27.07.2023

Where to start keeping bees. How to keep bees

Many people consider beekeeping an interesting and promising activity that does not require much labor or material investment. But in reality, before you start breeding bees, you should study their biology, become familiar with the rules of care and the sequence of seasonal work. In addition, significant investments will be required if you want to subsequently make a profit from this business.

To answer the question: “Is beekeeping profitable?” was positive, it is necessary to stock up on beekeeping equipment and provide insects with comfortable living conditions.

Preparation

First of all, you should prepare for unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, you need to buy not one bee colony, but at least 3-4. Over time, you can gradually increase your apiary.

Many beginners are interested in how many individuals there should be in a family. We answer - the number of insects can vary from 20 to 100 thousand, depending on the season and the strength of the swarm.

It is believed that it is best to start bee breeding with three colonies. But if you plan to turn your hobby into a business, you will need to purchase at least 50 bee colonies over time.

It will also be interesting for a beginner to know that a bee colony collects about 20 kilograms of nectar per day, which will ultimately yield 10 kilograms of honey.

It wouldn’t hurt to join the beekeepers’ union. Its members help newcomers and are always ready to provide useful tips on bee breeding. You can also purchase beekeeping guides for beginners.

Many beginners are afraid of bee stings. But these insects simply do not sting, since after the bite they die. To avoid bites, you should not make sudden movements or make loud sounds, and wear clean, light, lint-free clothing that does not contain foreign odors. A special smoker is also used to calm the patients. Over time, the bees recognize their owner and sting him extremely rarely.

So, a novice beekeeper needs:

choose a place for an apiary that meets general requirements;
purchase beekeeping equipment;
select a breed so that it feels good in the local climate and is characterized by high productivity;
Learn the basics of beekeeping for beginners.

Purchasing bee colonies

Before breeding bees, you need to buy layerings or bee colonies. It's better to do this in the spring. The cost of a family at this time will be higher, but it will immediately produce honey and allow you to get layering.

Insects should be purchased at a distance of at least 5 kilometers from the apiary so that they do not return home. It is advisable to buy dry frames along with them. They are necessary for expanding families. It is better to make a purchase from familiar beekeepers or on recommendation.

You should go shopping after lunch, taking with you either your own hives or special boxes for frames. After purchase, all frames are rearranged into the hive (the frame with the queen is placed first) in the same order as they were originally.

Then they are secured with a board so that they do not move during transportation. They place their hive in the place of the owner's. Flying bees, returning with a bribe, will fly into a new house. Next, they simply close the taphole and take away the structure.

When purchasing a bee family, you should pay attention to several points:

a sufficient number of flying individuals must sit on the frames containing the brood;
there should be no gaps during sowing - such brood is called variegated;
different colors of cells and perforation of the lids may indicate a disease;
if there are a lot of crawling bees in front of the hive, many of which have deformed wings, then they are sick.

If you have even the slightest suspicion of a disease, then it is better to refuse the purchase.

Beekeeping for beginners includes following several important rules:

When installing an apiary in a populated area, you must first obtain the consent of the neighbors.
The hives should be located 50 meters from residential premises and 10 meters from the boundaries of the site.
If your personal plot is small, you will have to give up beekeeping, or find a suitable abandoned plot and rent it out.
The hives should be placed in a quiet place, well protected from the wind.
It is recommended to install rows of houses at a distance of 5-6 meters from each other, and leave 4-5 meters of free space between the hives in the rows.
There should be a lot of trees growing around the apiary, which will help avoid many diseases.
To ensure optimal lighting, it is recommended to install structures with a slight slope to the south.
The entrances should be directed inside the apiary.
The apiary must be fenced (the height of the fence is at least 2 meters).
The apiary should be located away from highways and crowded places, as these insects do not like noise. If it is located in the country, then you need to choose a remote area where people rarely go.
Damp areas and lowlands, places near large factors and factories are not suitable for placing hives. Failure to comply with these conditions significantly increases the risk of disease.
It is desirable that honey crops grow around the apiary, blooming at different times. If this condition cannot be met, then do not be upset: the apiary can be transported periodically.
If you plan to sell beekeeping products, you will have to obtain a sanitary and veterinary passport.

Beekeeping for beginners will be successful only if all these rules are strictly followed.

Arrangement of hives

You can make houses for insects yourself or purchase ready-made ones. It is better for novice beekeepers to buy them from more experienced colleagues, since production will require special tools and boards made of soft wood. In addition, you will have to strictly adhere to the drawings, which not everyone can do.

The hive must be coated with a special varnish-paint to prevent moisture from penetrating into the home. In addition, in this case the bee will be able to see its house from afar. But you should pay attention to the fact that bees cannot distinguish between black and red shades. Therefore, you should not use these colors for painting. It is not recommended to paint all hives the same color. It's better if they differ.

The hive must provide comfort to its residents and meet certain requirements. It must be free enough to accommodate brood, honey supplies and bee bread, and serve reliable protection from rain, dampness and sudden temperature changes.

The house should be warm, but in the summer its walls should not overheat. In the case of a single-wall structure, the wall thickness should not be less than 3 centimeters. If a double-walled hive is used, then the space between the walls is filled with moss.

When producing evidence, it is necessary to ensure ease of maintenance and the ability to adjust the volume. It is advisable to make the hive collapsible. It is necessary to provide a removable bottom and a tray with a mesh to facilitate the fight against ticks.

There are many types of hives:

Alpine represented by a multi-tiered structure. It has only one tap hole and no dividing grids. Such a house is very expensive, but it will recoup the costs, as it will provide large offspring and high productivity of beekeeping products.
Multihull, or vertical. Very light and small. They allow you to obtain an increased amount of brood and prevent swarming. But they can only be used for a strong family with a young queen.
Horizontal, called beehives or retiree hives, are easy to clean and maintain. Frames are easily placed in them, and the nest is accessible for inspection. But they are also suitable only for a strong and young bee colony.
Dadan's Hive By appearance resembles a house. It is designed for 12 frames. This design is ideal for a novice beekeeper. It can be used in the courtyard of a private house, in a country house, or in an outdoor apiary.
Cassette hives allow insects to independently maintain an optimal microclimate, which helps prevent diseases. But such hives cannot be painted, they can only be impregnated with wax.
Japanese hives. Their distinctive feature is the absence of frames. Honeycombs are placed on the walls.
Hive Varre also do not have frames, but here the honeycombs are fixed using rulers. These hives allow you to create a microclimate that closely matches the natural environment.
Plywood hive The beekeeper makes it himself. It is characterized by low weight and can be used in pavilions.

The number of hives must exceed the number of bee colonies. Houses must meet the needs of the selected breed.

Pests and diseases

A novice beekeeper should pay special attention to the fight against bee diseases and pests. Otherwise, they will cause serious damage to the bee colony and may even cause its death.

The most common pests are:

Mol. To prevent its reproduction, you should keep strong families and constantly maintain order in the hives. If the pest does appear, mint or nut leaves are placed in the bee houses, and spare frames are moved to empty hives and smoked with sulfurous smoke.
Mice. They only cause harm in winter: they chew honeycombs, eat honey and bee bread, and sometimes bees. In addition, they emit a sharp, repulsive odor and are constantly moving, which adversely affects the health of the bee colony, weakens it and can cause death. To prevent rodents from settling in winter huts, their floors are made of clay, to which broken glass is added, and special barriers are installed on the entrances. They also use various baits and traps.
Ants. To protect the hives from ants, a moat is made around them, which is filled with water or the stands are treated with a special pencil. Some beekeepers raise the hives above the ground, but usually this measure does not protect against ants.
Birds. To protect insect housing from birds, for whom bee brood is a delicacy, the entrances in the hives must be of such a size that birds’ heads cannot pass through them. At the same time, they must allow several bees to pass at the same time.

To avoid the development and spread of diseases, preventive measures should be carried out in a timely manner. But, if you still cannot avoid the disease, you need to immediately begin treatment. The development of the disease is usually indicated by inappropriate behavior of bees.

All known bee diseases are divided into 2 groups: seasonal and pathological. Of particular danger are pathological diseases, which include foulbrood, paralysis, and calcareous brood. They need to be treated only with medications.

According to another classification, a distinction is made between contagious and non-contagious diseases. Infectious diseases, in turn, are divided into infectious (pathogens are bacteria, viruses and fungi) and invasive (develop when microorganisms of animal origin enter the body).

Equipment

Keeping bees for beginners requires the preparation of beekeeping equipment:

hives;
face protection nets;
smoker - smoke calms insects, reduces aggressiveness;
drinking bowls;
feeders;
beekeeping frame;
cages - queens are placed in them for a while;
caps - with their help they transfer the uterus to a new family;
roller - hang frames;
chisels - remove bee glue, clean off wax, scoop out the queen cell, lift the frame;
sweeping brushes - sweep away insects from the frame;
forks - open the honeycombs and remove the bar;
a special knife - cut old honeycombs from frames;
patterns - placed under the frames;
road barriers;
bars - temporarily separate the uterus from the working part;
boxes for carrying frames;
swarm - remove and temporarily maintain a swarm;
insulating pillows;
foundation sheets - they are inserted into frames and processed with a hot roller, after which they are used for the construction of honeycombs;
honey extractor – separates honey from honeycombs;
wax refiners - makes wax from rejected honeycombs.

You will also need to purchase special clothing. The face is usually protected with a mask with a light frame. To protect your legs, you can use gaiters designed for skiers and hunters, and thick gardening gloves for your hands.

Bee breeding methods

There are several methods of raising bees. Among beginning beekeepers, the most common are layering and half-summer division.

Layering method

The queen is transferred to another hive, where there are already frames with brood of different ages. Orphaned bees, having not found a queen, will begin to form fistulous queen cells, from which queens will soon (on the sixteenth day) emerge. 2-3 days before their appearance, mature queen cells are cut out and layering is formed from them.

Division by half of summer

This method requires a strong swarm, which is divided into 2 parts. To do this, two hives, into which brood is placed in advance, are installed side by side, in the place of the maternal family. Flight bees, returning from honey collection, will be divided into 2 parts. The family that is left without a queen will soon produce a new one. If you wish, you can add the queen yourself.

Rotational method

This method, also called 24-hour beekeeping, is only suitable for experienced beekeepers. It provides year-round comfort for insects. In this case, a mesh tray is used to contain the bees. They spend the winter in the wild.

When it gets warm, the apiary is placed in an area where there are many flowering trees, which activates the activity of bees. The beekeeper constantly monitors the amount of food, removing excess and replenishing deficiency. If the plants stop flowering, the apiary is transported to a new location. As soon as the beekeeper notices the first spring honey, he begins to harvest drone brood and prepare layering.

Regular family care allows you to avoid diseases and get healthy bee colonies, and, consequently, increase honey yield. This method also has a drawback - it requires a lot of effort and time.

Queen breeding

The correct choice of queen is important for successful beekeeping. It is noticeably different from worker bees in its large size, elongated abdomen and leisurely movements.

The queen must lay eggs in each cell. If the female misses cells, then she should be replaced.

To keep bee colonies strong, you should breed queens. In this case, the following conditions must be met:

prepare cells for eggs;
in the absence of nectar, feed the insects;
Queens should only be taken from quality parents from strong families.

Experienced beekeepers advise:

breed only strong families and discard weak ones;
You can strengthen a weak colony by adding a couple of brood frames to it at the exit, or by swapping families;
leave at least 4-6 kilograms of honey in the hive at all times;
expand the nest in a timely manner;
locate the apiary in such a place that the distance to the honey plants is no more than a kilometer (if it is more than three kilometers, then the bees lose two-thirds of the nectar along the way);
To control swarming, use the rule of the seventh frame: the appearance of the seventh frame of brood indicates readiness to form a swarm, and to prevent swarming, the previously mentioned layering is done.

Due to inexperience, beginners make many different mistakes. For example, they inspect nests several times a day, opening the hives. As a result, the temperature regime is disrupted, the bees are distracted, and growth slows down.

The most common mistakes made by novice beekeepers include:

improper care, which disrupts the functioning of the family;
untimely detection of the disease, which leads to the death of some or even all of the bees;
improper preparation for wintering, which is why bees do not reproduce;
lack of food in winter;
Not correct installation hives: away from the reservoir and honey plants;
violation of conditions for preserving honey: lack of ventilation in the hives, high humidity.

Seasonal bee care work

In order for the bees to feel good and produce a lot of honey, contributing to the expansion of the business, it is necessary to provide them with proper care. You should constantly monitor the temperature in the hives, monitor the condition of the bees and brood, and the amount of death.

In winter, the beekeeper builds hives and prepares equipment. In early spring, the entrances are opened and bee colonies are inspected, debris and bodies of dead bees are removed, and insects are fed.

If there are no bribes, then the bees are fed with sugar syrup every other day. For two days, the family will need about 500 grams of syrup.

Honey collection

Before the honey harvest season, bees should be provided with a sufficient number of honeycombs. If the family is strong, then the traditional Dadan hive set will not be enough. Therefore, it is recommended to add additional housings or install paired extensions.

Some beekeepers introduce another queen into the hive during the honey harvest season. But in such cases, it is necessary to install a diaphragm between the females. When chief bribe will be obtained, one of the females, less fertile, will have to be removed. Another option is to temporarily remove the queen from the nest, or replace it with a barren individual. Such provocations can increase honey yield by 30%.

Preparing for winter

The hives should be well insulated for the winter (part of the frames should be removed and the free space should be filled with insulating pads), the entrances should be closed, high-quality ventilation should be provided, and it is advisable to install barriers for mice. You should also prepare a winter hut - this is the name given to the warm room into which the hives are moved for the winter.

You need to make sure that the insects have enough food. You should definitely leave the honey frames in the nest; they can be partially (30%) replaced with sugar syrup. IN southern regions a bee colony eats about 15 kilograms of honey during the winter, and in the northern regions – about 20.

Features of bee breeding in pavilions

To make the hives convenient to transport, they are installed in a wheeled pavilion. It is best to use plywood hives in this case, as they are lighter. It is advisable to paint each house a different color to make it easier for the bees to find their home.

The pavilion is insulated with glass wool, which makes it possible to keep bees in it all year round. In addition, the costs for it will be much lower than for the purchase of a stationary structure. One pavilion can accommodate up to 30 families.

Income and expenses: is there a benefit?

Often a novice beekeeper wonders whether beekeeping is profitable. According to experts, the cost of raising bees in the first year will be $3,700 for 20 bee families. With this money you will need to buy bee colonies, hives, beekeeper equipment and apiary equipment, as well as means for preventive treatments.

But don't be afraid of these costs. Already in the first year, insects will produce more than 1,300 kilograms of honey, as well as wax, beebread, propolis, brood and pollen. As a result, you will be able to earn about $4,400. Consequently, the costs will pay off in the first season, and in subsequent seasons the income will only increase.

Keep or drive bees
Hive design for the very busy or lazy

Special literature reports that at the end of the 17th century the total number of bee colonies in peasant farms in Rus' reached 50 million. When compared to the current 3.5 million, this figure seems quite impressive, especially considering population growth. So our ancestors ate honey, as they say, to their heart’s content, and there was still enough for export. And the love for honey and other bee products was so high that people were not stopped by the lack of industries producing hives “on-line”, and any scientific literature on “beekeeping”, not even as numerous as it is now.

Well, it’s clear with the ancestors. And we? What happened to us? Maybe we have fallen out of love with honey, or has sugar become closer and dearer to our hearts and stomachs than natural nectar? Not at all. Good, real honey is still very popular among our compatriots, but you don’t see it on the table very often. From an everyday product, once counted in pounds, honey has turned in the vast majority of families into a delicacy, which is taken out of the cupboard on holidays and on the occasion of illness, and added to tea. And on the table, where once there was always a large bowl of honey and various fruits drenched in the same honey, now there is a huge mountain of chemical production products, for some reason called confectionery.

So what's the deal? What prevents us from drinking tea with honey and getting healthier every day by consuming the most valuable, most perfect and most unique product created by nature? After all, honey and beebread are simply a storehouse of useful substances, collected drop by drop from millions of flowers by our little workers, and not just collected, but also packaged in the best possible way? Just a mystery!

They say that the honey base today is completely different from what it was two hundred years ago. Forests were cut down, fields, chemicals, asphalt, concrete were plowed under monocultures. Yes it is. But if we take, for example, our middle zone, from St. Petersburg and, say, Tula, then even in the current conditions the number of bee colonies could be increased a hundred times, if not more. Out of habit, I would like to say “without harming nature,” but in relation to bees this sounds ridiculous - bees HELP nature. This is another amazing property of them. Nature NEEDS bees, they are an essential part of it.

The thing is that our immediate ancestors made, it seems, a very big mistake by leaving the maintenance of bees to specialists. Experts started large apiaries, standardized them and launched them into mass production hives, wrote a bunch of books and created the whole science of BEEKEEPING, completely scaring away the remaining enthusiasts. Our state also put its heavy hand into this process, driving the peasants from their homes to collective farms, Soviet construction sites and camps, and now scientific BEEKING marched across the country with a confident gait, at an accelerated pace reducing the number of bee colonies per capita. And what have we come to? To the idea that before you keep bees, you need to study for ten years from specialists, that an apiary is everyday, hard work, that you need to buy only purebred bees, from a special nursery, and local ones are not suitable, that they are very sick creatures and require constant treatment.

Honey also helps with allergies to cold, details here - medik-oz.ru

IS THIS REALLY SO? This is a serious question, and let's look into it. But first, let’s define the terms, especially since in this case they surprisingly correspond to the meaning.

So here it is. What is a beekeeper? Obviously the one who leads the bees. That is, it determines all aspects of their life: when and where to fly for honey, how to build a nest, when to swarm, and so on. And this is really hard and tiring work. It is absolutely necessary to constantly climb into the nest, cut out the queen cells, crush the drones, and spray the honeycombs with medicine. No other way. After all, bees can do something wrong: they can start swarming during the honey flow, or, having become completely lazy, they simply stop working. And in order to increase milk yield, there are many ways: changing queens, strengthening weak families, artificial two-queen beekeeping system, and so on.

Swarming, as a natural process of bee reproduction, has long been unsatisfactory for specialists. It was replaced by family division, layering, and artificial insemination of queens. Trying to figure this out can plunge even the most inveterate enthusiasts into despondency, and for a long time, if not forever, discourage the desire to start an apiary.

How did people cope with this matter in ancient times? After all, almost every peasant family kept bees! The only people who didn’t keep bees were those who were really lazy or armless, and apparently there were very few of them. Otherwise, where do such gigantic figures on the production of honey and wax and the quantity of them in the princely and monastic storerooms come from?

So the point is that the bees were KEPT, not driven! Everything is extremely simple! After all, the best form of relationships in nature is SYMBIOSIS, that is, you live your life, and I live mine, and we do not interfere with each other, but help each other whenever possible. In the case of bees, this principle works like this: a person builds a good, dry and warm nest and protects the bee family from numerous enemies - bears, etc., especially in winter, when the inhabitants of the hive are completely defenseless. And, taking care of the bees in this way, a person receives the moral right to withdraw the surplus (and only the surplus!) for his own use. There was no question of any interference in the life of the bee family! Bees are amazing, smartest creatures who can cope with any task, even a creative one, that is, one that requires not just automaticity, but also reflection. The evidence is in the same books on beekeeping.

So, the very first and most important principle is to keep bees, not drive them! Other evidence is below. But first, a small digression. I am against the beekeeping system, but, of course, not against the beekeepers themselves! The overwhelming majority are pleasant, likable people. They think and search, but only within the framework of the same system. They are used to working this way, they have dozens and hundreds of hives, they live from this and are simply not able to dramatically change the entire approach. These are hard workers who managed to survive and save the bees for us - thanks to them for this. At the same time, it seems to me that they also feel that it is necessary to change the approach, and on a global scale, they think about it and are always happy to share their experience. But our tasks are somewhat different - I see in the future not separate large apiaries, but several hives on each plot, at each country house and at a prestigious cottage, because, as the beekeepers themselves say (how much I don’t like this word!) the most the best type of honey is YOUR honey!

Learn to keep bees with minimal interference in their lives (I do this twice a year - in spring and autumn, and not much);
To make keeping bees easy and enjoyable, accessible and attractive for every owner of a plot of land;
Search for and distribute bee keeping systems that are easy and accessible to everyone;
Create and promote appropriate hive designs.
It is this kind of hive design and this kind of system that we will talk about. But first, let’s try to understand what principles should underlie proper work with bees, and where they differ from traditional beekeeping science.

Basic principles of working with bees
1. Do not feed bees sugar under any circumstances. Why?
Honey, unlike sugar, contains a lot of substances necessary for the development and functioning of bees (vitamins, microelements, etc.). On a sugar diet, bees become very weak, and, most importantly, they raise unhealthy offspring. Hence illnesses and other delights. (Try feeding a person, for example, only starch!). This is written in all books on beekeeping. And it also says that before wintering you can painless exchange two thirds of honey reserves for sugar! And for spring feeding it is recommended to prepare a flat cake kandi , also containing two-thirds of powdered sugar. And this is during the period of laying and feeding the first spring offspring! And in general, it is not clear why one should climb into a hive in the spring. “Advanced” beekeepers, and there are many of them now, suggest always keeping 10-15 kilograms of reserve honey in the hive, that is, leaving not 8-10, but 25 kilograms for the winter. But the fact is that so much simply cannot fit in a traditional lounger or dadan; wintering usually takes place on 8 frames! This means that the design needs to be changed!
2. Do not interfere with the lives of bees unless absolutely necessary. Every time we inspect the nest, pull out and rearrange frames, and fumigate the bees with smoke, we cause them great inconvenience. After these procedures, our pets become extremely unfriendly, begin to sting everyone and strive to swarm (the reaction is completely understandable - quickly get away from the place where you are constantly being pestered). In response, beekeepers begin to look into the nest even more often, cut out the queen cells and use the smoker even more actively.
3. Take honey only once - in the fall. For our latitude (Kaluga region) this is the end of August - beginning of September. Constant pumping throughout the summer irritates the bees and prevents the honey from ripening.
4. Reproduce bees only naturally - through swarming. All artificial methods (layering, family division, etc.) lead to degradation and disease.
5. Leave plenty of honey for the winter, don’t be greedy. We have already talked about this. If a young family did not have time to accumulate a supply by winter, add a couple of full-copper frames from a strong hive.
6. Provide the bee colony with a good, warm, permanent home. Don’t drag her from place to place, don’t disturb her once again, give her (the family) the opportunity to live a calm, measured life. And she will answer you with gratitude!
What should a hive be like?
The natural height of honeycombs in nature is about 50 centimeters. In autumn, bees gather in a club with a diameter of 20 - 30 centimeters (depending on the strength of the colony) on the lower, empty part of the comb, leaving a supply of honey for the winter on top, and honey and beebread on the sides for the spring. In winter, the club slowly moves upward, eating up honey, and in spring it moves downward, sowing empty cells with brood. This is a normal life cycle.

At the same time, oddly enough, the height of the standard Dadan frame, the most common among us, for some reason is 30 centimeters. The only intelligible explanation for this strange circumstance that I have heard is that the Dadan hive was invented for central Europe, where winters simply cannot be compared with ours either in duration or in coldness. There this height should be enough, but here by February the bees are stuck in the ceiling and risk being left without food. At this time, the beekeeper must open the lid and place the same kandi cake, which often contains only sugar, on the frame. On this cake the bees hatch their first, most important, brood.

I hope it’s already clear to you why I made the height of the frame in my hive 460 millimeters. This is convenient - two frames of 230 each or a Dadan frame and a half-frame. The high frame guarantees a successful and natural wintering and eliminates the need to look into the hive until the beginning of May.

Second, very important question. How to expand the nest? Bees always start building their house from the very top, attaching honeycombs to the ceiling and pulling them down. By adding housings and magazines on top, traditional beekeepers essentially turn the entire bee housing upside down. It takes a lot of time and effort to restore its design and thermal conditions, and the bees are unlikely to become calmer and friendlier because of this. In a multi-body hive, it is generally recommended to swap the lower and upper bodies and insert a body with foundation between them. Isn't this barbaric? Imagine that your house is cut into blocks and placed on top of each other, and so on every two to three weeks!

It is much wiser and more humane to place the bodies from below, gradually increasing the height of the hive during the summer. There are such systems, but they are associated with considerable technical difficulties - lifting and lowering exactly 100-150 kilograms is not so easy.

In my hive I chose to expand sideways, like in a bed. It's easy and simple - you flip the lid on its hinges and put in the frames, having first pulled back the partition. The bees are not at all worried and willingly colonize the added frames, the thermal regime is not disturbed, and the structure of the nest is preserved. To make the procedure even more natural, there is a little trick: the partition does not reach a centimeter to the bottom, and behind it, outside the nest, there are already frames with drying material and wax. The bees do not freeze in a large nest thanks to the partition, but at the same time they know in advance that there is a prospect for expanding the living space. But I’m not afraid of being late with the expansion of the nest: it will become crowded and they will start switching to the honeycombs located behind the partition.

The thickness of the walls is 45 millimeters plus lining and plus an air gap between them of 5-8 millimeters. Total 70 mm. This is for warmth and so that the walls breathe and are more durable. The bottom is a 45 mm thick shield, the hive cover is 80 mm with insulation. A “house” roof was mounted on it so that there was ventilation, so that the overhangs were large and the walls did not get so wet. Let's paint it and build the frames - and the hive will please the eye, like an object of garden design. And if there are a dozen of these cute houses - beauty, and that’s all (see photos)!

So, the result is a sunbed with a high frame. Internal size 450x940x500 (last digit is height). Designed for 25 frames 435x460. I took the standard width, the height, as already mentioned, like two multi-frame frames or a Dadan frame plus a magazine frame.
Beehive - lounger on a high frame
There is nothing special about it, as you already understand. It’s just a convenient, understandable, absolutely logical hive. There are some subtleties in manufacturing, but not that big.

The hive is very bulky, heavy and expensive, but it does not spoil the appearance of the site, but rather decorates it. It can be decorated with a variety of architectural details and placed in a prominent place. Bees that are not disturbed at all become very peaceful and generally do not bother anyone. Last summer we had a film crew from Kaluga Television, and the cameraman filmed our bees with a huge professional camera, positioned thirty centimeters from the entrance, and could not understand why he was not eaten right there along with the camera. Moreover, there were a dozen more similar hives around.

The hive has no additional buildings or stores. Well made and once installed, it will last for decades. You only need a place for winter storage of extra frames with dry material (this is what the honeycombs that have been pumped out of honey are called), but as a last resort, you can keep them in the winter in the hive itself, behind the partition.

The hive is ideal for those who want to keep bees with a minimum of effort and get maximum pleasure simply from their presence. But this is possible only if the principles set out above are observed, that is, by refusing a violent attitude towards the bee family, and by respecting it as a separate, very highly developed entity. And this is precisely the main problem for the modern beekeeper.

It just so happens that we treat the forest as a source of wood, the land as an arable field, and bees as a source of honey. This attitude has already led us to a complete dead end, and there is nowhere else to go. I recommend keeping bees for the bees' sake, caring for them, understanding their needs and being happy that you have them. You can stand at the entrance for hours and watch these amazing and harmonious creatures, receiving joy and energy from it. And don’t worry about honey - there will be a surplus, and your efforts will pay off handsomely!
How I keep bees in a bed on a high frame
A strong family winters at 7-8 high frames, a weak one at 4-5. The frames are separated from the rest of the hive space by a warm movable partition. The gap under the partition (a centimeter, as already mentioned) is plugged with a cloth for the winter. When the first honey plants have bloomed and the earliest harvest has begun, we remove the cloth, move the partition aside and place 2-4 frames with foundation between the nesting frames, depending on the strength of the family. We inspect all the nesting frames (you can do this without removing them from the hive - bees do not like this procedure), and move the darkest ones closer to inside hive (here you have to take it out). That is, light honeycombs mixed with foundation remain in the nesting part, and dark ones remain outside. Then you can put a couple of foundations and again a partition. The dark honeycombs will gradually move further and further north until they are completely rejected. This whole procedure ensures the rotation of combs in the hive, which is absolutely necessary for bee health. You can clean the bottom at the same time, or you don’t have to do this - the bees will clean it themselves. You can place the remaining dry land outside the partition; if you forget to expand the nest in the summer, the bees will move to it themselves and will not be left without work.

Then, as the summer progresses, I periodically look into the hive (the lid is on hinges - it opens without effort) and, if necessary, put wax or drying material on the side. It's a matter of minutes. If you are too lazy to do this or don’t have the opportunity, you can completely remove the partition during the first spring inspection and fill the entire hive with frames, and not approach it at all until the fall.

Bees, as a rule, gather for the winter, clinging to the southern wall of the hive, and store excess honey in the northern part. That is, in the southern part of the hive we have a ready-made place for wintering, prepared by the bees themselves. Honey and beebread are laid out in the appropriate place and order; you just need to check if there are enough quantities. This has already been discussed, this is the very case when bees need our care. So, all we have to do is take the “extra” frames for pumping, and press the nesting part with a partition, insulating it with an additional pillow if possible and plugging the bottom gap.

In fact, there are still a number of details and subtleties, but this is material for a separate article.

Happy BEEKEEPING!

Experienced beekeepers, beginners, and amateurs can maintain an apiary. The case is well developed and fully studied. Many people understand the basics of keeping and breeding bees, but not everyone can learn the intricacies of the craft. It is important to study all the nuances of beekeeping in an accessible and understandable form.

Keeping bees is a useful, interesting and profitable activity. Beekeeping for beginners begins with the main question: where to start? Usually the maintenance of apiaries is inherited. You need to understand how suitable the activity is for you. There should be no allergic reactions to bee products. The state of health must require heavy physical activity associated with caring for the apiary.

If you want to work with special reverence for beneficial insects, gain deep knowledge and experience, and continuously improve, then the ability to keep bees will definitely come. The basics of beekeeping for beginners consist of gaining theoretical knowledge in practice.

How to choose the right place for an apiary

Beekeeping for beginners recommends organizing an apiary with the right choice location. It is easier for people living outside the city in the suburbs to place an apiary. City residents will need to purchase a plot or rent it for a certain period. Perhaps relatives or friends who would not mind being next to the apiary will be able to help. Taking into account the peculiarities of the region, many beekeepers make trips to flowering honey plants in forest areas, to entomophilous crops, to field lands, and to mountainous areas.

If traveling to the suburbs is not possible, beekeeping can be done even in the center of a large city or small settlement. Bees are kept on the roofs of multi-storey buildings. A sunny location provides additional canopy structures to protect from the sun and create shade.

In villages and towns, it is better to keep bees in the backyard, behind house buildings. Orchards with young flowering trees located 30 - 50 meters from roads are suitable.

If the apiary is located near highways, it is worth taking care of high fences. This can be a board fence up to 2.5 meters high or a hedge of evergreen trees or grape trellises.

The main requirement is a sufficient number of flowering plants. This is not only a place to collect pollen, but also protects the hives from the wind. During the hot season, shade plays an important role, protecting the hive from the hot sun. In such conditions, peaceful bee families are formed. An open area, without trees and bushes, causes insects to become aggressively irritated.

It is useful to know that perennial plants serve as a guide for the hive. The layout of an apiary on a personal plot involves the advance installation of the necessary communications, the construction of access roads, and the planting of protective landscaping.

There are rights and norms for placing an apiary in accordance with the beekeeping manual, approved veterinary rules for keeping honey bees according to the law Russian Federation. Key points:

Nomadic apiaries are located at a distance of at least one and a half kilometers from each other.
It is not allowed to place on the summer path to previously placed apiaries.
Keep and breed peaceful breeds in populated areas.
A stationary apiary is located at a distance of at least 1 km from the farms.
At least 100 m from educational institutions, healthcare, children's, cultural, federal highways, railways, at least 500 m from industrial zones.
A distance of 3 m from neighboring areas is maintained. Restrictions are lifted if there are high fences of at least 2 m.

Which hives to choose

The choice of hives is determined by:

the main direction is breeding or collecting honey;
stationary or nomadic type of beekeeping;
presence or absence of a body lift.

It is preferable to choose one type of all hives. This makes the work easier; there are no problems with rearranging and interchanging some parts of the structure.

Log beekeeping – the most natural option for beehives. The deck represents a section of a barrel in the shape of a cylinder, with a full cutout. It is completely closed at the top and bottom with special lids. There is only a passage left for the bees. It can have several tiers and be of a composite, collapsible or semi-collapsible type. The log apiary is most suitable for beekeepers without experience.

Alpine is a multi-hull model for a small area. Compact house for maximum reproduction of honey and brood. The disadvantages include high cost.

Multihull– offers simplified complex work with frames. Intended for strong families with young queens.

Dadanovsky– domestic classic from spruce species. The case consists of two magazines and holds twelve frames with good ventilation.

Sun lounger– horizontal location of the socket. Divided by the number of frames. Designed for swarming big family. Takes up a lot of space and makes air circulation difficult.

Cassette– thin internal walls make it possible to independently regulate the microclimate. The outer walls are very thick. Created to combat bee diseases.

Plastic– lightweight and airtight, suitable for transporting hives.

Northern– a multi-building house with small spaces. Designed to retain heat.

A large assortment complicates the choice, which depends solely on the preferences of the beekeeper. The main thing in choosing is quality, dryness and warmth.

Clothes and equipment for the first time

Purchasing the necessary basic equipment and clothing for beginner beekeepers divided into groups according to purpose:

Working with and caring for hives: boxes, brushes, chisel, scraper, spray bottle.
Tools for working with finished products: beekeeper's knife, steam, electric, vibrating knife, sieves, settling tank, table, honey extractor, smoker, wax furnace.
Special clothing and protective equipment: suit, mask and much more.
Accessories for bees: distillation trays, drinkers, queen cells, feeders.
Packaging of finished products: knives, spoon, watering cans, table.
Reproduction of families, hatching of queens: separating lattices, uterine cells and caps, insulator, nursery and grafting frames, wax bowls.
Machinery and equipment: on an industrial scale.

The list of equipment for beekeeping can be endless. Each beekeeper selects it with individual preferences. The beekeeper needs equipment to perform specific, time-tested functions with maximum technical convenience.

Purchasing bees

Having decided to start keeping hard-working insects, you need to learn everything about bees and beekeeping for beginners . The maximum knowledge gained will protect you from unnecessary waste and disappointment.

A novice beekeeper can acquire an apiary by purchasing bees or catching swarms. You can buy entire families in hives, swarms or individuals in special packages with or without honeycombs. Swarm fishing is considered a relatively cheap option. It requires the right approach, choice of location and high level of passion.

When should you buy bees?

The time before the first spring flight is the best time to buy bees. There is little brood in the hives, which makes transportation much easier.

When purchasing, you should pay attention to the quality of family strength, flight strength, and age of the uterus. The sealed brood should be light and smooth, continuous seeding without voids. Podmor is completely absent or in small quantities.

What breed to buy

Local bee breeds are already adapted to living conditions and are worth buying. It is more difficult for imported ones to adapt to the new climate, so losses will be greater.

Main breeds:

Central Russian - common in the European part of Russia and Europe. It has a strong build, the weight of the working individual is over 100 mg, the uterus weighs from 190 mg. They are characterized by high anxiety and do not tolerate any interference. Families easily endure prolonged cold with temperatures of forty degrees. Popular in the northern parts of the country. Resistant to major diseases.
Gray mountain Caucasian - suitable for the south of Russia, Kuban, North Caucasus, Stavropol Territory.
Yellow Caucasian - for lowland apiaries in the Krasnodar Territory, Kuban and Transcaucasia.
Carpathian - for Middle zone European part, Siberia, Urals.
Italian - prefers short winters of the southern regions: Astrakhan region, Kuban, Volgograd, Rostov, Stavropol.

Feeding characteristics of bees

Bee larvae are fed with royal jelly, rich in sugars, protein, mineral salts, vitamins, enzymes, and fat. After three days, complementary feeding begins from a mixture of honey and bee bread. Adequate nutrition in the first six days lays down the body structure of the working individual. The uterus feeds on milk throughout its entire life.

Nutrition and feed depends on:

family numbers;
quantities of reserves;
bringing;
brood;
climate and weather conditions;
duration of wintering;
from honey plants and the flowering period;
breed characteristics;
technological methods of basic care.

Nutrition consists of plant food, which is obtained and produced by the bees themselves. During periods of insufficient nectar collection, fruit juice and honeydew secreted by aphids and other insects that feed on plant juice can be used.

Feeding is carried out in the summer with active egg deposition and in the cold season. Additional nutrition in the form of sugar syrup or diluted honey with water. As an additive, cow's milk is possible, which is well absorbed by hardworking insects. Some people use nutritional yeast.

Water is also necessary. On average, a bee colony consumes about 30 liters of water per year.