Beekeeper Vladimir Tsebro developed his own method for keeping bees and getting the maximum amount of honey. This method is suitable for beginning beekeepers, because it is very convenient due to the monthly calendar, where all types of work with bees are painted. Cebro recommends the use of special hive designs and provides many useful tips.
What is the essence of the method - 10 important excerpts
In beekeeper circles, the name Zebro is not an empty phrase. This person has developed a special method of maintaining an apiary, a peculiar methodology, thanks to which he achieved impressive success. He has released a multi-volume collection of instructions that contains detailed diagrams, examples, descriptions, calculations, and housekeeping tips.
To determine the essence of the method of the famous beekeeper, you need to familiarize yourself with his works in detail. According to the works of Cebro, you can make a kind of list of the main provisions of the method:
- It is necessary to build free three-hive hives, as they must be spacious so that the bees are comfortable. Such spacious "bee houses" are called the Cebro hive.
- If the hive consists of two buildings, in the spring you can create two families, dividing the bees in half, adding a young uterus to the new family.
- When families grow in the spring, many begin to build up stores, but it’s better to build an additional building on the top of the hive.
- Only strong bee families should be kept in the apiary, but weak ones should be removed without sparing.
- Strong families need quality food, so it’s better to leave full frames with honey and beef.
- At the end of the bribe, introduce a new uterus and layering into the family.
- Pay special attention to how the bees winter. This is the key to a successful season for next summer. At the same time, it recommends combining families for wintering in one hive, so that it is stronger, and in the future more productive.
- For wintering, it is better to collect hives with two buildings: in the lower section - to arrange a store, and in the upper - to arrange nesting frames.
- For a two-week mother liquor, arrange 2 layers, and it is not necessary to search for the uterus.
- Provide excellent ventilation in the hives and prevent drafts.
By observing these extracts, you can expand the apiary without additional acquisition of queen bees and get really a lot of honey in conditions of keeping bees without a swarm. By the time of the honey harvest, the bee family can be increased by 3 times.
Hive construction
Beehive Cebro has such characteristics:
- stationary, since it is not tolerated in the winter and is not insulated (the author believes that the double walls provide sufficient frost resistance);
- consists of 3 tiers in spring and summer, and in winter - only 2;
- it has 14 Dadanov frames and 2 walls;
- the lid is attached with a hinge, so it can be tilted, which is convenient when pulling out the pallet;
- there are ventilation holes on the lid;
- the side wall is equipped with a folding opening mechanism.
On the upper notch you can construct a mini-veranda
An optimal design for the life of bees can be built according to this plan:
- Prepare the internal socket housing using a dowel or single wall hive.
- Attach the bottom to the body and transfer the structure to the casing made of plywood.
- Leave the back wall without treatment, making a hole in it for installation and collection of the pallet in the warm season.
- To the bottom of the hive and its corners, attach bars on which to install plywood leaves. It is not necessary to fill the airspace with insulation, since the resulting design will create a suitable climate for bees.
- Nail the slats to the casing so that they slightly exit from the back of the hive.
- Stuff wooden corners on the corners of the casing to protect the ends of the plywood from getting wet in rainy weather.
If desired, the design can be supplemented by a store. In this case, Cebro offers to take a store with 10 frames. The drawing of the hive looks like this:
The conclusion of the uterus
The method under consideration involves the removal of its uterus, for which it is necessary to implement such a plan:
- Set the honeycombs on the lid of the hive, cut into pieces and leave those rows where two-day larvae live.
- Thin out all the strips with eggs, and then glue the grafting frames to them. They should be placed at the bottom of the well, where the mother liquor is located.
- After 14 days from the start of vaccination, change the mother liquor, creating an anti-swarm layer.
- When the family size exceeds 9 frames, introduce a second building using separation bars.
- In each case, install 2 frames with complementary foods. Based on this configuration, the uterus should be removed in the lower compartments.
- Transfer to level 2 several working bees, hatched queens, frames with food and brood. It is important to use grilles for reliable separation of all levels, as well as maintaining favorable conditions.
- After 8 days in the breeding family to find the removed uterus. It must be moved to an isolated place where there is no brood. The uterine insulator itself should be placed so that layers are formed.
- In the lower case between the brood frames there is a well where to install the grafting frame. Cebro recommends doing this in the morning, while the bees are lethargic and passive. After that you need to take 2 or 3 brood frames from the lower compartments to send them up. At the same time, it is important to ensure that they do not have working shoulders, since this can cause the need for offspring.
- 6-9 hours after the last manipulation, inoculate two-day larvae.
This technology for the withdrawal of uterus differs from its analogues in two ways:
- Father's bee family. It is formed with the aim of removing young and healthy drones. At the same time, it is important to warm the hive well, to provide abundant nutrition with food and bait. Frames with cells are attached in the center of the slot.
- Maternal Bee Family. She is considered the teacher. In the paternal family, all cells with broods are sealed, after which the mother bee family appears. Uterus and drones leave cells, almost simultaneously becoming sexually mature.
Breeding of uterus from two-day larvae is an innovation of Vladimir Zebr. However, it is important that all the rules and the sequence of actions should be strictly observed, otherwise a conflict may arise in the bee swarm, which will lead to the inevitable death of the entire population.
Beekeeping without a swarm
This method gives excellent results, which is proved experimentally - there have been cases when it was possible to collect 200 kg of honey from one family. Of course, for this the beekeeper will have to perform many procedures. The algorithm of actions is as follows:
- On April 27-30, remove the films from the cases and install the second cases.
- After 10 days, remove one honeycomb, install an insulator, queens and brood frame. Carefully inspect the lower cases, removing random and unnecessary mother liquors. Cover the grates and insulate.
- After 2 days, form a layering with the tribal uterus. In this case, you need to use the mother's family. From the second buildings, get 4 frames, which are transferred to the bee box. So the uterus will be able to fly out of the insulator. Install grafting frames between brood frames, cut and heat lower cases.
- On the day of vaccination, the rest of the uterus should be transferred to the lower case, and the lay with the tribal uterus should be sent to the 10-frame hive.
- 3 days after vaccination, inspect the second buildings to confirm the health of the family. For families-teachers, pick up 3 families for intermediate education. In the 2nd building, install a brood well of different ages. Remove weak larvae and insulate the family.
- On the 4th day, the teachers should be relocated from the lower building to the second. Remove random queen cells from all frames. There should be no gratings between the cases. Carefully select healthy families from the lower case, moreover with eggs and larvae.
- On the 9th day after vaccination, the first lay-offs from the head of the families are formed. Inspect all frames to prevent the uterus from entering. In addition, check the swarm connections. For every third family, a nucleus hive should be provided.
- On the 3rd day after the previous stage, a nucleus is formed.
- After 4 days, exit the uterus in nuclei and layers. If they do not want to go out, they need to provide access to spare infertile cells.
- To form a control framework of branches. In the absence of the uterus, a fistulous mother liquor is formed, which must be removed.
- Before collecting honey, attach the second layers to the first, as well as to the main family.
This method will work well if the bees can easily winter.
Organization of wintering bees
Many beekeepers build Omshaniks for wintering bees, but Vladimir Tsebro believes that they are not necessary at all. He recommends to leave the hive in the place where they were installed, because the bees themselves are able to create the necessary temperature inside their "home".
This is due to the fact that a casing is installed in the hive as a protection from strong winds and frost. Letki completely close. The upper case is insulated with glass, and the lower one with a bar, although an indent of 5-6 ml is left on it for ventilation. The size of the lower notch is 1.2 × 42 cm, and the upper is 1.2 × 10 cm.
Cebro argues that the most important thing is that the bees are provided with quality food. According to his technology, if the bees are full, then they themselves are able to provide themselves with the desired temperature. Insects very often gather in a ball, create heat transfer. In addition, with good nutrition, the resulting energy is withdrawn, so they are heated at the expense of each other.
The author experimentally proved that even in cold winter weather (about -30 degrees), bees inside the hive can provide themselves with a comfortable temperature.
Cebro calendar (types of work by month)
Below is an abridged and complete calendar of the main work that needs to be done in the apiary. The calendar starts in winter, as it should be.
January
The first winter month of the year has arrived. The hives are in the apiary, they were powdered with snow. The beekeeper needs to perform the following actions:
- To control death.
- Check how much feed is left.
- If necessary, adjust the ventilation.
- Set bait to eliminate parasites.
- If necessary, it is better to insulate the nest by narrowing the doors.
- If the pillows were damaged by mice, replace them with new ones.
- Make sure that the flyers are not interested in predators, tits and woodpeckers.
To perform the work you will need a rubber tube through which you can listen to the taphole.
February
This month there are fewer works, but they are very important:
- Continue monitoring how bees tolerate winter conditions.
- Count families.
- If diseases are found, organize treatment for bees.
- Feed the bees, adding healing candi.
March
We need to start preparing families for the flyby:
- Inspect the condition of the hive and the bees.
- Continue feeding their kandy.
- With the help of chalk, indicate weak and sick families.
- If the hive cover is connected to the housing, remove the screws.
April
A month passes under the sign of family unification:
- Inspect bee colonies to identify which were left without queen bees.
- Clear the hive of pestilence.
- If insufficient brood is detected, add frames with larvae.
- To unite bee families on the principle of “strong with weak”.
- Clean the nests of bees by adding honeycombs.
- If ascospherosis is detected, proceed with treatment.
- Begin preparing drinkers and feeders based on their availability for each family.
- Prepare the box.
May
The works are as follows:
- Refresh the uterus and do their breeding.
- Proceed to the formation of layering.
- When breeding queens, add them to families.
June
In June, only the replacement uterus needs to be replaced.
See the full calendar of required works on the pasika using the Zebro method below:
Practical advice and tips
Following the recommendations and advice of the famous beekeeper, you can achieve 100% of the result, most importantly, be guided in everything by his method and not step back from it by a single step:
- Most beekeepers worry about how to protect bees from diseases and parasites. It turns out that a lot depends on the correct content of the hives. It is necessary to ventilate the hives more often, monitor the ventilation inside them. You do not need to close the doors for this. In this case, the walls of the hive are dried, and parasites mainly develop in damp.
- Leave free space under the frames and to the bottom of the case, but not more than 3 cm, so that cold air does not “walk” from below.
- If you need to breed your farm with bees, then a second swarm is used for this. It has several advantages, as it has a new uterus and a lot more bees. The uterus is removed from the first swarm, and the bees are returned to their hive.
- An important recommendation is the presence of a lattice in the hives with two buildings. She will not let the uterus pass into the upper tier, otherwise the bees will want to swarm again.
- First you need to pick up honey, form families, and then start preparing the bees for winter by replenishing supplies for the winter.
- The uterus must be replaced with new ones every year. It is very important that they are derived from strong families.
- Many do not know how to distinguish between the fetal and infertile uterus. It turns out that you need to pay attention to their movement: the fetal drags the abdomen and moves hard, while the other is more mobile and light.
- In order for eggs suitable for further work to be hatched, it is necessary to choose white honeycombs without any flaws, so that there are no drones in them.
- The uterus is planted in a new family with a cap, and Kandy is the top dressing.
- To better pump out the honey, heat the full frame to 27 degrees.
- A honey extractor is used to pump out honey. There are mechanical ones, but electric ones are considered the best.
- Pass honey through a sieve, and then through wet gauze, to cleanse the beef and wax crumbs.
- It is advisable to take the collected death to the laboratory in order to identify the causes of the death of bees. It identifies the diseases that led to the death of the family. Common diseases are ascospherosis, nosematosis, and varroatosis.
- It is advisable to fix the calendar of apiary works in a conspicuous place and strictly follow its instructions.
So, following the Zebro method, you can enthusiastically and effectively engage in beekeeping, get the most valuable products, such as honey, bee bread, propolis, and scum. The main thing in this matter is to fully follow all the recommendations, since this method excludes the introduction of individual amendments.