Pros and cons of spreading cold and warm in early spring
Because the spring climate in some areas is still relatively cold, the colony should be kept insulated outside after breeding, and properly insulated in the box. This is often referred to as warm openness, and some bee friends will not stay warm when open to breed. Turn on the fan. Let's talk about the pros and cons of hot and cold.
1, warm open fan
Due to the effect of heat preservation, the temperature in the early box of the colony is good, and the colony reproduces faster, especially the weak colony, which can speed up the reproduction process of the colony.
The disadvantages are:
1. In order to facilitate heat preservation, the colony of bees depends on each box. When bees excrete, their ability to distinguish nest positions is very poor and the colony concentration is very serious. On a windy day, it tends to lean toward the top of the wind. In a windless day, it tends to favor a strong colony, while a weak and weak colony favors a good colony. This brings a lot of trouble to future management, and also increases the chances of disease transmission; 2. The strong nest temperature is high, there is no source of honey powder in the early stage, the bees are flying in the air, and the number of bees is reduced; 3. The early production speed of the queen bee is too fast, Too many bees participate in eating, which greatly shortens the life span of the bees and prolongs the recovery period of the colony.
2. Cold open fan
Since the hive is not insulated, the queen bee will slowly lay eggs in the early stage, and when encountering a relatively large cold current, the outer ring will freeze to death. A weak colony is difficult to reproduce.
The advantages are:
1. In order to facilitate the inspection of bee colonies, cold-opening breeding is usually a group of two boxes. The colonies are not concentrated, which brings a lot of convenience to management and is very beneficial to the propagation of colonies. 2. The colony is in a low temperature environment, the air flight is relatively poor, the temperature in the box is low, and the number of bees used for internal work is large, and the bees will go out early and return late to maintain good health. In good health, the early queen bees lay fewer eggs and the number of bees raised is small, which prolongs the lifespan of overwintering bees. 3. Failure to maintain insulation will reduce a lot of work.
Cold open fan should pay attention to the following points:
1. Don't start breeding too early, it should be around March 25, and the northern mountain area should be late to reduce air flying.
2. Don't have too much spleen. Four bees can add 2~3 half honey powder to the spleen, put a small baffle on one side of the box wall, and then put a full honey outside the baffle as a cold zone. d. When checking the colony after 10 days, you can make appropriate adjustments.
The author has always advocated warmth and blooming, but I always feel that warm and wintering bees die too quickly. After reading "Swarm Biology", I found the answer. Taranov said: Only 0.5 kg of bees are needed for spring blossoms. Heat preservation, strengthening heat preservation will speed up the death of overwintering bees. Because of the different climate conditions in different places, the methods are also different. Through observation and comparison, the author found that Dandong is cold, there is no significant difference in the reproduction of the spleen bee colony, but the workload is significantly reduced. 3 The bee colony of the spleen and below should be kept warm so that the bees grow faster in spring.
