The high volume of the horizontal hive and the use of advantageous constructive solutions allow the application of the numerous maintenance procedures of the bee families, which contributes to obtaining high honey production.
The maintenance in beehives of bee families with a single hive consists of the development of bee families in this hive system and is carried out on a horizontal line (from one edge of the hive to another), by adding honeycombs as the power of the bee families increases. bees and intensification of harvest.
In the spring, the family nest is organized as follows: to each sidewall of the hive, a honeycomb and a honeycomb with grass are left, and the honeycomb with brood is placed in the middle. As the number of bees in the families increases and the time gets warmer, the nests expand by introducing honeycombs built between the honeycombs and the one with the brood.
The enlargement of the nests is continued according to the development of the families, introducing beech trees for the growth of young in the middle of the nest.
What you need to know about
Before the beginning of the main harvest, the nests of the families of strong bees are filled with bare honeycombs and artificial honeycombs, and in the nest of the less developed families, depending on their power, honeycombs necessary for the growth of the brood and the storage of nectar are introduced.
After preparing the nest, in the families of strong bees, in order to facilitate the circulation of the bees during the big harvest, the second-order with which the horizontal hive is provided is opened.
Maintaining Bee Families in Horizontal Hives
As the honeycombs in the hive are filled with honey, they move to the side of the hive (opposite the nest), and in their place, empty honeycombs and artificial honeycombs are introduced.
At very strong bee families, in the case of high-intensity harvesting, to increase the space needed for the storage of nectar, special shops made for the size of the horizontal hive, equipped with 18-20 honeycombs can be used.
In order to keep the bee families inactive state, from the families that tend to enter the beehives of the brook, beech trees with ready-hatching capacity are raised and young bees are used to strengthen the weak families or to form new families.
When the summer harvest is nearing the end, the food reserves needed for wintering are stopped in the nest and the honey that is harvested is extracted, and the family nests are reduced to the number of bees occupied by the bees.
In the latter part of the season, honeycombs not covered by bees are removed from the hives, and the nest of families is packed with insulating materials.
In order to evacuate the water vapor from the hive during the winter, the floor scales on the edge of the nest are left out. The families thus prepared winter outside in the open air.
The Layens Hive
The Layens process of maintaining bees in horizontal hives is based on the maximum reduction of the volume of works during the season. Thus, from the beginning of spring, the bee family’s nest is organized in one of the two hives of the hive as follows: at the wall of the hive are placed two honeycombs, of which one with honey and one with honey and grass, then honeycombs containing brood.
Of all ages, 2-3 honeycombs bare buildings, honeycombs, and the space left free in beehives are filled with new honeycombs. The families of bees having nests organized in this way are no longer controlled until the end of the harvest when honeycombs are removed, and the nest is organized in one of the orderlies and narrows to the number of honeycombs occupied by the bees.
In order to multiply the families to which this procedure is applied, they are divided into two by a sealed diaphragm, and the remaining orphaned division grows its mask from lifeboats.
Applying the procedure creates the possibility of increasing the number of bee families that can be maintained by a beekeeper.
The ” in the nest ” process of maintaining bee families in horizontal beehives bears this name because, by organizing families for harvest, the behavior for storing nectar corresponds to the nest from which the hive was removed and transferred to the opposite side of the hive.
In the bee families to which the procedure is applied, the maintenance of the bee families is common practice.
14 days before the beginning of the harvest, the stall is searched and together with 4-6 honeycombs, of which 2 honeycombs with eggs and non-disabled brood are transferred to the opposite side of the hive and isolated from the rest of the family by a tight diaphragm provided on the entire surface with a separating grace.
These honeycombs sit on a warm bed compared to the rest of the hive frames that remain in a cold bed.
Honeycombs with saplings after the diaphragm are organized in such a way that the young saplings are next to the diaphragm with a graceful partition, followed by the elder saplings and the empty combs for storing nectar.
By restricting the eggs of the quails during the harvest, most of the young bees in the hive turn into collecting bees participating in the valorization of the nectar. At the same time, the activity of the beehive in the hive ensures the maintenance of the power of bee families for the following harvest.
What to do with the harvest?
The harvested nectar is stored in the empty honeycombs in the compartment and in the honeycomb from which the brood has clogged. After the cessation of the big harvest, the diaphragm provided with a separate partition rises, and the mask is placed together with the honeycombs with brood, between the honeycombs extracted from the compartment.
In families where the procedure is to be used, measures are taken so that they are grouped pairs (two) at a distance of no more than 1m from each other.
As the families are weak, the care work in the spring season aims to create the necessary conditions for their development. With the beginning of the harvest, when the flight of bees is very intense, one of the families changes to a new place in the bee’s garden as far as the place he occupied.
The remaining family moves 50 cm to the place the previously moved family had. Through this operation, the collecting bees from the family that was moved, on the return from the harvest, denying the hive from which they left, populate the weak family located nearby.
The procedure is not recommended to be applied for the recovery of late harvest from July to August because after their termination the balancing and strengthening of families for wintering are done with difficulty.
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