The genetic traits and egg-laying capacity of queen bees have a significant impact on the quality, strength, vitality, and productivity of bee colonies. Artificial queen rearing allows for the planned cultivation of queens to meet the needs of beekeeping, thereby increasing farming efficiency. So, what are the methods of artificial queen rearing for bees? Let's find out:
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Rearing Time: Rearing queens is best done in spring and autumn, focusing on the rapeseed blossom period in spring and the camellia blossom period in autumn. During these times, the climate is suitable, and external nectar sources are abundant, resulting in better queen quality and higher mating success rates.
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Selection of Rearing Colonies: Choose a strong bee colony for queen rearing, with no diseases or mites and preferably with at least 15 frames of bees.
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Queen Cell Preparation: Queen cells can be made using queen cell cups and pure beeswax solution. Attach the prepared queen cells to queen-rearing frames and insert them into the selected rearing colony.
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Artificial Grafting: Use a grafting needle to gently transfer young larvae into queen cups. If a grafting attempt fails, try another larva. To improve acceptance rates or queen quality, consider using the double grafting method, where one-day-old larvae are initially grafted for nurse bee rearing, followed by replacement with younger larvae on the second day.
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Post-Grafting Management: After 11-12 days, the queen cells are nearly mature. Remove the queen cells from the queen-rearing frames and transfer them to queenless colonies or newly split colonies.
In summary, artificial queen rearing for bees is not difficult. The key steps involve selecting rearing colonies, preparing queen cells, and grafting larvae. With proper tools and grafting techniques, successful queen rearing is indicated when bees feed royal jelly to the transferred larvae.
