We choose young, strong, and healthy bees that are hybrid of Chinese bee and Italian bee, with strong has a strong collection ability

A queen bee in optimal condition  is crucial for bee farming. Although the queen bee in the bee colony does not go out to collect honey or secrete beeswax to build the nest spleen, the number of eggs it lays has a direct impact on the development of the bee colony and the yield of honey. In a bee colony with an optimal queen bee, honey products on average can reach 40-50 kg, and can be divided into 1-3 boxes of bees.

When selecting a queen bee, there are several aspects to consider: age, length, weight, and spawning ability. The preferred age is 1-2 years old, as queen bees spawning ability starts to weaken after age 2. The length of the body determines the lengths of the ovarian tube, thus directly determines the amount of eggs. Select a queen bee with a body length of 20 mm at minimum. 25 mm would be ideal. The heavy weight of a queen bee indicates her reproductive organs are well-developed. During peak spawning period, a heavy queen bee can lay 1,000 to 2,000 eggs per day. The total weight of eggs can often exceed the weight of the queen bee herself. Ideally, select the queen been that weighs more than 300mg. Strong spawning ability is indicated by the amount of eggs, as well as how neatly the eggs are laid. An optimal queen bee should be laying more than 100 eggs neatly, fully on one sheet before moving on to the next sheet; If a queen bee is laying a few hundreds eggs sporadically spreading out on several sheet, it will affect the healthy development of the colony and the production of honey.

When choosing the bee colony and bee houses: Check the bee house for color, size, quality, and wear and tear. Generally speaking,  select the standard-size bee house that’s stable with no damage or holes; the cover and nest door should close tightly and the screen door should not have any damage or holes. Uncover the bee house to inspect the movement of worker bees and listen to how noisy the bees are. If the bees are relatively quiet without buzzing for a long period of time and with no large number of bees swarming out, this indicates that the colony is relatively tamed. Inspect the queen bee to make sure the queen bee is young, large, heavy, moving quickly and steadily. When you touch the queen, the idea queen bee should not panic. The smell inside the bee house should not be rotten or unpleasant. Bad smell indicates sick bees. Bees should be  evenly distributed in the bee house. Capped cells should be neat and connected on a large sheet of comb. The size of the cell should be even in size and color. In general, the darker color of the sheets of comb indicate longer use and the newer sheets have lighter colors and are more transparent.