How to stock frames with bee bread and honey in the apiary

Frames with bee bread and honey should always be kept in stock in the apiary.

A beekeeper needs a stock of frames with bee bread and honey for several purposes.

• Frames with bee bread and honey are necessary when preparing honey-pergo paste,
• Frames with bee bread and honey are needed to feed the bees in early spring or during a period when there are no sources of protein in nature, or bad weather prevents the bees from flying out of the hive.
• Frames with bee bread and honey are definitely needed in large quantities if the apiary works in a greenhouse for pollination of plants.

 

 

As you can see, there are enough reasons to create a stock of frames with bee bread and honey, so the beekeeper needs to decide how to prepare and save frames with bee bread and honey.

To prepare frames with bee bread and honey, you can use the following method.
In the spring, when the bees are actively collecting pollen, the frames in the hive second from the side walls of the hive are always filled with perga. More precisely, about a palm from the top, the frame is filled with honey, and then the cells to the bottom bar are occupied with bee bread. Each cell is occupied by 2/3 of bee bread.

From each bee family of normal strength, one or two such frames with bee bread and honey can be selected. If there are many plants near the apiary from which bees collect pollen well (Melilot, dandelion, maple, amorpha, gleditsia, cherry), then such frames can be selected much more. How to prepare a large number of bee-bread frames in the Langstroth Root hive is worth talking about separately.

After selection, bee-bread frames are stored until the period of the main or strong collections of nectar in a safe place, keeping them from mice and wax moths.

During a period of good collections of nectar from a plant that produces honey that does not crystallize for a long time, for example, during the flowering period of sweet clover, bee bread frames are substituted into the hive. Bee-bread frames can be installed in a separate store, which should be labeled so as not to be confused.

The bees quickly fill the cells 2/3 filled with bee bread, completely to the brim with honey and then sealed honey them with wax caps.

After pouring with honey and sealing with wax caps, bee-bread frames filled with honey can be stored until the next spring and used to feed the bees in the spring or as needed.