Leo Tolstoy knew the secret of the right bees

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The experience of the great writer turned out to be in demand in the creation of modern beekeeping technologies

Beekeepers from all over the Crimea gathered in the house of the beekeeper and inventor Mikhail Milenin to listen to a fascinating lecture from the owner, who 25 years ago began to develop new methods for the development of beekeeping, as a result of which he achieved results that have no equal in the world

Due to bad weather, Milenin wanted to cancel the event. However, beekeepers and journalists arrived, and the owner was happy to give a lecture. He demonstrated the diagrams and drawings, according to which the development of bees takes place according to his new method, as well as his inventions, which are in demand today in the vastness of the former Soviet Union. Mikhail Ivanovich devoted 30 years of his life to beekeeping, so his rich practical experience is interesting both for professionals and for those who are just taking their first steps in arranging an apiary.

- For a long time I could not solve the problem with isolators, - the Saka beekeeper Sergey Semenov confirms the value of the meeting. - I didn't know how to keep the queen bee. Experimenting, trying different ways for three years. And I found the answer only today, at Mikhail Ivanovich's! …

Ivan Karpunov, a professional beekeeper from Dzhankoy, who constantly uses Milenin's methods in his work, does not skimp on epithets:

- Such a person, perhaps, is the only one in the world - we can say that he “discovered America” for us in beekeeping!

And his story began at the age of 50, when Milenin got on the operating table with a duodenal ulcer. The doctors did not give any chances. The patient could neither eat nor drink. But a jar of honey brought by a friend saved me. The fact is that honey does not reach the stomach. It is immediately absorbed in the oral cavity and instantly enters the bloodstream. After his miraculous healing, the man took an oath to devote his entire future life to the bee-saviors.

The next year, after the operation, Milenin stumbled upon a set of magazines "Pchelovod" (1922-23).

- I read the articles of the beekeeper Starobogatov, - recalls Mikhail Ivanovich. - He kept an apiary for 200 families, producing 40 tons of honey a year. In his footsteps, I laid a hundred and fifty box hives.

For the first time, Mikhail Milenin made the back wall of the hive of glass, and the entire development of the bees could be observed. He also remembered from this magazine the phrase of the great writer Leo Tolstoy, who at one time also very successfully dealt with bees: "With a two-queen keeping, the amount of marketable honey does not double, but quadruples." It all started with her!

Mikhail Ivanovich made a double-uterine hive for the first time. How to make them, Tolstoy did not indicate. An ordinary single-unit and the so-called "helper" from above would not fit - they develop in different conditions, but they need the same.

- For a long time I racked my brains, - says Mikhail Ivanovich, embarrassed. - And once a dream had a dream. In a dream, Leo Tolstoy comes, in a black shirt, belted with a white cord, and says to me: "Why are you fooling yourself and me - this is how you need to do it!" And he shows me a double-uterine hive. When I woke up, I rushed to the table, sketched a beehive, and in the morning I started doing it.

Everything worked out great. There was no honey more than 60 kg from single-uterine ones, and as much as 200 kg from double-uterine ones! For six years, with an accuracy of 100 grams, the test beekeeper recorded how much honey he took from each two-uterine hive, and compared it with single-uterine ones. The increase was exactly 3.5 times. But the four that Tolstoy spoke of did not exist.

- And only recently it dawned on me, - Milenin shares another discovery. - Tolstoy didn’t say that the gains and receipts of honey are quadrupling, he said about the amount of marketable honey, which consists of receipts and expenditures. It turned out that honey consumption is 4 times less. If we take it over a one-year period, the result is an increase of exactly four times! But for this realization it took me 20 years …

Milenin also made several important devices - a drinking bowl for feeding bees, which is now being massively produced by Ukrainian neighbors in Kiev, and an intracellular isolator, the production of which was set up in Dnepropetrovsk. However, over the years, he improved them more than once, and old samples are still being produced in large quantities …

“In general, isolation is a very broad concept,” says Mikhail Ivanovich. - No one today fully understands its prospects. With its help, it is easier to make not only honey, but also other bee products. Bees spend a lot of energy on brood, which is interrupted during isolation. I remember that we went to the honey plant with a friend. He was surprised that he had 600 bees flying, and mine - 300. But his weight gain was 1.5 kg, and mine was 3 kg. Why be surprised? His bee is a young, “incapable of fighting”, who spent all his strength on brood, and I have “special forces” (as I call them), which passed natural selection and gained experience in collecting nectar.

There is another problem that isolation solves. Today, most beekeepers are essentially tick breeders. Because they create favorable conditions for the development of the tick all summer long. Milenin acts differently:

- In May we interrupt the brood, put the queen in an isolator for the whole summer. When a tick is actively developing, I do not allow it to develop, I deprive it of its habitat, that is, brood. First, I treat the hives with food acids, and then I scare off the pest with essential oil crops.

Now the question is about how to reduce the three months of the year allocated for brood by another month.

Isolation also helps in managing honey flow. With her help, Milenin achieved an increase in the life span of a bee:

- Everywhere they teach that spring-summer bees live 20-30 days. But this is not the case. The maximum lifespan of a flight bee is a year. True, the first generation, which was sown by the uterus, lives no more than 15-20 days. The second generation lives for 30-40 days. Bees that do not spend royal jelly on brood feeding are able to live up to a year.

After a fascinating lecture, the beekeeper spoke about his main goal - to transfer the accumulated experience to all Crimean beekeepers. Milenin is not eager to apply to the authorities. According to the beekeeper, a complete analogue of any organization is a bee colony that has existed on Earth for 50 million years. There is a uterus, her attendants, there is a certain number of drones. If the uterus is bad, she is re-elected. If there is no queen in the family, the bees begin to sow eggs themselves, which is what they harm. Because eggs do not make working bees, but drones. As a result, sooner or later the family will die. It turns out that the tinder bee is essentially doing harm …

“It’s the same in societies,” says Mikhail Ivanovich. - With chaos in management, one person cannot achieve anything, but does either empty work, or "feeds" people - "drones" with his labor. The same eggs that the uterus lays are viable and genetically developed. But for development, drones are also needed - firstly, they are bee inseminators, and secondly, they eat a lot, therefore they release a lot of energy and heat the room. Laziness is the engine of progress - what can I say! After all, 5-6 worker bees should work for each drone. If the family is normal, it keeps several drones in reserve. Just like people, there are no wars, but the army is still supported.

Some people hinder the development of new technologies. Other people, who attended a meeting with the elder of the Crimean beekeeping, reacted with great interest to the developments of Mikhail Ivanovich. So, the dashing trouble is the beginning …

Sleep in the coves

Mikhail Milenin also invented the bed for the famous “sleeping on the hives”. During this therapeutic procedure, a person rests on a couch, under which there are several hives, and breathes in the air of the hive, which contains vapors from the nectar of various medicinal plants. In addition, bees heal with their vibration, which coincides with the vibration of most human organs. It tunes like a musical instrument.

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