Is it possible to raise a queen bee under control? Queen bee hatching lessons for beginners

18.10.2019 -

One of the necessary skills is withdrawal of queens. There is a whole branch in the science of beekeeping called queenkeeping. Let's look at what withdrawal methods exist and which one is easier for beginners to learn.

Basic requirements for bee colonies

Let's consider the process of breeding queens for ourselves or for sale. Before starting this difficult work, it is necessary to study the system that was developed by beekeepers for breeding queens. The process of breeding queens begins with choosing the families that will give birth to them. It is on the quality of the parents, that is, the uterus, that all future characteristics of the offspring depend. Young queens, who are placed at the head of these families, bear all responsibility for the productivity and strength of families. Thus, the choice should be made among the strongest, healthiest and highest quality. Scientists who study beekeeping say that hatching of young queens can be carried out independently even in small apiaries.

Be guided by the following criteria:

the most important thing for a beekeeper is honey productivity bee family;
the year-round strength of family;
cold resistance;
resistance to disease and good health.

You can find information about each family in the apiary in the logbook that every responsible beekeeper must keep. Work on preparing the family begins a year before the established withdrawal date. During this time, you can further increase the strength of the family that goes for the winter. It is also necessary to carry out some preventive measures before bees winter:

check the quality that the family produces;
clean and disinfect, give fertilizer that will stimulate the bees, and thus protect the hive from nosematosis;
Give food that does not crystallize.

Before breeding young queens in the spring, it is necessary to finally replace the old queens that have overwintered with new, just born bees. This way you will hatch young queens without orphaning the bee colony. The replacement process is completed at the beginning of the last month of spring. Hatching will produce results sooner if stimulated by feeding carbohydrates or proteins.

Important! Also, for this, you can improve the conditions in which insects live, namely, insulate the hive and make protection from the wind, you can move the hive out of the wintering place earlier.

After you have completed replacing old queens with young ones and obtaining sealed brood, you can form families that will further raise young queen larvae. Beekeepers claim that such a raising family should have at least two and a half kilograms of bees, four frames of beebread, and about eleven kilograms of honey.

Hatching drones

Beekeepers carry out this process in the very first days after they remove the hives from their wintering grounds, because the insects take about a month puberty. To breed drones, you need choose one of best families apiaries.

In such a family, it is necessary to narrow the nest to the minimum possible size, leaving frames in the hive dedicated to breeding (honey, beebread). Thus, the queen will not be able to lay eggs in full. Then a drone comb is placed in the center of the nest. In apiaries where drones and queens are systematically reared, special cages with insulators per frame are used.

Did you know? Bees have been making honey for over 150 million years.

The drone comb with the queen should be placed in an insulator only after it is in the center of the nest. The queen will lay eggs 4 days after this, the insulator is transferred to the community nest and a new comb is installed. The colony in which drones are bred must be fed with sugar syrup or honey daily.

Important! From time to time you need to reinforce it with seven frames with printed bee brood.

Methods for breeding queens: sequence of actions

Before starting this process, a novice beekeeper needs to remember that it requires skill, knowledge and strictly follow the instructions:

Take a block separated from the main family of insects by a Hahnemannian lattice. Move the frame with the queen there. This block should have at least 4 frames, 2 coverts with feeding, and 2 with open brood. The queen should rest in these frames for a week, after which 4 more frames should be added, filled with the brood of other families.
The resulting insect family will make large number queen cells when the young bees are released from the sealed brood. This will happen in 9 days.
5 days after completing the previous point, other families need to be seated in half with a partition with a Hahnemann grid. For 9 days, use this block as a layer, because at this time the open brood will be sealed.
Next you need to make an insulator for 1 frame. It is necessary to prepare a new sushi from the foundation for some time, but you should not fill it with complementary foods, and hang it in this frame. A week later, transfer the rested queen to the indicated empty frame. Place the Hahnemann grid on the edge, leave the empty queen and queen in the maternal family.
Many large eggs will be laid on one side, which the rested queen will produce over the next couple of days.
It is necessary to deliver 4 frames from the mother hive to the reserve hive. The queen needs to be transplanted from the isolator into such a hive. Another 0.5 liter of water and brood with bees are usually added to the honeycomb.
Deliver the honeycombs from the insulator to a room with high temperature, then cut it into strips. Crush every 2 eggs, leaving only every third. This is done to thin out the queen cell. Take special grafting frames; honeycombs pre-cut into strips must be attached to their bars. Distribute the specified frames so that they alternate in the maternal family with the usual frames.
To grow insects, place three frames of queen cells in half of the previously divided hives. There are no eggs in them, since the queen of insects is placed behind a partition. A grafting frame should be placed in each half of the hives. Next, the insect family will grow queen cells and bring them enough royal jelly. Don't forget to leave one of the vaccination frames in the maternal family.
At the end you should have layerings placed in the empty hives. Take them out into the area eleven days after placing the queen in the isolation ward. Attach comb to each layer and sealed queen cells to the last layer. Arrange the maternal families on two layers. Leave the queen cells in the layering as reserve material.

Natural Methods

Natural reproduction of bees- this is the easiest way to breed queen bees, given by nature. It is necessary for the insect family to go into a swarm state. If you create the most comfortable conditions for swarming in the hive, this process will speed up significantly. Three frames with brood should be placed in the hive, the entrance should be covered, and there should be no frames without brood. Then wait until the queen cells are laid, and form layering on them and the new frames. The laying of queen cells cannot be correctly predicted, which is a clear disadvantage of this method. There is also no need to talk about the quality of the queen cells.
Another natural way is fistulous queen bees. The main plus is hatching insects at the right time. This method is currently very popular among beekeepers. Insects must be forced to lay fistulous queen cells. Select a strong colony, find a queen in it and transfer it and two frames of brood to a new hive. Use it to shake off bees from several frames. You will receive a ready-made layer that needs to be placed in a permanent hive. Queenless bees from an old hive should lay fistulous queen cells, but you should also ensure that they are only on mature larvae (or cut them off). The quality of the resulting queens is better than in the previous method.

Did you know? In order to get one spoon of honey, 200 bees need to work all day.

Artificial withdrawal

Artificial hatching of queen bees presented in two simple ways.

At the very strong family select a frame with young brood and eggs. Cut a 3 x 4 cm hole on top. Remove everything lower walls cut and leave 2 larvae. Place the frame in the nest of a queenless colony, after a few days you can check the laying of queen cells. Start cutting off the fistulous queen cells when the bees have laid the required number. If you don't find any queen cells, then there is a queen in the hive that is not doing well. You will get high-quality material using this method, but use the insect hatching calendar.
The second method is used if you want to get 5-10 insects at the same time. In a strong family, place the queen in a two-frame insulator. Place here a frame with mature brood and a frame with cells for laying. Cover the structure with frames on the top side; the queens will not be able to escape. Place the insulator back into the colony between the brood and the frames. Start forming a nucleus, which consists of three frames (with dry food, honey and brood from the insulator), after a few days. Next, add individuals from several frames there, and place a queen from the insulator. Take the frame with fresh brood into the house, cut off the lower border of the beginning of the appearance of larvae. After which you have the opportunity to put the frame back to the family from which the queen was taken. After a few days, all that remains is to check the bud and remove all the fistulous queen cells. A couple of days before the royals appear, cut out the queen cells, then put them back to ripen. Place the mothers in the nucs after hatching.

Other methods

Most used and most simple methods We described the hatching of the queen bees. They are the most popular among the majority of beekeepers. All others are based in one way or another on these methods. Newer methods have not yet been fully developed in practice, so novice beekeepers are not recommended to use them.

13.12.2016 0

We'll talk about how to independently infer queen bees: basic techniques and how to work with a calendar. Sooner or later, any beekeeper has to purchase or independently breed new queens for bee colonies. After all, the old ones may die, fly away, or stop producing the desired brood.

Life of bees

Different types of bees in the hive perform their own type of work. And the queen bee is the center of the hive, without which it will not last long. After all, it is she who lays the larvae, from which both worker bees and drones emerge. Depending on what the young brood is fed, certain types of individuals will appear.

So, if you feed them only royal jelly, a new queen bee will appear. And if you feed them with honey, then worker bees will grow. In nature, a new queen appears as a result of swarming bees and new queen bees fly away with part of the hive, creating their own separate colony.

For people this natural method is not suitable, since it does not provide for any control over the family and you can lose most of the bee colonies just before the honey harvest season. Therefore, there are several options for how to breed the number of queens you need exactly when you need it. Thanks to artificial methods, you can learn how to hatch queens from scratch, even without much beekeeping experience.

Different methods mean that the same method may not work in every region. Therefore, a lot depends on the climate, terrain, weather conditions and the bees themselves. Which one is right for your apiary can only be understood over time, by experimenting and trying different methods.

Natural swarming

In nature, a new queen is hatched only when the process of swarming bees begins. This usually happens when there is no longer room in the colony for new worker bees and the hive is ready to split into several new colonies. Similar conditions can also be created artificially.

To do this, simply remove the empty frames and leave only those completely filled with brood. Then the bees actively begin the process of swarming and laying the so-called queen cells.
If you decide to use the simplest and most natural method, borrowed from nature, then you need to compact the colony at a certain point, take away the extra frames and wait for the bees to lay the queen cell. Now they are being layered.
But this method is now little used in beekeeping, since you cannot predict the quality of the future queen, nor the number of new individuals. The main danger is that you may not notice the appearance of new queens, and they will leave your hives with most of the worker bees.

Creation of fistulous queen bees

This method is also more natural, created by nature for emergency restoration of the queen in the hive if she accidentally died.

in this case, the usual laid larvae for breeding working individuals in urgently are converted into queen cells by the bees themselves;
In the apiary, this method is very often used both independently and in addition to other artificial methods. This is an opportunity to very quickly create a large number of new queen bees;
However, there are also disadvantages. In this case, the honeycombs most often deteriorate when you have to cut them off, because the queen cells are in close proximity to each other.

Emergency method

Artificial breeding of queens was invented by people taking into account the vital activity of bees. Only by understanding what the bees will do in one case or another can one predict when and how a new queen will appear. One of the simplest and quick ways in beekeeping we will describe further.

We take a frame with ready-made brood from the strongest family. In this case, it is imperative to protect the frame from the bees, so as not to drag the queen bee along with you.
We put such a frame in a new home. In this case, you can cut a small hole in this frame, and also remove the lower walls, leaving only two larvae. You don’t have to do this, but rearrange the entire frame as it is. They move such a frame with larvae to the family that has lost its “queen”.
Thus, in the first hive, the queen will continue to create new brood, and in the second, from the transferred larvae, the bees will quickly create queen cells and they will have their own queen bee.
If you do not find fistulous uterus, this can only mean that the uterus is still present there. This means that we need to look for the reason why she stopped producing brood.

Method with insulator

in this case, a good queen from a strong family is placed in a so-called insulator and installed in a well. The insulator is made of two frames and grilles. A frame with brood and an empty frame for laying new larvae are placed next to it. The main thing is to lay the structure on all sides so that the queen does not have the opportunity to escape;
When the queen has laid the brood we need, we place her back between the frames with the larvae. And we create the nucleus ourselves. To do this, select a frame with dry food, honey and freshly made brood in the insulator. We throw several bees there, chickening them out from other frames. We place the uterus there;
then fresh brood at high temperature and moisture content is cut to the lower border and placed in the same body from which the uterus was taken. We cut off the queen cells and place them in the nucleus and wait for the finished specimens to ripen.

A similar method of breeding queens is proposed by Gennady Stepanenko, who often shares beekeeping tips with beginners. With this method, it is important to use a hatching calendar so as not to miss when and what needs to be done.

Nicot system for breeding queens

In order to create new queens using the Nicot method, you should have some equipment available. This:

Cassette made of dividing grid and lid.
Bowls and holders for them.
Plinths for attaching to the frame.
Ready cells for future queen cells.

All this can be purchased ready-made and you can simply use Nicot to hatch queens through the system. Initially, the cassette is installed in the center of the frame. To do this, free space is cut out in it. It must be firmly attached to the frame. Next, you need to make a so-called grafting frame and clean the cassette.

The uterus is transplanted into the finished device. A family-educator is formed separately. Now the grafting frame is moved to this colony and the entire process of maturation of the larvae is controlled, until the appearance of the finished queen bee. The queen hatching calendar will help you with this. In this case, the queens are hatched without transferring the larvae from hive to hive.

Kashkovsky method

According to the method of the scientist Kashkovsky, the following procedure is performed.

Each bee colony helps the young queen to hatch independently. At the beginning of the honey harvest, a layering is made, where frames with worker bees, an old queen, already sealed brood, honey and beebread, wax and dry land are transferred, and a few workers are also shaken off. Leave such cuttings for a month in a warm place;
In the old hive, bees actively begin to create fistulous queen cells at this time, since that same emergency period has begun for them. Next, the beekeeper culls and leaves only the best and largest larvae;
over time, they remove the old queen from the layer and unite the family again into one hive, but with a new young “queen”.

Video: breeding queens from scratch.

Basic requirements for quality breeding

So that your efforts are not in vain, and the result is sure to please you, you should adhere to some rules of beekeeping:

The first and most important thing is that work is carried out only with strong families in the apiary. After all, only from a strong family can you confidently get the same good and high-quality queens.
Removal of queens most often occurs in the spring, early May or summer, when the good temperature, and young bees have the opportunity to fly around.
To fertilize eggs in an apiary in mandatory drones must be present.
An important condition is to ensure optimal temperature conditions and air moisture, especially if you move the frame with brood from the hive for some time.

Working with the calendar

The queen hatching calendar is used in almost all artificial methods of breeding queen bees. After all, you need to carefully monitor which day to carry out which procedures, do not forget about the vital activity of the bees, the number of days of maturation of the larvae, etc. There are two options for what the queen hatching calendar looks like. This can be a multi-colored table or two cardboard circles connected in the center.

The strength of any bee colony largely depends on the queen's ability to quickly and effectively scarlet. After all, this is what ensures the availability of labor, as well as the presence of the required number of drones.

It is believed that a queen bee can worm for 8 years, but it is also generally known that she is most effective in the first two years. Some experienced beekeepers completely rely on bees in this matter, leaving the family to carry out the change of queens themselves. However, for those who want to increase the efficiency of their apiary, it is worth paying maximum attention to this issue. After all, even a current-year-old queen almost always (90%) carries out better seeding compared to an overwintered one, and even more so with an older individual.

Important! In addition to increased efficiency, a young queen prevents many problems that may arise for the beekeeper during the development of the family:

Possibility of swarming;
Disturbance of the balance between open and printed brood;
The need for frequent expansion of the nest or the formation of anti-swarm layers.

The main condition for withdrawal good queens is the presence of a rich bribe. This will provide a sufficient amount of high-quality food for raising the larvae. If the weather is bad and there is not enough food, the queens will be lightweight, with a reduced number of egg-laying tubes, and, accordingly, lower productivity.

That's why best period for work of this type - spring and summer (until the middle). An exception may be the southern regions, where honey production is abundant even in autumn. For central Russia, the signal for the start of queen hatching is the flowering of the first honey plants, as well as warm sunny weather.

Important! However, for the queen to start worming, drones are needed. Their development in the cell lasts 21 days and another 10 days. required for puberty. For the uterus this period is about 20 days. Provided that one-day-old larvae were taken for hatching. Therefore, with the appearance of drone brood, preparations begin for the hatching of the queens, and after about two weeks the queen cell is laid.

A queen cell is a honeycomb cell specially built or enlarged in size for the hatching of the queen bee. Under natural conditions, bees lay queen cells in the presence of one of the changes in the life of the bee colony:

In anticipation of swarming;
If the queen bee dies, wears out or becomes ill (this is how fistulous queens are removed).

Swarming queen cells are larger in size and hang from the comb like an elongated acorn. For fistulas, they simply expand the usual cell cell; they are smaller. It is easy to distinguish the queen cell from a regular honeycomb by its elongated dimensions - its length can reach 2.4 cm.

The swarm queen is the queen of the bee colony, followed by half of the swarm. It is highly productive and more valuable. Fistulous uterus It is slightly smaller in size and is not as productive compared to the swarming one.

Queen cells also differ in color - swarm cells are darker, since their construction is carried out by individuals at least 25 days old. Having wax glands that are no longer as active, they take used beeswax for construction. Whereas fistula queen cells are completed on finished combs with new wax.

Important! When found queen cells, the beekeeper releases the swarm, and then cuts out the queen cells for layering, leaving one in the colony. When transferring, extreme care should be taken: cut out together with a piece of honeycomb, avoid shaking, changing t, or turning over. You can tell that the uterus has come out and everything is fine by the nibbled, even hole at the lower end. If there is a hole in the side of the cocoon, this means that the queen was killed by bees or there is already a queen in the hive who destroyed her rival.

To initiate the independent establishment of queen cells, beekeepers use simple methods:

Swarming. The process can be provoked artificially by increasing the number of working individuals. To do this, 3 frames with brood are placed in the colony, the entrance is closed and 3 frames without brood are removed. Thus, the number of young individuals increases sharply, and the family is divided. The queen flies off with the swarm, and the bees, left without a queen, are forced to raise a queen for themselves. However, in such a scenario, it is difficult to predict the timing of its withdrawal;
Fistula queen bees. In this case, the queen, along with the brood and several frames of bees, is transferred to another hive (about half) next to the old one. The frame on which the queen was sitting is returned to the old hive. A window measuring 10-15 cm (length) by 4-5 cm (width) is cut out below the 1-2 day old larvae. Here, the bees left without a queen lay fistulous queen cells. Every third larva is removed because queen bowls are more large size. The beekeeper's task is to ensure that the larvae for the queen cells are immature (optimally - 1 day). Mature larvae are not suitable for hatching queens and must be destroyed.

Important! To obtain high-quality young queen bees, only developed, numerous colonies are used. Natural reproduction is also achieved in the presence of the queen bee through a barrier lattice. In this case, the family behaves calmly, and from 5-6 fistulous queen cells, the largest individual is selected, since size is a sign of productivity.

To artificially obtain queen bees, several methods are used, the simplest and most accessible of which are the following:

A family with good quality indicators is selected and a frame with eggs and young brood is taken from it. A small hole (3 by 4 cm) is cut in the upper third of the combs, and the lower edges of the cells are removed. Only 2 larvae are left in the row. The frame prepared in this way is placed inside the hive, where the queen is absent, and after a few days they check how the bees are rebuilding the queen cells. Some beekeepers do not make holes, but simply place frames with larvae, citing the fact that the bees will better choose the larvae suitable for the queens;
To simultaneously obtain 5-6 queens at once, the queen is transferred to a two-frame insulator, consisting of egg frames and already mature brood. It is covered with frames on top so that the queen remains inside. The structure is placed in the hive, and on the 4th day a nucleus is formed: brood from the insulator, a frame with honey and dry food. The queen and worker bees from 2-3 frames are also placed here. A frame with new larvae laid by the queen is prepared in a separate room: the lower border of the comb is cut off at the place where the larvae begin. After this, she is placed back in the hive;
Another way to obtain a large number of queens at the same time is to use artificial grafting frames on which up to 30 bowls cast from wax are placed. This breeding of queen bees is well described in the video from the very beginning to the placement of young queens in new colonies. In this case, the larvae are transplanted from the honeycombs into artificially made bowls. Some beekeepers attach cut pieces of honeycomb with 1-day-old larvae to the grafting frame. With this option, beekeepers avoid damaging the larvae during transplantation.

Important! When the queens are preparing to emerge from their cell, the queen cells are cut out, selecting the best of them, and each is placed in a separate cell until the queen emerges. Large plastic syringes with holes for ventilation are used for the cage. A little food is added to the cages. This is done so that when the uterus emerges early, it does not die of starvation.

For successful implementation When working to obtain productive queens, you should follow the recommendations of experienced beekeepers.

What not to do:

Breed queens without pure breeding material;
Shake honeycombs with larvae or queen cells;
Allow royal jelly to dry out during grafting;
Do inbreeding;
Carry out work in the absence of optimal temperature and humidity (+28 +30˚С and 80-90%).

For grafting, use binocular glasses, a diode flashlight, and also a “Chinese” - a special spatula that captures royal jelly along with the larva;
To obtain large eggs, place the queen in an insulator;
Select larvae for grafting from the middle of the comb and of approximately the same size;
About 30% of queen cells are discarded, so to obtain the required amount, take this fact into account when planting;
Discard small, crooked, overstretched queen cells;
Feed the caring families with protein food.

Important! The most productive queens are obtained by selection on one breed of bees. In this case, there is a guarantee of hereditary transmission of characteristics. Interbreeding does not have such prospects.

Hatching of queen bees on our own does not present any particular difficulties if there are large purebred families and suitable conditions. However, it requires some experience and knowledge, as well as increased care when performing each stage of work.

Hatching queens for a novice beekeeper - video

For those new to beekeeping, breeding queen bees can be quite a challenging task. There are certain ways, which will greatly facilitate this work. Let's get acquainted with them!

A novice beekeeper simply cannot do without a calendar! It is in it that you will find all the deadlines within which it is necessary to complete certain work in the apiary!

Structure and manufacturing

This calendar is usually divided into two parts. First you need to cut out the outer disk, marked with large numbers that indicate the month and day.
Each part of the calendar is glued to cardboard or plywood.
Both disks are connected in the center with a bolt.

Usage

Let's say that we place a grafting frame with bowls and one-day-old larvae in a nursery family on May 9th. We need to set the number 4 on the central disk opposite the number 9 on the outer disk (that is, the date of vaccination). The numbers are fixed in this position. Now you can see that the control inspection must be carried out on May 11th. That is, to understand how many larvae the bees accepted for rearing, eliminate low-quality queen cells, and on May 19 select the queen cells and place them in the nucs.

The calendar indicates that the start of egg laying by the queen bee can be controlled from June 3rd.

Martyanov's method

Martyanov has developed a simplified method of breeding queens; this is a method of quietly changing queen bees, which is used by many novice beekeepers. Queens come out of high quality, and time and labor costs in beekeeping are significantly reduced.

Terms

Any bee colony tries to raise as much brood as possible. This method of hatching depends on many factors: the strength of the bee colony, the availability of feeding, terrain and condition environment. If a colony grows in strength and begins to raise drone brood, it means it is preparing to swarm. The intensity of swarming depends on the habitat of the honey bee.

Quiet shift

In some cases, swarming does not occur at all, especially if the queen bees are removed by quiet rotation. As a result, the resulting colonies can grow a large number of bees, which, even without supplementation, collect up to 150 kg quality product. After the main bribe, the bees do not lose their strength. The main thing is not to forget to expand the nest in time.

Brood formation

As practice shows, with this method, brood appears in the center of the bee nest, and then the queen bee occupies the next honeycombs, moving from the center to the edge. There are always young larvae and eggs in the brood circle. In this case, frames with such brood are ideal. In the nest, these frames are located along the edges. In the spring, you cannot place foundation and honeycombs in the cut of the nest itself. For this method of breeding bee colonies, it is best to use not vertical hives in the apiary, but bed hives.

Works

You can save yourself the trouble of searching for the uterus. You just need to divide the whole family in half, and the frames with larvae and eggs will end up in both halves. You can separate the family with a hive partition or an insert board. Both halves of the family settle in different hives in the apiary. The main thing is that their entrances are located in the same place. Bees move between entrances without problems, and both hives are perceived as one nest. The insects feel like one family, and half of the family, in which there is no queen, begins to lay the necessary queen cells of a quiet shift.

Final stages

When the queen cells are finally ripe after 10 days, the family can be divided completely.

Video “Bringing queens from Ilyin Maxim”

1

In the first part of the video, Maxim Ilyin talks about artificial inference queens. How to organize the breeding of queens from scratch: instructions for beginners and experienced beekeepers.

2

Secrets of mass queen hatching: In this part you will learn how to make your own queen cells and queen bowls.

3

What to do after the uterus leaves the queen cell? How to measure the temperature inside a hive with queens? See the following video for answers to these questions.

4

Watch more videos on this topic!

The strength of the bee colony depends on the fertility of the queen. The number and quality of working individuals in the swarm depends on its ability to reproduce quickly. IN good conditions the queen lives 3-6 years. However, already in the second year, its activity begins to subside. There is a need for replacement.

Independent breeding of queen bees for many beekeepers - current problem. Not only the future of the family, but also the entire apiary depends on a well-structured process.

The main criterion for breeding a strong uterus is a good bribe. Strong larvae will grow only on high-quality food. Under unfavorable weather conditions and lack of nutrition, females will emerge small and have low productivity.

The hatching of drones is carried out earlier than the laying of the queen cell. Males stay in the cells for 3 weeks. For full puberty it takes about 10 more days. Therefore, preparations for hatching queens begin only with the appearance of drone brood.

Basic rules for breeding queens

To breed a strong queen, you need to follow certain rules:

Weed out bee colonies with weak seed material.
Choose strong, healthy nests with high productivity and winter hardiness.
Begin the process of breeding queen bees only after sealing the drone brood.
Create ideal incubation conditions (temperature, humidity).
Use large larvae.
Carry out work strictly in accordance with the calendar.

Family choice

For breeding of drones and queens, selection begins with the “parents”. It is from them that young individuals inherit the necessary characteristics.

Main selection criteria:

high productivity of honey collection for several years;
winter hardiness;
uterine fertility;
disease resistance;
weak tendency to swarm.

Tribal families are divided into two groups: patrilineal and maternal. Usually, out of three dozen selected bee colonies, the best 2-3 are left for breeding queens. All the remaining ones are used for the production of drones.

Important!

Families selected for breeding should not be related.

Paternal and maternal material must be taken of different origins. A strong swarm is taken from another bee farm. It must be located at least 20 km away.

How to distinguish the uterus

The Queen Bee spends all her time in the hive. She just lays eggs. It leaves the house when it is needed for mating. However, without her there is no family.

The main female of the nest is distinguished by a number of characteristics:

thickened, long abdomen;
lack of baskets for collecting pollen;
no wax mirrors;
slightly bent sting;
body length - from 19 to 25 mm;
weight - from 180 to 300 mg;
the tips of the wings do not reach the end of the abdomen.

Insects serving the queen feed her only royal jelly. When the time comes to swarm, she is not fed. She feeds herself on honey. Loses weight and takes flight.

Family preparation

To breed new breeding individuals preliminary work It is recommended to start a year in advance. Additionally, they build up the strength of families before wintering and carry out a number of preventive measures:

checking the quality of beekeeping products;
preparation of high-quality feed;
disinfection of hives;
disease prevention.

They begin breeding queens only in the spring after a complete replacement of overwintered individuals. The family must have at least 4 frames of bee bread and 10 kilograms of honey. A strong swarm usually weighs more than 2.5 kg.

What to do with the queen bee

The queen cell is sealed after laying out after 8 days. A female needs 17 days to develop. A working individual requires 4 days more.

The uterus, having reached maturity, comes out by gnawing the top of the queen cell. She can destroy the remaining cells. In order to obtain a complete hatch of females, the larvae are covered with cells. They are given royal jelly every day. Young insects should not be left in isolation for a long time. They are put into nuclear hives, specially designed for temporary housing of a small family.

Insects are thoroughly checked. If defects are found, they are destroyed.

Important!

If the breeding females are successfully bred, the extra individuals are not disposed of. The required number is used for layering, the rest are sold.

Artificial withdrawal methods

The process of self-production of queens usually does not cause any particular difficulties. However, this requires:

experience;
knowledge;
conditions;
the presence of purebred families.

Important!

Fertile queens are produced by selection of one species. When different breeds are crossed, hereditary characteristics are lost.

Emergency removal of uterus

This method is considered one of the simplest. Frames with clutch and brood are taken from the strongest family. Upper part The honeycomb is cut out in the form of a hole 4 cm by 3 cm. Only two larvae are left. The prepared trimmed frame is installed in a queenless nest. Insects lay a queen cell within three to four days. When a sufficient number is formed, they are cut off.

Insulator

This method makes it possible to breed up to 10 females. In a strong family, the womb is taken away. She is isolated. Mature brood is also located here.

The structure is covered with frames, blocking the exit of the uterus, and placed back. The nucleus is formed within 3 days.

Fresh brood is cut off along the lower border and placed back in the house. The queen cells are cut out two to three days before ripening. After the young animals emerge, they are placed in cores.

Nicot system

This method of breeding queen bees requires some preparatory work.

Required materials:

cassette (honeycomb with a grid and a plexiglass lid);
bowls (up to 100 pieces);
holders;
plinths with fastenings for the grafting frame;
cells.

The work is carried out in several stages:

The cassette is installed in the central part of the frame in several ways: with dry material, with foundation, or empty (attached to a block).
A grafting frame is made. Any one will do for this. Can be used with defects.
The cassette is polished and cleaned by bees. The structure is placed in the hive in advance. No less than one day. The cassette is smeared with honey or sprayed with honey. The bees get used to the new object. During this time, the honeycomb will be saturated with the smell of the nest and warm up to the desired temperature.
We plant the “queen”. We close the plug. Insects freely pass through the passage between the cassette and the frame to the queen for feeding. Cells are checked every other day. If the queen has laid a clutch, she is released. The frame with the Nicot honeycomb is put back into place. Bowls with one-day-old larvae are placed on a grafting frame.
A family is being formed. All honeycombs without brood are removed from the hive. Only the frames with beebread remain. The center is left free. Honey reserves are located behind the diaphragm. A week before loading the grafting frame, ceiling feeders are installed. The family is fed syrup with pine infusion. Sometimes cobalt is added. The uterus is deposited in 3 hours. On the fifth day, the family is monitored and all fistulous queen cells are removed.
Installation of the grafting frame in the prepared place. The bowls must be placed quickly so that the larvae do not have time to cool and dry out.
Reception of larvae is carried out according to the calendar.
Culling queen cells is a simple process. Usually they get rid of small, crooked ones, leaving straight and large ones.
You need to prepare for the selection of young females. All queen cells are placed in cages so that after the first one comes out, they do not lose the rest.
The emergence of the uterus, control of the reception and subsequent laying of eggs.

Plaque on the queen cell

Scheme of dividing a family by raid: A - divided family; B - joint family

The method is effective when it becomes necessary to eliminate the swarming state of the nest. It is used if the family has established swarm queen cells before selecting the cuttings. It is too late to form layers, but it is possible to return the swarm to working condition. The method of division “by raiding the queen cell” immediately mobilizes the bees to work, and the queen’s egg-laying efficiency is not reduced.

The method has been successfully used in different regions and helps stop swarming. The method is used immediately when the first signs appear.

Output in syringes

This method saves valuable breeding “material” from internecine struggle. Practice has shown that you need to use a 20 ml syringe. The piston should move easily and not jump out. This “equipment” will cost much less than specialized tools.

To make a uterine insulator you will need up to 12 pieces of syringes for each rail, a drill with a drill with a diameter of 2.8 mm. The drilled holes are cleaned with a knife. Plastic bowls are attached inside each tank.

The method is quite convenient and economical. Preserves a large number of queens. Containers are convenient for transporting insects. They provide free access of air.

Hatching in the incubator

5-6 days after artificial and natural swarming, bees grow more than 10 queen cells. If there is an abundant supply and the behavior of the insects is calm, they can be left. Individuals are grown in an artificial incubator. The device can be purchased ready-made or made by yourself.

The work is carried out in several stages.

The queen cells are pruned only after they are completely sealed. You need to act carefully, since the age of the young shoots is unknown.
When making incubators yourself, you need to install heating elements, a thermostat to maintain temperature, provide humidity and install ventilation.
A conventional apparatus for hatching poultry eggs has proven to work well in practice. The conditions it creates are suitable for storing queen liquor.
The temperature remains constant - 34 0 C. The humidity level is 75%. You need to feed by hand.

Future queens emerge on the 16th day from the day of laying.

Natural withdrawal methods

Swarming

A very simple method of breeding queens, since no beekeeper intervention is required. When certain conditions are created, the swarming process can be accelerated. To do this, three frames with brood are placed in the hive, and the empty ones are removed. The bees immediately begin to build queen cells. Beekeepers create layers on them.

This method has several disadvantages:

there is no possibility of forecasting;
there is no control over the quality and number of females at the exit;
If the appearance of the queen bee goes unnoticed, she will fly away and take part of the family with her.

Fistula parents

When the queen is lost, the colony begins building a new queen cell and transfers several larvae to “queen” feeding. A queen hatched in a short time is called a fistula queen.

Beekeepers use this bee ability for emergency recovery to breed queens. To do this, the queen is taken from a strong swarm. Together with the brood, it is placed in a new home. Workers from 2-3 frames are also placed here.

In an old nest, noticing the absence of a queen, family members begin to prepare queen cells. Those that were laid on immature larvae are left for blasting, while those on adults are cut off.

This method allows you to quickly obtain a queen and increase the family. These females are different small size and low fertility.

Benefits of self-withdrawal

Obtaining young queens on your own has a number of positive aspects:

The hatching of females is planned.
Young animals are received in the required quantity and within a specific time frame.
Breeding individuals are not playful. They are characterized by high productivity.
For hatching, larvae of a certain size and age are taken.
The method allows you to avoid large financial costs.

Errors when breeding queens

Novice beekeepers, due to a lack of experience and certain knowledge, often make mistakes when breeding breeding individuals. Experienced beekeepers do not recommend:

engage in selection in the absence of a pure breed;
shake the honeycomb;
carry out activities in absence necessary conditions(temperature, humidity);
do not delay the vaccination process.

Helpful Tips:

During vaccinations, use additional tools: binocular glasses, a flashlight, a special spatula. This will allow you to perform the procedure accurately, without wasting extra time.
The largest larvae, identical in size, are selected. Most often they are located closer to the center of the cell.
To obtain large eggs, the queen is placed in an insulator.
It is better to discard small, uneven queen cells.
The family-teacher should be fed food containing protein and carbohydrates.
The presence of open brood in the raising family is mandatory. In such a nest there are many bees that produce milk.

Queen breeding calendar

For any type of breeding work, clear deadlines have been established. When planning, you need to consider the following points:

It is good to get the queens early, given that the development from the larva to the fetal individual takes place a whole month. However, first you need to get strong drone offspring.
When determining the number of queens, the strength of the family is taken into account. Often the hatch is divided into several batches to gradually populate the cores.
The withdrawal of the last batch must be completed before the main harvest, so that the division of families does not affect the honey yield.

The action plan is drawn up in accordance with the queen bee hatching calendar. Usually, each beekeeper chooses a convenient form for himself. This can be a table or circle where the days of the month and the stages of growth of the larva are indicated.

Removing queen bees does not require a lot of labor and large material costs. The main thing is to follow the rules. Work only with a strong and strong swarm. Create optimal conditions. Compliance with the basic recommendations will give a guaranteed result in the form of strong offspring.