How do bees spend the winter?

It is a very troublesome thing for bees to spend the winter, but as long as we take good care of them, they will certainly be able to get through the cold winter safely and diligently collect honey for us next year. So, how do bees spend the winter?

I. place selection

At the end of November each year, when the colony gradually enters the overwintering period, the door of the hive faces north and moves to a half-clouded and half-sunny place. The colony will enter the overwintering period from December to March. At this stage, the beehive should be placed in the sunny, very irritable, quiet place that can be sheltered from the wind. Don't leave the beehive in the shade throughout the winter. Studies have shown that during the overwintering period, if placed in the shade, the mortality rate of bees is very high, and the living ones will also get belly disease.

Second, temperature

1. Heat protection: the best temperature for bees to survive the winter is between 0 and 9 degrees Celsius. During the overwintering, bees hug each other and go into a state of dormancy. If the temperature exceeds 9 degrees for a long time, the bees will be active for a long time, so the feed will be consumed very much, the aging speed of worker bees will be accelerated, and the production period will be delayed. At this time, the beehive can be sprinkled, ventilated and so on to cool down.

2, cold protection: if during this period of time, when the temperature is below 3 degrees below zero, the activity of bees will also be very large. Mainly eat more feed, convert calories, and then often swing the body to generate heat. This consumes a large amount of feed and shortens the lifespan of worker bees. During the day, the beehive can be taken to the sun, and the doors and windows should be closed at night. If there is a loophole in the beehive, it should be repaired in time.

Third, the group potential is moderate

The group potential is preferably made up of 9050 bees. If the number of groups is not enough, you can use the method of double kings, or merge the weaker ones into other groups. In this way, you can reduce the consumption of feed, but also better heat preservation. And each spleen can basically have 2600 insects and bees, if there are many bees, they should be taken out.

Fourth, heat preservation and prevention of bee mites

It is necessary to keep the hive warm in December. The bottom of the hive should be covered with straw 11 cm thick, or grain husk, and straw should be used to surround the hive. Generally, double queen bees and weaker groups can not keep warm. When there is rain and snow, it is necessary to cover the beehive with plastic sheeting to keep out the rain and snow. At the end of November, all bee mites will be on the surface of the spleen, which will be treated slowly once every 2 days, about 3 times in a row.

Storing sufficient fodder

Each basket of bees should be fed 2.1 kilograms of high-quality feed, which will basically convert calories before they can survive the winter safely. When feeding, don't let the feed crystallize. There are basically two ways to make the feed not crystallize, one is to feed the feed, to use high-quality honey, such as jujube nectar, sweet-scented osmanthus nectar, etc.; the other is to feed the food, you can use white sugar solution. At this stage, it is better to use high-quality honey. If inferior honey is used for feeding, the remaining residue will be more and the digested part will be less, so it will be easy to make the feces and intestines not fit, so you will suffer from a big belly disease very much.