Bee Kingdom. Part Four

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

This part will be the final part of our journey through the bee kingdom. Consider the main criteria for wintering bees and some diseases

Wintering of bee families

For a successful wintering of bees, winter-hardy breeds of these insects are needed, you need to proceed from the region in which you live and choose a breed that is better adapted to your place of residence. We also need strong families who do not need additional care in winter. One of the reasons for the death of bees is the lack of food in the winter, or the insufficient number of individuals in the family. Likewise, irreparable damage is caused by the death of the uterus and disease. The approximate amount of food per hive is 30 kg, the main thing is to correctly set the frames with fodder honey, otherwise your bees will die of hunger, even if they have enough food in the hive. It is also important to know exactly how young the bees are, the young stand better with bad weather than old insects. Wintering is an important period in the life of bees; the productivity of the family in the next season depends on the outcome of wintering.

Wintering should be prepared in advance, so that later there will be less hassle, the end of August, the beginning of September is best suited. Build or repair winter houses, dry and whitewash them from the inside with lime. The combs that you freed from honey are placed in extensions, wrapped tightly with foil and sent to an unheated room until the next season. Also, if this does not bother you, you can disinfect them with acetic acid, which leads to the death of the spores of the nozema, which causes the disease of bees - nosematosis. Remove unnecessary magazines, extensions and housings from the hives. Examine families for queens and food, make sure there are combs for laying eggs, and remove unnecessary ones.

In the first months of wintering, the beekeeper must check the microclimate of the winter house 2 times a month using a psychrometer, it is also important to know how much food the insects have consumed, this will require scales, we talked about them in the third part. Examine the floor of the winter house, determine how many bees have died. The hive should not smell unpleasant. In the second half of winter, they go to winter houses once or twice a week. The psychometer readings and the mass of the control hive are recorded in a special notebook. The even and calm hum of the bees indicates a successful wintering, and the excited state indicates that the bees are freezing and damp. The temperature is controlled by increasing or decreasing the ventilation holes. As soon as the weather begins to warm and becomes more or less stable, you can open the doors of the winter house for the night. If the spring is cold, then the hives are insulated.

With high humidity in the winter house, honey turns sour, and perga becomes moldy. Bees who consume such honey begin to suffer from diarrhea. To reduce humidity, the ventilation winter house is opened wide, and in the hives, the hives are opened. Low humidity causes thirst and increased feed intake. Too dry air leads to the crystallization of honey, which insects cannot eat. To increase humidity, wash the floor more often in the winter house and hang up wet rags.

Common diseases

It does not happen that someone from the family gets sick, and the rest do not. All insects are susceptible to disease. Because of diseases, the entire apiary suffers, most often the damage is caused by prematurely dead young bees. The collection of honey, wax and other beekeeping products is reduced. Decreases activity, shortens the period of life. Such bees can be sold by unscrupulous beekeepers.

Diseases are different - infectious and non-infectious. Non-communicable diseases arise as a result of improper care and compliance with conditions of detention. There are also poisonings, almost like in people, is not it? Although bees can themselves get rid of dead or weak bees, they cannot do without human help. Non-infectious diseases include chemical toxicosis (poisoning of bees with chemicals) and honeydew toxicosis (poisoning of bees with honeydew honey), cold brood (occurs due to sudden changes in weather conditions) and frozen brood (when the entire brood dies due to interspecies crossing).

Infectious diseases - nosematosis (accompanied by diarrhea and mass death of bees), acarapidosis (invasive disease of adult bees that affects the respiratory system), varoatosis (a common disease of brood, worker bees, drones and queens., braulosis (the causative agent is adult brawli, their larvae and pupae. They eat bee bread and honey, which weaken the family). American foulbrood (affects sealed bee larvae), European foulbrood (infectious disease, causative agent of bacillus alvei, streptococcus apis, pluto. Causes rotting of larvae and sealed brood), sac brood (larvae of older age are affected, otherwise similar to foulbrood), salmon hafniasis and oscillacteriosis (accompanied by diarrhea in bees and their death). Also septicemia (occurs due to the bacteria apisepticus, adult bees die).

It will be very difficult for a beginner to identify and cure all these diseases. Don't try to do it yourself. Call knowledgeable people for help, look, study, then the apiary will find a competent specialist in your face. See a veterinarian specializing in bee diseases. He will tell you what to do. You shouldn't try to heal families yourself. You can only make the situation worse.

That's all. Thank you for your attention.