Method for efficient hatching of honeybee larvae for breeding strong colonies

Abstract

The application discloses a method for breeding strong colonies of honeybee larvae with high efficiency, and belongs to the technical field of honeybee breeding. The method comprises the following steps: after overwintering, two colonies are put into one beehive, and the colonies are separated by a queen separator for outdoor spring breeding; during the outdoor spring breeding, the queenless larvae in the colonies are taken out, put into a beehive with a feeding device at the bottom for indoor incubation, and a queenless feeding colony is formed; after the queenless feeding colony is completely covered, the queenless feeding colony is moved out of the room, and is gradually added into the outdoor breeding colony, so that the queenless feeding colony is hatched out of the room; the indoor incubation step is repeated until the external temperature is stable, and honey powder sources appear. The method has obvious effects on breeding strong colonies and increasing production, has important significance for improving the economic benefits of the beekeeping industry, and provides a guarantee for the development of the Chinese bee industry.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of bee breeding, and in particular to a method for efficiently hatching bee larvae and breeding strong colonies. Background Art

[0002] Beekeeping is a traditional and distinctive aquaculture industry. While producing abundant bee products, it also uses bee pollination to boost production, income, quality, and efficiency in agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry. Maintaining strong colonies and achieving high and stable yields is a common goal in beekeeping. However, numerous factors affect the reproduction of strong colonies in beekeeping practice. In northern China, particularly during spring propagation of overwintering bee colonies, the relatively low temperatures and scarcity of nectar make it extremely difficult to produce strong colonies. Furthermore, conventional breeding practices hinder the queen bee's ability to fully lay eggs due to the low fertility of overwintering worker bees. Consequently, honeycombs cannot be added to expand the hive within 30 days of spring propagation, resulting in delayed overwintering bees and slow colony reproduction. Bee diseases are particularly prevalent during the larval hatching period, making it difficult to maintain a strong colony, directly impacting the economic benefits of beekeeping. Summary of the Invention

[0003] The present invention aims to provide a method for efficiently hatching honeybee larvae and breeding strong colonies, thereby overcoming the problems of the prior art. The method not only effectively breeds strong colonies but also significantly increases production. This method is of great significance for improving the economic benefits of the beekeeping industry and provides a guarantee for the development of my country's beekeeping industry.

[0004] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following solutions:

[0005] The present invention provides a method for efficiently hatching honey bee larvae and breeding strong colonies, comprising the following steps:

[0006] S1. After the bee colonies have overwintered, place two bee colonies in one beehive, separated by a queen excluder, for outdoor spring propagation.

[0007] During outdoor spring breeding, the queen bees are removed from the larval honeycombs within the bee colony and the bees are placed in a beehive equipped with a feeding device at the bottom for indoor incubation, forming a queenless breeding colony. Once all the larval honeycombs in the queenless breeding colony are capped, they are removed from the hive and gradually added to the outdoor breeding colony to allow them to emerge from the hive.

[0008] S3. Repeat step S2 until the outside temperature stabilizes and a powder source appears.

[0009] Furthermore, in step S1, one queen bee is placed in every 2.5 to 3 beehives to form a bee colony; one honey and pollen comb and two honeycombs are placed in the bee colony; and the queen bee is a double-cross queen bee.

[0010] Furthermore, the queen excluder is sealed tightly with newspaper so that the bees in the bee colony can bite it open by themselves to prevent the queen from being surrounded.

[0011] Furthermore, in step S1, it also includes the steps of keeping the bee colony warm outside the box and feeding it as a reward to promote the queen bee to lay a large number of eggs.

[0012] Furthermore, in step S2, the larval honeycomb bees in the bee colony are taken out 5 to 6 days after spring breeding.

[0013] Furthermore, in step S2, after the larvae and honeycomb bees in the bee colony are taken out, it also includes adding a honeycomb to the bee colony where the queen bee is left, so that the queen bee can continue to lay eggs.

[0014] Furthermore, in step S2, the temperature of the indoor incubation is 25-30°C, the humidity is 60%-70%, and there is no light or dim light indoors.

[0015] Bees also generate heat while feeding their larvae. When the indoor temperature is controlled between 25 and 30°C, the core temperature of the hive easily reaches between 34 and 35°C, which is perfectly suitable for larval hatching, allowing the brood to cap quickly and densely. However, if the room temperature is too high, the larvae are easily damaged by heat during hatching, which affects the hatching efficiency of the brood.

[0016] Furthermore, during the indoor incubation period, the bee colony is fed with water at the nest entrance and is fed with honey and pollen in a timely manner.

[0017] Furthermore, in step S2, when the outdoor bred bee colony has bred to 7 to 8 frames, queen bee rearing is carried out. After the queen bee leaves the hive, artificial swarming is carried out using the capped honeycombs of the queenless breeding colony.

[0018] Furthermore, in step S1, before outdoor spring breeding is carried out, the method also includes the steps of promoting bee excretion, cleaning the beehive and treating mites on the honeycombs for laying eggs when the outside temperature is higher than 7°C.

[0019] The present invention discloses the following technical effects:

[0020] According to the climate, nectar source characteristics and biological characteristics of bees in the north in spring, the present invention adopts a method combining double-queen reproduction, the use of a queenless colony to feed bee larvae and artificial indoor breeding to breed strong colonies, thereby achieving high and stable yields in bee breeding. In the same box, the use of double-queen reproduction, compared with single-queen reproduction, compresses the space by half, which makes the temperature between the honeycombs relatively higher, which is more conducive to the reproduction of bees; the use of the biological characteristics of the strong feeding ability of the queenless colony to form a queenless feeding colony, and then the larvae are hatched by artificial indoor control, and the brood combs have a high capping density; during the indoor larval hatching period, there is no contact with other bee farms, so the hatched larvae are healthier, reducing the probability of the bee colony inducing bee diseases, and the hatched bee colony swarms early and grows strong quickly.

[0021] Years of breeding practice have proven that the method of the present invention not only has a significant effect on breeding strong colonies, but also has a significant effect on increasing production. It is of great significance to improving the economic benefits of the beekeeping industry and provides a guarantee for the development of my country's bee industry. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail. This detailed description should not be considered as limiting the present invention, but rather as a more detailed description of certain aspects, features, and embodiments of the present invention.

[0023] It should be understood that the terms described herein are intended only to describe particular embodiments and are not intended to limit the present invention. In addition, for numerical ranges herein, it should be understood that each intermediate value between the upper and lower limits of the range is also specifically disclosed. The intermediate value within any stated value or stated range, and each smaller range between any other stated value or intermediate value within the stated range, is also encompassed within the present invention. The upper and lower limits of these smaller ranges may be independently included or excluded within the scope.

[0024] Unless otherwise indicated, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art. Although only preferred methods and materials are described herein, any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein may also be used in the practice or testing of the present invention. All documents mentioned in this specification are incorporated by reference to disclose and describe the methods and / or materials associated with the documents. In the event of any conflict with any incorporated document, the contents of this specification shall prevail.

[0025] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations may be made to the specific embodiments described herein without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description of the invention. The description and examples are intended to be illustrative only.

[0026] The words “include,” “including,” “have,” “contain,” etc. used in this document are open-ended terms, meaning including but not limited to.

[0027] Example 1

[0028] (1) Choose a day with no wind or light wind and an outside temperature above 7℃ to promote bee excretion for the overwintering bee colony, clean the hive, and treat the honeycombs for laying eggs. Place one queen bee (double-cross queen bee) for every 2.5 frames of bees, and place one honey and pollen honeycomb and two brown honeycombs for the queen to lay eggs, so that the honeycombs are proportional or slightly more than the honeycombs, and make preliminary adjustments to the overwintering bee colony.

[0029] (2) After the adjustment in step (1), every two bee colonies are placed in a standard box, and the colonies are separated by a frame-type queen excluder sealed with newspaper. Every four colonies are kept warm outside the box, and the colonies are rewarded and fed to encourage their queen bees to start laying eggs in large quantities. The outdoor bee colonies officially begin spring breeding.

[0030] (3) Five days after the spring breeding of the outdoor bee colony, when there is sufficient sunlight outside and the temperature is above 10℃, all the larval honeycombs with bees (without the queen bee) in the bee colony are taken out. At the same time as the larval honeycombs are taken out, one sterilized honeycomb is added to each bee colony to facilitate the queen bee to continue laying eggs. Every 7 larval honeycombs are placed in a special foam beehive (with a feeding device at the bottom of the beehive), and one honey honeycomb and one pollen honeycomb are added to the beehive. Cover with a cloth, a gauze cover and a beehive cover to form a queenless breeding colony. Gently move the queenless breeding colony into the indoor hatching room, place it in a single colony, remove the beehive cover, and open the beehive door after the colony stabilizes. During the indoor hatching period, water the colony at the nest door and feed it with honey and pollen in time. Keep the room quiet, with a temperature of 25℃, a humidity of 60%, and no light. Do not open the box to check the colony during the hatching of the larvae.

[0031] After the larval combs are hatched indoors for 8 days, wait until all the larval combs are capped, choose good weather, move all the queenless breeding colonies outdoors, and add their capped brood combs one by one to the outdoor breeding colony to allow them to emerge from the hive.

[0032] For outdoor bred bee colonies, when the number of bee frames reaches 7, they start raising queens. When the queen leaves the hive, they are artificially swarmed using sealed honeycombs hatched indoors.

[0033] (4) Repeat step (3) until the outside temperature stabilizes and the honey powder source appears, and then stop this operation.

[0034] Example 2

[0035] (1) Choose a day with no wind or light wind and an outside temperature above 7℃ to promote bee excretion for the overwintering bee colony, clean the hive, and treat the honeycombs for laying eggs. Place one queen bee (double-cross queen bee) for every 2.5 frames of bees, and place one honey and pollen honeycomb and two brown honeycombs for the queen to lay eggs, so that the honeycombs are proportional or slightly more than the honeycombs, and make preliminary adjustments to the overwintering bee colony.

[0036] (2) After the adjustment in step (1), every two bee colonies are placed in a standard box, and the colonies are separated by a frame-type queen excluder sealed with newspaper. After the treatment, every six colonies are kept warm outside the box, and the colonies are rewarded and fed to encourage their queen bees to start laying eggs in large quantities. The outdoor bee colonies officially start spring breeding.

[0037] (3) After the sixth day of spring breeding of outdoor bee colonies, when there is sufficient sunlight outside and the temperature is above 10°C, all larval honeycombs with bees (without queen bees) in the bee colony are removed. At the same time as the larval honeycombs are removed, one sterilized honeycomb is added to each bee colony to facilitate the queen bee to continue laying eggs. Every seven larval honeycombs are placed in a special foam beehive (with a feeding device at the bottom of the beehive), and one honey honeycomb and one pollen honeycomb are added to the beehive. Cover with a cloth, a gauze cover and a beehive cover to form a queenless breeding colony. Gently move the queenless breeding colony into the indoor hatching room, place it in a single colony, remove the beehive cover, and open the beehive door after the colony stabilizes. During the indoor hatching period, water the colony at the nest door and feed it with honey and pollen in a timely manner. Keep the room quiet, with a temperature of 28°C, a humidity of 65%, and dim light. Do not open the box to check the colony during the hatching of larvae.

[0038] After the larval combs are hatched indoors for 9 days, wait until all the larval combs are capped, choose good weather, move all the queenless breeding colonies outdoors, and add their capped brood combs one by one to the outdoor breeding colony to allow them to emerge from the hive.

[0039] For outdoor bred bee colonies, when the number of bee frames reaches 7, they start raising queens. When the queen leaves the hive, they are artificially swarmed using sealed honeycombs hatched indoors.

[0040] (4) Repeat step (3) until the outside temperature stabilizes and the honey powder source appears, and then stop this operation.

[0041] Example 3

[0042] (1) Choose a day with no wind or light wind and an outside temperature above 7℃ to promote bee excretion for the overwintering bee colony, clean the hive, and treat the honeycombs for laying eggs. Place one queen bee (double-cross queen bee) for every three frames of bees, and place one honey and pollen honeycomb and two brown honeycombs for the queen to lay eggs, so that the honeycombs are proportional or slightly more than the honeycombs, and make preliminary adjustments to the overwintering bee colony.

[0043] (2) After the adjustment in step (1), every two bee colonies are placed in a standard box, and the colonies are separated by a frame-type queen excluder sealed with newspaper. The 6 processed bee colonies are kept warm outside the box, and the bee colonies are rewarded and fed to encourage their queen bees to start laying eggs in large quantities. The outdoor bee colonies officially start spring breeding.

[0044] (3) After the sixth day of spring breeding of outdoor bee colonies, when there is sufficient sunlight outside and the temperature is above 10°C, all larval honeycombs with bees (without queen bees) in the bee colony are removed. At the same time as the larval honeycombs are removed, one sterilized honeycomb is added to each bee colony to facilitate the queen bee to continue laying eggs. Every seven larval honeycombs are placed in a special foam beehive (with a feeding device at the bottom of the beehive), and one honey honeycomb and one pollen honeycomb are added to the beehive. Cover with a cloth, a gauze cover and a beehive cover to form a queenless breeding colony. Gently move the queenless breeding colony into the indoor hatching room, place it in a single colony, remove the beehive cover, and open the beehive door after the colony stabilizes. During the indoor hatching period, water the colony at the nest door and feed it with honey and pollen in a timely manner. Keep the room quiet, the temperature at 30°C, the humidity at 70%, and the room dark. Do not open the box to check the colony during the hatching of larvae.

[0045] After the larval combs are hatched indoors for 10 days, wait until all the larval combs are capped, choose good weather, move all the queenless breeding colonies outdoors, and add their capped brood combs one by one to the outdoor breeding colony to allow them to emerge from the hive.

[0046] For outdoor bred bee colonies, when the number of bee frames reaches 8, they start raising queens. When the queen leaves the hive, they are artificially swarmed using sealed honeycombs hatched indoors.

[0047] (4) Repeat step (3) until the outside temperature stabilizes and the honey powder source appears, and then stop this operation.

[0048] Comparative Example 1

[0049] Same as Example 3, except that steps (3) and (4) are not included.

[0050] Comparative Example 2

[0051] The same as Example 3, except that in step (2), each adjusted bee colony is placed in a standard box.

[0052] Comparative Example 3

[0053] Same as Example 3, except that, in step (3), when the outdoor bee colony multiplies in spring, when the larval spleens in the bee colony develop into pupal spleens, they are taken out without the bees.

[0054] Comparative Example 4

[0055] Same as Example 3, except that in step (3), the temperature of the indoor incubation is 35° C. and the humidity is 75%.

[0056] Between April and July of the same year, the hatching and honey production of the bee colonies treated with Examples 1-3 and Comparative Examples 1-4 were statistically analyzed, and the average hatching and honey production of the different treatment groups were calculated. The results are shown in Table 1.

[0057] Table 1 Hatching and honey production of bee colonies under different treatments (April to July)

[0058] deal with Average hatching volume (box) Average honey yield (kg) Example 1 18.5 25.7 Example 2 18.3 26.1 Example 3 18.8 26.9 Comparative Example 1 13.6 17.5 Comparative Example 2 17.1 21.4 Comparative Example 3 14.7 18.3 Comparative Example 4 15.3 20.8

[0059] As can be seen from Table 1, when the methods of Examples 1-3 of the present invention are used to artificially treat the bee colonies after wintering, the subsequent average hatching amount and average honey production of the bee colonies are significantly improved, proving that the method of the present invention can artificially hatch bee larvae and thus efficiently reproduce stable and strong colonies.

[0060] The embodiments described above are merely descriptions of preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Without departing from the spirit of the present invention, various modifications and improvements made to the technical solutions of the present invention by persons skilled in the art should fall within the scope of protection defined by the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for efficiently hatching honey bee larvae to reproduce strong colonies, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: S1. After the bee colonies have overwintered, place two bee colonies in one beehive, separated by a queen excluder, for outdoor spring propagation. During outdoor spring breeding, the queen bees are removed from the larval honeycombs within the bee colony and the bees are placed in a beehive equipped with a feeding device at the bottom for indoor incubation, forming a queenless breeding colony. When all the larval spleens of the queenless breeding group are capped, they are moved outside and gradually added to the outdoor breeding bee colony to allow them to emerge from the hive. S3. Repeat step S2 until the outside temperature stabilizes and a powder source appears; In step S1, one queen bee is placed in every 2.5 to 3 beehives to form a bee colony; one honey and pollen comb and two honeycombs are placed in the bee colony; the queen bee is a double-cross queen bee; In step S2, the indoor incubation temperature is 25-30°C, the humidity is 60%-70%, and there is no light or dim light indoors; during the indoor incubation period, the bee colony is fed with water at the nest entrance and honey and pollen are fed in a timely manner.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The queen excluder is sealed tightly with newspaper.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that In step S1, it also includes the steps of keeping the bee colony warm outside the box and feeding it with rewards.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein In step S2, the larval honeycomb bees in the bee colony are taken out 5 to 6 days after spring breeding.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein In step S2, after the larvae and honeycomb bees in the bee colony are taken out, the process also includes adding one honeycomb to the bee colony where the queen bee remains.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that In step S2, when the outdoor breeding bee colony has bred to 7 to 8 frames, queen bee rearing is carried out. After the queen bee leaves the cell, artificial swarming is carried out using the capped honeycombs of the queenless breeding colony.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that In step S1, before outdoor spring breeding, the steps of promoting bee excretion, cleaning the beehive and treating mites on the honeycombs for laying eggs are also included when the outside temperature is higher than 7°C.