Beekeeping in Hunan, how to manage bees in summer
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? I am a rural teacher in Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. I have been teaching in the countryside for 30 years. After completing my teaching work, I persist in beekeeping in my spare time and have been doing beekeeping for 20 years. Year.
? Yongzhou City, Hunan Province has a humid subtropical climate. The climate characteristics are: no severe heat in summer, no severe cold in winter, short winter and spring, long summer and autumn, and relatively distinct four seasons.
? The main nectar sources in Yongzhou area in summer are Chinese tallow tree and Ligustrum lucidum tree. The flowering period of these two nectar plants is from May to June. After these two nectar plants pass, autumn honey cannot be produced until the gallnut flowers bloom from the end of September to October.
? Therefore, July to August in Yongzhou is a period of shortage of nectar sources. This period also coincides with the drought season, the weather is hot, and the temperature sometimes reaches as high as nearly 34 degrees. This is the most critical period of the year for bee management in the Yongzhou area. A slight oversight or poor management will lead to a weakening of the bee colony, or even cause the bees to flee. So how to manage bee colonies during this season?
? I think it is necessary to achieve good health, shade and sun protection, balance the group situation, and humidify and cool down.
Wang Youmizu: Try to complete the king replacement work before the summer. During the summer of bees, the new queen bee should reach 80% of the total number of queens. Be sure to leave enough honey before oversummer. The capped honey can be seen on the side spleen of the beehive.
? Shade and sun protection: Move the bee farm to a cool forest as much as possible. Do not place the beehives in a place exposed to the sun. The air circulation in the apiary should be good.
? Balance the colony: The stronger the bee colony, the stronger the bee colony's ability to self-regulate the temperature and humidity in the hive. Therefore, before oversummer, some weak bee groups can be merged into large groups.
? Humidification and cooling: When the temperature is high at noon, artificial watering can be used to cool down, or the bee box covering cloth can be wetted with water to humidify and cool down.
In addition, in midsummer, pay attention to using observations outside the box to understand the production and living conditions of bees inside the box, and reduce observations inside the box to prevent bee theft. At the same time, when the temperature is high in summer, it is the period when nest worm activity develops rapidly, so at this time, attention must be paid to controlling the damage of nest worms to the spleen.