Apiculture management
Installation of the apiary
It depends on a series of factors which are:
The vegetation. It makes reference to the melliferean capacity of the vegetation of the geografic zone that we study. An apiculture charge is established according to the vegetation conditions. In a zone with a good melliferean flower, it is recomended a charge of 4 colonies/hectare, in an apiary of 20-30 beehives. When the zone is poor on melliferean flower, it is recomended a charge of 2 colonies/hectare in an apiary of 12-15 beehives. These numbers are limited because it is recomended not to place more than 50 beehives/apiary. The distance between apiaries is related with the distance of the bees flight.
Orientation of the colonies. The most often orientation is South, SE, SW functionally with the dominant winds. Excessive wind difficults the exit and entrance of bees to the colony. A too much aired beehive can affect to the breeds, causing their death or the incidence of pathogens.
Set up. The beehives are horizontally disposed according to the ground, with a certain inclination to the tipper. This way it is favored the exit of water and it helps the cleaner bees to throw strange particles out from the colony. The colony must be isolated from the ground to avoid humidity and to clean the zones of bad herbs (that could bring possible enemies). The separation between apiaries must be about 3 and 4 Kms. and these must be grouped in lines.
Water availability. It is necessary to be concerned about the availability of water at the proximities of the apiary. If there was not any, some waterings must be disposed. The medium necessities of water are 45 cc/beehive daily during winter and 1000 cc/beehive daily during summer.
Multiplication of the apiary. Swarm.
It is made during spring, when drones appearing since they are necessary to fecundate the queens. It can be done either with beehives or with nucleus. The nucleus is a small beehive of 1 to 6 squares. The methods of multiplication of the apiary are three:
1. Capture of swarms. It consists on following a natural swarm until it stops and with the help of a pulverizer with water, put the bees into any container until carry it to the apiary.
2. Divide the colony during spring. It consists on pulling out the half of the squares of a beehive and move them to another one empty. The holes will be filled with empty squares. It is not an appropriate method.
3. Methods of artifitial swarm. These are the most applicated ones and two different techniques can be followed:
3.1. Looking for queens. Basically, it is about making the swarm in the colony by dividing a strong mother beehive which has 6 or 7 squares of larve or breed. Then 2 squares which have operculated breeds, with cold sore of bee and wet nurse are taken from another beehive. And these 2 squares are placed in the rise of Langstroth or Dadant beehives. It is also advisable to leave the queen in the breed chamber, and between the rise to place an excluder of queens. When the first six days 2 more squares (with operculated breeds) are placed and this will make the swarm within 2-3 weeks. When the royal little cages are operculated, we undo the mother beehive and we will have as many daughter beehives as royal little cages, plus one. To those mother beehives we add 2 squares with breed and young workers or wet nurses, 2 squares with honey and the rest of empty squares, until completing a new colony.
3.2. Without looking for queens. It can be one or two beehives.
One beehive. The mother beehive is undone, two squares with breeds and wet nurses are extracted and we place them into an empty nucleus or beehive, one or two squares with honey are added as artifitial food (syrup). Finally, the new beehive is completed with squares of stamped wax. The tipper of the mother beehive is closed and we pull it out, we set up the new one in the right place and when the pecorators coming back they get into the new beehive.
Two beehives. 2 squares of breed and wet nurses (to the half) are extracted from a strong mother beehive. To the beehive or new nucleus are added squares of stretched wax and squares of honey or syrup and it is put in the place of a second inhabited beehive, which goes far away from the apiary. When the pecorators bees coming back, they will get into the new beehive.
Feeding of the colony
There are moments during the year when it is necessary the supplement of food, this happens twice a year:
During spring: stimulating feeding. With it the queen is induced to start ovulating and there were more pecorators bees so that in the moment of the floration the number of bees was maximum, as same as the collected food. This feeding is carried on by artifitial syrups made of water and sugar, which act as nectar substitutes.
During autumn-winter: hibernation. During the winter there is a stop in the colony activity and there is no floration. This hibernation is supplied when there are not enough food reserves to survive until the next spring. The feeding is made with pap or candy which are pollen substitutes.
The artifitial feeding is supplied through feeders, which are containers from many different shapes and types that have pap inside so that the bees of the colony collected it.
There are different syrup formulas: the most highlight ones are:
Sugar (60%) + water (40%). Honey (50%) + water (50%). It is the most used mixture by apicultors. Beet sugar (0,5 Kg) + honey (2Kg) + water (1,5 l). It is often added 10 g of tartaric acid for each 50 kg of sugar so that the solution did not crysthalize itself. There are also prepared syrups which include vitamins and stimulatings, but they could change the final quality of the honey.
The candy or pap has also different formulas, highlighting:
soya flour (1,5 kg) + pollen (0,5 kg) + sugar (4,0 kg) + water (2 l) + sulphamids (10 g). soya flour (0,5 kg/0,1 kg of pollen) + powder wheat flour (0,75 kg) + sugar (1 kg) + honey (1 kg) + sulphamid (5 g).
Apiculture calendar
It is the distribution of tasks to do in an apiary during a year. It is usually divided in tasks of:
Spring:
The first task after hibernation ending is the wax recycling because the bees have been fed with reserves and have left the honeycombs empty. They must be changed for other ones new and take proffit of those still in good conditions.
As the floration in the zone appears, the size of the colony increases. The honey, which is made from collected nectar, is being put into the colony.
It is necessary to prevent the swarm that naturally forms at the colonies. For that, a checking must be carried. And those beehives with greatest vigor and pecorating activity must be the selected ones.
Summer:
Tasks of queens substitution in order to avoid the swarm, change the queens over two years-old age.
The worst quality queens are changed within a year and are those hardly fertile ones and whose beehive does not make a good harvest.
Extraction of the honey from the colony, elimination of squares with old wax.
Autumn:
In autumn facing winter, a ussual activity is the union of colonies. Some very weak colonies can be left and they are joined to other stronger ones so that the population did not miss. The queen of the weak colony is eliminated, the strong colony is placed over the weak one and between them is put a newspaper with a solution of aromatic plants or a queen excluder so that they got mixed little by little. Then the weak colony is eliminated and the honeycombs of breed and food are passed to the strong colony.
Winter:
Inspection of reserves so that the colony could last during the whole winter.
The whole year:
Sanitary inspection to control the pathogens, in winter is made with less frequency to avoid a sudden fall in temperature when opening the beehive. When we go to check out a beehive, we must be aware of not opening it if it rains or the weather is too cold, since we cool the inside. It is better waiting that the temperature was over than 12º C.
Sanitary treatments.
Prevention of enemies of the bees.