How to get May honey from your apiary every year
Getting May honey in mid-May is very difficult. The difficulty lies in the fact that bees are constantly swarming at the beginning of spring. The swarm flies out of the apiary, weakening the bee colonies.
In two weeks a new queen will appear in the hive, but the beekeeper will lose a lot of time and will not be able to pump out ripe May honey.
Prepare queens in advance. Usually in strong colonies more than five queens are formed, so they can be transplanted into hives with empty frames.
In order to reduce losses from swarming, move the hive with the family to another place, and to the usual place for the bees - install the hive with a new queen and several empty frames. While swarming, some of the bees will return to the empty hive.
There are several rules for preparing a bee colony for spring:
- install new frames in the hive every year;
- form a strong family;
- leave all the autumn honey to the bees.
Regular prophylaxis against bee moths and replacing old sushi will also help you get May honey.
Replacement of frames annually
Frames need to be replaced annually or new ones added to the hive. This will help bee family develop, the number of bees will increase. In the hive, the brown dryness is replaced, and the mother frames are transferred to empty hives to form a new colony.
It is worth replacing damaged frames and honeycombs affected by wax moth. Use natural wax frames to help the bees hurt less.
Building a strong family
Expand the hive every year, feed the bees with last year's honey. Do not use sugar syrup as it will negatively affect the quality of May honey.
The family of bees needs to fly regularly, so take the hives out into the field or forest so that the bees collect nectar. Cover the hive with a fine mesh to protect the bees from birds of prey.
The holes in the net should be large enough for the bees to fly around.
Autumn honey
Leave all the honey in the fall for the bees. In order for a flight bee to form from the larva, it must be fed with honey. Natural food will allow the nannies to feed large numbers of young flying bees, which will collect more nectar in the spring.
Collecting honey
Collecting honey in May should be done when the bees begin to gather outside the hive. This means that they have sealed the honey and there is no room for new nectar. Frames filled with honey are placed in a honey extractor, after cutting off the wax plugs from them with a knife.