CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What are the common methods used by beekeepers for autumn reproduction?

Autumn breeding is an important management step for bee colonies. As the temperature gradually drops in summer, the worker bees have survived the high temperature in summer. The workload of heat dissipation and cooling down is reduced, and the temperature difference between day and night gradually increases, which is beneficial to the protection of the bee colony's spleen. At the same time, the external nectar plants gradually begin to bloom and flow nectar. After the summer rest, the queen bee in the bee colony can feel the worker bees collecting pollen and honey back to the nest, and the queen bee's egg laying rate gradually increases. However, at this time, beekeepers can use the "autumn breeding" technology to manage the bee colony and allow the bee colony to enter the state of autumn reproduction and development in advance. The bee colony can breed more new bees and improve the colony's honey-collecting ability.

The "three tricks" of bee colony propagation in autumn, why beekeepers should not be greedy for honeycombs, the reason is here: managing bee colonies during the propagation period is not managing bee colonies during the nectar flow period, when you can add honeycombs to the bee colonies at will. "Autumn propagation" is more suitable for weak colonies. In fact, autumn propagation is a conceptual term for bee colony propagation. For example, in the process of spring and autumn propagation, beekeepers are trying to help weak colonies recover their colony strength. Therefore, in the process of bee colony propagation management, beekeepers pay attention to the three elements of bee colony, nectar source and feeding management.

There are fewer worker bees in weak colonies. As the outside temperature gradually drops in autumn, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the feeding and honey-collecting abilities of the colonies are weak, feeding management can reduce the workload of worker bees going out of the nest to collect nectar during the autumn breeding season. At the same time, it can increase the feeding enthusiasm of worker bees and the egg-laying enthusiasm of queen bees in the colony. At this time, beekeepers perform "tightening" work on the colony to increase the density of worker bees on the honeycomb, which can improve the quality of the brood, allowing the queen to lay as many eggs as possible on the honeycomb, and the brood becomes more beautiful.

Beekeepers can be "greedy for combs". As weak colonies reproduce and develop in autumn, there will be more bees than combs in the colony. When the third generation of brood combs in the colony are capped, add combs to the colony. At the same time, feed the colony with honey water to increase the colony's enthusiasm for making combs. The new bees have a stronger wax secretion ability, and the colony can rely on external nectar sources. This situation will appear on the foundation frame, with worker bees making combs and queen bees laying eggs at the same time.

If the beekeeper adds honeycombs to the bee colony too quickly, the number of new bees in the colony will be insufficient, and the colony's feeding capacity has not yet been reached, the queen bee will lay eggs on the empty honeycombs, the honey stored in the colony will be consumed faster, the worker bees' feeding and collecting workload will increase, and the worker bees will be unable to protect the brood combs, resulting in smaller brood circles on the honeycombs, as well as other situations that are not conducive to the colony's autumn reproduction.