READINESS TO ACCEPT NEW QUEEN
(or Readiness Control mode)
“Readiness to accept the queen” or “queen lack” experienced by the bees - is a specialized examination of bee colony, used when replacing the queen, during colony’s division for suppression of swarming impulse, and during the reception of nucleuses. The principle was developed in 1957 and used in work with Apidictor device. Application of the device for determining the most suitable moment for grafting a new queen will help to save expensive reproductive queen bees, as well as the time and strength of the colony, with protection from error during the division or nucleuses receiving. During colony division in half to prevent swarming without seeking the queen, a question raises – in which of the two hives the queen ended up? This mode will help to answer this question by comparing the signal strengths in both hives. When you create a nucleus of the core colony, based on sealed brood and young bees, the checking of the nucleus with the device will make sure that the queen did not accidentally get into the nucleus or, vice versa, had not been left in the main colony.
The main task of this mode is to determine the place where the queen is absent, as well as to determine the degree of queenlessness feeling of the bees, and to determine their readiness to receive a new queen.
If you have removed the queen, then there will appear signals associated with the loss of the queen, and with transition of the bees to the procedure of laying new queen cells. The presence of this signal will be shown by the "Mood Trend" indicator, and you can see the energy of this signal on the "Trend Force" indicator. When these signals will reach their maximums and will holds, then it is believed, that new queen could be simply placed directly on the honeycomb and it will be accepted without any tricks. If the hive was left without a queen for so long that this signal died out and returned to its original value, then it will be very difficult to place a new queen in such a colony. |
WINDOW 1
On the screen you can see two indicators
- Left indicator shows trend of correlation between the normal condition of the family ( passive or working state) and the feeling of queenless. Green zone - queenless is not felt by the family. Red zone - the family feels queenless.
- Right indicator shows the signal strength of queenless relatively to the overall background. Higher the signal volume - increases the value indicated by device - the arrow moving in the direction of the red (max) zone.
- Joint arrows indicating as far right as possible in the red area means the maximum degree of the feeling of queenless by the family.
(The queenless signal does not appear immediately and is not always constant, so we recommend to use the second window with a graph designed for an hour and a half of continuous monitoring.)
WINDOW 2
- On the screen you can see the graph, which use as data monitored on the time axis, the value of ratio between the normal state of the family (passive or working state) and the state of feeling queenless. The graph window has dimencions for 1.5 hours of continuous monitoring. After filling out the window, it is shifts. Values below zero ( white) indicate a lack of queenless sensation in the family. Values above zero (red) show the presence of the signal, which means feeling of queenless in the bee family.
- It was recommended by Woods to put new queen in the family, when you see the achievement of a maximum values of the graph and the beginning of the recession of queenless signal. The signal can be held from dozens of minutes to an hour. But we recommend not to wait for the end of the "red cap" on the chart and its apparent tendency to movement to the white zone, but insert new queen immediately, when "red cap" become stable.
The control sequence is as follows
1) Without deleting of the queen, turn on the "Readiness Control" mode.
2) Switch to the graph (Window 2) and watch for about 10-15 minutes. If the graph is white, then you can continue. If read - it is not good time to change the queen.
3) Delete the queen. The device continue to draw a graph.
4) If the chart passes into the upper half and becomes completely red, it means a sense of queenless by the bees. Wait for the maximum of the schedule or approach to it. This is the best time for the return of the queen. Do not wait for the return of the graph to the white zone, but be sure that you are close to the peak of red part of the graph, ( "red cap")
We do not recommend to change the queen using this mode at 7-10 am and 5-8 pm.
We do not recommend starting the replacement procedure if you will see actively ventilating bees on the porch, with a raised abdomen and an open Nasonov gland. This means extreme excitement and the delivery of aromatic (feromone) signals - labels. The family is not yet ready to accept a new queen.
We do not recommend to use this mode to determine quilllessness under normal, daily conditions. The acoustic signal used in this mode disappears quite quickly after the loss of the queen.
It can remain for a long time only if the queen is lost, and worker bees start to lay unfertilised eggs. In this case, the signal will present, but its strength will be very small.
On the screen you can see two indicators
- Left indicator shows trend of correlation between the normal condition of the family ( passive or working state) and the feeling of queenless. Green zone - queenless is not felt by the family. Red zone - the family feels queenless.
- Right indicator shows the signal strength of queenless relatively to the overall background. Higher the signal volume - increases the value indicated by device - the arrow moving in the direction of the red (max) zone.
- Joint arrows indicating as far right as possible in the red area means the maximum degree of the feeling of queenless by the family.
(The queenless signal does not appear immediately and is not always constant, so we recommend to use the second window with a graph designed for an hour and a half of continuous monitoring.)
WINDOW 2
- On the screen you can see the graph, which use as data monitored on the time axis, the value of ratio between the normal state of the family (passive or working state) and the state of feeling queenless. The graph window has dimencions for 1.5 hours of continuous monitoring. After filling out the window, it is shifts. Values below zero ( white) indicate a lack of queenless sensation in the family. Values above zero (red) show the presence of the signal, which means feeling of queenless in the bee family.
- It was recommended by Woods to put new queen in the family, when you see the achievement of a maximum values of the graph and the beginning of the recession of queenless signal. The signal can be held from dozens of minutes to an hour. But we recommend not to wait for the end of the "red cap" on the chart and its apparent tendency to movement to the white zone, but insert new queen immediately, when "red cap" become stable.
The control sequence is as follows
1) Without deleting of the queen, turn on the "Readiness Control" mode.
2) Switch to the graph (Window 2) and watch for about 10-15 minutes. If the graph is white, then you can continue. If read - it is not good time to change the queen.
3) Delete the queen. The device continue to draw a graph.
4) If the chart passes into the upper half and becomes completely red, it means a sense of queenless by the bees. Wait for the maximum of the schedule or approach to it. This is the best time for the return of the queen. Do not wait for the return of the graph to the white zone, but be sure that you are close to the peak of red part of the graph, ( "red cap")
We do not recommend to change the queen using this mode at 7-10 am and 5-8 pm.
We do not recommend starting the replacement procedure if you will see actively ventilating bees on the porch, with a raised abdomen and an open Nasonov gland. This means extreme excitement and the delivery of aromatic (feromone) signals - labels. The family is not yet ready to accept a new queen.
We do not recommend to use this mode to determine quilllessness under normal, daily conditions. The acoustic signal used in this mode disappears quite quickly after the loss of the queen.
It can remain for a long time only if the queen is lost, and worker bees start to lay unfertilised eggs. In this case, the signal will present, but its strength will be very small.
Practice
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