After nearly 10 years of beekeeping, Mr. Doan Van An has built 250 colonies with millions of worker bees. The honey production of the herd is also relatively stable and gives a high income.

Manage millions of “bee workers”

On a visit to Hoa Vang district (Da Nang), we visited the bee farm of Mr. Doan Van An (44 years old, from Nam Dinh) located in the bamboo forest in Trung Nghia village, Hoa Ninh commune. With hundreds of beekeeping crates placed everywhere, the scent of honey wafts from the street.

In the past, Mr. An had done enough jobs, however, his income was low and unstable, so he decided to find a new direction for himself.

In 2014, a relative invited him to go nomadic to “herd” bees. This time he followed just out of curiosity. But after a month of wandering with the bees, Mr. An realized the potential and discussed with his wife to invest 200 million VND to buy 100 colonies of bees for trial breeding.($1=24,000 VND)

At first, due to lack of experience, bees suffered from larval rot disease, young bees did not hatch, and worker bees were also weak, leading to a low number of bees in the colony and low quality of honey.

Undeterred, he is determined to learn techniques and experience of beekeeping through information channels and follow longtime beekeepers to learn the behavior of this animal.

With the motto of both raising and learning from experience, after many months of eating and sleeping with bees, Mr. An has accumulated a lot of knowledge and effectively applied it in practice.

“At the moment, I have built up 250 bee colonies with millions of worker bees. The honey production of the colony is also relatively stable, if the season is right, you can collect honey once every 10 days, each time collecting more than 1 ton of honey. “, An said.

Follow the flower season

According to Mr. An, bees have a very high organizational behavior, beekeepers have to work hard to pay attention to common bee diseases, how to multiply and divide the colony, breed, create a new queen and separate the swarm, manage the swarm. seasonal bees.

In order for the bees to develop well and produce quality honey, the farmer must understand the geographical situation of the region and their behavior and regularly check the colony.

“Each colony of bees has its own organization and we have to understand that behavior. Worker bees have a lifespan of about 60 days. When I see that this colony has an abnormal expression, I have to check it out to take measures.” An explained.

Bees require a quiet place, avoiding strong noises, so the tank must be made of solid wood, about 35cm in length and avoid rain and direct sunlight on the hive.

The location of the crate should be 25-30cm high above the ground, at least 50cm apart from each other. The apiary should not be placed on a brick yard, a cement floor, a place that is too wet or near a livestock barn.

Bees get honey depending on the source of the flower and the season of the flower. Therefore, beekeepers like him are often called vagrants because they have to constantly move according to the flower season and flower area for the new bees to give high honey yield, “lay” a profit.

“Beekeeping also requires a lot of knowledge and experience, moving bees according to the flower season is also very difficult. For example, in February, we have to go to Gia Lai for bees to suck nectar from coffee flowers, in March to welcome the lychee crop, then moved to the area of ​​longan flower nectar,” explained Mr. An.

Mr. An added that moving bees must be done during the night, because at this time, the bees will return to the hive to sleep, not being dispersed and reducing the possibility of bees dying due to sudden climate change.

“Honey is bought by traders at the place, each kilogram of honey costs from a few dozen to several hundred thousand VND depending on the type. If stable, I earn 20-30 million VND/month from honey”, Mr. An confided

Photo: Internet (Vietnamese.Quest.net)