is equipped with handles and legs made of wooden beams. Two people carry the box on the insect.
Work box-stool. Used for carrying small equipment, tools and materials necessary when working with bees. It consists of three compartments, two of which are located on the sides and one in the middle part. One of the compartments stores chisels, a knife, queen cells, caps, brushes, taphole barriers, a hammer, pliers, a hacksaw, and nails; the opposite compartment is intended for storing wax raw materials collected by the beekeeper during the inspection of bees.
In the internal compartment they store rotten stuff for refilling the smoker. The latter is hung with a hook on the edge of one of the compartments of the box when carrying it. The box lid has cutouts for hand gripping. A box of this design is easy to use. When working with bees, you can sit on it if necessary. A box is made from boards 12-15 mm thick. Its dimensions are determined by the beekeeper himself, taking into account the height of the stands or pegs under the hives and the hive system.
The entrance barrier is attached to the tray slot of the hive to prevent mice from entering it in the autumn-winter period. A standard barrier consists of two iron plates, one of which has cutouts for the passage of bees and covers the entire opening of the entrance. This plate is movable and slides into the grooves of another plate (block), nailed to the tap hole. The height of the entrance gap is 8 mm (mice cannot enter the hive through it). Taphole barriers of other designs are also used.
Nest remover for V. G. Shakhov’s hives - a device for transplanting bees.
It consists of a longitudinal beam with holders and spring-loaded grips attached to it. The nuts are mounted on the grips and interact with a screw drive with left and right threads. The screw drive is driven by a handle. The U-shaped holder has restrictive tabs on the vertical posts. Spring-loaded grips have sockets for installing nuts and elastic linings. The device works as follows; The nest remover is installed so that the restrictive legs of the holders are placed between the upper bars of the honeycomb frames of the nest, and the legs rest on the upper bars. Then, by rotating the handle and thereby causing the screw drive to rotate, the spring-loaded grips are moved. The grippers are moved until the gaps are selected and the top bar of the frame is clamped between the holder tabs and the elastic grip pads. After this, the nest remover with the fixed frames of the nest is removed from the hive.
The device allows you to reduce unproductive time for fixing the frames, and the costs of bringing it to its original position are minimal. In addition, the movements of the socket frames when they are fixed in the socket remover are insignificant, and therefore the socket is not disturbed. :
Frame holder RD-1. Designed for removing frames from hives.
Devices for inspecting hive nests:
A-nest remover of hives V. G. Shakhov; B - frame holder RD-1; B - frame lifter by V. I. Saprykin (dimensions, mm)
It is a device consisting of two handles, hingedly connected to each other using rivets. The handles are released by a spring. It is made from thin sheet steel, with paint coating.
Main dimensions, mm: length 150, width 50, height 118. Weight no more than 0.5 kg.
Operating instructions. Unclench the frame holder grips and insert them between the hive frames; by squeezing the handles, grab the top block of the frame and remove it from the hive.
The machine consists of a body with a handle and a rod for gripping frames. The body is made in the form of a frame formed by plates with slot-like grooves fastened together by crossbars and spring-loaded rods moving in them horizontally and vertically, having handles in the upper part and needle-shaped grips in the lower part.
The machine works as follows: remove the cover and insulation from the hive, wrap the canvas, place the machine on the frames, and install the rods using guides between the upper bars of the frames (moving the rod in the grooves). When you press and turn the handle, the needle-shaped grips drop between the top bars and grab them. When the handle is released, the frames are firmly fixed. Using the handle, the lift with fixed frames and bees sitting on the frames is removed from the hive and transferred to another. By turning the handle, the grips are removed from under the upper bars of the frames, the machine is removed and the hive is insulated. To form layering (for half a summer), half the frames are selected from the hive. After some time, having determined the presence of a queen in the hive, the queen is placed in a queenless hive.
The machine allows you to capture frames with bees located at different distances from each other. In this case, the frames do not shift relative to each other. Loss of queens and bees is excluded;
capture and install frames close to the wall of the hive, which does not require additional costs for rearranging them;
U-shaped crossbars allow you to grab any number of frames with food, canvas, and wax growths located on the upper bars.
Bee inspection tent. To prevent bees from other colonies from entering the inspected colony, portable tents are used. Most often they are made 2 m high, 2 m long and 1.2 m wide. The basis of the tent is a wooden frame, which is covered with wire mesh or gauze. The tent is equipped with a curtain door. It may have wheels on the bottom on one side. In this case, it is easy to transport around the apiary.
The Beekeeping Research Institute has developed a folding tent made of lightweight aluminum pipes with a diameter of 20-25 mm.
The bee colony being inspected is covered with a tent and all work is done under the net. After inspection, the tent is turned over and the bees that were in it during the inspection are released.
Gangways for bees are needed in the apiary for planting swarms and driving bees from one hive to another. They are made from plywood, along the edges of which strips are stuffed to form the sides. The end of the gangway attached to the entrance is narrowed and made without a side. Gangway length 1000 mm, width 500 mm.
Portable table. Makes it easier to work with the second housing when keeping bees in double-hulled hives.
Feeders are used when feeding sugar syrup or honey to bees to replenish winter food reserves or replace honeydew honey, when giving incentive or therapeutic feeding to families. There are feeders of various designs. Most often, wooden frame feeders (nested) and over-frame (ceiling) box-type feeders are used. In this case, standard feeders are of greatest interest. They are the same height and length as the standard nesting frame. The width of the top, bottom and side bars has been increased. Plywood is tightly nailed to the bottom and side planks on both sides. There is a passage for bees between the top strip and the plywood. In the top bar there is a hole for a funnel through which the required amount of food is poured into the feeder. To prevent bees from drowning in liquid food, - a light raft is placed on top of it. In many apiaries, feeders are made without a top bar, limiting themselves only to the installation of hangers, with the help of which the feeder is suspended on the folds of the hive. The capacity of the frame feeder is 4-5 liters.
Standard nest feeder K-4. A special feature of the design of the feeder is the presence of a well formed by a partition and a side bar. It is limited on top by a hanger with a hole for pouring food into the feeder. The partition does not reach the bottom by 3 mm. Therefore, the feed flows freely into the stern compartment where the raft is located. The side walls of the feeder are made of plywood. This arrangement of the feeder greatly facilitates the work of the beekeeper when feeding the bees.
Main dimensions, mm: length (with hangers) 470, width 60, height 220. Capacity 4 l, weight 0.9 kg.
Over-frame (ceiling) feeders for bees. Standard feeders are the most widely used. Their design allows feeding sugar syrup to bees regardless of weather conditions.
Feeders K-1A and K-ZA are rectangular tinplate containers with a capacity of 1 and 3 liters, respectively. The dimensions of the feeders allow them to be installed in the warmest place of the hive - above the frames, which does not cause unnecessary disturbance to the bees.
Two corridors for the passage of bees to the food and the presence of a net make it convenient for the bees to move to the food and eliminate the possibility of bees getting into the syrup. The top of the feeder body is closed with a lid. The feeder is installed in the hive so that the gap is located across the frames and bees from several neighboring streets have access to the feeder.
Feeder U-5.09 box type. It completely covers the bees' nest from above and prevents bees from escaping during feeding distribution.
The walls of the feeder frame are made of coniferous or hardwood, and the bottom, lid and valve are made of waterproof plywood. A corridor for bees to pass through is located on the side. Its inner wall is 8 mm lower in height than the walls of the feeder, which ensures free passage of bees to the food. The partition does not reach the bottom of the feeder by 3 mm, forming a gap that prevents bees from entering the feed compartment. At the same time, liquid feed flows evenly through the slot into the feed intake.
Bee inspection tents:
A-folding gauze; B - made of metal mesh; B-portable table for working with double-hulled hives (dimensions, mm)
Feeders (sectional view), dimensions, mm:
A - standard nest feeder K.-4. Over-frame feeders: B - metal; B - box type
The joints of all parts, with the exception of the lid, are coated with casein glue and nailed down. The inside of the feeder is coated with paraffin or wax. The syrup is poured into the feeder through a special cutout in the lid, covered with a valve.
The main dimensions of ceiling feeders are given in table.
Basic parameters and dimensions of ceiling feeders
Instructions for use: before using the feeder, rinse and check for leaks;
the temperature of the syrup poured into the feeders should not exceed 30.
The bee feeder KPDP is a rectangular-shaped body with a capacity of 1.5 liters of syrup.
The bell of the body is closed with a cap. To prevent bees from getting on the surface of the syrup, the body is closed with a lid. The bees reach the food from under the bottom of the housing through a bell.
The feeder is made from transparent or white polystyrene.
Main dimensions of the feeder, mm: length 232, width 132, height 70. Weight 0.3 kg, capacity 1.5 l.
Instructions for use: before use, thoroughly wash the parts of the feeder with warm water and dry them;
A cap is installed in the feeder body, then syrup is poured. The body is closed with a lid;
a feeder with syrup is placed in the hive on top of the frames.
The feeder made of aluminum alloys is designed for distributing liquid feed to bees in order to replenish their food reserves. The feeder parts are made of aluminum alloys and aluminum sheets.
Main dimensions of the feeder, mm: length 450, width 210, height 74. Weight 2 kg, capacity at least 4 liters.
Equipment used for swarming bees
Roevnya. Necessary for the removal and temporary storage of swarming bees (swarms). Roevnya Butlerov became widespread (see figure below). Its basis is a frame made of thin plywood. At the top and bottom, hoops 2 are placed on the frame, pressing the wire mesh 3 stretched in these places.
Half of the top of the swarm is made in the form of a hinged lid 4, tightly fitted to the body. On the side of the swarm there is a loop or hook 5, with the help of which it is hung on a branch, or tree branch, or in other places where bees are scioned.
Equipment used when swarming bees:
A - roevnya; B - scoop; B - taker; G-box for finding queens
Its main dimensions, mm: frame length 490, frame width 310, frame height 220, visor length 75, visor width 50, bottom rim length 1300, rim width 3, loop length 30.
The scoop for raking swarming bees looks like a bucket with a handle made of birch bark or thin plywood. It is more convenient to use plastic buckets.
Receiver (see figure above). A device used to remove swarms established high in trees. The structure resembles a net. A funnel-shaped bag 1 made of rare canvas, sewn to a wooden or wire hoop 2 with a diameter of 400 mm, is attached to a pole 3 at some distance from its end. To tie the bag after shaking the bees into it, you can use a strong cord 4, threaded in the form of a loop into the upper part of the fabric sewn to the hoop. The lace is pulled through
ring located at the end of the pole and passed down the pole. It is enough to pull such a cord by the end after shaking off the swarm, and the loop will tighten, tying the bag. The swarm remover can be equipped with a lid 5. The pole at the upper end is equipped with an iron hook 6. By hooking it on a tree branch where the swarm has taken root, you can freely shake off the bees into the net.
Box for finding queens. It is used when catching queens in dump swarms and inspecting ordinary colonies in which young queens cannot be found. It is a box made of plywood or thin boards, the bottom of which is a dividing grid. After shaking the bees into such a box, placed in a free hive above the frames of the nest, they quickly go into the hive. The queens remain on the grate or walls of the box and are caught.
To remove swarms in apiaries, you need a smoker, a face net, a robe and a garden ladder.
Equipment for sending bees and queens
Standard cage for sending queen bees. The cage used in the Russian Federation is basically similar in design to foreign ones and differs from them in the size and capacity of the aft compartment. This is due to the fact that the duration of the queens’ stay on the road is much longer than in foreign countries. The cage is equipped with a transparent film for more convenient colonization by bees. Through the same film, you can monitor the condition of the queen and the bees accompanying her. The cage consists of a wooden block 1. There is a hole 2 in the end part of the cage. closed with a cork or wooden insert, necessary to facilitate the transfer of the queen from the cage to the bee colony. Between the working 3 and feeding 4 chambers there is a partition 5 with a passage at the top for bees. The cover of cage 6 is made of plywood. There are 7 cuts made in the sides of the cage for ventilation.
Cages and bags for sending queens and bees (dimensions, mm):
A-cell standard; B - cage on liquid food: 1 - feed wells; 2 - compartment for bees and queen; 3 - cover; B - four-frame package; G - cellless package
Main dimensions, mm: length 100, width 35, height 28. Volume of chambers, cm 3: working 21.3, aft 9.8.
Instructions for use: before settling the cage, it is necessary to check the presence of a paraffin layer on inner surface aft chamber;
Fill the chamber with sugar and honey dough (kandi). Place a parchment circle 8 on the dough;
Attach one end of the film to the cage from the side of the feed chamber with two nails 9;
bring the cage to the honeycomb and, pressing the film, catch the queen and 10-12 accompanying bees in it;
Place a lid on top of the film and attach it with two nails;
before transplantation into the family, the uterus must be transplanted into a uterine cell;
cells with queens must be stored in a room with a temperature of 18-22 “C;
The transplantation of the uterus into other cells is carried out in a closed room in front of a window, so that the flying uterus can be caught on the glass.
A cage is also used to transport queens on liquid food.
Packages for sending bees look like ordinary plywood boxes for carrying frames. They use frame packages for four and six frames and honeycomb-free ones.
Four-frame package. Widely used for sending bees. The basis of the package is a wooden frame, the wall and bottom of which are covered with plywood. On the end walls of the box there are attached wooden combs / with recesses for installing frames and ventilation holes in the form of cuts 2. They are covered with a metal mesh with 3X3 mm cells and covered with plywood (dark ventilation). In this case, ventilation holes are placed on one side of the box in the upper part of the wall, on the other - in the lower part. Tap holes 3 are made in the lower part of the end wall. Cover 4 is made of plywood on blocks. There is a 60 mm high space between the lid and the surface of the bag frame, which provides the bees with additional ventilation along the way.
Six-frame package. Similar in design, except for the width dimensions.
Cellless bags are becoming increasingly common for sending bees. Shipping bees without honeycombs is cheaper and significantly reduces their death along the way. When using mesh honeycomb-free bags, the possibility of bees steaming on the way is eliminated; the bees sit in them in a cluster and behave calmly. For 2-3 days, bees can even do without food. The dimensions of the mesh bag are smaller than the frame bag, which is very important when sending bees over long distances.
The honeycomb-free bag has two opposite longitudinal mesh walls with 2X3 mm cells, the feeder is a glass jar with a capacity of 1 liter with a nylon lid, in which two holes with a diameter of 0.8 mm are made. The feeder is mounted on a wooden stand.
To populate the bags with bees, they use a cone-shaped funnel made of tinplate or thin plywood, round at the top and rectangular at the base. The technical characteristics of the packages are given in table.
Technical characteristics of packages
Equipment for combating varroa and other bee diseases
Universal bee smoker DPU. The universal apiary smoker is a device designed both for fumigating bees when working in the hive, and for fumigating bee colonies affected by braulosis and varroa. The interchangeability of smoker socks and their attachment to the body ensure the versatility of this smoker. The smoke in the device comes from smoldering smoke-forming materials. A phenothiazine tablet is placed in a glass and tightly closed with a lid with an elongated toe. When using a smoker to fumigate bees in a hive, the smoker is closed with a lid with a regular sock. With the help of bellows, which is an integral part of the device, blowing occurs, which maintains the smoldering state of smoke-producing materials.
Main dimensions of the DPU with a therapeutic sock, mm: height 400, width 118, length 390. Weight 1,450 kg; without a therapeutic sock, 220, 118, 250 and 0.97, respectively.
Instructions for use: when using the smoker, use smoke-forming materials in accordance with the recommendations for beekeeping;
When working in a hive with a smoker, do not touch the body and toe of the smoker to avoid burns. The smoker is carried only by the handle;
When fumigating bees with phenothiazine, the tablet is placed on smoke-forming substances that have been set on fire in advance. Smoker's sock
they are pushed tightly into the entrance and fumigated. Persons working with thermal phenothiazine tablets must be instructed on the procedure and rules for using the drug.
A device for treating bees with phenothiazine vapors by I. P. Doseev consists of a blowtorch, to the nozzle of which a metal tube with a rubber bulb and a metal cup is attached.
Processing technique. A blowtorch is ignited, after the glass is heated to a temperature of 250-300°, a portion of powdered phenothiazine (2-3 g) is poured into it, the glass is tightly closed and it continues to be heated. At a temperature of 37 C, phenothiazine turns into a liquid state and begins to boil, resulting in the formation of gray-white vapors.
Using a rubber bulb, vapors are pumped into the hive through a tap hole for an average colony 26-30, for a weak colony 15-20 impulses into one hive, then into another, etc. Single dose phenothiazine per family treatment is 0.6 g. After treating 8-10 families, the tube is cleaned of plaque with a cleaning rod, the glass is filled with a new sample of phenothiazine and processing is continued.
The advantage of the above device over a medicinal smoker is that the treatment is carried out not with smoke, but with steam, as a result of which harmful deposits on hundred frames are eliminated, and the productivity and efficiency of treatments is increased.
The anti-varroa mesh SPVCH00, SPV-200 is intended for collecting Varroa Jacobsoni mites directly in the hive when treating the bee colony with medicinal preparations. It is installed in the grooves of manufactured hives with an anti-varroa bottom.
Main dimensions of SPV-100 and SPV-200, mm: width 385 and 460, length 460 and 460, thickness 7 and 7. Weight 0.375 and 0.477 kg.
Instructions for use: an anti-varroa mesh is installed inside the hive in special grooves during the spring inspection of bees.
It is recommended to remove the anti-varroa mesh from the hive during the winter.
Bracket for attaching drone honeycomb frames to the main frames when fighting varroa.
Main dimensions, mm: length 20, width 7-10, height 19. Weight 0.0024-0.0035 kg.
The PS mesh stretcher is designed to combat varroatosis by collecting mites as they fall to the bottom of the hive and isolating them from bees, followed by periodic removal.
The stretcher consists of a metal baking tray and a mesh lid.
The dimensions of the subframe must correspond to the internal dimensions of the hive body when the bottom is removed. With a permanent bottom (in beds), two subframes are used, installed side by side, the total dimensions of which are equal to the internal dimensions of the hive body.
Subframes are available in three versions, differing in size.
Main dimensions of subframes
Dimensions, mm: I II III
width 440 440 440
length 440 365 220
height 12 12 12
Weight, kg 1.41 1.25 0.83
Preparing for work. To prevent ticks from crawling and sucking on bees again, Vaseline (medical, veterinary, technical, cosmetic) in a layer of 0.3-0.4 mm is applied to the bottom of the baking sheet with a spatula or wooden spatula.
The mesh lid is inserted into the grooves of the baking sheet, eliminating the possibility of bees passing inside the baking sheet.
Operating procedure. Install stretchers at the bottom of the hive after the spring exhibition of bees and cleaning the bottoms of dead bodies;
install subframes in hives with a detachable bottom in the gap formed when the body is separated from the bottom, and in hives with a permanent bottom the subframes are inserted when the frames are moved to one side;
clean the subframes of fallen mites and apply a new layer of technical petroleum jelly every 20-30 days;
stretchers are removed from the hives during the last autumn inspection before placing the bees in the winter hut.
Device for heat treatment of bees. The device kit includes: camera, cassettes for bees, funnels.
The chamber has a removable double-walled lid, a double-walled body, windows for shaking cassettes, glazed observation windows, a thermal contactor with a relay, 100° thermometers, a mite collection grid, ventilation holes, an electric fireplace or electric stove.
The cassette has a metal frame made of wire or tube with a diameter of 5-6 mm, covered on the inside with a mesh with cells of 2.5x3.0 mm. The mesh is attached to the frame at the base of the upper and lower parts of the cassette. The cassette is closed with a lid made of the same mesh, which is connected to the base of the frame with rings. The ends and front of the lid frame should extend beyond the top base of the frame. The lid mesh is attached to the base of the frame so that the recess fits 20 mm into the cassette. At the front corners of the cover there are the ends of rubber holders with a hook, which, when stretched, engages with the transverse wire of the frame located at a distance of 25 cm from the cover (the holders can be replaced with two springs with a hook). The bottom also fits 20 mm inside the cassette.
Cassette dimensions: height 554 mm; elliptical bottom with axes 400 and 250 mm long; total surface of the cassette 0.742 m2; weight 2.5 kg. The cassette is designed for 1.5 kg of bees.
Funnel. To move bees from the honeycomb frames to the cassette, a special tin funnel is used. The top of the funnel is made wide enough (250x550 mm) so that the honeycomb frame fits freely into the funnel, thus facilitating the shaking process. The bottom base is made as small as possible so that the bees do not fly out. The funnel should completely cover the top of the cassette. To do this, at a distance of 200 mm from the bottom of the funnel, a strip of sheet metal 50 mm wide is welded around the perimeter, and on one side it is bent down 20 mm, which allows you to clearly fix the position of the funnel. It is advisable to attach a layer of foam rubber to this strip of tin from below to ensure a tighter fit of the funnel to the cassette.
Main dimensions, mm: length 500, width 400, height 490. Weight 2.9 kg.
Various electric heaters with a power of 1.5-2 kW can be used as a heat source in the chambers, and in the absence of electricity, for example, a mobile heating unit of the MP-70 type, etc. Electric heating devices must be operated in such a way that the temperature reaches the required level rose quickly enough (the temperature drop during loading of the cassettes should be eliminated in 3-4 minutes) and at the same time the heat source should have low inertia so that after shutdown the temperature in the chamber does not increase by more than 2-3°.
The heat chamber for one cassette is made of plank or plywood, 1200 mm high, 750 mm long and wide. A retractable metal mesh tray (mesh cells 0.5x0.5 mm) is mounted in the lower part of the chamber at a height of 450 mm from the bottom, which ensures uniform heat flow to the upper part of the chamber. The tray also serves to collect ticks, since the ticks on such a mesh remain on top. The thermal chamber cover is mounted on hinges. It has five holes with a diameter of 12 mm - four in the corners and one in the middle. The holes are used to remove moist air generated during the processing of bees. At a distance of 150 mm from the top edge of the chamber, four slats are attached inside the perimeter, which serve to fasten the wire supports of the cassette. The configuration of the supports follows the shape of the ellipse of the side walls of the cassette. The cassette in the heat chamber should not be located closer than 150 mm from the tray grid. Thermometers inside the chamber are installed at the level of the bottom of the cassette opposite the viewing window. Glazed observation windows measuring 450x450 mm are located in the front and rear walls of the chamber. One window is made retractable for placing heating devices through it into the chamber. At the end sides of the chamber there are working hatches 100X100 mm, closed with flaps. Through these hatches the bees in the cassette are periodically shaken during operation. On the side walls of the heat chamber at a distance of 50 mm from the floor there are 10 holes with a diameter of 12 mm for air flow. To maintain the required temperature in the heat chamber, an electric contact thermometer is used, connected to the heating element through a relay. In the absence of a thermostat, the degree of heating of the heaters is adjusted manually.
Beekeeper D. F. Tomakhin made a device for removing bees from the hive and moving them into a cassette. The device allows you to collect all the bees from the hive into a cassette with minimal labor and time.
It consists of a chamber (see figure below) / made of plywood, in the front of which there is a VO-4 fan 2. The fan is separated from the chamber by a mesh 3 with a mesh size of 2x2 mm, middle part The chamber in which the cassette 4 is installed is closed on top with a plywood cover 5. In the back of the chamber, a hive body with a bee colony 6 is installed on the frame. From the frame to the cassette there is a pipe 7, through which the bees move from the body to the cassette. The beekeeper covers each hive body of the bee colony from above with a frame 8 made of mesh with 2x2 mm cells and places it on a frame 9 with a retractable metal bottom. In this form, the housing is placed at the back of the camera on the frame. Insert the cassette into the nozzle, pull out the metal damper 10 and close it with a lid, then turn on the fan. When the fan is turned on, the bees are sucked out of the housing by a stream of air.
Devices for combating varroa:
A - device of D. F. Tomakhin (dimensions, mm); B - formic acid evaporator IMK-1
To speed up the removal of bees from the housing, a flow of air from a home vacuum cleaner is directed along the streets. Within 3-4 minutes, all bees from the hive enter the cassette and undergo processing.
If the family is housed in several buildings, then the bees of each of them are processed in the manner described above. To prevent the bees from scattering when they are shaken out of the cassette into the hive, they are returned to the hive in a darkened room.
Improved processing allows you to process up to 30 bee colonies in 8 hours with less labor and better quality.
Formic acid evaporator type IMK-1 is intended for treating a bee colony in a hive with formic acid vapors when treating bees for varroatosis.
It consists of a body and a cover, which is screwed onto the housing protrusion. Its capacity is 50 ml, weight is 50 g.
Main dimensions, mm: height 30, diameter 120.
Instructions for use: place hygroscopic material (cotton wool, gauze, cardboard) into the housing and pour up to 50 ml of formic acid. Screw the lid tightly onto the housing protrusion;
before placing the evaporator in the hive, the lid should be unscrewed 1-2 turns depending on the required vapor concentration (1 turn creates a gap of 1.5 mm around the perimeter between the body and the lid);
place the evaporator in the hive on a frame above the brood area, cover it with canvas or other material on top;
after finishing the processing, screw the lid tightly onto the body;
To fill the evaporator, completely unscrew and remove the cap, add the required amount of acid, screw the cap tightly onto the body.
Main dimensions, mm: diameter 120, height 30.
The universal automatic thermal chamber “Nectar” is intended for the treatment of bee colonies weighing 1-1.5 kg from varroatosis.
The thermal chamber has a number of advantages compared to other thermal chambers produced by the domestic industry. The heat chamber has automatic temperature control. The beekeeper, at his discretion, can choose any of the bee processing modes.
Basic technical data: rated voltage 220±22 V, power consumption no more than 0.7 kW, ramp-up time no more than 15 minutes, temperature control range from 40 to 48°. Temperature maintenance accuracy ±1.5°.
The main dimensions of the camera do not exceed 700x420x460 mm. Weight no more than 17 kg.
Operating principle, thermal chambers. Treatment of bees for varroatosis consists of treating them at a temperature of 45 to 48° in a rotating drum. At the specified temperature, after a certain period of time, the mite dies and, thanks to intense shaking, is separated from the bees. The bees remain viable.
To treat bees, it is necessary to: set the operating temperature of the thermal chamber;
remove the heat chamber drum and use the loading device to load the cassette with bees;
Place the cassette with bees in the drum, close the lid and insert the drum into the chamber. The bee colony is treated for 12-15 minutes depending on the temperature and in accordance with the instruction manual;
After processing the bees, return them to the hive. To return the bees to the hive, the cassette has a removable bottom.
Device UTP-1 for heat treatment of bee colonies suffering from varroa. The device is portable, positional, installed on the hive instead of its lid, and runs on 220 V AC power.
The principle of operation is based on the method of heat treatment of bees by heating and circulating intra-hive air.
Technical data: power consumption 2.2 kW, productivity when performing the main technological process 2.3 hives/h, processing temperature 46-48 °, temperature deviation from the set one at different points of the hive is no more than 2.0 °, duration of temperature establishment mode up to 7 minutes, duration of heat treatment at steady state 15 minutes, time relay 6RB-30 mechanical with a clock mechanism, maximum shutter speed 30 minutes.
Main dimensions, mm; length 595, width 552, height 400. Weight 13 kg.
The UTP-1 device contains the following main components and mechanisms: a housing, a partition, an electric motor with a fan impeller, a heating element with a casing, a flow-leveling mesh, sealing pads, clamps, a unit for automatically regulating the temperature regime and maintaining the required processing exposure with a thermal contactor and a time relay. It is also equipped with a carrying handle, a power plug, an audible alarm (electric bell), a toggle switch and a thermometer for visual monitoring of the air temperature inside the hive (not included in the delivery package).
Operating procedure. The technological process of anti-mite treatment of bee colonies with the UTP-1 device occurs in the following sequence.
By turning the relay knob, the electric motor with the fan is connected to the mains. Sucking air from the left compartment of the hive, the fan forces it through the casing into the right-hand cavity. Upon contact with the spirals of the heating element, the air heats up and, thanks to the inclined shape of the lid, is directed to the flow-leveling mesh, then through the intercellular space of the hive it reaches its bottom and rushes into the left cavity, from where it is again picked up by the fan. Thus, as a result of the operation of the fan inside the hive and in the cavity of the device, active movement of intra-hive air occurs, the temperature of which gradually increases due to the continuous operation of the heating element. After 5-7 minutes (warm-up time), the air temperature inside the hive rises to 46-48°. At this moment, in the heat contactor set at 50°, the contacts open, which, through the elements of the automatic coolant temperature control unit, acts on the heating element, which turns off. When the temperature of the hive air drops below 46, the thermal contactor turns on the heater again. Thanks to this alternate turning off and on of the heating element (at this time and throughout the entire treatment process, the fan continues to work) in the cavity of the device and inside the hive, a steady-state thermal regime of anti-mite treatment is achieved.
Under the influence of a heated air flow, varroa mites, falling into a state of shock, crumble and are fixed on sticky paper.
At the end of processing in a steady state, the time relay turns off, automatically connecting the power to the electric bell circuit, which notifies the end of the process. In this case, the electric motor of the heating element is automatically switched off. The operator disconnects the device from the network, loosens the clamps and removes it from the hive, and replaces the lid.
A continuous installation for combating varroa was developed and manufactured at the Beekeeping Research Institute. It allows you to process 60 bee colonies per hour and ensures shedding of up to 90% of mites.
The unit is dismountable and can be quickly mounted in the working area of the heat chamber of a special vehicle. Consists of the following parts: two-tier ring conveyor, conveyor rotation mechanism, shaker, column, ring conveyor rotation lock, axle. To collect fallen mites, a sheet steel tray is placed under the conveyor. The kit includes at least 12 cassettes and 3 funnels.
Installation operation. Using heating and ventilation units OV-65, the operating temperature in the heat chamber is set (47C);
the operator places the cassette with bees into one of the tiers of the conveyor through the loading hatch;
Installation for disinfection of honeycombs and equipment
after one minute, the operator, using a lever, turns the conveyor 1/14 of a turn and places the second cassette with bees, but in another tier of the conveyor;
after another minute, turn the conveyor again by 1/14 of a turn and place the next cassette in the tier of the conveyor where the first cassette is already located, etc.; .
after a complete revolution of the conveyor, the first cassette with bees that have undergone heat treatment is removed, and a new one is placed in its place, etc.;
Every 1/8 turn the entire conveyor is shaken.
To ensure continuous operation of the installation (60 bee colonies per hour), a team is created consisting of 4-6 working groups of 3 people each.
Ventilation liners and verandas are needed in apiaries to isolate bees in order to protect them from poisoning while chemically protecting plants from pests. The taphole and upper (vertical) ventilation liners by E. A. Shishkin are common.
The entrance liner is an elongated low rectangular box. The base of the liner is a frame made of wooden blocks, covered with wire mesh that does not allow bees to pass through. The front of the liner is open; it is equipped with a rim with a welt made of tin, adjacent to the outside walls of the hive.
The vertical liner is similar in appearance to a nesting frame. Its frame is also made of wooden planks and covered with wire mesh. The upper part of the liner consists of an iron plate with a hole.
A.G. Ansen's veranda is a combination of a veranda and a drinking bowl. Its base is a wooden frame, the front part of which is covered with wire mesh. On the bottom rail of the veranda there is a hollow, which serves as a drinking bowl for the bees.
Installation for disinfection of honeycombs. The method of disinfection is the introduction into a special chamber with honeycombs of a mixture of methyl bromide and ethylene oxide gases, which kill microbes and other pathogens of infectious diseases of bees located on the honeycombs, as well as wax moths at different stages of its development. The installation, designed by S. Ya. Godyatsky (Beekeeping Research Institute), consists of a vacuum chamber (see figure above) /, tubes 2 supplying gas to it, a cylinder 3 with liquefied gas on scales 4, a vacuum pump 5 and a water bath 6, in which the coil is located. The temperature of the water in the bath is 85-95°, due to which the gas passing through the coil has a constant temperature. The camera can be mobile or stationary. It is most convenient to make a mobile disinfection chamber with a volume of 0.5-1.5 m 3 for non-vacuum disinfection from 15-20 mm boards and cover the inside with sheet steel, soldered at the joints. A stationary chamber of the same volume is made of metal and equipped with a vacuum pump, as well as a three-way fitting for introducing gas and air when purging the chamber after the disinfection time has elapsed.
Blowtorch. It is used in apiaries to disinfect beehives and metal equipment.
Let's get to know the working bees better today and learn interesting facts about bees and sweet honey.
So, let's begin our amazing journey into the world of little working bees...
Do you know, dear reader, that the first bees appeared on our Earth about 70 million years ago! There are 21 thousand species of these amazing insects. The most interesting for us are, of course, honey bees. For 15 thousand years, people have known about the existence of incredibly tasty and healthy honey! Today, you won’t surprise anyone with a jar of the viscous amber delicacy – honey is known in all countries of the world. Nevertheless, you will probably be interested in learning something new about him. For example, how many kilometers do honey bees need to fly to get 100 grams of a natural product? Or how people used honey instead of refrigerator! But the hives floating along the Nile River are, in general, a different story. So, let's begin our journey into the history of the most unusual and sweet delicacy in the world!
Why do bees make honey?
In fact, honey is, first of all, the food of the bees themselves. However, the person also found it suitable (and very tasty!) for himself. To ensure their existence in the autumn-winter period, bees work without sparing their wings throughout the spring and summer. They collect nectar, fertilizing flowers along the way, then process it and carefully place it in honeycombs. When the honeycomb is full, it is sealed with wax. This is how natural honey ripens!
With the onset of cold weather, bees need high-calorie nutrition, because now their task is to be alive... “ventilators”! To maintain the same temperature in the hive, they flap their wings, regulating proper air circulation. This is necessary in order to protect the larvae and laid eggs from cooling or, conversely, overheating.
Bee families are very large and friendly. They are home to, on average, from 15,000 to 80,000 individuals! At the same time, each bee fulfills its purpose. For example, there are “cleaners” who monitor the cleanliness of the combs and “nurses” who provide the uterus with special royal jelly. There are “nannies” who feed the larvae, and there are “builders” who build honeycombs. Nectar collection also follows a clear pattern. Each bee knows its duties: some fly around flowers (which are also called honey plants), and some are engaged in “receiving goods”... It is interesting to observe how some bees seem to comb their sisters, carefully smoothing their pile with the brushes of their legs. These are “hairdressers” who monitor the appearance of members of the entire family. You can’t do it, of course, without “guards” - bees standing guard near the hive. Few people know that there are even “scout girls”! Such bees are responsible for searching for the best flowers and, if necessary, looking for a new place for the family’s nest.
All these duties are performed by worker bees. But the main thing is, of course, the queen bee! She is considered a real queen! It is the uterus that lays eggs (about 200,000 per year), thanks to which the family line continues. After all, bees born in the spring live about 40 days. Therefore, it is very important that new individuals are constantly born. Real royal apartments are built for the queen - separate cells in honeycombs. She is constantly looked after by worker bees, and when she leaves the hive, her “retinue” certainly flies next to her - several bees responsible for Her Majesty’s food! But drones are male individuals, they do not work on an equal basis with working bees, but are only responsible for the reproduction of offspring. There are very few of them in the family - several hundred.
This is how the life of bee families works. They perform their duties very diligently, so they usually store honey in excess for the winter. It is precisely this surplus that man has learned to produce. And, the history of beekeeping itself is extremely interesting...
History of beekeeping
Beekeeping developed gradually. So, in ancient times, people did not think about breeding bees, but were engaged in ordinary hunting for honey. It happened as follows. First, they looked for wild bee families that could settle in rock crevices or ordinary tree hollows. And then they broke out the honeycombs, of course, destroying the nest itself. Honey collected in this way was, of course, very tasty. Yes, only bees died in large numbers...
The man began to think about how to get a treat and not offend the bees. And he decided that he would no longer break anything, but would begin to take only part of the honey from the hollow. Bees began to live quite amicably with people. But you can’t tell insects where to build a “house,” right? And, walking all over the forest looking for families of “your” bees is not very convenient. Then it was decided to cut out hollows for the bees ourselves and place them in one place! A new direction of human activity has emerged, called beekeeping (“bort” is a hollow). The beekeeper (beekeeper) himself chose the clearing he liked, fenced it off, and moved the bees’ nests cut out of the trees. He even moved some families to new “houses” that he built himself.
Only after this apiary beekeeping arose. Apiary is special place, as a rule, near human habitation, where honey bees are bred. Insects live in special hives - artificial nests made by human hands from various materials (wood, straw, and even polyurethane!) At first, hives were made non-removable. These were ordinary logs or sapets woven from straw, which were usually coated with clay. They also hollowed out simple nest boxes, made boxes from boards... But it was impossible to get honey from a non-dismountable hive without destroying it! Only in 1814, beekeeper Pyotr Ivanovich Prokopovich invented the frame system of hives. Now there was no need to build a new home for the bees after each honey collection. Collapsible (opening) hives appeared, in which special frames were placed. After filling them with honey, the frames could be safely taken out.
Now almost every beekeeper uses collapsible hives. They can even be carried from one place to another when nectar needs to be collected from different flowers.
Nomadic beekeeping in ancient Egypt
This is, indeed, where honey was collected in an original way! In Ancient Egypt, the golden delicacy was highly respected. Papyrus scrolls (about 5 thousand years old) that talk about beekeeping have survived to this day. Interestingly, the bee worker herself was even chosen as a symbol of Lower Egypt.
So, the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt loaded beehives onto rafts and lowered them down the Nile, starting their voyage from the place where the honey harvest period had already begun. Slowly floating down the river, the hives moved further and further... Meanwhile, the bees managed to fly around the many flowers growing near the shore, and then returned to the raft. This trick allowed Egyptian beekeepers to collect honey for much longer. By the time honey collection ended in one part of the Nile, it had already begun in another part of the river!
Beekeeping in Rus'
In our country, beekeeping appeared in the 10th-11th centuries and went through all stages of development. Peasants were engaged in beekeeping until the 17th century, when the first apiaries began to appear. By the way, some families in Rus' had more than 500 logs of bees in their apiaries! But in our area, as you know, there is another honey lover. Bear! It was from him that our ancestors needed to protect their farm. Traps were built for the uninvited guest. For example, if a bee family lived in a hollow, then special beaters or even logs were hung from the tree on ropes. They prevented the bear from climbing the tree, he got angry and pushed them away with his paw. This caused the logs to swing even more and hit the thief on the nose. The bear fell to the ground, but the honey remained untouched.
By the way, in Rus' this healthy delicacy was the only sweetener for drinks and food until the beginning of the 18th century, until we had sugar...
"Armor" of beekeepers
Beekeepers are undoubtedly very brave people. They work next to tens of thousands of bees, while we are in a hurry to get away from even one bee! But despite their courage, beekeepers must follow certain safety rules. For example, they use a smoker, an instrument that emits a stream of smoke. The bees do not like him, so they quickly fly away from the person.
Well, the “armor” for beekeepers is, first of all, a protective hat with a mesh for the face and a special suit made of durable fabric. All clothes should be light colors - bees do not like dark colors, and may begin to behave aggressively! Of course, you should also protect your hands by wearing mittens or regular medical gloves. But, some professionals prefer to work without them. They say that they have become friends with bees and are not afraid of them at all!
Although it is impossible to know absolutely everything about bees, beekeepers know them like no one else. Perhaps this is one of the most interesting professions!
White or yellow? Thick or liquid?
How varied is the range of honey! Which one to choose? Firstly, you need to know that absolutely any natural honey is very useful for adults and children (if they are not allergic to it). And, secondly, honey comes in so many different tastes that the best thing to do is try each variety and choose the one you like the most!
Vitamins and useful material, which are contained in honey, help the human body cope with many diseases. Even a book is not enough to tell about all its beneficial properties! And yet, why is honey so different?.. In fact, it all depends on what flowers the bees collected it from, how they processed it, and in general, in what part of the world the apiary is located. Honey can be garden, meadow, steppe, mountain, field... It can be sold directly in sealed wax honeycombs, or it can be pre-pumped out with a special apparatus (called a honey extractor) and packaged in jars. And, of course, it is important to know what honey plants were used by bees. For example, the best varieties include white acacia honey. It has a subtle aroma and looks almost transparent!
There is so-called stone honey. It is collected by wild bees that make their nests in the crevices of the cliffs. This honey in the comb is more like hard candy! This variety is also called “Abkhazian”.
There are also dark honey lovers. For example, buckwheat. This variety has a very bright aroma and taste. Burdock honey, blueberry honey, and even rowan honey can be dark in color.
And, the most amazing thing is the variety of dishes and drinks that can be prepared using honey! You just need to remember that honey should never be boiled, otherwise all of it will disappear. beneficial features. In Rus', housewives made incredibly tasty honey kvass. They also prepared sbiten - a decoction of fragrant herbs (for example, sage or St. John's wort) with honey, pepper and ginger. Now it is difficult for us to imagine the taste of this drink, but a thousand years ago our ancestors drank it with great pleasure several times a day - instead of the usual tea or coffee... They also baked honey cakes and gingerbread cookies. They seasoned the porridge with honey. And, there’s nothing to say about honey pies - it was the most delicious food! Modern housewives also know many recipes. And, of course, we should not forget that this sweet beekeeping product is the first assistant in times of illness. Just brew it Herb tea, and drink a cup, eating aromatic honey, and the cold will disappear, as if it never existed at all!
What other beekeeping products are there besides honey?
Pollen
Bees collect pollen in special “baskets” located on their hind legs. Pollen looks like small grains and can vary in shape and color if collected from different flowers. This is truly one of the richest products in vitamins and microelements! Pollen is used to treat many diseases and for general strengthening of the body.
Perga
Perga is the real “bread” for bees! Even the word “breadbread” itself is translated from Old Slavonic as “bread”. Little honey-bearing workers love to feast on not only honey, but also beebread. Oh, they do it like this... The bees process the pollen brought from the fields and meadows with the help of their salivary glands, then pack it tightly into honeycombs and fill it with a small amount of honey. After this, the honeycombs are sealed, and after three weeks the bee bread is considered ready. Besides bees, people also use it for medicine!
Propolis
Propolis is a resin-like substance that bees process by collecting it from various plants. With its help, tiny “builders” repair the hive, covering up the cracks in it. Who would like drafts in the house?! Oh, and propolis is an excellent antibacterial agent, so it is used to treat the honeycomb cells in which the queen will lay eggs.
Wax
This is a waste product of bees. It stands out on their abdomen. Wax is necessary for the construction of honeycombs. People have learned to use it for their own purposes. Candles are made from wax, which then smell very delicious. It is even used as a thickener for cosmetic creams, and the main ingredient in the production of lipsticks! Cheeses are sometimes coated with wax to prevent them from losing moisture. In general, this beekeeping product is now used everywhere!
Royal jelly
Royal jelly is produced by nurse bees and serves to feed first the larvae of the queen bee, and then the adult queen. This is a very valuable substance that is used by humans in cosmetology and medicine.
- In ancient times, residents of southern countries smeared meat carcasses with ordinary honey and then buried them in the ground. This was the only way to protect food from spoilage until refrigerators became widespread.
- To collect just one hundred grams of honey (this is only a third of a glass), working bees have to overcome a huge distance equal to the length of the equator - more than 40 thousand kilometers!
- And, for one teaspoon of honey, a bee needs to collect nectar from tens of thousands of flowers...
- It is also known that as many as two hundred bees must work on thirty grams of the sweet delicacy, collecting nectar all day long!
- One bee flies about 1000 flowers a day, and works 12 hours a day. During her work shift, she manages to make 10 flights (each lasting an hour).
- There are now about 50 million bee colonies around the world, which annually produce about a million tons of honey.
- Bees are very precise designers! The honeycombs they build always have the correct shape and exact dimensions. Moreover, they chose the most optimal shape for their honeycombs - a hexagon, at the bottom of which there is a triangular pyramid of inverted rhombuses. Because of this, the fragile structure of the honeycomb becomes very strong, since the cells fit together as tightly as possible. Yes, and this “projection” saves a lot of space. Ancient Greek scientists who studied honeycombs came to the conclusion that a bee cell is the most durable and economical vessel in terms of material consumption!
- Bees stay awake for only six months - from March to October, and then go to rest. It is noteworthy that out of six “working” months they collect nectar no more than thirty days. The rest of the time, hardworking insects are busy “repairing” the honeycombs, cleaning the hive and storing the honey itself.
- It is impossible to use the bees living there to produce honey in Africa! It's all about the climate. Bees do not stock up on sweet treats because they are not at all afraid of the onset of cold weather. So Africans have to bring bee colonies from Europe. However, they too quickly realize that the winters here are warm. So beekeeping in Africa is a troublesome business!
- A honeybee can smell the scents of flowers more than a kilometer away, and even recognize which ones contain more nectar! The sense of smell of these amazing insects is developed a thousand times better than that of humans.
- 1. Bee family
- 2. Construction talents of bees
- 3. How do bees defend themselves?
- 4. Interesting facts
Bees belong to a superfamily of insects, the list of which exceeds 20,000 species. There is even a special science - apiology - that studies them.
It's no secret what a bee looks like. They were seen by adults and children on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica. The dimensions of this insect range from 2 mm (dwarf) to 3.9 cm (Indonesian megachilid). The bee's body has a beautiful, striped yellow-black color and is divided into three sections: the upper one is the head, the middle one is the chest (2 pairs of wings are attached to this section) and the lower one is the abdomen. The elongated proboscis is used as a tube with which the bee sucks out the nectar that flows into the crop, turning it into honey there. And upon arrival at the hive, the insect compacts this honey into the honeycomb.
Cartoon about bees
Bees feed on pollen and nectar, obtaining both energy and nutrients from them. Among beekeepers, these honey plants also feast on kandi (sweet honey dough) and sugar syrup. But not all bees produce honey, for example, solitary bees (osmia, leaf cutters) can only pollinate plants and trees, they do not produce honey, and feed the larvae with nectar and pollen.
Bee family
Like ants, bees live in large and friendly families. The number of family members varies depending on the time of year: during the honey harvest period, that is, in the summer, there can be 70-80 thousand, and after a hungry winter - no more than 10-30 thousand.
Bee family members:
- The queen bee is a queen bee who is engaged in a responsible task - laying eggs, that is, future bees; on average, she can lay from 1,500 to 2,500 thousand per day. If the queen gets sick or stops laying eggs, she will be immediately replaced by one of the princesses specially preparing for this. In a bee colony, only the queens bear fruit; the rest do not have a developed reproductive system for this. The queen bee is the best protected and fed, because the future of the whole family depends on her;
- worker bees are honey producers. They bear the entire burden of responsibility for the hive: protection, cleaning the territory, feeding the children. Each of these tasks is carried out by separate working family members;
- Drones are unfertilized larvae that do not benefit the hive. Their main task is to give their seeds to the queen so that she can successfully lay eggs. They do not bring honey; all summer they do nothing but eat what the worker bees have obtained. With the onset of cold weather, the drones are driven out of the hive.
Small larvae lie for a long time in the cells of the honeycomb, where nurse bees take care of them. When the larva develops into a pupa, it is sealed in the honeycomb until it is time to be born. When this moment comes, the already mature individual gnaws through the seal and comes out. It takes 21 days for worker bees to be born.
At first, a young bee does not collect honey, but learns and gains experience: it works in the hive, builds honeycombs, and guards its home. When the time comes, it is sent on the first flights - special familiarization expeditions, as a result of which the insect looks for a source of pollen and nectar, that is, flowers. After the scout returns with information (the bees find their way home unmistakably, no matter how far they fly), a detachment of honey collectors is sent to the clearing.
Construction talents of bees
Honey-bearing insects are universally recognized builders. They make their own wax, from which they build honeycombs, which are used as cradles for larvae, as well as storage for honey and bee bread.
Honeycombs consist of cells shaped like hexagons, all edges of which are tightly interlocked with other cells. Many scientists who have studied the life of bees note that the construction of honeycombs is like a complex mathematical calculation: each of the cells is the same size and ideal hexagonal shape, they require a minimal amount of wax - no more than 1.4 g per hundred cells, but they are incredibly durable.
The initial color of new honeycombs is cream, but over time, they darken and pests can infest them. Therefore, responsible beekeepers always make sure that there are no old and unusable honeycombs in the hive.
How do bees defend themselves?
Bees are not only producers of honey, but also responsible defenders of their native hive from uninvited guests eager to feast on their reserves or young larvae.
Bees do not attack without reason, however, there are several things that insects do not tolerate and become more nervous and dangerous for anyone who accidentally gets caught near the hive:
- Strong and pungent odors of sweat, perfume or alcohol: if protective bees smell a person emitting such aromas near the hive, they will attack him as a group.
- Smells from animals: goats, horses, dogs.
- The smell of poison is a signal for a massive bee attack. If one of the protectors stings, other insects immediately smell the poison and rush into battle.
- If the weather is bad, the bees become more angry, and at this time it is better not to be seen by them.
The sting of honey plants looks like a small needle from a syringe with bristles at the end that cling to soft fabrics person or animal. Having stung, the bee leaves a sting and a vial of poison in the person, which gradually flows into the wound. Left without its weapon, the bee also loses part of its intestine and glands, and soon dies. However, if she stings another insect: a wasp or a hornet, the sting does not come off, and, having pulled it out, the defender can attack again.
The hive is guarded by young large bees who keep their post next to the entrance to it. To identify an enemy, it is enough for them to smell him: this way they unmistakably find out who is theirs and who is a stranger. The queen bee never stings a person or animal; the only case when she can use her weapon is in a battle with a rival.
If sting alone is not enough, bees can also use tactical maneuvers:
- they stick around the enemy and carry him out of the hive;
- they surround the stranger with a tight ring and, fluttering their wings, heat him up so that he suffocates.
If the enemy is too heavy and cannot be taken out of the hive, the bees will propolis it (cover it with a sticky, resinous substance - propolis).
The life structure and talents of honey insects are one of the most amazing and interesting phenomena in nature. Everyone will be curious to know the following interesting facts about bees:
- the beekeeper penetrates the hive without fear of being bitten, or drives away the swarm with smoke. However, it does not calm the insects with smoke: thinking that a fire is starting, they collect a strategic supply of honey, and with their bellies full, they can no longer release their stings;
- bees were used by commander Richard the Lionheart as a weapon: on the battlefield, soldiers threw vessels filled with them at their opponents;
- to tell the family about a new source of pollen, bees use a special dance: a circular dance if the clearing is nearby, and a figure-of-eight dance if they fly far away;
- insects can fly 8 kilometers from their home and find their way back without any problems;
- on a rough surface, a honey plant can drag a load more than 300 times heavier than itself;
- To get one spoonful of honey, 200 bees need to work all day, and the same number of workers will be involved in the hive to process and seal the honey in the combs.
Loading...