AT THE APIAR IN JULY

Although the days have slowly begun to shorten, the beekeeping season is in full swing. The time has come about which people say that summer day feeds the year . Therefore, the beekeeper now has not only a day, but also every hour on the register - he would not forget anything, he would do everything on time.

Although swarming peak has already passed, the hives cannot be left without a daily external inspection, especially before lunch.

In normally functioning colonies, the brood part of the hive does not need to be disassembled before the autumn inspection. Usually at this time only honey frames or honey stores are manipulated. Moreover, only frames with dry land are placed for expansion during the main honey harvest period. If frames with foundation are placed on the expansion, then the bees engaged in the construction of honeycombs will not be able to fully use the potential honey collection.

At the beginning of the main honey harvest, it is advisable to begin creating reserves of honey, which will later be used when assembling nests for the winter and as a safety food fund for the spring of next year. For this purpose, full-copper, well-sealed frames are selected at a rate of at least 2-3 pieces. for each family that will be left in the winter.

In the first half of July it is still possible continue collecting pollenusing pollen collectors. In the second half of July, this is no longer recommended because it is necessary to give the bees the opportunity to begin accumulating beebread in the hive for the autumn growth of bees and to create winter reserves. And on top of everything else, in the second half of summer the number of pollen carriers in nature decreases and its consumer standards decrease.

July - it's time to pump out the honey. There are many views on how this should be done. We will talk about how most beekeepers do it. First of all, during the season this operation should be carried out as few times as possible, since after collecting honey the family reduces flight activity in bringing honey for at least 2-3 days. If the selection of honey coincides with the peak of flowering of the main honey plant, then the loss of commercial honey will be noticeable.

Only those honey frames that are sealed at least halfway are selected for pumping. If sushi supplies are limited and honey collection continues, then the pumped out frames are put back into empty stores to be filled with honey. If the honey flow decreases sharply, then the empty frames are given to the bees to dry overnight, and then they, along with the stores, are taken away and stored until the next honey flow.

July is the most fertile month in the apiary. In July, the bees are most active, which will begin to subside only in August. The strongest families are already ready to “hand over” part of their work in the form of sealed honey - so the beekeeper’s task is not to miss this moment. We will find out further what else is required from the beekeeper in July.

July life of bees

In the hottest month, the time of the main bribe begins - the period when the bees work tirelessly. Their main activity at this time is COLLECTION OF NECTAR, which takes place in the following mode

• Worker bees fly around the area near their houses and collect nectar. Up to several kilograms of nectar are obtained per day - from this amount of raw material you will get 2-3 times less honey.
• The nectar is placed in cells, with insects filling each cell only a third - this way the water evaporates better.
• Within 5-6 days, the delicacy is prepared in the cells, after which the striped workers seal it - the delicacy is ready.
• Remember that increased activity causes increased mortality among insects. That is why the main bribe period is the time when the average life expectancy of each bee is reduced to 1 month.

An interesting feature is that if there is no honeycomb left in the hive to fill, the bees simply will not work, because the extracted nectar will have nowhere to put it. Therefore, it is important for the beekeeper to take care of a sufficient number of honeycombs for the bees even before the main bribe begins. So, for example, if the daily “income” of nectar is from 6 to 8 kg, then about 16-20 honeycombs will be required for placement.

Helping bees collect honey

To make the July main harvest for insects more comfortable, the beekeeper is recommended to CARRY out the FOLLOWING SERIES OF PROCEDURES:

• If you have done layering, now is the time to connect bee colonies with the layering.
• As stated before, it is necessary to ensure that there are enough cells in each piece of evidence.
• Check the efficiency of the queens in each bee colony. If the uterus is old (over one year), then it is recommended to replace it with a young and more active one. This will help the bees safely collect honey, and in addition, soon breed young bee offspring.
• In order for insects to work faster and more efficiently, all entrances must be fully opened. They close them only after the end of the bribe - everything except the main one.
• Pumping out honey, which occurs immediately at the end of July (or even in the middle), is very traumatic for the bees. Therefore, it is recommended to pump out honey in the evening.

In any case, the most effective work will be that done by a strong bee colony. You need to take care of creating strong families and strengthening them in May and June, long before the main bribe.

Handling evidence

The beekeeper will also need to carry out some procedures with the evidence; they will also CONTRIBUTE TO SAFE HONEY COLLECTION:

Work in the apiary in July

1. If you keep bees in a hive with 12 frames, then you need to remove 3 frames from the nest, 2 containing honey, 1 - mature brood. These frames are replaced by others with artificial foundation. A dividing grid is installed on top of them: this way the queen bee will not be able to climb into the extension.
   2 magazines are installed on top, a frame with brood is installed in the center, and 4 more frames are installed at the edges.
   As a result, we will get 2 extensions containing 16 half-frames for pumping out honey, as well as 4 nesting frames, the honey from which will subsequently be used as food for insects (instead of these nesting frames, foundation or drying is then installed).
2. Breeding bees in a double-box during this period is very similar to the method described in the previous paragraph. The only difference is that all the nesting frames are placed in the second housing.
3. Specific process of content and in evidence for 16 frames. Here you will need to remove 4-5 frames of honey. In their place, frames with foundation are installed in a row. Then a magazine extension is installed - only for 12 frames. This trick allows the beekeeper to monitor the filling of the honeycombs with honey both in the nest and in the store.
   One more feature. If the hive is installed with an entrance to the southeast, then the magazine extension must be placed to the southwest, then there will be space in the magazine. During the bribe period, honey can be pumped out exclusively from the store extension.
4. In the beds, the features of keeping bees are similar to the previous ones. There is only one peculiarity here: the beekeeper may not install the store extension at all, and pump honey only from the nest. In a beehive, the queens are usually of the highest quality during this period.

These manipulations ensure a comfortable life for bees and greatly simplify the beekeeper’s work in the future.

Beginning of honey collection

Already from mid-July, the amount of honey accumulated in evidence must be controlled. A problem may arise in strong families: they collect a very large amount of nectar, so they get an excess of honey - this EXCESS MUST BE REMOVED IN A TIMELY manner. In all other respects, try to adhere to the following rules:

• Honey that is not sealed by bees is not yet ripe and cannot be pumped out. This is a low quality product that is neither good in quality nor popular in sales.
• The best quality nesting combs are not pumped out, but left. The insects themselves may need them as feeding during the pre-winter and winter periods.
• In hives-loungers, two-tier hives, as well as multi-hull hives, the process of pumping out honey can begin only after the end of the main bribe. The capacities here are not limited, so you don’t have to worry about the appearance of an excess of bee delicacy.
• Immediately after you pump out honey from the honeycombs or frame, they must be returned to their place, otherwise this may provoke aggression in the bees.

Only proper care of bees will help the beekeeper get a rich harvest, as well as minimal death during the main harvest.

Summer is a hot time for beekeepers, literally and figuratively: a lot of hard work. It is in the summer that the beekeeper is rewarded for his troubles, receiving a return on honey, wax and other beekeeping products. The bees also work, trying their best to stock up on food, building honeycombs, spending most of the day in labor. Summer bees have the shortest life.

Feed collection

The leading indicator in beekeeping is honey collection from the colony. Throughout the year there are several productive bribes, the largest of which is usually called the main one. It is towards its middle period, in the area where the apiary is kept, that beekeeping work is planned.

The beekeeper’s task is to meet the main challenge fully armed: to grow as many colonies as possible, to stock up on built-up frames, healthy and efficient bees. The hive is monitored all the time by changes in the mass of the control hive. Weighing is always carried out at the same time.

The beginning of the main bribe

Also, it is necessary to expand the nest in a timely manner. Freshly brought nectar requires a lot of space for processing into honey: bees cover all unoccupied cells in the hive with a spray (a small amount of nectar in the combs). A large area promotes the evaporation of water. It is advisable to expand the hives by dry land, so as not to waste the most productive time, in terms of honey collection, with the work of rebuilding the combs. The frames, ready for pumping (at least one-third sealed), are removed from the nest, and honey is extracted from them.

The evacuated frames are given to the bees for drying, preferably in the evening, so as not to occupy the daytime hours with this work, when the insects are busy bringing and processing nectar. If there are sick colonies, you need to make sure that the frames taken from them do not end up in other hives for drying.

Propagation of families

In summer the apiary grows. There are supporters of natural - swarms, and artificial - layering, reproduction of families. In any case, the beekeeper tries to select the time for this depending on the period of the main bribe.

Early breeding is when, before the main bribe, the family manages to increase the number of young bees sufficient for its use.

Let’s carry out simple calculations: queens of different breeds differ in the number of eggs they lay per day, let’s take the average – two thousand. She lives from a month, when working hard, to a little more than six months - when wintering. It is reasonable to count on a month and a half, which is what happens in the summer. The bee hatches within 21 days and begins to fly for nectar another week later.

This means that with an egg production of 2,000 eggs, the maximum family size will be: 45x2000 = 90,000 working individuals. In the future, the juvenile growth will become equal to the waste of aged insects, and the family simply will not be able to grow larger.

The calculations are approximate, since in the newly formed layering the queen cannot immediately develop maximum egg production: there are not enough workers. But the meaning is clear, most bees will start flying for nectar from families formed 2.5 months earlier. There is no point in forming earlier - the bees will begin to die without being involved in the main bribe. But during their lives they consumed the food themselves, and the family spent resources on their removal.

If the main bribe is in July (as most often happens), then the queen of the newly formed colony should begin laying in May. It is precisely because of this that early queens are highly valued, which is why in the spring the beekeeper must make efforts to remove them as quickly as possible.

With natural swarming, there are additional considerations due to the large swarming force - the exceptional industriousness of the insects in the swarm. The swarm, which emerged less than a month before the main feeding, works energetically to collect nectar.

A swarm that emerges 30–40 days before the main bribe is the most useless. During this time, he will not have time to grow enough young bees, but will have time to lose swarm strength. It makes sense to think about returning him to his mother's family. Its solution is an oversight by the beekeeper, who poorly controls the manifestations of the natural instincts of insects.

Also, to expand the apiary, overwintered spare queens are used when the layering increases to the size of a full-fledged family. However, this most likely applies to autumn work. They also create temporary families: connecting helper queens to breed an additional number of insects during the main feeding period. For this purpose, some of the bees, with the fertile uterus, exist for a short time behind a blind partition in the hive, with their own separate entrance. And at the beginning of the main bribe, they are united into a single honey family.

How to make bee layers after the main bribe

Additional summer jobs

The lion's share of work in the summer months is associated with the reproduction of families and the preparation of honey. But not only.

1. Work on obtaining other beekeeping products: bee venom, royal jelly, propolis, pollen, queens, bee packages. They are significant in terms of labor costs only in specialized farms, when the beekeeper is setting up the production of such products.
2. Current repairs of equipment, equipment, hives - as needed.
3. Work related to migration - in mobile apiaries.
4. Catching escaped swarms. This means hanging traps in suitable places and working with them.
5. Wax processing. Wax moths develop quickly in the summer heat, and the best way to protect raw materials during storage is not to store them, but to process them immediately. Charge the solar wax melter in passing, while carrying out other work, or periodically, as soon as a noticeable amount of raw materials is collected, melt it into wax ingots.
6. Fighting diseases. Prevention and treatment of diseases.

Summer time is the busiest time for a beekeeper. Usually, it is during the summer or during the period of honey pumping that additional labor is brought in. However, this depends on the size of the apiary.

A beginner should remember that caring for bees requires strict adherence to the rules. In the fall, usually in September, the nest is assembled for the winter. This means that frames with brood and a small amount of honey are placed closer to the partition. Temporary layers are attached. The key indicator in beekeeping is honey yield. It is he who indicates the strength of the family and its potential. When planning to breed bees and care for them, the beekeeper needs to be fully prepared for the main bribe. This means that it is necessary to audit the existing individuals and increase the number of healthy and efficient insects. To reduce the time spent caring for bees, you can expand the nests in special beds.

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Hive structure

If you want to start a hive, the first thing you need to do is think about where to put it. The ideal location is near trees and a high fence. The tree casts a shadow, which helps maintain the microclimate of the bees' home, preventing them from getting cooked from the heat and direct exposure to rays. A high fence will protect you from gusts of wind. However, you should not install the hive in a low area, as this can contribute to the development of fungal diseases and mold.

Insectivorous birds (buzzard, golden bee-eater, sand martin) should not be found near the beekeeper. They can catch the bees, and all their efforts will be in vain.

The hive design must meet the requirements:

• The entire structure must be reliable and capable of protecting insects from temperature changes, precipitation and moisture.
• The hive should be warm, but not overheated during extreme heat.
• The thickness of the walls of a single-walled hive is 3 cm; in a double-walled hive, the space should be filled with moss.
• The bees' home should be quite spacious and suitable for housing brood, honey and bee bread storage. This is the name of flower pollen.
• Possibility of manually adjusting hive volumes.
• Availability and comfort of working with structures.

All hives must have the same structural dimensions. In this case, it is comfortable to work, and a lot of time is not spent determining the ownership of a part of the structure.

The bottom of the hive must be removable and equipped with a mesh with a tray. Such measures will allow you to effectively combat ticks.

For wintering, excess frames are removed from the hive. This space must be filled with special insulated pillows.

Anyone who starts a bee colony must undergo official registration. This does not depend on the number of hives. You need to contact your local veterinary station for animal disease control.

Documents issued by SES:

• Veterinary passport for the apiary (to be rented out, preferably in the spring).
• Certificate for honey (the honey itself is submitted for analysis). Without a veterinary passport, a certificate will not be issued.

If a beekeeper has a health certificate, he can obtain permission to pack beekeeping products. Accordingly, permission to trade and participate in fairs.



Life of a bee family

For a beginner to understand how to work with a hive, it is necessary to have an understanding of the life and interaction of bees.

A bee family is a well-oiled mechanism in which everyone is in their place and performs certain tasks. The entire colony is divided into a queen bee, worker bees and drones. The moving part of the family is the swarm. Passive - a nest consisting of honeycombs with brood and food reserves. Despite its apparent insignificance, the nest is an important element of the hive. It is necessary for raising offspring, producing and storing bee reserves, and protecting the entire family.



An individual bee by itself is not able to survive without its family. The functions of each group are clearly defined:

• Young bee (hive or nurse). When a bee has just left its cell, it is still weak and unable to work. Therefore, she prepares herself for future stress (cleans her wings, eyes and body). A week later, when she has already become stronger, she begins to clean the cells and feed the larvae with honey and beebread. And after another week they are trusted to feed very small larvae with milk. In one day, such a nurse can visit her ward up to 8,000 times. They also process nectar into honey. On the 14th day they make their first orientation flight, which lasts five minutes. The bee has enough time to look around and remember the way home. Now she can clean the inside of the hive and take out debris and even the dead bodies of other insects. On the 20th day, the bee becomes a worker or forager.
• Uterus. Busy only with laying eggs. Experienced beekeepers try to replace the queen every two years to avoid the proliferation of drones.
• Worker bee (flight or field). From the 20th day of life, the bee becomes a worker and flies out of the hive to collect nectar. Such a worker works from morning until sunset, occasionally flying into the home to drop nectar and pollen (pollen lumps from the hind legs). In rainy weather or when there is no bribe (nectar in flowers), bees are reluctant to leave their home and only a few fly out to bring water or pollen.
• Drone. Performs the task of fertilizing the uterus. This happens when the queen leaves the hive. At such moments, she is surrounded by a whole cloud of drones, which fertilize her and immediately die. The drone eats a lot of supplies. Also, nurse bees spend too much energy on them. Therefore, beekeepers try to get rid of them. A drone hatches from unfertilized eggs. To avoid this, they try to put “dry” (ready-made honeycombs) into the hive. Then the uterus begins to lay only fertilized eggs.

Before wintering, bees expel all drones from their home and kill their brood. Without a family in the wild, they die.



Bee nutrition

On nice warm days, worker bees collect nectar from flowers, processing it into pollen, honey, and bee bread. If the weather situation is not conducive to good nectar collection, then insects look for a replacement: juice of fruits and berries, honeydew (sweet liquid on the leaves from insect activity). Beekeepers feed insects with cane and beet syrups. But such a measure should not be long and frequent. Honeydew honey can cause damage to a family during wintering.

Feeding is necessary at a time when there are a lot of eggs and bees are working hard. In cold weather, the family uses honey from their own reserves. Therefore, it must always be available.

The larva is saturated with royal jelly, which is produced from the glands of nurse bees. On the 4th day, honey, pollen and water (in the form of a mixture) are added to the diet. The adult eats honey and pollen.

Honey is the bee's source of thermal energy. Once in the insect’s body, it breaks down into glucose, which helps generate heat and maintain the temperature of the home. And for simple microelements and biologically active components that help maintain the functions of the bee and its vital activity.



Bee bread is prepared by bees from pollen and contains amino acids, vitamins and enzymes. It is sterile and three times more nutritious than pollen, therefore it is an integral component of feeding the larvae. This is a very important element of nutrition for the whole family. With its deficiency, drones lose the ability to fertilize, the uterus becomes infertile, and the larvae cannot fully develop their physiological functions. Thus, beebread is vitamins and microelements that support the functioning of the entire hive. One bee colony can consume up to 35 kg of bee bread per year.

Pollen is a kind of ingredient for making honey. The pollen is moistened with saliva and mixed with nectar and honey. Due to the yeast and fungi contained in it, processes occur that bring it to the state of bee bread.

Royal (bee) jelly is produced by bee glands and contains B vitamins, hormones, proteins, and organic acids. Necessary for nurturing embryos. A colony that consumes a lot of food will produce a lot of honey. This is the law in action.



Reproductive functions

Adult bees can reproduce in two ways:

• Swarming is a natural life cycle of a colony. The queen suddenly stops laying new eggs. Young bees left without work form a new swarm. It looks like this: the swarm is divided into two parts. Usually in proportions of 40 to 60%. The old queen and her swarm leave for a new habitat. In this case, both families can find their niche.
• Recreation is when the queen begins to intensively lay eggs in each comb. Over the winter it is able to recreate an entire colony.

The queen needs to mate with males (drones). Then she will be able to lay fertilized eggs. This happens far from their home, in cloudless weather, approximately after lunch and until the evening. In one flight it can mate with 7-8 males.

Phases of bee development: egg, larva, prepupa, pupa, adult.

How to obtain and store honey?

Freshly pumped honey is quite clear and liquid. Over time it becomes more cloudy, crystallizes and thickens. In order for it to remain liquid for a long time, immediately after pumping it is necessary to place the honey in a room with a temperature of 0 degrees for up to 2 months. Then transfer to a room with a temperature of 14 degrees. This honey will maintain a liquid consistency for about two years.



It is rare that honey is not candied. Typically, such a product is made on the basis of white acacia and chestnut. In most situations, the main bribe occurs in July. This means that in a newly formed family the queen should lay eggs in May.

To preserve the beneficial properties of the product:

• pour into a dry glass container with a tight-fitting lid;
• You cannot put honey in the refrigerator, fermentation will begin;
• Do not heat honey or expose it to direct sunlight.

A cabinet that contains no strong-smelling products is ideal for storage.

Diseases

An indicator of normal colony development is the absence of sick individuals near the entrance. Like any living creature, bees are also susceptible to diseases. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out preventive measures rather than treat diseases. The main symptom of the disease is inappropriate behavior of insects.

Diseases are divided into pathological - the most dangerous and severe (calcareous brood, paralysis, foulbrood, diarrhea) and seasonal - require drug treatment and are caused by pests and clinical diseases.

Diseases can also be divided into:

Preventive measures are carried out comprehensively in the spring, before the spread of the disease in the apiary, and in the autumn before the start of wintering. Since bees are social insects, and the income of the apiary depends on their condition, preventive measures should not be neglected.

Equipment needed by a beekeeper

Tools that will be used when handling bees must be safe and protect against insect bites.

Any beekeeper always has in stock:

1. 1. Face net - designed to protect the beekeeper's face. It looks like a hat with a black mesh down. It should tighten to prevent insects from getting inside.
2. 2. White cotton robe with elastic bands on the sleeves and a belt to prevent bees from getting inside.
3. 3. Smoker - necessary for inspecting the hive. Due to the action of smoke, bees fill their crops with honey so much that they cannot bend over to sting.
4. 4. Apiary chisel - used to expand the frames when inspecting the hive. It will also be needed to scrape off propolis and wax.
5. 5. A portable box with a lid will help you move the frames.
6. 6. Brush for removing debris from the hive.
7. 7. Roevnya is useful when gathering a swarming family.
8. 8. The caps are used for transplanting queens into families.
9. 9. Feeder for feeding.
10. 10. A drinking bowl is necessary so that the bees always have water.
11. 11. The separating grid serves to isolate or catch the queens in the nest.
12. 12. A drone trap is useful for catching heavily bred males in the hive.
13. 13. A bee remover is necessary before you start pumping out honey.
14. 14. A honey extractor will be required when pumping honey from honeycombs.
15. 15. Awl for punctures in the frame.
16. 16. Wire for attaching foundation.
17. 17. Blanks for frames.



This list can grow over time and with increasing needs. When choosing clothes, you need to focus on what is spacious and comfortable. This choice will help you not restrict your movements while working in the apiary. When choosing a face mask, you should give preference to black mesh. This option will improve visibility.

To prevent bees from stinging between your shoes and your trouser leg, wear leg warmers. Thick gloves will protect your hands.

Caring for winged insects

Beginners tend to make mistakes. For example, they like to inspect hives several times a day. This leads to temperature changes inside the home and disturbs insects, disrupting their way of life.

When a new beekeeper has just set up his hives, he should not wait for honey. It will be there, but in small quantities and necessary for bees. The first priority is proper care for the family.

Periodic checks of the hive during the warmer months will help ensure that the queen is laying eggs, the bees are doing their jobs, and the hive has room for further expansion.

In cold weather, it is better to exclude such checks so as not to disturb the family again and not reduce their temperature inside.

All equipment must be removed and stored separately. There may be traces of insects on tools, which are allergens for some people.

Bee colony selection

Choosing a family is a decisive issue for a novice beekeeper. In order to worry less about diseases and not lose further interest, it is better to choose a healthy and high-quality uterus. It is difficult for an inexperienced person to see her among the mass of bees. She is slightly larger than all other individuals, moves slowly, and her abdomen is slightly longer than the others. It is usually located in the center next to the brood and larvae. At the beginning of summer, it can be located on the edge of the frame.

After identifying the queen, it is necessary to carefully examine her. You need to pay attention to the appearance: it must be in good condition, with intact wings, without injuries on the abdomen and legs. A good queen will lay eggs in every cell. If there are missing cells, it is better to refuse such a purchase.

A good family has decent reserves and weight. For example, in April the weight of a family should be at least one and a half kg (for 6 frames), from May to August - up to three kg (12 frames). A good colony will have 6 kg of food, about five frames of brood and two frames of beebread. It is very important to buy healthy, disease resistant and productive bees. Such families quickly adapt and winter well.

“Keeping bees is not lying in the cold”

It was not by chance that I placed this proverb at the beginning of the article. Summer is the busiest period in terms of the volume of apiary work. Summer work is carried out from June 1 to mid-August.

Next begins the first period of preparation for. In Siberia and other similar climatic zones, frosts occur in the last ten days of August. Our Siberian plant has only two weeks to pollinate and produce offspring.

It must adapt to these features of Siberian climatic and biological conditions. In the summer, the beekeeper cannot miss not only one day, but also one hour.

Here is just a small list of work that beekeepers have to perform during the summer:

• prepare the apiary for receiving the commodity
• organize transportation of bees to
• prevent bees from swarming;
• continue reproduction started in spring
• pump out
• replace old ones
• build up before wintering;
• carry out medical and recreational activities.

The transition from spring to summer work is gradual; many seemingly summer tasks have to be completed in May; some techniques begun in the spring continue in June and even July. It all depends on the situation, tasks, weather conditions, and the specialization of the apiary. Let's say an apiary specializing in the sale of breeding queens and packages requires the removal of queen bees from spring to late summer.

The build-up continues in the summer. During the flowering season of gardens, meadows and fields, bee families grow right before our eyes. But it is necessary to create the best conditions for this, to eliminate all the shortcomings that interfere with intensive reproduction.

At the same time, it is important to catch the moment of expansion of nests and changes in places. Carrying out these operations prematurely can disrupt the microclimate and slow down the development of the family. At the same time, being late in installing additional frames with dry soil and artificial foundation can lead to a swarming condition.

A good effect is achieved by the method of expanding the sockets, tested over many years of experience, by placing an additional housing in a cut between two housings. The essence of the method is that they do not like emptiness. Violation of the integrity of the nest brings the bee colony into an active state to eliminate the gap.

The silver-winged queens quickly master the new body, the queen is given unlimited opportunity to grow, the family continues to gain strength towards the main bribe.

It is very important in the summer during the main honey harvest to prevent a decrease in the strength of bee colonies. The fact is that when there is a good bribe, the bees mobilize all their forces to collect nectar and flood all the cells. The uterus may even have nowhere to lay eggs.

Often the beekeeper himself, using, limits the brood part. In the summer, flying bees quickly wear out and die. In summer, 3-4% of winged foragers die every day. The family is weakening because it does not receive enough young worker bees.

In this case, you can use young helper queens in a nearby hive, and after the decline in honey flow, both families can be combined, leaving the best queen. Thus, it is possible to solve several problems simultaneously tasks:

• increase honey collection;
• increase the strength of bee colonies;
• replace unproductive queens;
• find a use for the resulting young queen bees.

Factors influencing bee numbers:

• old uterus;
• weather;
• flowering “activity”
• treatment of fields with pesticides.

All this must be taken into account when planning and organizing summer work in the apiary.

Summer is the time to stock up on food and give gifts to people. That is why the apiary requires special care and diligent work.

I hope that the brief description of beekeeping in this article and in a series of subsequent articles on this topic will allow readers to imagine the importance summer work in the apiary.