How do bees naturally divide a colony?

Natural bee swarming is a group behavior after the bee colony reaches a certain size. After natural bee swarming, one swarm can become two or more swarms, which can increase the number of bees and expand their distribution area. In fact, wild bees basically It uses natural bee division to reproduce. Let’s take a look at how bees naturally divide bees!

1. Bee colonies breed drones

The natural swarming of bees does not happen suddenly, but there is a short preparation period for swarming. The most significant feature is the large-scale breeding of drones. Why should we breed drones in advance? The reason is that it takes about 40 days for drones to go from egg to sexual maturity, while it only takes about 20 days for a queen bee to go from egg to full sexual maturity. Bee colonies that have the principle of dividing bees usually start cultivating corresponding drones about 20 days in advance.

2. Worker bees build the royal tower

The royal platform is a specialized hive room for the bee colony to cultivate the queen bee. The appearance of the royal platform in the bee colony is a typical characteristic of natural bee division. It indicates that the bee colony will naturally divide into bees within 16 days. The reason is that the fertilized eggs in the royal platform need to be fertilized after 3 days. The larvae hatch into small larvae. The small larvae consume royal jelly for 5 days and then cover and pupate. The pupae emerge into bees in about 8 days. In fact, in most bee colonies, natural bee division occurs when the new queen is about to leave the house.

3. Natural bee-swarming mechanism

Natural bee division is an important group activity of the bee colony. Some people may think that the new queen bee is divided. In fact, the opposite is true. When bees naturally divide bees, the old queen leads most of the worker bees to leave the hive, leaving the original hive behind. The new queen bee who is about to emerge from the nest and the worker bees participating in the natural bee division are generally relatively "tame" because these worker bees carry a large amount of honey with them when they leave the nest.

4. Natural bee swarming process

The process of natural bee colony is actually very complicated. At the beginning of bee colony, only a small number of worker bees fly around at low altitude in front of the nest. Then more and more worker bees will fly around. After a few minutes, a large number of worker bees and queen bees emerge from the nest and settle in the original nest. Flying around in the sky, they will eventually form a group at a certain height near the original nest. At the same time, the scout bees will go out to find a new nest site. When the new nest site is determined, the bees will disperse and fly to the new nest site.

Summary: Natural bee division is the main way to expand the bee population. It has advantages and disadvantages for beekeeping production. The advantage is that natural bee division can expand the size of the bee colony in the apiary, but the disadvantage is that natural bee division will Greatly weaken the strength of the bee swarm.