Beekeeping has been practiced by people since ancient times, coming up with new methods of keeping bees to get more honey. There are whole institutions involved in this sector of agriculture. One of the most progressive and productive technologies for keeping and breeding bee colonies is the Cebro method. Find out what this method is, who invented it and how to use it.
Who is Cebro and what contribution has he made to beekeeping
The Cebro method is named after its creator, Vladimir Petrovich Cebro. This person is a honored beekeeper of Russia. He began to beekeeping since childhood, and devoted his whole life to this. Now he is listed as the chairman of the Society of Beekeepers in Pskov, is an employee of the beekeeping department of the Research Institute of Agriculture and, of course, works in his personal apiary, which has a lot of bee colonies.
Important! The queens are updated every year. New queen bees are being bred in the most powerful families.
He implements his methodology aimed at accelerating the development and growth of bee colonies since 1971, actively interacting with beekeepers of the Russian Federation and other countries. Its technology allows you to get about 120 kg from each bee colony and saves beekeepers a lot of time.
Key points of the method
The Zebro method is based on the following ideas:
- Capacious beehives, consisting of 3 buildings.
- In the spring, when the families are separated, the upper stores are cleaned and the bees have an additional housing.
- Replacement of the uterus at the end of the bribe period. For this, a layering with a second building is attached to the hive.
- For a two-week uterine, the uterus is not sought, but 2 layers are attached.
- Good preparation in the wintering of bee colonies. For this, the hive is provided with ventilation, full bee feed. In this case, two cases are used - the upper (with nesting frames) and the lower (with the magazine).
- Culling of weak bee colonies is ongoing.
Uterine Technology
The withdrawal of a young uterus for replacement occupies an important place in the maintenance of hives according to the Zebro method. Additional uterus is necessary both when replacing the old ones, and in the spring, when there is a large brood available and swarming must be avoided. In the second building of the hive, 2 frames with feed and 2-3 frames with brood are placed. Vladimir Petrovich displays new queens from two-day eggs, which also move to the second building.
To withdraw the uterus, the following steps are performed:
- Cut into small strips honeycombs with eggs, leaving only a few cells with eggs, and thinn out the rest, crushing with matches. This can be done directly on the hive cover.
- Glue thinned strips of honeycombs to grafting frames without eggs.
- Then place the vaccinated frame at the bottom, in the well, and lay the queen.
- After 2 weeks, the two-week mother liquors help the beekeeper separate the nuclei from the nest and make anti-swarm lay-offs.
Important! To remove the uterus, it is important not to take the honeycomb with drone eggs. They are slightly larger than bees. You need to choose the best honeycomb, without flaws.
Such beekeeping helps to avoid the swarming of bees and increases the productivity of the apiary. The technique allows beekeepers of the day off not to guard or catch a swarm, but to prevent this process.
Wintering of bee families
Hives for wintering should be kept stationary in the same place where they were in the warm period. This is due to the fact that the bees themselves can create and maintain the temperature necessary for life in their house. To protect against cold weather, a casing of plywood is constructed for the hive, and the doors are closed. The upper case is insulated with glass, and the lower one is covered with a bar, but a gap of 6 mm is left on it for ventilation and fresh air. The parameters of the letka from below are 1.2 × 42 cm, and from above - 1.2 × 10 cm.
For a successful wintering, it is important to provide insects with the necessary amount of food. When the bees do not starve and do not get sick, they may well maintain the temperature regime they need. For this purpose, winged toilers often gather in a ball and provide themselves with warmth.
With regular food intake, energy is released, and the bees warm themselves together. Even with a strong decrease in temperature (around -30 ° C), insects can create the necessary temperature regime.
Zebro hive construction
Cebro hives correspond to the following characteristics:
- stationary, since they do not move for the winter, and also do not heat up, as double walls protect well from cold weather;
- consist of three tiers in spring and summer, and in the cold period of two;
- contain 14 frames and 2 walls;
- the cover is fixed with a hinge, so it is easy to open, which is convenient for maintenance;
- the cover has openings for ventilation;
- one side wall opens with a special mechanism;
- on the letka, located on top, you can build a small veranda.
It is best to first draw a drawing, and then proceed to make hives. All designs are made under the dimensions of the frames 435 × 300 mm. The external dimensions of the 10-frame additional cases are 494 × 410 mm.
Drawing of the hive of Cebro
Beehive Cover Drawing
Beekeepers recommend the following sequence of work:
- First, make the inner main body of the sheet pile or single-wall hive.
- Attach a bottom measuring 410 × 534 mm to the body and build a casing of plywood sheet.
- In the back wall, which is left untreated, a hole should be made for installing the pallet in a warm period.
- At the bottom and at the corners of the structure, fasten the bars to which the plywood sheets are attached.
- Attach the straps to the casing so that they stick out a little from the back.
- At the corners, place and fix the corners of wood to protect plywood at the ends from rain.
- In the design of the store you can put 10 frames.
Cebro Calendar
To plan work in the apiary, you can use the calendar developed by Cebro for beekeepers.
January:
- to control the death, as well as the amount of feed required;
- adjust ventilation if necessary;
- place bait from parasites;
- to insulate the nest by closing the doors;
- make sure that predators, tits and other birds do not climb into the summers;
- listen to the tap through a special rubber tube.
February:
- monitor the bees wintering;
- count the number of families;
- when detecting diseases, take treatment measures;
- as a top dressing, include therapeutic candi in food.
March:
- inspect the hive and bees;
- Kandy dressing;
- highlight weak families with chalk;
- if the hive cover is attached with screws, unscrew them.
April:
- inspect bee colonies to see if they all have a uterus;
- to clean the houses from pestilence;
- with a small amount of brood, add frames with the presence of larvae;
- to connect weak families with strong ones;
- clean the nests and add honeycombs;
- if ascospherosis is detected, carry out treatment measures;
- prepare drinkers and feeders;
- prepare the box.
May:
- exchange old queens for new ones, breed them;
- start forming layering;
- make sure that all families have uterus.
June:
- replace the replacement uterus;
- place in the lower buildings 3 frames with a wax and 1 frame of honeycombs for loading working bees;
- health check of bees;
- place a frame with food (honey and perga).
Did you know? UN decided note May 20 is the International Day of the Apiary, starting in 2018. This is the birthday of Anton Yansha, the famous innovator of the Slovenian origin.
July:
- joining of additional hull buildings with layers up to 10 frames, as well as 7-8 frames with brood;
- monitoring the work of the queens and, if necessary, adding a new queen;
- preventive measures against the appearance of varroatosis;
- since the end of July - pumping out honey.
August:
- removal from the upper layers of the framework for pumping honey and replacing them with frames with wax;
- inspection and selection of strong bee colonies with the application of appropriate marks;
- moving layering to selected families;
- placing 7 brood frames in strong families;
- selection of frames for pumping honey and wintering;
- cleaning and preparing hives before the cold season.
September:
- pumping out the last honey;
- preparation for winter;
- feeding bees with sugar syrup;
- prevention of varroatosis and nosematosis;
- reduction of letches from above to 5 cm, as well as closing of lower ones to 6 mm in height;
- at the end of the month - warming the hives.
October:
- placement of tablets for cleaning from death in the cold period;
- preventive treatments for diseases;
- closing of letok from above and below from the penetration of birds;
- placement of bees in the lower housing for the winter.
December: at the beginning of this month they make warming of the hives and fix the covers with self-tapping screws.
Did you know? Kandy is a popular top dressing in the form of powdered sugar and honey dough for starving bees. Its important feature is that the bees immediately consume it, and do not harvest it in combs. If necessary, medications, for example, tetracycline and nystatin or polysine, are often added to candi.
The Cebro method allows the beekeeper to save his time, as it does not allow swarming and contributes to a problem-free increase in bee colonies. At the same time, hives hibernate on the street in a protective casing. This technology does not require special material costs and pays for itself well by increased honey collection, maintaining the quantitative and qualitative composition of bee colonies.