Industrial beekeeping - what is needed? Goods for beekeeping. Beekeeping courses

The creation in 1814 of the Russian beekeeper PI Prokopovich of the framework hive made it possible to use rational methods of keeping bees in practice. The inventions of an artificial honeycomb (I. Mehring, Germany) and honey extractors (F. Grushka, Czechia) that followed in the first half of the 19th century opened the way for industrial beekeeping.

A short excursion into the history

In the next hundred years the frame bee hive finally replaced the sides, decks and duplexes. Advances in progressive techniques and techniques were handled by the outstanding chemist A. M. Butlerov, beekeepers enthusiasts IE Shavrov, SK Krasnoperov.

In Russia, industrial beekeeping has become an independent branch of agriculture thanks to the efforts of the talented organizer, journalist and teacher Abram Evlampievich Titov, the founder and long-standing editor of the journal "Beekeeping Business". Inspired by the works and example of the leading American bee-lover Amos Ruth, in 1911 in the village of Borshchagovka of the Kiev province Titov founded the first apiary in the empire-nursery. Before the October Revolution there were about 200 beekeeping associations in the country, 15 profile periodicals were published.

In the young Soviet Republic, Abram Yevlampievich continued research and production activities as head of the Izmailovo experimental apiary. According to his draft in 1929, the first beekeeping state farm was established in the Far East. In the following years such enterprises began their work in Central Asia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and the Kuban.

Current state

The collapse of the Soviet Union did not affect the industry in the best way. The giant part of the state and industrial farms was liquidated. Industrial beekeeping in Russia with difficulty restores lost ground, but it's still impossible to speak about a powerful and full-fledged functioning.

The issue of improving legal protection and creating a large-scale system of administrative regulation is acute. There is a shortage of highly qualified personnel for beekeeping, efficient and ambitious managers capable of breathing new life into the industry.

The material and technical base is in need of radical renewal. Work on the apiary should be mechanized and automated as far as possible, which will certainly favorably increase the production and competitiveness of Russian beekeeping products on the world market. The country has the potential and resources to press the giants of the industry: the USA, Australia, Canada.

Size matters?

Only whether industrial beekeeping differs from amateur beekeeping? As for any production, its main goal is to produce the highest quality goods (honey and related products) with minimal material and time costs. The most important factors for increasing profitability and growth rates are specialization and concentration.

Concentration of beekeeping implies the expansion of farms to the optimal size. A profitable farm must contain a minimum of 500 bee families.

Specialization is determined by the natural and climatic zone:

• Southern regions of the country - a divorce direction (the supply of pack bees, bees).
• The Far East, the Urals District - honey (honey, wax).
• The Far North - pollinating (pollination of crops in greenhouse complexes), etc.

In addition, all links of the technological chain (equipment and tools, structures, methods and techniques) are subjected to rigid standardization and unification. In many respects the success of the enterprise depends on the correct choice of the breed of bees and the productive selection work. The "bee-man" relationship is completely rationalized, there is no room for "lyrics" - only business calculation.

Zones of advanced beekeeping

From studying and determining the potential volume of mammal resources of the terrain, its accessibility, from the right choice of the direction of the specialization of the economy, its profitability and successful development depends.

In the forest tracts of Tataria, Bashkortostan and Primorsky Krai, various varieties of limes serve as the main medonosome. In the most favorable years, honey can reach up to 20 kg per family. In mixed forests and meadow motley grass of the European part of Russia, the bee hive can yield up to 3 kg of honey per day, in the Southern regions, on buckwheat crops, and on essential oil crops - up to 6 kg. The forage base of the locality should provide not only honey gathering, but also periods of intensive development and growth of the strength of families.

Only melliferous resources will not allow the cultivation of beekeeping on an industrial scale. What needs to be changed in approaches and methods?

Technologies of industrial beekeeping

The use of progressive techniques for breeding bees is possible only at large apiaries (from 500 families), where the use of mechanization means will bring a tangible effect. In more powerful farms, the entire composition of the apiary is divided into business units (500-600 hives each) and a qualified specialist with an assistant is assigned for each, the necessary materials and tools are allocated (a beekeeper's costume, a smoke, a chisel, etc.). After the wintering and purification of the bees, the base is processed on the base, and the units are taken for spring bribes (no more than 100 hives per point). On the central estate there is only a repair link (2-3 persons), which maintains and keeps equipment and equipment for beekeeping in good condition.

For the whole apiary, a single group care system is used with a reduced number of inspections throughout the season. Specialists of the Research Institute of Apiculture perform the following minimum of work (the strength of families is equalized in order to give homogeneity):

• Spring inspection and feeding of bees,
• Formation of layers,
• Installation of stores or additional buildings,
• Selection of marketable honey, reduction of nests,
• Preparation for wintering.

To determine the timing of the examination, only 10-20 bee colonies of the apiary, take into account the test hive. Choosing the main breed of bees, they prefer a less rude and highly productive, the most adapted to local conditions.

During the season, organize minimum 3-4 trips of the apiary to flowering honey fields to increase profitability.

Material and technical base

For the central manor they choose an area with developed infrastructure, with good access roads. Household buildings (main production room, storage pond, winter hut) should be located taking into account the convenience of operation, equipped with automobile ramps and hoisting mechanisms. The capacity of the motor-tractor fleet should ensure the needs of the enterprise in on-farm transport.

When equipping the apiary, special attention is paid to the choice of hives. They should have standard sizes and interchangeable elements (housings, shops, frames for hives). A strong and lightweight structure is needed, capable of withstanding multiple handling and unloading manipulations when moving and moving.

In the required volume, equipment for beekeeping, devices for mechanized pumping honey, wax-processing equipment (presses, centrifuges, steam generators) are purchased. The organization of its own carpentry workshop with good machines and specialists will quickly pay for the invested funds.

Unfortunately, many beekeeping products presented in today's market are morally obsolete. Often, enterprise engineers have to redesign and modernize existing equipment. For example, for the preparation of honey-sugar mass, an industrial dough mixer is used, for the distribution of syrup - a modified fifty-foot honey extractor, etc.

Labour Organization

At large beekeeping enterprises, the chain method has become widespread, with a staff of 2-6 employees assigned to each apiary containing between 500 and 1000 families. A more qualified and experienced specialist is appointed as a chain officer and bears material responsibility. Two forms of work are practiced successfully:

• Cooperation of labor. When carrying out large-scale works (transportation of an apiary, pumping honey) for operational and quality execution of the force links are combined.
• Division of labor. Each employee before automatism brings to fulfillment of any technological process (for example, framing frames) - develops a narrow specialization. To improve efficiency, each link is set certain standards, strictly take into account the output of products, consumables and funds. It is advisable to practice the combination of professions and duties (beekeeper-driver, tractor driver, beekeeper-carpenter, etc.).

Industrial beekeeping is inconceivable without continuous training and staff development. Production courses are the most accessible form of improvement. They are held in winter by the senior livestock farmer with the involvement of teachers of specialized educational institutions.

Groups of students studying for beekeeping courses (theoretical studies and practical training) are recruited periodically at the Agricultural Academy. Timiryazev, the Academy of Biotechnology. Scriabin (Moscow), on the basis of Perm Pedagogical University, Pskov Agrotechnical College.

Types of products and sales problems

The results of the industry show that along with production, there are many economic problems.

More than 80% of the profit of the economy is derived from the sale of marketable honey, the medicinal properties of which have been known since ancient times. Wax is in demand as raw material in the metallurgical, paint and varnish and printing industries, but the lion's share of the product (more than 70%) is returned to the industry in the form of an artificial honeycomb.

Significant reserves of profitability of the industry consist in the development of technologies for the production, storage and processing of propolis, pergium, bee venom and renewal, royal jelly and homogenate of ternary larvae used in cosmetology and pharmaceutics.

In addition, at the enterprises of the divorce direction, the bees themselves act as commodities - up to 50% of the profits of the economy of the South of Russia are obtained from the sale of bees and packages.

Will foreign countries help us?

For foreign commercial beekeeping characterized by high productivity and intensification of production. The legal and material-technical conditions favor the application and improvement of standard standard technologies and equipment, and, as a consequence, the conformity of all received products to strict international criteria. Industrial beekeeping in many countries receives substantial subsidies from the state, enjoys full support. For example, the US government introduced customs duties on imported honey (for China up to 180%, Argentina - up to 60%). The funds allocated by American importers of honey (up to $ 300 million per year) are sent to support domestic producers.

For Russian industrialists, the experience of Canadian colleagues will be useful. The productivity of bee families in this country is more than two times higher than the average world results.

Great importance is attached to the improvement and expansion of the assortment of companies producing products for beekeeping. On the market are automatic lines for printing honeycombs and pumping honey, centrifuges and tanks, equipment for analyzing the quality of honey. Pleases even the smallest detail: the suit of the beekeeper "Sheriff" of the Danish company "Sventi" is distinguished by a high degree of protection, convenience, durability.

Development prospects. Innovations in beekeeping

Competition for Western analogs may be made by the staff of the Ryazan Agrarian University in the field of mechanization and new methods of processing beekeeping products, including:

• Technology and equipment for extraction and drying of Perga,
• Complex of cleaning and pressing propolis,
• Technology of preparation of dough-like top dressing in a wax casing.

Most of the equipment has already been put into mass production. Technologies are actively mastered by the passee farms.

Good prospects are associated with the use of artificial plastic wax, innovative hives (made of expanded polystyrene and certain grades of foam), the use of thermal film to increase the strength of bee colonies.

The revolutionary technology of collecting products was presented by Australian beekeepers. At its core is a completely new frame design for hives and the bee "house" itself. When filling the honeycomb with honey, it is necessary to open the tap, and the product itself drains into the container that has been placed under the hive.

There are many ideas and techniques, sometimes almost absurd. Which of them will get accustomed and will benefit the beekeeping and beekeepers, time will tell.