FEEDING BEES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is necessary\nto feed bees during the rainy and dry\nseasons<\/strong>, as well as in the early stages of a young colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the peak of\nthe rainy season, it can rain continuously for more than three days with only a\nfew short breaks. There is no sun and the atmosphere is always misty, bleak and\ncloudy. Bees never go out. The nectar in the fields is diluted so much that the\nbees cannot recognize it. Pollen is washed away, and flowers generally stop\nblooming. Plants produce leaves instead of flowers. Bee\u2019s food becomes scarce,\nas honey and pollen stores in the hive are also depleted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beekeeper must remember that the bees\nintended the honey they produced for their own consumption during the rainy\nseason and if he has taken it away, then he must provide something else to keep\nthe colony alive and strong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some honey must\ntherefore be left for the bees during the honey harvest: at least seven to ten\ncombs containing honey and brood. Do not deplete the hive of every drop of\nhoney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natural feeding of bees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plant which\nmatures very fast and can help the beekeeper is the sunflower<\/strong>. Apart from providing edible oil from the seed and rich\nnectar and pollen, the sunflower attracts swarms of bees that the beekeeper can\nhive in the same apiary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water for bees  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An apiary sited\nnear a regular fresh-water supply can build up quickly during the honey \u2013flow\nseason which coincides with the beginning of the dry season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water is very\nimportant for honeybees. They use large quantities to dilute brood food and to\ncool the hive by evaporation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water dripping\ngradually from a stand pipe is ideal for feeding the insect. Any water meant\nfor bees should contain landing boards so that they will not drown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nutrition of honey bees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bees\nevolved from their carnivores ancestors and are now herbivores collecting\npollen nectar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollen<\/strong>: contains\nprotein, minerals, vitamins, lipids and fat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nectar<\/strong>: is the main\ncarbohydrates source and provide all the energy requirements<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water:<\/strong> Required by\nbees for their body physiological activities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Dilute food for\ntheir young ones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Control\ntemperature in the hive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the honey flow period there is plenty of nectar. The\nbees collect the nectar and process it into honey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

• The nectar has\nmoisture content of about 65% and should be lowered to 17-20% in the honey form<\/li>
• This is done by\nstoring the nectar in the honey stomach where enzymes hydrolyse complex sugar\nsubstances to simple sugars<\/li>
• Main sugar in\nnectar is sucrose<\/li>
• Bees produce\nthe enzyme invertase which convert sucrose into fructose and glucose<\/li>
• The processed\ncontent is then stored into the combs and more water is withdrawn by wing fanning<\/li>
• When the\nmoisture content is around 17-20%, the combs cells are then sealed using bee\nwax, the end product being ripe honey single <\/li>
• Bees require at\nleast 17 amino acids that cannot be found all in pollen from a plant<\/li>
• Bees pick\npollen from several plants to be mixed with nectar to form brood<\/li>
• The pollen can\nbe stored for long since honey is antibiotic<\/li>
• Bees can\u2019t\nreproduce without pollen since pollen provide bulk of food needed by the queen\n(without which she shrinks)<\/li>
• In absence of\npollen, the worker feed on eggs and the drones.<\/li>
• Bees can last\nfor long without water but watering points are very important for bees survival<\/li>
• Bees migrates\nregularly during dearth\nperiod (when food is inadequate). Bees should be replenished with source\nof energy to avoid this.<\/li>
• The best source\nis sucrose (main sugar in nectar)<\/li>
• Use feeder box\nand dilute the sugar with water at the ration of 1;1<\/li>
• Sticks like\nfloaters are used to avoid drowning of the feeder box<\/li>
• Mix the\nsupplement with additive drug called fumidil\nB <\/strong>to avoid bees diarrhoea. <\/li>
• Only done\nduring the cold weather<\/li>
• Pollen can be\nreplaced with pollen substitute<\/strong> and pollen supplement<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

  Pollen supplement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Pollen is\nharvested from the bees using pollen trap when in plenty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  The pollen is\nadded or mixed with other proteinous feed e.g. soya bean flour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Water is then\nadded to make a paste or cake<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  The paste is\nthen introduced into the hive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Only done when\npollen is scarce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Pollen\nsubstitutes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  The main diet\nis soya flour which does not have all the nutrients that pollen has. The\nfollowing can be added <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • brewer\u2019s yeast<\/li>
  • dry skimmed\nmilk <\/li>
  • egg yolk<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n\n\nAdd\nlittle water to make a paste or cake and introduce this in the \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    FEEDING BEES It is necessary to feed bees during the rainy and dry seasons, as well as in the early stages of a young colony. At the peak of the rainy season, it can rain continuously for more than three days with only a few short breaks. There is no sun and the atmosphere is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,34,50],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetanimalhealthcare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}