Autumn work in the apiary: caring for bees, transplanting to another hive, auditing bee colonies, prevention

Content

1 What do bees do in the fall?
2 Work in the apiary in autumn
3 Autumn inspection of bee colonies
4 Autumn work with bees
5 How to form a nest in the fall
6 Feed placement
7 When to close the lower entrance in the fall
8 Preventive work in the apiary in the autumn
9 Work in the apiary in October
10 When work on the apiary ends
11 Conclusion

Autumn work in the apiary is a responsible task for any beekeeper. The first month of autumn in beekeeping is the period when honey collection in the apiary is already ending and insects are completing their work. From this moment, work on preparing for winter should begin. Many novice beekeepers are not yet fully aware of what manipulations need to be carried out with bees and hives in the autumn period.

What do bees do in the fall?

For most bee families living in the apiary, the autumn period begins at the end of summer. The exact date will depend on the area in which the apiary is located and the type of crops the bees work with. In autumn, the behavior of bees and the structure of the hive changes significantly. The following changes in the apiary can be distinguished:

The bees continue to work to collect the last nectar. At the same moment, saving food supplies begins;
Drones are expelled from the bee colony. This happens because the swarming process has already been completed and there is no longer a need to maintain drones;
In the autumn, the center of the frames is freed up for new larvae, and the main reserves of honey move to the upper part of the frames;
The process of laying offspring by the queen slows down significantly;
To avoid theft of supplies from other families living in the apiary, the bees increase the number of guards, while the size of the entrance decreases.

In the autumn season, the apiary population also decreases, and some of its individuals become more tired. During the honey collection period, many individuals died, and some of those that remained will not be able to survive the winter. All the hope of the family rests on the new generation of bees, on which the strength of the entire swarm will depend. The beekeeper must monitor and regulate this process. Autumn work can prevent the mass extinction of bees in the apiary from various diseases and parasites.

Work in the apiary in autumn

Caring for insects such as bees in the fall is quite painstaking work, since you need to carry out a whole range of activities. First of all, you should successfully complete the honey collection period. After this, work begins to prepare the bees and hive for winter.

Important! High-quality performance of autumn bee care is a very important job, on which the amount of honey received next year depends.

The autumn period for bees lasts from September 1 to October 15. During this time, the following processes must be carried out:

From September 5 to September 10, autumn fertilizing is carried out. Continued use of sugar syrup may negatively impact the bees' ability to survive the winter. If there are no natural pollen carriers, autumn protein feeding is required;
On September 10, there should be no drones in bee colonies;
September 12 is considered the time when the last young individuals of the family appear;
Around September 14, the flowering of crops ends, with the help of which bees can make stock for the winter;
September 15 is considered the day when the brood is almost finished. During this period, it is necessary to carry out an autumn inspection and begin work on assembling a nest for bees;
Between September 16 and September 30, work on bee treatment begins;
From September 25, bees switch to winter mode of life;
Around the beginning of October, insects make their last flight over the apiary territory and after that the bees have a fly-free period, the duration of which can reach six months.

Autumn inspection of bee colonies

Autumn inspection is an extremely important job for every beekeeper, the implementation of which makes it possible to regulate the following processes in the apiary:

Availability and quality of food stored for the winter;
Arrangement of the hive for a comfortable wintering of bees;
Conducting an assessment of the hive population and its regulation;
Carrying out cleaning, as well as medical and sanitary treatment of individuals and their homes;
Assembling a nest for wintering.

The number of surviving bees in the apiary after winter, as well as the strength of the family, will depend on the successful and timely completion of all tasks in the autumn. Working with bees in the fall significantly affects the amount of honey that can be collected for the next season.

Autumn work with bees

A rather important stage in working with insects in the apiary in the autumn is culling the bee colony. The number of colonies that remain overwintering directly affects the amount of food needed to be distributed to the bees.It is not advisable to skip the autumn culling, since insects make food reserves for the winter from food, and if the colony turns out to be weak, it will be more difficult for the bees to provide for the entire swarm. If you have to transplant a colony of bees to another hive in the fall, this work should be done in advance, since the bees need to settle into a new place, and this will be very difficult to do in a short period of time.

Autumn culling should be performed in the following cases:

Presence of weak families. In this case, the two colonies need to be united or moved to stronger families;
Low productivity of an individual family. The cause of this problem is most often a weak queen that cannot produce enough brood. In such a situation, the main task is to maintain the required number of individuals in the family. Here you need to make a decision whether another queen will help increase the number of insects in the colony, or whether the swarm will need to be transplanted to a stronger colony;
Presence of sick individuals. If the disease is not noticed in time, it can progress quickly. There are often cases when it is necessary to destroy an entire sick colony in order to save the entire bee farm from infection;
The presence of a large number of drones in the colony. Insects often regulate the number of drones on their own. If there are a lot of them left in the family, then the bees will collect little nectar next season. A large number of drones will weaken the entire family, since insects will eat a lot of food in winter.

Important! Insect hatching should be carried out no later than 30 days before the final cleaning flight.

How to form a nest in the fall

The work of forming a nest is one of the most important tasks in the autumn.Ideally, bees should create nests on their own, and the beekeeper should only control this process.

Strong bee colonies spend the winter in 8-12 frames. For this process, it is better to use a two-way method of organizing the nest. Frames with the smallest amount of honey (2 - 3 kilograms) should be placed in the center, and with the largest amount (4 or more) - along the edges.

For medium-sized colonies, it is recommended to use the corner method. The most honey-filled frame should be located on the edge. As you approach the center, the amount of honey in the frames should decrease.

If the family is weak, it is better to use the “beard” method, where the frames with the largest amount of honey are concentrated in the center. In this case, the total feed supply should be about 16 kilograms.

Feed placement

One of the best food supplies is sealed honey from flowers. The number of completely filled frames with honey depends on the size of the colony. If the hive structure is multi-body, then the food should be placed on top, since the bees are located below. In sunbeds, frames with honey are placed along the edges.

If a one-sided placement method is used, then a heavy frame should be installed on the edge, the weight of which is 3 - 3.5 kg. Another two or three honeycombs of 1.5 - 1.8 kg each should be placed opposite the tap hole. Then there are frames weighing from 2 kg.

Approximate amount of feed that needs to be stored for the winter:

For a strong nest - 16 - 18 kilograms (10 - 12 frames);
Average nest - 15 - 16 kilograms (7 -9 frames);
Multi-body hives - up to 30 kilograms per body.

When to close the lower entrance in the fall

The experience of many beekeepers shows that when working with bees there is no need to close the lower entrance.This recommendation only works if there is a strong colony in the hive. An open entrance allows insects to better survive the winter.

Important! If the family is weak and not so numerous, then the entrance must be closed.

Preventive work in the apiary in the autumn

When working in an apiary, it is not recommended to forget about preventive procedures that can protect the entire colony of bees and prevent the flight of insects in the fall, which can occur due to the inconvenience of living in the hive.

Uncomfortable conditions can lead to diseases in the apiary, causing insects to die. To avoid such problems, it is necessary to carry out treatment against varroatosis, mites, and other diseases.

The most popular drugs are:

Amipol;
Bipin;
Polisan.

To successfully carry out prevention for bees in the fall, you need to follow a certain sequence of actions. First of all, the contents of any drug should be diluted with two liters of water. To perform the procedure, a special sprayer or syringe is used.

All activities in the apiary should be completed before the insects begin to form a club. This is due to the fact that treatment during this period can lead to the death of the uterus. The best time to perform the procedure is considered to be the time after the brood has emerged, as well as the flight of young individuals. During this period, insects normally tolerate treatment with chemicals. To combat infectious diseases, it is better to mix the product with fertilizer and then give it to the bees.

Work in the apiary in October

In order for insects to successfully survive the cold, it is necessary to prepare a winter hut for them.First of all, you need to carefully dry it, and also adjust the ventilation system. Even in the summer, it is necessary to remove the door from the winter hut, open the hatch and all ventilation pipes. All cracks in this structure must be carefully sealed. If the winter hut is above-ground or semi-underground, it is necessary to equip an external backfill.

A few days before placing the hives in the winter hut, it must be heated with an iron stove and smoked with sulfur. In this case, the following calculation should be used: 30 grams per 1 cubic meter of space. After completing this work, the winter hut is closed for a day. Every other day, the walls and ceiling must be swept with a stiff brush.

When preparing your apiary for winter, you need to think about protecting the bees’ housing from mice. The insulation of hives is also important. Houses for insects must be well protected from frost, wind and animals. Various boxes, shields and barriers are suitable for such purposes. If the bees spend the winter indoors, it is necessary to build an omshanik. To do this, you need to dry the moss and make a thick carpet of straw, dry reeds or sedge.

When work on the apiary ends

All work on the apiary must be completed by the end of October. Bee houses should be kept warm and all doors should be closed.

Conclusion

Autumn work in the apiary requires constant attention and control. The main thing that beekeepers need to do in the autumn is to prepare houses for bees and the insects themselves for wintering.