Chinese honeybees (Apis cerana) are a native species of bees in China that have been widely used for beekeeping and honey production. However, many beekeepers who raise Chinese honeybees may face a common problem: the low honey yield of this species. In some years, they may even fail to produce any honey at all. The root cause of this problem lies in the characteristics of Chinese honeybees themselves.
What are the characteristics of Chinese honeybees that lead to low honey yield?
- Chinese honeybees are smaller than European honeybees (Apis mellifera), which means they can carry less nectar and pollen per trip. They also have shorter tongues, which limit their access to some flowers with deep corollas. Therefore, their foraging efficiency and range are lower than European honeybees.
- Poor leadership of the queen, lack of strong colonies. Chinese honeybees have a weaker queen pheromone, which reduces the cohesion and coordination of the colony. They also tend to swarm more frequently, which reduces the population and productivity of the colony. Although they have a strong ability to adapt to different environments and collect scattered nectar sources, they rarely form large colonies that can exploit abundant nectar sources and produce large amounts of honey.
- Low efficiency of honey making. European honeybees make honey by fanning their wings outside the hive, which accelerates the evaporation of water from the nectar and speeds up the capping of the honey. Chinese honeybees, on the other hand, make honey by blowing air inside the hive, which slows down the evaporation of water from the nectar and delays the capping of the honey. This results in a longer honey making cycle and a higher risk of fermentation and spoilage.
These three fatal flaws make it difficult for us to pursue high honey yields when raising Chinese honeybees. However, if we want to increase the honey production of Chinese honeybees during the nectar flow period, we can still use some methods. For example, the following method that I am going to introduce is worth learning from.
How to increase the honey production of Chinese honeybees during the nectar flow period?
Since the small body size and low efficiency of honey making of Chinese honeybees are inherent problems that we cannot solve, we can focus on the poor leadership of the queen and the lack of strong colonies when we want to increase the honey production during the nectar flow period. We can use a method called “temporary strong colony supering method” to achieve this goal.
- Select a colony with an excellent queen and add a super on top of the hive, separated by a queen excluder. A super is an extra box that is added on top of the hive to provide more space for honey storage. A queen excluder is a device that prevents the queen from entering the super and laying eggs there, ensuring that the super is only used for honey making.
- Remove the queen from another colony and make it queenless, then place it in the super of the first colony the next evening and spray some diluted rice wine water to merge the two colonies. By removing the queen from the second colony, we make it lose its sense of direction and loyalty, and make it easier to accept the queen of the first colony. By spraying some diluted rice wine water, we mask the original odors of the two colonies and make them smell the same, facilitating the integration of the two colonies.
- Check the next day if the colonies are still fighting, if not, it means that the merger is successful, and we can remove the queen excluder and replace it with a queen separator. A queen separator is a device that allows the workers to pass through but not the queen, ensuring that the queen stays in the bottom box and lays eggs, while the workers can move freely between the bottom box and the super and make honey.
By doing this, we have created a strong colony of Chinese honeybees, and we can move it to the nectar source area. We can remove all the honeycombs that have been stored with honey from the hive, and stimulate the colony to work harder. We can let the queen lay eggs in the bottom box and store honey in the super, and harvest the honey from the super when appropriate. This way, we can increase the honey production of Chinese honeybees during the nectar flow period.
Note: This method depends heavily on the quality of the queen, if the selection is wrong, the effect may not be obvious.