The gray mountain Caucasian breed of bees (A.m. caucasica) was formed in the mountainous regions of Transcaucasia and the Caucasus and deservedly took second place among the most popular breeds in the world. Most beekeepers engaged in bee breeding enjoy working with a Caucasian woman with pleasure.
General characteristics of the breed
The Caucasian gray bee has a number of distinctive features in appearance and behavior.
Appearance
The color of the bee is light gray with a silver tint or interspersed with a yellow hue (depending on the subspecies). There are no yellow stripes on the abdomen. The size of Caucasian bees is relatively small.
A unique difference between insects and other species is a long proboscis (an average of 7.2 mm). A one-day working bee weighs between 75-90 mg. The fetal uterus is about 200 mg, and the infertile is 180 mg. It is difficult to confuse with other bees in the hive.
Productive Features
The productivity of the Caucasian gray bee depends on many external factors and the characteristics of a particular subspecies.
The egg production of the uterus ranges from 1,100 to 1,700 eggs in 24 hours. The propensity for cohabitation is considered high.
Worming can occur in January or February. The beekeeper is required to strictly monitor this process and, if necessary, add a framework.
The uterus perfectly protects the nest. It is stocked by honeycombs, propolis, even with a minimum number of honey plants. Caucasian bees switch to the process of collecting nectar, gradually fill the cells, depriving the uterus of the ability to lay eggs.
It is worth noting that gray mountain Caucasian bees use much more types of honey plants for this purpose than other breeds.
Most beekeepers prefer the gray Caucasian bee due to a number of productive features:
- Given the presence of long proboscis characteristic of the species, they are considered excellent pollinators of red clover.
- In the process of honey collection, bees put honey in cells that are freed from brood. After the nest cells are full, a transition to the store extension takes place. In this case, there is a concentration of honey in a small area with honeycombs.
- One of the features is the activity of bees in the production of propolis, which is used to close up all the cracks in the hives before wintering.
The habits of Caucasian women
It is important to note the exceptional peacefulness of these insects. Moreover, they calmly relate to the inspection of hives by an outsider. Even the uterus reacts calmly to this.
The thievery of Caucasian bees can be explained by the fact that small toilers do everything for the sake of nectar extraction, and sometimes look at other hives for this purpose.
It is worth highlighting the low swarmness of gray mountain Caucasian bees. They easily switch to working mode. The beekeeper can contribute to this by removing the queen cells and expanding the nest, leaving no more than five frames.
How is the honey collection going?
An exceptional feature of Caucasian bees is that they open the honey harvest season and finish working much later, as they can easily tolerate low temperatures.
In the process of finding a new source of honey collection, they are very adventurous, and can switch from one site to another. Bees fly out in the early morning, when the temperature is usually lower. The honey collection ends late in the evening.
Gray mountain Caucasian bees are able to continue their work with drizzling rain or fog, when other species do not fly at all.
Even in areas with a small number of flowering plants, they manage to collect significant volumes of honey. During honey collection, the Caucasian bee first of all fills the nest with honey, limiting the uterus itself, and the beekeeper has to make efforts to equip the honeycombs with extensions at the time of honey collection.
Breeding zones
Caucasian women are cultivated in Finland, China, Korea, Germany, France, Poland and the USA. But in general, the mountain regions of the Caucasus and foothills are considered to be the natural habitat of gray Caucasian mountain bees.
By popularity Caucasian women are bypassed only by the Italian breed.
Populations
Several populations of gray Caucasian bees should be distinguished.
Abkhazian
More often this population of beekeepers is bred in the valleys of Abkhazia and mountainous regions. Features of insects are their peacefulness, ability to work, endurance to low temperatures and moderate swarming. It is also worth noting the excellent nectar-collecting ability. Bees fly out of the hive early in the morning and return home late.
Gurian
This species of bees is common in Western Georgia. Their distinguishing feature is the long proboscis (about 7.5 mm). This unique property allows you to get nectar from the most inaccessible areas of honey plants.
Experts have revealed the tendency of bees to experience harsh winters. Therefore, they are ideal for areas with harsh climatic conditions.
Iranian yellow
Distributed in Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan. She is also bred in Abkhazia and Georgia. In the Russian Federation, insects live only in apiaries in the central regions, because bees do not like a long winter.
The body of the bee is gray without stripes. Collects nectar even at temperatures below +10 degrees. But in the spring, the departure process is delayed.
Among the positive qualities of disruption. However, the insect is susceptible to damage by nematosis and other diseases. Also, during the wintering period, he consumes a small amount of food. Bees vehemently protect their nests.
Valley yellow
Yellow stripes are visible on the abdomen of the insect. It tolerates hot heat. She feels most comfortable on the territory of Iran, Georgia, and Armenia. It has a yellow-gray color. On examination, does not show aggression. Continues to collect nectar even in bad weather.
Among the features of the breed, it is worth highlighting low winter hardiness, so it is better to grow it in areas with a mild climate. Pollen and propolis are harvested in sufficient quantities. Excellent transport experience.
The disadvantages include high loyalty, a tendency to disease, the production of a small amount of wax.
Megrelian
A great option for the northern regions of the Russian Federation. The body color of the insect is silver-gray without yellow spots. The length of the proboscis can reach 7.5 mm, which affects the ability of a bee to get nectar from clover. They are industrious and actively protect their hives from uninvited guests. Insects with low swarm.
Kabakhtapinskaya
This subspecies of Caucasian bees tends to live in the mountains of Azerbaijan. Body color is gray. It differs proboscis up to 7 mm. A feature is the high fecundity of the uterus. Able to tolerate a drop in temperature in winter to -25 degrees.
Content Features
The gray mountain Caucasian bees tolerate transportation well, are suitable for keeping in pavilions, as well as for areas with weak honey collection, where there are few honey plants. But it is important for the beekeeper to know about all the features of the content of this breed.
Nutrition
The main diet for bees in the summer is the nectar of flowering plants. They are called honey plants. There are also pollen carriers that bees need as sources for collecting pollen. Given the time of flowering plants, bees can eat almost year-round.
But top dressing in the winter is vital for them. Feed should be prepared in advance.
When is lure not needed?
Some experts believe that feeding insects is not needed, while others argue that without it normal functioning of bees is impossible. This factor is influenced by several nuances:
- First of all, the beekeeper inspects the hives and calculates how much honey should be prepared for the winter period. If it is enough, top dressing can be omitted. Otherwise, you should proceed to the preparation of feed.
- It is important not to overfeed the bees. Otherwise, uterine worming will occur prematurely. Also, top dressing is necessary in the case of rapid crystallization of honey. Insects will be deprived of the ability to fully process honey, and they will need additional nutrition.
- Until the beginning of February, insects behave passively and hardly eat. Since the last weeks of February, the uterus has been redacted and the bees have become more active, which feed brood. As a result of energy consumption, to maintain the desired temperature, you need to take care of a full feed.
How and what to feed the bees?
In order for the nutrition of Caucasian bees to be effective and balanced, it is important to consider several ways of their nutrition:
1Honey and honey dough
It is kneaded in pure form. It is sometimes advisable to add medical components. To prevent drying and hardening, the test mass is placed in a plastic bag, made at the bottom of the hole, from where it slowly flows out - so it will be convenient for bees to use it.
2 sugar syrup
First of all, beehives should be prepared by placing in the middle a couple of incomplete frames for the bees to lay the developed syrup. In winter, they will be able to consume processed syrup, and in the spring with the appearance of brood, honey collected by bees will remain in the cells.
For 3,000 individuals, about 2 kg of honey will be required. In this case, honey obtained from syrup should be no more than 30% of the total mass. They feed sugar syrup from the second decade of August to the beginning of September.
To cook it, you can take beet or cane sugar without impurities. Boiled water is upheld for a couple of days. The precipitate formed is drained. The syrup should be thick, do not boil it and make sure that the sugar does not burn. It will be difficult for bees to process liquid dressing, and they will become weak, and crystallized sugar or burnt syrup will negatively affect the health of the bees.
Some beekeepers add a little needles to the syrup to protect the hives from ticks. It will also become an additional source of nutritional components.
For one family, you can add fresh chicken egg to sweet food, which is considered an indispensable source of protein. They shake it well and pass it through cheesecloth.
In the autumn-spring period, rejected frames are pulled from the nests. They are unpacked and substituted for strong bee swarms. During the crystallization of honey in honeycombs, it can be melted with warm water and returned to the nest for feeding. When soured, honey should not be given to bees.
Compared to other types of insects, the gray Caucasian mountain breed consumes more feed than other species. Therefore, it is important to take care of the amount of syrup and dough in advance. In the northern regions, for one bee colony, the feed consumption increases by a factor of 2 compared with the southern ones.
Conditions of detention
Beekeepers breeding a gray mountain Caucasian bee need to remember the key features of caring for it:
- After wintering with the onset of a stable high temperature (not lower than +7 degrees), the hives are taken out of the winterhouse.
- Carefully inspect the bottoms and clean them of debris and death.
- If necessary, replace the bottom with a dry sanitized one.
- Bee families and feed availability are also examined. With its lack, beekeepers place sugar syrup or honey-sugar dough on the frame.
- An audit of the frames with brood is carried out, clean it. Moreover, it is very important not to combine healthy families with weak, with signs of disease.
- It is unacceptable to use honeycombs with brood from sick swarms.
- In the apiary, it is necessary to install drinking bowls in which fresh salted water should be located.
- When steady warm weather sets in, the nests expand.
- Disinfection of hives is carried out by fire or steam.
Frost resistance of Caucasian women
Purebred Caucasian women have high frost resistance. The ability of bees to tolerate winter well is affected in particular by physiological changes that occur in the body of insects in autumn. Therefore, it is in the autumn period that they tend to consume a lot of pollen.
It is noted that gray bees survive the cold season perfectly due to the ability to accumulate in the body not only nutrients, but also fat.
Given the biochemical characteristics of purebred individuals, it is safe to note the winter hardiness of Caucasian mountain bees, which cannot be said about their crosses. Therefore, apiaries should contain only purebred bees.
Wintering Features
With the end of the season, it is not difficult for experienced beekeepers to provide the Caucasian bees with the proper conditions:
- Considering the fact that the gray mountain Caucasian breed of bees has many populations that differ in the level of winter hardiness, it is important to be careful when buying a swarm.
- In order for the bees to survive the winter perfectly, it is undesirable to leave sunflower honey in the hives for the cold season.
- In the last days of August, they pump everything out and give the bees sugar. Some experts in sugar syrup breed useful drugs (for example, Fumagillin).
- Beehives must be placed in a well-ventilated area where there is no damp.
- It is important to ensure that no old dark honeycombs remain. Better to put new ones. An alternative is those in which only one generation of insects has hatched.
- Beehives can be set both outdoors and in winteries.
Bee diseases
Caucasian women are quite resistant to various bee diseases. But the danger can be borne by nosematosis and foulbrood.
Pros and cons of the breed
Caucasian gray mountain bee has such virtues:
- Insects are characterized by low swarm.
- Due to the special structure of its proboscis, the bee is able to extract nectar even from the most unpretentious flower. It is the gray Caucasian bees that are considered to be the best for pollination of legumes and clover.
- Oriented when choosing a honey plant. First, a Caucasian woman determines the main source of nectar, then flies to another.
- Given the unique ability of representatives of this species to determine the level of nectar in the source, preference is given to specimens with a lower percentage of sugar content.
- Close attention of the beekeeper to the uterus during oviposition is not necessary. Work bees take care of everything.
- Careful attitude of bees to the hive. For its arrangement, they can produce wax and propolis in sufficient quantities. The signet of honey is wet, dark in color.
- Change of uterus occurs without fuss. To prevent swarming, you should remove the excess part of the queen cells in time and slightly expand the nest. How to remove the uterus, read here.
- Two uterus can coexist in one nest, although, often, this phenomenon is temporary.
But you should pay attention to limitations Caucasian women:
- Most populations are prone to nematosis and foulbrood, so you should constantly inspect the hives to prevent the problem in time.
- The thievery of a Caucasian toiler. Beekeepers usually try to prevent such cases.
- It is common for bees to limit the uterus to inoculation, so a reduction in family is possible.
- In some cases, the brood is located on a framework that is far away, which provokes the mixing of bee bread and honey.
Reviews
Egor, 28 years old.Delighted with Caucasian women, as they pollinate red clover perfectly. Honey is tasty and healthy.
Vladimir, 53 years old.Given the area of residence, where there are not very many honey plants, I am satisfied with the gray Caucasian mountain breed, as the amount of honey has only increased. Their ability to find honeybees is pleasantly surprising.
Gregory, 47 years old.I can’t say that Caucasian women are very thieves. But, in my experience, you need to provide the bees with a sufficient amount of food.Excellent breed, which always gives a greater amount of honey compared to other species.
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The Caucasian gray mountain bee is popular among both experienced beekeepers and beginners. This is a great option for a weak bribe, on clover fields and in the presence of greenhouses. They are characterized by unpretentious care, but for the period of wintering, they need to be provided with suitable conditions.