Unfortunately, all modern beekeepers are faced with the death of bee families. And all because there are a lot of reasons that can lead to this.
These are viruses and pests, processing fields with various chemicals, poor-quality feed for wintering bees. And most importantly - the inexperience of the beekeeper himself.
When a person is sick with a cow or a dog, he goes to the veterinarian, and most often the veterinarian is able to provide professional assistance. Unfortunately, modern veterinarians, very superficially familiar with bee diseases, do not pay enough attention to this, due to their low demand, and this, in turn, affects the ability to prescribe the right treatment.
Therefore, every beekeeper, the veterinarian himself to his bees.
We have to independently determine what the family got sick with, prescribe the necessary drugs and conduct treatment. The difficulty here is the fact that during honey collection, no drugs can be used, they can get into honey and other beekeeping products.
If this is not a period of honey collection, then treatment is possible. In the article, I described the main diseases and the methods that I practice to eliminate them.
In addition to diseases, the beekeeper can lead to the death of bees.
The most difficult period for the bee colony is wintering. The beekeeper needs to collect the bee’s nest correctly, if it is necessary to treat the bees from the varroa tick and provide the families with the necessary amount of feed.
In addition, it is necessary to make sure that the honey on which the bees will winter is not a honeydew. For humans, this is a very useful honey, but because of the high salt content, it can be fatal for bees.
Among other things, owners of agricultural fields cause problems for the beekeeper. By law, they do not have the right to process melliferous plants during flowering, but often do. Of course, the goal of the agronomist is not to destroy bee families. Everything happens due to the fact that there is no direct connection between the agronomist and the beekeeper.
During my wanderings, I always keep in touch with agronomists, warning them that my apiary is located in close proximity to the field. I leave my phone number and ask you to warn in advance about such treatments. If the beekeeper is warned in advance, he always has the opportunity to take the necessary measures and avoid the death of bee families.
There are two ways to avoid the death of bee colonies in the case of field cultivation. The first is to take away at the time of processing the bees away from the field, at least 10 km.
If for some reason this cannot be done, then early in the morning, on the day of treatment, it is necessary to close all the notches, attach a mosquito net on top of the stapler, to ensure the necessary ventilation, water the bees through the net with water. Water needs to be given to bees every 3 hours throughout the day.
In this closed state, the bees can feel great for two days. This time is more than enough for the chemical to be treated to be deadly for bees.
Summarize:
No need to sin on bad weather, the moon is in the wrong phase, and look for the guilty (agronomists) if the bees died. Only the beekeeper himself and no one else is responsible for the health of his bees.
