Apiary in the photo
Apiaries as production sites appeared in Russia during the transition from beeland to log beekeeping. At the same time, the exceptional labor intensity of placing heavy logs on trees forced beekeepers to lower them to the ground and collect them in one place, so that it would be easier not only to look after and protect them, but also to work. To place the log hives, drier areas were chosen, in which the existing trees were cut. This is how clearings appeared, which later became known as apiaries. As V.F. Shapkin wrote: by placing bee families near your home, a broad prospect for organizing large industrial apiaries appeared. At the same time, as the author of “contactless beekeeping” notes, caring for bees in a log is the same as when kept in a bee. Log beekeeping - swarming. It is almost impossible to regulate the swarming of bees in a non-removable log. As a result, the deck began to be sawed into several parts. The upper circles of the deck served as honey stores, which greatly facilitated the selection of honey. These were the initial elements of keeping bees in apiaries using multi-hull technology.
In the modern concept, the arrangement of an apiary is the organization of a production unit of a farm, including a plot of land, hives with bee families, apiary buildings, inventory and equipment. When organizing an apiary in beekeeping, there are two types of farming: stationary and nomadic.
A stationary apiary is an apiary farm owned or long-term leased by a beekeeper on agricultural and forest lands.
Nomadic apiary - an apiary moved to entomophilous crops for the period of pollination by bees for nectar, pollen and honeydew. According to the definition of A. and E. Ruth, the area on which hives with bees are located is called an apiary, or beekeeper.
Organizing an apiary from scratch begins with surveying the area, determining its honey reserves and the number of bee families, choosing a location for an apiary estate, compiling a list of apiary buildings, equipment and inventory, calculating the costs of building and equipping an apiary.
Currently, beekeeping is practiced even in the centers of large cities and small towns. Very often, in the central shopping areas of the city, bees are kept on the roofs of houses, and sometimes on the roofs of skyscrapers. In these cases, due to the sunny location and lack of natural shade, it is necessary to shade the hives using canopies or shields.
In the suburbs, you can keep bees in small plots of land in backyards. If there is a choice, then you should prefer the back side of the village, and when choosing a place on the estate, a place located behind the house buildings, in the orchard.
The first step in organizing an apiary for novice beekeepers is to choose the right place. You cannot place hives close to the fence, on the other side of which there is cultivated land, since, flying for a bribe, they can attack animals and people working in the field. Of course, it is desirable to have a flat area of land for the beekeeper, not very shaded and not exposed to strong winds. The flat surface when placing the apiary makes it possible to use wheelbarrows and hand carts for transporting heavy loads, which greatly facilitates work.
The ideal place for an apiary is an orchard with young trees, at a distance of 23-30 m from roads. The areas behind village houses are also convenient.
Before organizing an apiary, take care of the fencing. If you have to set up an apiary near a big road, then you need to build a high fence of boards, blocking the beehouse up to 2.2 m high. For the same purpose, it is good to use hedges made of coniferous or evergreen trees, grape trellises, trees, shrubs or anything else which causes the bees to rise 3-4 m above the road. When choosing a site for an apiary, keep in mind that high hedges will prevent bees from flying from hives close to the ground, causing them to collide with vehicles and pedestrians, which can lead to complaints and possibly lawsuits for damage caused.
One of the requirements for an apiary is the presence of a sufficient amount of green space. The importance of shrubs and small trees in an apiary is that, by protecting bees and hives from the wind, they contribute to the formation of peaceful behavior of bee colonies, and vice versa, when they are moved to an open place, without bushes or trees, the families become very excited.
When choosing a place for an apiary, remember that on hot days a little shade from trees is very important to protect the hive from direct rays of the sun. In an open apiary, you almost always need to wear a face net to avoid being stung, but in an apiary where there are bushes, you can often work all day without a net, only occasionally resorting to lightly smoking the bees.
Shrubs or trees are also important because thanks to them the bees are more likely to find their way when finding their hive. Therefore, before purchasing and installing hives with bees, it is necessary to plan the apiary estate, supply electricity and water to it, arrange access roads, and plant protective forest plantings.
According to the rules for placing an apiary, beekeepers can place hives with bee families on land plots owned by them by right of ownership or other right in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, subject to the veterinary and sanitary requirements established by the regulations of the Customs Union and the legislation of the Russian Federation.
For the purpose of carrying out activities in the field of beekeeping, beekeepers are provided with forest areas for free, fixed-term use on the basis of the Forest Code of the Russian Federation or an easement is established in cases determined by the Land Code of the Russian Federation and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
When placing apiaries in populated areas, hives with bee families are installed at a distance of at least three meters from the boundaries of neighboring land plots, with the entrances oriented in the opposite direction. Or hives are placed without restrictions on distances, provided they are separated from the neighboring plot of land by a fence, dense bushes or a building at least two meters high.
The study and identification of new honey-bearing areas, their development and fullest use are of great economic importance. The development of beekeeping, the direction of specialization and the optimal size of beekeeping farms and, in particular, their apiaries, depend on the potential capacity of the honey base and its availability for development.
To identify and evaluate new honey-bearing areas, species and quantitative records of honey-bearing vegetation are carried out in poorly developed areas that are promising for the development of beekeeping. The areas of forests, industrial logging (including those planned for 5-10 years), shrubs, swamps, meadows and pastures, as well as entomophilous agricultural crops are taken into account. This work is carried out by special expeditions. They also use information about the listed areas, which is available in the district agricultural departments and forestry enterprises.
Various methods are used to assess terrain. One of them is aerial photography. This is the least labor-intensive method of surveying wild vegetation, which makes it possible to identify honey-bearing lands in vast areas in a relatively short time. Using aerial photography, it is possible to identify the transition of plants into the phase of budding and flowering and predict the intensity of their flowering and thereby predict the upcoming honey flow of the surveyed area. Aerial photography is used to identify linden tracts.
To determine the honey productivity of a territory, the method of grading the species and quantitative composition of honey-bearing vegetation is used. To do this, they draw up a schematic map of the area with all the settlements, roads, rivers and contours of various honey-bearing tracts that are valuable for beekeeping. 2-3 areas with typical honey collection conditions are identified where apiaries can be located, and route surveys of these areas are carried out. At the same time, the species composition of vegetation and the areas occupied by tree species, shrubs, clearings, meadows and pastures are determined.
The quality of the place for permanent and temporary parking of hives is of particular importance for the development of bee colonies, honey collection and winter preservation of bees. When choosing the best place for an apiary, you must adhere to the basic requirements for arranging the site.
The placement of hives in the apiary is carried out in dry, sunlit, protected from the wind places, no closer than 500 m from highways and other roads and no closer than 5 km from confectionery shops, chemical plants, as well as sources of microwave radiation.
The first thing you need to start organizing an apiary from scratch is to fence the area. After this, the hives are placed on stands no lower than 30 cm from the ground, at a distance of 3-3.5 m from each other. The hives must be painted and in good working order. Each apiary should have at least 15-20% reserve hives.
To maintain the proper veterinary and sanitary condition of the apiary, an apiary house is placed on it, workers are provided with personal hygiene items and means and other facilities and buildings.
Another important point regarding where to start organizing an apiary is to build a room on the territory for storing honeycomb frames, containers, beekeeping equipment, etc.
In regions with a long cold period, it is advisable to have winter huts in place for the apiary.
A stationary apiary must provide bee colonies with the required amount of carbohydrate and protein feed, taking into account the productivity of plant origin. If there is a lack of nectar-bearing plants, they organize migration to the massifs of nectar-bearing plants.
Land plots for farms must be selected with low-moisture soils and low standing water levels. The plots should have a calm topography, a slight slope for the drainage of surface water, located in a dry place, not flooded by flood and storm water, and, if possible, protected from the prevailing winds by natural barriers or hedges.
In relation to housing, farm sites should be located on the leeward side, in relation to veterinary medical buildings - on the windward side, along the topography - below the residential area, water intake structures and above veterinary medical buildings and waste discharge sites. Farms must have convenient communications with workers’ places of residence, good access roads, and be provided with electricity and sufficient water for drinking, household and fire-fighting purposes. Farm sites must meet sanitary and veterinary standards.
There should be no large bodies of water near the apiary, behind which there are arrays of honey plants.
Before creating an apiary, make sure that there is no other bee farm within a radius of 4-6 km.
It is not allowed to place an apiary under power lines, in places of possible collapses, falling stones, landslides and places flooded with flood waters.
The apiary estate, at the rate of 30-40 m2 per bee family, is fenced and planted with honey-bearing trees and shrubs. If an apiary is located in a populated area or a collective garden, its territory is enclosed by a continuous fence or hedge, at least two meters high, in order to avoid stinging people and animals.
On the approaches to unfenced apiaries, in conditions of poor visibility, boards measuring 20x400 mm should be installed with the inscription: “Caution. Bees!
How to start an apiary: rules for keeping bees
The hives in the apiary are placed at a distance of 4-5 m in a row and 3-4 m row from row or in groups of 2-4 bee families at a distance of 8-10 m between groups. The best direction of the entrance is southeast. Fruit trees are planted in the apiary in such a way that they shade the hives during the hottest time of the day.
Bee colonies are kept in standard volumetric hives: double-framed, 12-frame, with store extensions, multi-framed, and beds. They are installed on stands or pegs 40-50 cm high. A drinker is installed in the warmest, quietest and most illuminated place in the apiary. It is advisable to have a control hive in the apiary, installed on a postal scale under a canopy. Monitoring changes in the mass of a hive with a bee colony allows the beekeeper to plan and timely carry out work on maintaining and feeding the bees.
An apiary for 100-150 bee families should have an apiary house measuring 8x15 m (standard design 808-5-5) with premises for apiary work, storage of honeycombs, tools and beekeeping equipment, and a winter hut.
After the construction of the necessary facilities and arrangement of the apiary, bees are purchased. In this case, bee colonies are acquired according to the breed zoning plan. The planned breeds recommended for keeping and breeding in apiaries, depending on the natural and climatic conditions of the Russian Federation, are Central Russian, Carpathian, gray mountain Caucasian and their breed types.
Bees can be purchased in spring, summer and autumn. However, the best time to buy is spring (second ten days of May). Bee colonies purchased at this time can be successfully prepared for the main honey harvest and already receive income in the current season, as well as prepare them for wintering in a timely manner.
The purchased bee colonies must be of high quality and comply with the parameters of GOST 20728-75.
The number of bees of all ages should be at least: in April - 1.5 kg, in early June - 3 kg, in early September - 2 kg.
The fetal uterus must be no older than two years old. Its weight, length and color must comply with the requirements of regulatory and technical documentation and the breed.
The number of nesting honeycombs, 435x300 mm in size - at least 20 pcs., 435x230 mm in size - also at least 20 pcs.
Bee brood of all ages, translated into a frame measuring 435x300 mm, should be no less than: by the beginning of April and the beginning of September - one frame, by May 1 - two, by July 1 - five frames.
In the nest of a bee family there should be at least 6 kg of honey, and by the beginning of September - at least 16 kg.
Bee bread - in summer and autumn there should be at least one frame, and in spring at least 0.5 frames (translated into nesting ones).
Bee colonies after wintering can be purchased from government organizations, nature reserves, game reserves, by agreement, as well as from amateur beekeepers. The same farms can sell bees in 4- and 6-frame bags, as well as swarms. Packages and swarms are stocked with mature printed brood from strong colonies and are subsequently cared for like ordinary bee colonies.
To purchase bee colonies, as well as for sale, you should contact beekeeping offices or beekeeping societies, bee nurseries, and game reserves.
Before you start an apiary, contact your local beekeepers with a request to assess the quality of the purchased bee colonies. Veterinary specialists of a regional veterinary clinic or veterinary site must conduct a veterinary and sanitary examination of bee colonies and issue the appropriate document.
The purchased bee colonies are prepared for transportation, and in the evening, after the bees fly, or early in the morning, before their departure, the hive entrances are closed and transported by car to a new place (apiary), at a distance of at least 5 km.
After organizing the apiary, it is registered and a veterinary and sanitary passport is obtained.
The veterinary and sanitary passport of the apiary (hereinafter referred to as the passport) is filled out for the apiary of the farm (collective farm, state farm and other organizations), regardless of departmental affiliation, forms of ownership, and for the apiary of an amateur beekeeper.
The passport is signed by the chief veterinarian of the district and the head of the farm or the owner of the apiary and is certified by the seal of the district (city) station for the fight against animal diseases.
A veterinary-sanitary passport, in which her condition is recorded on the basis of veterinary examinations, is an accounting document. It is registered at the animal disease control station in a special journal and has a serial number.
The passport is filled out in ink briefly, clearly and legibly. The section “Characteristics of the apiary” is filled out by a representative of the veterinary service after a personal examination of the apiary. The remaining sections are completed by veterinary specialists at least once a year. The signature of persons filling out the relevant sections is required.
This document for the apiary is presented when selling wax raw materials, purchasing foundation and serves as a document for issuing veterinary certificates in the prescribed manner in forms No. 1 and No. 2 when exporting (selling) bees and beekeeper products.
The passport is kept by the senior beekeeper or apiary owner and is presented upon request of a veterinary specialist.
What documents are needed to move an apiary within the administrative district and beyond? In the first case, you will need a certificate f. No. 4, in the second - veterinary certificate f. No. 1.
How to start creating an apiary: beekeeping equipment
Another important issue that should be paid attention to before starting to organize an apiary is the acquisition of the necessary equipment.
When finalizing the apiary, the beekeeper must divide the available beekeeping equipment into groups according to their purpose:
- used when caring for bees: face net, beekeeping chisel, scraper-spatula, box for carrying frames, entrance barrier, feeders, drinking bowls;
- used for the propagation of bee colonies and the removal of queens: queen cell, queen caps, separating lattice, insulator for obtaining larvae of the same age, grafting frame, nursery frame, templates for obtaining wax bowls;
- for waxing frames with artificial wax: pattern board, hole punch, template, wire, combined roller with spur, electric waxer;
- equipment for pumping out honey: beekeeping knife, knives for printing honeycombs (steam and electric), table for printing honeycombs, honey extractor, sieves for straining honey, settling tank for cleaning and ripening honey, vibrating knife;
- equipment for processing wax raw materials in the apiary: solar wax refiner, steam wax refiner;
- equipment and machines used in industrial beekeeping.
There are a number of requirements for how to set up an apiary, which must be strictly observed. Within populated areas, it is recommended to keep and breed peace-loving breeds of bees (Carpathian, gray mountain Caucasian and their breed types).
When organizing an apiary within populated areas, the use of technological techniques and work methods that cause aggressive behavior of bees is prohibited; all work with bees should be carried out using a smoker. Necessary bee inspections should be carried out at the most favorable time of day and timing, taking into account weather conditions and the least disturbance to the bees using bee removers.
Before starting an apiary in a populated area, in order to prevent bees from stinging people and animals, when selecting honey, forming layering, transplanting bee families, the beekeeper is obliged to warn neighbors, taking appropriate precautions, to carry out work with bee families at a safe distance from unauthorized persons in locality.
Persons allowed to carry out veterinary and sanitary work in the apiary must be instructed on personal safety measures and rules for handling the medicinal and disinfectant drugs used.
According to the rules for placing an apiary in a populated area, as well as outside it, the inspection organization is obliged to notify the beekeeper about the inspection at least five calendar days in advance.
Therapeutic and preventive measures for bee colonies must be carried out simultaneously in all beekeeping farms.
Apiaries must have first aid kits for first aid. The first aid kit should contain antiallergic (antihistamine) drugs, drugs for the treatment of anaphylactic shock and brief instructions for their use.
A rationally chosen size of a farm's apiary determines greater efficiency of production and commercial activities. The accepted size must be economically justified and verified from the standpoint of the best use of means of production, labor resources, and the lowest production costs. The size of a farm's apiary is influenced by the experience and qualifications of the beekeeper-farmer, the technology of care and maintenance of bee colonies, natural and climatic conditions, food supply, specialization and location, the degree of mechanization of work processes, etc.
Knowing the technology of a particular apiary, the frequency of migrations, fertilizing, expanding nests and other operations, as well as the operational time for all work, determine the standard of service for bee colonies.
The annual rate of servicing bee colonies for a beekeeper-farmer (without an assistant) is calculated by the formula:
- Nob = (Tem x A)/(Top x K) = (480x250)/(704x1.142)= 1200/804= 149 bee families,
where: Nob is the norm for servicing bee colonies;
Tem - duration of work of 1 person per day, min;
A is the number of working days in a year;
Top - operational time spent on maintenance operations for one bee colony per year, min;
K is the coefficient of the average time for preparatory and final work, maintenance of the workplace, rest, personal needs.
Thus, with the generally accepted technology for caring for bees, one beekeeper-farmer can serve 149 bee families, and with a temporary assistant - 225 families.
Taking into account the difficult environmental conditions in the Russian Federation and its constituent entities, the presence of dangerous diseases (ascospherosis, varroatosis, foulbrood), intensive treatments of agricultural plants with pesticides, it is recommended to reduce the rate of maintenance of bee colonies in the apiary by 1.5 times. This will make it possible to use an individual method of caring for bee colonies, providing optimal conditions for their intensive development, which, in general, will have a positive impact on the final results of the beekeeper’s work.
According to the Beekeeping Research Institute, taking into account private farms, apiaries in Russia are mostly small. Groups of apiaries by the number of bee families up to 100 reach 96.8%, from 101 to 500 and over 500 families, respectively, 3 and 0.2%.
The optimal size of an apiary varies depending on the level of its specialization, tax, credit policy and other factors.
A farm will be viable if it is large enough to implement the achievements of scientific and technological progress, achievements and work methods of advanced beekeepers.
The size of the apiary and the income generated must be sufficient to satisfy, first of all, the personal needs of the peasant family, and solve the problems of creating social and industrial infrastructure. The most promising farms will be those engaged in, in addition to beekeeping, other branches of crop and livestock production.
The place for your apiary should be selected taking into account all the requirements of the bees, in other words, with a microclimate and varied vegetation, because this is necessary for the active functioning of bee colonies. The main point is that the apiary should be protected by a hedge or forest from gusts of wind. The access road and water sources are of great importance.
In addition to the middle zone, in the southern regions of the state bees like to live in the shade and work in the sun. Therefore, a permanent or temporary place can be called a shelterbelt, a gully forest, or a thicket of bushes. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the fact that during a hot day the shadow from the trees falls on and protects from overheating. In the northern regions there is no need to shade the hives; in addition, this can negatively affect the development of bee colonies, which is why they are exposed to sunny meadows.
The stationary one must be protected from the wind; for this, it is also surrounded by shrubs, which, in addition to their main purpose, serve as a hedge and protect the apiary from various animals.
In populated areas, amateur beekeepers also enclose their apiaries with a fence or hedge, and the height should be two meters, this allows them to protect passers-by from bees. Bees can be a source of trouble as they can sting neighbors in your home or garden. It is necessary to prevent a conflict situation; for this it is necessary to block the apiary from their side. If it is angry, it is replaced with another, more peaceful breed, and the inspection of the hives is carried out when neighbors are not nearby.
Apiaries should not be installed near large reservoirs. This will not only reduce the useful area of the flight radius, but also in windy weather will lead to a large death of bees that fly over the water. But not far from the apiary it is necessary to install a drinking source for the bees, this will eliminate the hassle of organizing a watering hole.
It is also necessary to place bees within a radius of good spatial isolation from large public apiaries. This option excludes infection of bees with various diseases, as well as bee theft when there is no honey collection.
You cannot place bees “for flight”, that is, in a place through which other people’s bees will make flights to collect honey, and next to roadways, barnyards, and children’s institutions.
Huge losses of bees can be observed when the apiary is located at a distance of less than 3 kilometers from enterprises involved in the processing of sugar substances, as well as those areas treated with herbicides and pesticides.
And finally, you should make sure that there are no enemies of bees near the apiary: birds, insects and other pests. If you follow all the recommendations described in this article, you will be able to achieve not only maximum honey production, but at the same time all your honey will be safe and sound, which will significantly reduce development costs.
Honeybees live in families consisting of several tens of thousands of individuals. Each bee colony has its own nest and consists of one queen, many thousands of worker bees and, in the summer, a significant number of male drones.
The queen in the family does not perform any work other than laying eggs, from which worker bees raise bees, drones and queens. From the glands of the body of the uterus, an odorous uterine substance is constantly secreted, which is licked by the bees. It serves as a signal, notifying about the presence of a uterus in the family, about its well-being.
The family raises drones in late spring and summer. They serve only for mating young barren queens and do not perform other work in the family. In the fall, worker bees expel drones as unnecessary and to save food in winter.
All other work in the family is performed by worker bees - females who have lost the ability to reproduce offspring. A family needs a large number of worker bees to collect honey and accumulate it in the nest in the short time provided by nature. The more worker bees in a family, the more food it can collect, and the more marketable honey the beekeeper will receive.
All efforts of the beekeeper should be aimed at maintaining strong colonies in the apiary all year round. Science and practice have proven that strong families not only collect more honey, but also winter much better. Having gathered in a large club for the winter, they can more easily tolerate frosts and sudden temperature fluctuations; each bee eats less food, which means they have a smaller fecal load and do not suffer as much from diarrhea. During the winter period, bees of strong families retain more energy and live longer in the spring than in weak families. Strong colonies in the spring raise more brood and develop faster, which is very important for the North-West, where there is a good spring harvest from willows.
And in the future, powerful families make more productive use of all the other bribes that follow one after another in our zone.
But that is not all. Only strong families vigorously build honeycombs and secrete a lot of wax. They better maintain the temperature and humidity required for the nest, and raise young bees to be stronger (as a rule, they live 30 percent longer than bees bred in weak colonies). Bees from strong families have longer proboscis, and each of them can bring 80 percent more nectar in one flight into the field compared to brothers from weak families.
Thus, everything speaks in favor of strong families. The only question that arises is: how can we ensure that all the bee colonies in the apiary are exactly like this? There are many factors that influence the strength of a family. But the first condition for this is a constant and abundant supply of food to the bee colony - nectar and pollen. It has been established that each strong family spends 80-100 kg of honey and at least 20 kg of pollen per year just for its existence. In addition, the beekeeper must also receive commercial honey from each family as payment for care.
All this should be provided by honey plants growing within a radius of 2 km from the bees’ home on an area of 1256 hectares. The more honey plants of the nectar conveyor there are in this area, the more honey the bees of this point will collect.
In my practical beekeeping, based on the stationary maintenance of bee colonies in the North-West zone, I pay great attention to the choice of places to place bees - points. I approach this issue with all seriousness, since the productivity of bee colonies and its profitability depend on its correct solution.
First, I determine the farm on whose territory I will place the bees. Then I get the farm administration’s consent to do this. Using agronomic land use maps, I select the most likely places to locate points, where there are large areas of wild vegetation and access roads. I am finding out the future fate of these lands for the next 10-15 years, i.e. whether reclamation and other work will be carried out there. I am clarifying the soil composition of the area. Plants on fertile soils produce more nectar than those on sandy soils. I will find out whether bees were kept in this area before and whether they are kept now.
After this, I conduct a detailed study of the area, the proposed location in different directions within a radius of 2 km. I pay the main attention to the availability of food supply: so that large masses of honey plants are occupied, giving abundant and long-lasting harvests, so that basically all the honey plants of the nectar-bearing conveyor grow in the nearby territory. It is important that there are early honey plants - willow bushes - nearby. In the conditions of the North-West, bribes from willow trees are crucial for the early development of families.
A hilly area with rugged terrain is more suitable for placing a point, where the flowering time of each type of honey plant is lengthened depending on the heating of the sides of the hills by the sun. On the southern slopes, plants bloom earlier, on the eastern and western slopes - later, and on the northern slopes - even later. It is also important that in hilly areas the area within a radius of 2 km will be significantly larger than on the plain.
It is best when the point is surrounded by a variety of lands - forest, shrubs, meadows, pastures, swamps, hayfields, clover crop rotations - rich in honey plants. The point should be placed in the center of all these honey plants. The closer it is to the bribe sources, the more nectar the bees will collect, spending less time on flights.
When choosing a place for a point, you must take into account whether there are other apiaries in the area. It is necessary that there are no large apiaries at a distance of 3-4 km, otherwise the bees will visit the same areas of honey plants, compete with each other and collect less honey. You cannot place an apiary while the bees of another apiary are migrating to the source of bribes, since when returning from a flight, especially before rain, the bees flying over the apiary will fly into the colonies located on the migration and strengthen them. If the bribe is stopped, the families accommodated on the flight will be attacked and may be completely plundered and destroyed.
To place the point, a place is selected that is protected from the prevailing winds in the area. Protection can include forests, shrubs, buildings, gardens, special plantings, and a fence.
It is advisable to place the point on the southern and south-eastern slopes, which are more strongly heated by the sun and where water does not linger after rains and when snow melts. Groundwater should lie no closer than 2 m from the surface of the earth. If the groundwater rises higher, then the apiary will have damper and cooler air, which will negatively affect the development and health of bee colonies. Dampness will accumulate in the hives and the bees may get sick.
It is good when low bushes and trees grow at the point, acting as landmarks for bees when they return from flight, as well as shading the hives from the scorching midday sun. But these plantings should not create continuous shade, especially when the bees suffer from varroa. With continuous shading in the hives, the humidity increases, which contributes to the development of the varroa mite, and the colonies become weaker.
During the active period of life, bees constantly require water. Therefore, there must be a source of water near the location of the apiary, and the closer it is, the better. Long flights for water wear out the bees, and in cold weather during long flights they become numb and die.
In my practice, I use a preliminary test of the chosen location for the point. Here in the spring I bring 2-3 families of bees and throughout the season I observe their development, the strength of the honey, and the periods of nectar arrival. If during the season each of these families collects 30-40 percent more honey than the average family at other points where 25-30 families are located, then I consider such a point acceptable for keeping 25-30 bee families there in the future.
If, on average, a family receives the same amount of products or even less than at points with full load, then this indicates that this location is unsuitable and another one must be selected. In my practice, I simultaneously tested several places for points, and then determined the best ones based on the results.
Now my entire apiary is located at 6 points, each of which contains 25 main and 5 spare families. From the place of residence, where a central beekeeping estate is equipped, 5 points are located along one road and only one point is located on the opposite side. From the place of residence to the nearest point the distance is 12 km, and the farthest is 30 km. This arrangement of points makes it possible to visit several places in one trip. This is especially beneficial in the fall, when the attack of bees does not allow a large number of bee colonies to be examined at one point. If an attack occurs, after inspecting 8-10 colonies, I stop working at this point and move to another, then to a third, etc. Thus, even under these conditions, 30-50 bee colonies can be served in one day with small moves.
When placing points in a fan pattern, that is, in different directions from the central estate, vehicle miles are increased, costs increase and labor productivity decreases.
DEVICE AND EQUIPMENT POINT. After selecting a location for the point, appropriate approval and concluding an agreement with the land user, I begin to equip it.
For each bee family planned to be placed at the point, 30-40 square meters are needed. m of land. At one point I place no more than 25 main and 5 backup families. Thus, 10-12 acres of land are needed for the entire point. Placing more than 25 families at one point in the conditions of the North-West leads to a sharp reduction in honey collection due to the weakness of the food supply. Each extra family, placed at a point in excess of its possible load on honey plants, can reduce the marketability of the apiary by 80-100 kg of honey.
In addition, as practice has shown, 25-30 bee colonies at a point perfectly correspond to the daily load on one beekeeper. With this load, the beekeeper can perform all the work required to care for the bees. If you place more than 30 families at one point, then when performing some operations it is not possible to go through all the families in one day and on the second day you will have to return to this point again. The beekeeper seems to lose his rhythm, it becomes difficult to plan work on visiting points, and without this it is impossible to work in a large apiary.
Dividing the apiary into points of 25-30 families has other benefits. For example, it guarantees the annual income from an apiary to a greater extent, since the failure of honey collection at one point is compensated by its increase at others. When 25-30 families are placed in one place, bees get sick less, become less infected from each other, and the beekeeper better remembers the individual characteristics of each family.
I enclose the area allocated for the point with a two-meter continuous fence. For fencing, I mainly use waste from woodworking enterprises obtained from the production of edged boards. The main purpose of such a fence is to reliably protect bee colonies from the winds. It has been established that at a wind speed of 8 m per second in hives that are not protected from it, the composition of the air changes 2-3 times within an hour. At a point protected by a solid fence, a certain apiary microclimate is created, and families develop better. Animals cannot enter such a point; it is more difficult for uninvited guests to enter here to ruin families and steal. If there is a high fence, bees sting less people who work near the apiary.
Along one side of the fence, usually the north, I build a shed 2 m wide and 6-9 m long, designed for storing spare hives, nucleus boxes, pillows, feeders, insulators and other apiary equipment. The cost of the canopy is insignificant, since one wall serves as a fence, and the roof is laid with the same slats from which the fence is made, and covered in two layers of roofing felt.
In addition to the canopy, at each point I will install a panel board hut measuring 2x3 m and 2 m high for storing stores with honeycombs. I make the boards for the booth from 20-mm edged boards with flashings or upholster them with sheets of plywood or fibreboard. It is advisable that bees cannot enter the booth. I cover its roof with iron. I install the booth on old railroad sleepers. All buildings and the fence are temporary and can be dismantled and transported to another location at any time. This is also required by law.
I place hives at the point in groups and individually, depending on the area and plantings at the point, directing the hives in different directions. I put them on iron stands 30 cm high.
I arrange the hives in such a way that it is convenient to work: so that, while inspecting one family, I am not in front of the entrance of another family and do not interfere with the work of the bees or anger them. I turn the hive entrances away from the permanent main routes of movement to the point.
I install one of the best families on check scales. I place a drinking bowl in the center, in a place well warmed by the sun. If there are few plantings at a point to guide bees, then I additionally plant viburnum, apple trees, plum trees, chokeberry and other shrubs.
Such arrangement and equipment of the point is very cheap and completely allows for all the care of the bees.
At one of the closest points or at the place of residence of the beekeeper, if he lives in a rural area, a central apiary estate is equipped. This estate of my apiary is located on a summer cottage in a rural village near the city. The estate has a workshop with a universal wood planing machine and a circular saw. Here I make and repair hives, frames, feeders and other necessary beekeeping tools and equipment. The workshop also serves as a garage for a passenger car.
In addition to the workshop, the estate has a room for pumping out honey measuring 5X3 m. It consists of shields made from slabs and covered with iron on the outside and 4 mm plywood on the inside. An air space of 7 cm is formed between the slab and the plywood.
The room for pumping out honey is divided into two parts, one of which, measuring 2X3 m, is intended for storing stores with honeycombs brought from points for pumping out. Its capacity is 150 stores. In this room, the gaps in the walls between the plywood and the slab are filled with construction wool. Before pumping out honey, the honeycombs are heated at a temperature of 28° for one day. An electric heater "Veterok" is used for heating.
Another part of the room is equipped for pumping out honey. There is a line for printing honeycombs along one of the walls. It consists of a rack made of two beams, fixed at a distance of 45 cm from each other. These bars have space for an electric stove with a steam generator tank and a steam knife for unsealing honeycombs. Nearby, a mesh box for casting is hung on the beams, over which the honeycombs are unsealed. Behind the box, 50 printed honeycombs are suspended between the beams. Below, under the beams, at a distance of 40 cm, an inclined semicircular tray made of fiberboard is suspended. Honey flows into this tray from a box with a bar and from printed combs. An enamel pan with a capacity of 30 liters is placed at the end of the tray.
On the left, next to the line for printing honeycombs, there is an electric honey extractor with 32 magazine or 4 nest frames. The honey extractor is attached to a wooden board, which is attached with loops to a beam nailed to the floor. When preparing the honey extractor for operation, the shield is attached to the floor using a bolt and nut. At the end of pumping, the nut is unscrewed and the shield, together with the honey extractor, is tilted to completely drain the honey from it.
Next to the honey extractor there is a place for temporary storage of stores with pumped out honeycombs. On the veranda of the country house there is a room for cleaning honey after pumping it out and packing it in a container. There is a filter installed here to filter the honey. A tank from a table for unsealing honeycombs, sold in beekeeping stores, is adapted for it. Two mesh boxes made of stainless mesh are inserted into this tank. Before filtration, two-layer gauze bags, pre-moistened with water and wrung out, are placed in the boxes before filtration. Here, in bags, freshly pumped honey is poured into buckets. Filter capacity - 200 kg. After the tank is completely filled, the honey is poured through the tap into 50-kilogram containers.
This filter cleans honey very efficiently and increases labor productivity. In addition to the filter, this room can accommodate 40 thirty-liter honey tanks.
The room is very dry, well heated by the sun and ventilated. Here, in slightly open containers, the honey settles for 7 days. After seven days, the top foam layer is removed from the honey and the containers are closed.
The central estate has a place for preparing syrup for autumn feeding of bee colonies. Here, right on the street, there is a boiler for boiling 150 liters of water. Nearby, a plank building was built in which there is a chest for storing granulated sugar and racks for storing containers in which syrup is transported - twenty-liter aluminum cans and milk flasks.
In winter, all these premises are used for storing manufactured beekeeping tools and equipment.
Such equipment of the central estate or central point fully ensures the maintenance of an apiary of 300 or more bee families. The cost of these premises is insignificant, since they are made from very cheap lumber. Until recently, the cost of each of these premises was no more than 100 rubles, with the exception of the garage-workshop.
For the central estate, you can use any cheap house, bought in the countryside and converted for pumping and storing honey, into a workshop and other premises necessary for the beekeeper. This is permitted by law.
Tsebro V.P. - "Day after day in the apiary"
- An airfield is a device used by beekeepers when shaking out bees. Helps bees enter the hive from the ground
- Bribe - the amount of honey brought by bees in 1 day
- Foundation is a thin plate of wax inserted into a frame by the beekeeper to make it easier for bees to build honeycombs. "Foundation" of future sushi
- Smoker - a device used to pacify bees with smoke
- Zabrus - honey mixed with wax comb caps, subject to further processing
- Winter club is the state of a bee colony during winter, when the bees do not sleep, but are in a less mobile state, huddled together, maintaining vitality and warmth.
- A deck (also known as a beehive) is a hive used in ancient times to keep bees. It is a hollow tree trunk
- The magazine is the body of the hive, which is placed on top. Bees fill it exclusively with honey.
- Honey extractor is a device for pumping out honey. Thanks to centrifugal force, honey is pumped out of the honeycombs
- Honey harvest is the period when bees collect honey. It can be main, supporting, etc. The main one is when the bees bring the most bribe (honey)
- Spray - nectar that bees put into honeycombs, fermented and dried to turn it into honey
- Nucleus is a small hive that serves to contain a certain number of bees and a young queen until she is fertilized. Used for propagation of families and in mother breeding
- Pollen - a collection of pollen collected by a bee on its hind legs
- Signet is a method of covering honeycombs by bees. It varies among different breeds, it can be wet and dry depending on whether the honey touches the wax caps or not.
- PZhVM - a waste product of the wax moth
- A bee colony is a structural unit of bee society. Honey bees live only in families. Colony includes worker bees, drones and only one queen
- Pollen is a collection of pollen grains from seed plants
- Pollen collector (pollen collector) - a device for collecting pollen from honey bees
- Rocking - slang. The period when the beekeeper pumps out honey from the frames
- Printout - removing wax caps from honeycomb cells to extract honey in centrifuges-honey extractors
- Brood - eggs, open or covered with wax caps of the larvae of worker bees and drones
- PP - dividing grid, serves to limit the movement of the uterus through the housings and magazines
- Sushi - a frame with lined honeycombs. The name comes from the fact that the frames are usually dried indoors after transferring honey.
- A drone is a male insect whose vital task is to fertilize a young uterus
- SCM - silent queen change - the natural replacement of an old queen by a new one by bees, occurring without swarming,
- Street - the distance between 2 frames. The concept is used when buying and selling frame bee packages or hives, when indicating how many streets are occupied by bees. There are always 1 fewer frames in a package than streets
Choosing a place to place an apiary is not as simple a question as it might seem at first glance. First, mark out some of the most interesting places to place your hives. The locations have been identified, now conduct an assessment of the melliferous lands. A 2 kilometer radius is most useful in assessing land quality. Only after a complete, comprehensive assessment of the area can you begin to place the apiary at the most optimal point.
Basic requirements taken into account when assessing the area:
- The presence of spring honey plants in the area will ensure the rapid development of families for the main harvest. Willow shrubs, Norway maple, orchards and berry patches, brooms and willows growing in the area are quite capable of providing work for your charges. These examples are especially relevant for the middle zone.
- The middle zone area provided with buckwheat, fireweed, white clover, meadow cornflowers, buckthorn and heather will provide good honey production. These plants will provide the main bribe. The terrain of the southern regions of Russia should be provided with white acacia, sunflower, mustard, coriander, ringed sage, sweet clover, white acacia, etc.
- Remember the 2 kilometer radius. The main areas of honey-bearing lands should be located on this area. Closer to the apiary site is better. Further, it will make the land useless, inaccessible for their high-quality development.
- Do not underestimate such an indicator as vegetation diversity. Forest, meadow, field will provide continuous and sustainable honey collection. Don’t forget that the apiary is not chosen for one year, so it’s worth taking into account how the plants react to weather conditions.
- If you have a choice, give preference to areas with changing terrain. The presence of ravines, slopes, lowlands and hills within the honey collection radius will provide bees with a more diverse composition of vegetation. This diversity is explained by changes in soil conditions in places where the terrain changes.
- Do not forget that in the area you have chosen, there should preferably be no other bees besides yours. The distance to the neighboring apiary must be at least 2 kilometers.
Unfortunately, in practice it is difficult to find an ideal place for an apiary with rich and varied vegetation capable of providing bees with an abundant supply throughout the season. Therefore, experienced beekeepers use roaming with bees. The main site of the apiary, the place where bees overwinter and work in the spring, which does not provide the main bribe, will require you to transport the apiary to the location of the honey plant massif that provides the main bribe.
Choosing the main site for the apiary
The main requirement for the main parking area is the presence of spring honey plants. A large amount of spring honey plant providing bees with work until the flowering of the massifs providing the main bribes is optimal. Such a place could be a fruit or apple orchard. This arrangement will give the fruit trees the necessary pollination and provide the bees with spring honey collection. Outside the boundaries of the garden, it is worth placing such plantings that can produce honey before the fruit crops bloom.
Choosing a place for migrating for honey collection
The presence of simultaneously flowering tracts of strong honey plants will be the main requirement when choosing a migration site. Linden, buckwheat, heather and fireweed, possibly sunflower for the middle and northern zone, and sainfoin, white acacia, cotton and buckwheat, sunflower for the southern regions and southwestern regions are quite capable of providing the maximum amount of the main bribe.
Position the nomadic apiary in such a way that there are several more possible honey plants nearby. The opportunity, without long journeys, to change the location of the apiary after the previous one has flowered, will be a good help for you and your charges. For example, after buckwheat fades, late sunflower blooms. By avoiding a long journey, you will save your time and the bees will have more time to work.
These simple tips will help you choose a location for your apiary. You will be able to competently and correctly plan your site and time.