The anti-war methods of beekeeping should be familiar to every beekeeper, since they need to be able to use them in order to control the natural process of reproduction of insects. If you leave the swarm unchecked, the family of bees that bring honey can break up, which will reduce the amount of honey produced.
Classification and basic principles of methods
Beekeepers have developed several techniques that prevent the swarming of bees. All methods of preventing the reproduction of insects are classified into two main types:
- Obstructing swarm and not allowing swarm in families.
- Leading the battle with the results of the process.
It is worth noting that any of the selected techniques cannot eliminate the craving for swarming completely and forever. Each of the methods can only restrain insects, suppress their desire for a natural process for some time.
Demari's Way
The essence of the technique is the use of hives with two buildings. The beekeeper must have time to increase the living space for his wards. Thus, the queen will have enough space for laying eggs. At the bottom of one building, the beekeeper installs gratings to control the life of the queen bee.
In beekeeping, three main variations of the Demari technique are actively used:
- In the habitat of the bees, the uterus and the brood frame remain, other frames are installed in another housing. Then they are separated using a lattice, placing honeycombs and wax in them.
- The queen is left in the combs, young individuals are sent to other buildings of their home.
- The brood with the queen of bees remains in the hive.
Witwitz method
The basis of this method was the bursting of the nest. In order to reduce the desire for reproduction in bees, the beekeeper takes an empty extension and separates the nest. All the energy of insects is directed to work and the desire to occupy free space, and they simply do not have time to swarm.
Dernov's technique
M.A. Dernov developed three ways to combat swarming:
- Formed from bees, a swarm is transferred to the basement during the day and the brood is selected. In the evening, the insects are returned to their main home and add an extension. Individuals begin to work and stop swarming. Young insects go to the nest, where a weak family lives.
- Their bees move their owner to another hive, which they put where the family was swarming. The dwelling with them is turned the other side and set close to the new one. Insects stop swarming and begin to destroy queen cells, their housing is put in its original place. Then they return to their queen.
- The old queen is destroyed, but a printed motherboard is left. So that there are not too many new queens, new mother liquors are removed.
Taranov Method
The anti-war method G.F. Taranova consists of several stages:
- The swarm is separated from the bee family.
- Insects must collect honey in the goiter.
- The beekeeper fumigates the hive.
- An artificial swarm goes to another home in a couple of days.
Selection work
The work of insect breeding consists in the selection of sloppy queen bees and bees that are physically strong. A new generation of bees is being bred from selected individuals.
Male individuals for fertilization of the uterus are chosen from calm families. To reduce the number of males prone to swarming, their brood is destroyed.
When choosing a queen, you need to pay attention so that she is purebred. The best queens come from generations that have not swarmed for a long time.
If it is difficult to get a queen of pure breed on your own, then you can buy it from experienced beekeepers who specialize in mating.
Uterine change and dual uterine maintenance
The change of old queens to young is the planned work of the apiary owner. Young queens are more fertile and able to rapidly increase the bee family, which positively affects the amount of honey collected.
Change of queen bees is made in the spring. In the hive where the queens are replaced regularly, insects tolerate winter well and are not so aggressive. New uterus also secrete special pheromones, which are enough to suppress the desire of other individuals to reproduce.
To prevent swarming, beekeepers use the dual-uterine containment method. Another queen sits down in a hive with a strong family in a building fenced off from the main dwelling. The uterus itself will not crawl through such a lattice, but other individuals will be able to freely penetrate to it.
Additional open brood
This method is considered by many beekeepers to be very effective. Insects, as a rule, have a small amount of open brood, and royal jelly is produced to feed it in a larger quantity than necessary. In this regard, they begin to eat this valuable product themselves.
After the insects overeat royal jelly, their reproductive system begins to develop, they lay unfertilized eggs. Soon, such individuals begin to make up the majority of the inhabitants of the entire hive, which leads to swarming.
If the beekeeper takes the printed brood from the dwelling of the bees and leaves it open, as well as honeycombs with wax, then the insects themselves will not eat royal jelly, but will feed the young. All of them will be occupied by posterity, and their desire to reproduce again will disappear for a while.
Cutting swarm mother liquors
This anti-war method is considered one of the most radical. Its outcome will be positive if the trees and grass bloom, and the bees get carried away by honey collection, stopping the swarming.
The swarming process can be stopped if you remove all the swarm mother liquors and their larvae. But this is dangerous because the beekeeper will have to disturb other individuals by dismantling the brood nest. In addition, it is very difficult to find absolutely all queen cells, since their location can be hidden by the bees themselves.
Separation grid
A separation grid is installed to separate the brood from the insect queen. To do this, the upper hive body is removed, then a lattice is installed, which separates it from the lower case, where brood is concentrated.
It is very important at this moment to ensure that the uterus does not run down, so it is better to remove it from the home at the time of its reconstruction.
The grill is installed over the entire area of the hive. Its slots are placed parallel to the bars of the frames above them by 7-8 millimeters.
Layering
With this method, against the swarming of bees, their dwelling is opened and a little smoke is released there. Some individuals will immediately leave the upper hull and move to the lower.
The upper part is removed and set aside in another place, and the ceiling is attached to the lower part. It is rotated 180 degrees. Next, the removed upper case with brood is placed on it, and a letok is opened in it.
Some of the bees after this manipulation return to their previous place of residence, and the other part, not finding it, flies into the summer letting.
Division of families for half a summer
To combat swarming, the method of dividing families for half a summer, the apiary owner must adhere to the following instructions:
- If the beekeeper’s pets have good years, then a new hive without tenants is substituted for the swarming family.
- In the new place of residence, half a hundred of the old hive is established with brood, honey and individuals remaining on the combs.
- In the event that there is still no uterus, the best mother queen is installed in the new dwelling, and those that remain in the first hive are destroyed.
- Both houses for bees are set opposite each other, and their doors are located at the same height.
Returning from the honey collection, insects cannot immediately understand where their old dwelling is, and they settle in different hives. After applying this technique, the beekeeper receives two beehives, in which individuals of different ages live. Some of them are able to collect honey, while others grow and develop at this time to replace them.
Uterine plaque
One of the ways to stop swarming is a raid on the uterus or mother liquor. This method is resorted to when the swarm has already begun and the insects lay the queen cells.
When applied to a spare housing of bees, a bottom made of plywood is attached. The framework where the uterus is placed is transferred to it. In the former main building of the hive, two frames with brood and mother liquor are left. They add frames with food, sushi and cover with a piece of canvas. At the top of the old building is a spare one, which now houses the main family of bees engaged in honey collection.
How to prevent swarming?
Beekeepers should know and be able to prevent the swarming of bees. The main conditions are sufficient food in the hive and comfortable housing for insects, for example, multi-unit devices or hives, sunbeds.
Beginning beekeepers should also adhere to the recommendations:
- Set up a hive. To expand bee housing, replace the framework in it, monitor the amount of wax and honeycombs, as there should be enough of them. There are two ways to increase the house for bees, namely, active and passive. In the first case, the bees themselves explore new areas for housing. In the second, the insects finish building the combs in the hive, if the beekeeper does not forget to set a new framework on time.
- To carry out breeding work. That is, to control all the life processes of insects, clean families that have a great tendency to swarm, get rid of unproductive bees and select the best queens. Watch drones and remove them from the hive in time.
- Do airing. In the summer, the bee dwelling must be constantly aired so that the insects do not overheat.
- Choose a good location. Insects need favorable conditions for collecting honey, so the apiary should be located where there are many flowering plants. When the bees are passionate about honey collection, they lose the desire to swarm.
In addition, the beekeeper must form anti-warbings, that is, new dwellings for bees that are separated from the main family. The process of their resettlement is also controlled by the owner of the apiary.
Sometimes, beekeepers, on the contrary, need a swarming process, and if for some reason the bees do not want to carry it out, then the artificial swarming method is used for these purposes.
Any of the above methods can reduce the swarm of insects and send them to honey collection. Using any methodology, the beekeeper will be able to maintain healthy bee colonies, increase the productivity of his apiary and solve the problem of swarming several generations of insects forward.
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