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4 Bee Colony Maintenance and Bee Colony Activities

The document outlines the maintenance and activities of bee colonies, detailing essential practices such as beehive inspection, artificial feeding, and swarm management. It highlights the roles of the queen, drones, and worker bees, emphasizing their specific activities and responsibilities within the colony. Additionally, it discusses methods for increasing colony numbers and managing seasonal challenges to ensure the health and productivity of the bees.

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141 views18 pages

4 Bee Colony Maintenance and Bee Colony Activities

The document outlines the maintenance and activities of bee colonies, detailing essential practices such as beehive inspection, artificial feeding, and swarm management. It highlights the roles of the queen, drones, and worker bees, emphasizing their specific activities and responsibilities within the colony. Additionally, it discusses methods for increasing colony numbers and managing seasonal challenges to ensure the health and productivity of the bees.

Uploaded by

cshdhdhvfsbzdb
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bee colony maintenance

and bee colony activities

Dr. A. K.
Singh
Outlines
• Bee colony maintenance:
• Beehives inspection
• Need based support (watering, frame add/ remove, colony division)

• Bee colony activities


• Queen activities
• Drone activities
• Worker activities
Bee colony maintenance
• Beehive inspection: Beehive inspection is must to know the colony condition

• Open the hive at least once a week and inspect for following details.

• Observations record should be maintained for each hive of the apiary.

• Status of queen: Present/ absent and age of queen

• Presence of eggs and brood: Egg, larvae, pupa, drone cell and queen cell

• Honey and pollen storage: status of honey area and pollen area

• Presence of bee enemies: wax moth infestation, mite, disease, etc.


Bee colony maintenance
• Provide new frames: It is done by providing comb foundation sheet in
empty frame during honey flow period.
• Supering (Place the super chamber with frames): This is done when brood
chamber is filled with bees and all frames are covered.
• Comb foundation sheet or constructed comb is provided in super chamber
• Maintenance during breeding season:
• During honey flow season, workers increase their foraging activity and
queen increase egg laying.
• Hence, new frame with comb foundation sheet should be place in space.
• The full of brood combs (worker) from strong colonies should be place in
weak colony.
• This should be done in prosperous season and at time when bees are busy.
Bee colony maintenance
• What is swarming: This is a natural process of a colony to multiply through the
departure of a part of the bee population with a queen and some drones, who in
turn will establish a new colony.

• Swarm management:

• Swarming can be prevented by remove to emerging brood cells of queen

• Primary swarm is allowed to take place but trapped swarm when it settle down
nearby apiary and place in a new bee box.

• A brood comb with the rearing queen cell and some workers taken out and put in a
separate hive and thus the colony is divided
Bee colony maintenance
• Artificial feeding:

• Bees visit on the flowers to collect pollen and nectar.

• During floral dearth, bees do not find nectar and pollen, therefore, colony suffer
from scarcity of food.

• During floral dearth artificial feeding of sugar syrup is required.

• Sugar syrup prepare in boiled water and ratio of sugar and water varies according to
seasons.

• If the bees are not fed artificially during dearth period, they start starving, dwindling
and ultimately abscond.
Bee colony maintenance
• Provision of Drinking Water:
• A source of fresh water within a short distance of an apiary is essential.
• Water is required to mixed with the food and to maintain temperature of the
hives during summer.
• Fresh water can be provide in a tank or an earthen pot set up at apiary
• Uniting bee colonies:
• When the colonies become weak or queen less, than uniting is required
• As each colony has its own peculiar odour
• Two methods are recommended to unite the two colonies
• News paper method
• Smoke method
Bee colony maintenance
• Handling the Queen:

• The queen is the most important and essential individual in the bee colony

• The handling of bee colony should be properly and carefully.

• Presence of the queen:

• In a strong colony sometimes it may be difficult to spot the queen

• However, presence of young queen can be judged by the presence of eggs.

• Symptoms of queen less colony: The bees of a queen less colony always nervousness

• There will be no proper egg-laying or worker egg laying (more than one egg in cells).
Bee colony maintenance
• Introduction of the queen: Several methods are given below

• Before introduction of new queen, it should be confirm colony is queen less

• The queen should be put into a queen cage and put sugar candy in cell

• Place new queen in queen less colony to protect the new queen from workers

• After 48 hours queen should be release from the queen cage


Bee colony maintenance
• Increasing the Number of Colonies:

• It is very important for beekeeper to increase his bee colony every year

• This can be done by dividing the existing colonies

• 1- Purchase of bee colony: Bee colony should be purchase from government


or reputed private firm

• Only those colonies should be purchased which have new queen and at least
5-6 brood frames covered with bees
Bee colony maintenance
• 2- Division of bee colony: The colonies can be increased by dividing the existing

• About to mature queen cell frame and 3 more frames were removed from mother
colony and placed in new bee box

• New divide colony keep about 3 km away from the present apiary

• 3- Capture the swarm: Capture the swarm colony and transferred to empty hives

• Place two empty frames and brood comb from another colony

• The swarms can be kept in the same vicinity.


Bee colony maintenance
• Seasonal management: Completed

• Management during dearth period

• Remove empty combs and store in air tight container.

• Use dummy division board to confine bees to small area

• Unite weak colonies

• Provide sugar syrup, pollen supplement and substitute


Drone activities in bee colony
• Drone activities:
• Only matting with the young virgin queen
• After succeed in matting that drone dies.
• Single drone consume feed equal to 3- 5 feed
Queen activities in bee
• Queen activities: colony
• Nuptial flight thereafter matting
• Regulated egg laying: male/ female and as per requirement
• Controlling of colony by pheromone and other cue
• Mandibular gland: 2 substances secreted
• 9-keto-(E)-2-Decenoic acid and 9-hydroxyl-[E]-2-Decenoic acid;
• Above both compound regulate inhibition queen rearing, swarming, worker
egg laying and drone attracting.
Worker activities in bee
colony
• Worker activities: Most of the activities done by the worker bees of colony
• Division of worker: Different age of worker honeybees performing various
duties
Worker activities in bee
colony
• Cell cleaners: The age of nursing bee is 1–2 days

• Brood cells must be cleaned before the next use.

• Cells will be inspected by the queen and if unsatisfactory they will not be used.

• If the cells are not clean, the worker bee must do it again and again

• Nurse bee: The age of nursing bee is 3–11 days

• These bees feed and take care of developing brood.

• Carpenter bee: The age of carpenter bee is 12–17 days

• They have active wax gland and secrete wax to make comb.

• This gland present on the 4- 7th stibnite abdominal gland.


Worker activities in bee
colony
• Guarding and defence: The age of carpenter bee is 18- 22 days

• Number of guard bees needed is very low during honey flow period

• While, number of bees guarding the entrance is more during dearth period.

• During dearth period guard bees are very attentive and thoroughly examine
the incoming bees.

• Forager bee: The age of carpenter bee is 22–42 days

• The forager and scout bees travel up to 3 kilometres to collect nectar and
pollen and propolis.
Thank you

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