How Does Beekeeping Prevent the Queen Bee from Escaping?

How Does Beekeeping Prevent the Queen Bee from Escaping?

The queen bee escaping was a headache for beekeeping, but the queen bee was also the most important thing for beekeeping. As long as the queen bee could be controlled and not escape, then the bee colony would also be firmly controlled. Simply put, the queen bee was in the bee colony. How should the queen bee be prevented from escaping when beekeeping? Let’s take a look at it together!

1. Security anti-escape sheet

The anti-escape sheet is a beekeeping tool installed at the entrance of the hive. It is designed according to the characteristics that the queen bee will be larger than the worker bee after opening. After installing the anti-escape sheet at the hive door, the worker bee can enter freely, but the queen bee cannot escape from the hive due to its large size. It is worth noting that the anti-escape sheet corresponding to the bee species should be installed. For example, installing the anti-escape sheet of the Italian bee at the entrance of the hive of the Chinese bee is ineffective.

2. Queen bee cage

The queen bee cage is a beekeeping tool used to imprison queen bees in bee colonies. It is designed according to the characteristics that queen bees will be larger than worker bees after opening and giving birth. When queen bees are imprisoned in the queen bee cage, queen bees cannot come out, but worker bees can enter the queen bee cage through the fence of the queen bee cage to take care of queen bees. Compared with anti-escape tablets, the use of the queen bee cage will restrict queen bees from laying eggs. Therefore, the queen bee cage is mostly used for interposing queen bees and merging bee colonies.

3.  Queen Bee Scissors Wings

Cutting off the wings of the queen bee is the most extreme way to prevent the queen bee from escaping. It refers to artificially making the queen lose the ability to fly to prevent the queen bee from escaping. Although this method is practical, it is only suitable for use in very urgent situations. Because the queen bee without wings is not conducive to the long-term development of the bee colony, and the “rule” of this queen bee is very easy to be “overthrown” by the worker bees. After the bee colony is stable, it is necessary to intervene in time for the new king.

4. Destroy the throne

One of the main reasons for queen bee escape is that the bee colony has a natural bee division. During bee division, the old queen bee will lead some worker bees to run out of the nest to find another nest site. Therefore, beekeepers should check the bee colony regularly and destroy the queen bee division platform in time after discovering it. However, destroying the queen bee division platform is a temporary solution but not a permanent cure. This requires beekeepers to find out the reasons for bee colony division, such as aging of queen bee, oversize of colony, too small hive, etc.

Summary: This article only briefly introduces the measures to prevent the queen bee from escaping, but if you want to fundamentally solve the problem, you have to find the reasons for the queen bee escape, such as poor beekeeping environment, insufficient bee food, long-term natural enemy infestation, serious bee disease, etc. will lead to the bee bee escape!