Apiculture

Apiculture 

Bee Keeping

“Cultivation of bees on a commercial basis  for the production of honey is called apiculture or bee keeping”.

Honey bees are social and polymorphic colonial insects which  provide honey, a high energy food supplement and wax which has almost variety of uses. The beekeeping has been in practice for a very long time in India. Knowledge of biology, behavior , diseases of bees and management practices are essential for beekeeping. Beekeeping is one of the more universal agricultural endeavors’. Bees work a dual agricultural role by both producing honey and aiding in the pollination of flowering crops. Their cosmopolitan distribution, multipurpose nature and relative simplicity in managment combine to make bees a natural agricultural supplement for many types of farm system in developing countries.

Advantages of beekeeping

The advantages of beekeeping are:

 (1) Beekeeping requires relatively low technology requirements

(2) Beekeeping basics are easy to operate

(3) Low initial costs for set up of the unit

 (4) Everybody can participate (men, women, elderly and youth)

(5) Beekeeping provides self-employment and self-esteem

(6) Great opportunity for quick return on investment

(7) Minimal land and space  requirements

(8) Eco-friendly and Environmentally acceptable farming practice

(9) Promotion of greater viable food crop yield through bee pollination.

(10) most bee products have a long self life and are a valuable food source.

Types of Honey Bee

Honey bee belongs to the class Insecta, order; Hymenoptera and family; Aphidae. There are five well recognised types of bees found in the world.

1. Apis dorsata (Rock bee)

2.Apis florea (little bee)

3.Apis indica (Indian bee)

4.Apis mellifica (European bee)

5.Apis adamsoni (Africa)

Out of these five types, Apis dorsata, Apis florea and Apis indica are common in India.

Apis dorsata :

It is a large Indian variety with an average size of about 20mm. It is commonly called rock bee. It builds large comb (0.90 x 15metres) on tree branches, under caves, or under roofs of high buildings. A. dorsata undertakes migration during summer and winter. During winter they are abundantly found in plains and in summer the colonies migrate to high mountains to avoid extreme heat or in search of flowering plants. This species is a good honey gatherer. A sizable portion of honey produced in India comes from A.dorsata species. Maximum 50 to 80kg honey per colony can be obtained.

Apis florae:

It is commonly called little bee. It is a miniature form of the rock bee. It lives in plains and it rarely occurs above 1000 feet of sea level. It builds small comb on the branches of trees, or in bushes, or under the walls of the buildings. The yield of honey from this species is very little.

Apis indica:

It is popularly known as the Indian bee. It occurs commonly on the plains and forest of India. It builds several parallel combs in protected places like hollow of trees, caves, in rocks and in other such cavities.Their average output of honey is between 3kg to 5kg per colony per year. They are the best of the Indian variety to be hived in artificial hive.

Modern hives  (Bee-keeping)

Scientific method of bee - 
Bee keeping has been developed after the extensive studies of bee behaviour, their way of functioning and their mode of reproduction. 
The modern beehive is movable-frame hive. It is a wooden frame box made of single or double walls. The single walled wooden frame box is used in warm place and the double walled wooden frame box is used in cool climate. A modern hive consists of a bottom board, brood chamber, supper chamber, inner cover and top cover. They are placed one above the other and fixed on a stand.  The modern beehive is made up of a series of square or oblong boxes without tops or bottoms, set one above the other. This hive has the floor at the bottom, and a crown board at the top, and a roof over all. Inside these boxes, wooden frames are vertically hung paralled to each other. The wooden frames are filled with sheets of wax foundation on which the combs are built by the bees. The only entrance to the hive is below the large bottom box (brood chamber). The queen is usually confined to the brood chamber. The boxes termed “supers” are used for storage of honey. The queen is prevented from going to the “supers” by the “queen excluder” that allows only the workers to move. The top cover can be lifted to inspect the state of the colony or honey formation. The wooden hive is colored yellow or white on the outside for keeping the chambers cool and to aid easy recognition by the bees.

In India, apart from the modern hive, another three types of beehive namely Langstroth , Newton and Jeolikote are in practice. 

Accessory hive equipment: 

Besides the above primary equipments, other accessory equipments used in beekeeping and their utility are as follows.

1. Queen Excluder        -it is utilized to prevent the entry of queen bee from the brood chamber into the super chamber.

2. Comb foundation  - it is a sheet of bee wax and on both sides of which exact shape of different cells of the comb is made in advance. 

3. Bee gloves  - it is used by bee keepers for protecting their hands while inspecting the hives. 

4. Bee veil  - it is a device made of fine nettings to protect the bee-keeper from bee sting. 

5. Smoker  - it is used to scare the bees during hive maintenance and honey collection by releasing smoke. 

6. Hive Tool  - it is a flat, narrow and long piece of iron which helps in scraping excess propolis or wax from hive parts. 

7.Uncapping knife  - it is a long knife which helps in re moving the cap from the combs as a first step in honey extraction. 

8. Bee brush  - it is a large brush often employed to brush off bees from honey combs particularly at the time of extraction. 

9. Queen introducing cage  - it is a pipe made of wire nets used for keeping the queen for about 24 hours for acquaintance with the hive and worker bees. 

10. Feeder  - it is a basin with sugar syrup covered by grass to feed the bees during drought season. The grass prevent the bees from sinking in to the syrup. 

11. Honey Extractor  - it is a stainless steel device which spins the combs rapidly to extract honey. 

12.Hive Entrance Guard -it is a device similar to queen excluder in front of the hive entrance which prevents the escape of queen during warming season. 

 Chemical composition of honey

The honey is composed of water, sugar, mineral like calcium, iron, phosphate, manganese and vitamins. Honey also contains acids, amino acids, enzymes, pigments and aroma substances.  Honey is a food material for the bees and their larvae. Large quantities of honey are stored in the hive to meet the demands in scarcity. Chemically, honey is a viscous water solution of sugar. Its approximate composition in percentage is as follows:

Wat                       -        13-20

Fructose                -        40-50

Glucose                 -        2-3

Minerals Traces

Vitamins (minute quantities) (B1, B2, C)

Composition of honey and its different flavors depend on the kinds of flowers from which the nectar is collected. Nectar is sucked from flowers and mixed with saliva. It is swallowed into a special region of the gut called honey stomach. Nectar is a disaccharide (sucrose) it is hydrolysed by the salivary amylase to produce monosaccharides (fructose and glucose).

Inside the hive the workers regurgitate the processed nectar. The honey thus produced is still very dilute. After placing this honey onto the storage cells of the hive the bees “fan” with their wings to evaporate the excess water and bring the honey to its required concentration. 

Products from a bee hive

Some of the hive products are used for Apitherapy. The Apitherapy is the use of products from the bee to promote health and healing.

Honey :      Honey has been treasured as one of the nature’s most perfect food. Other than honey, the products such as bee wax, bee venom, propolis, royal gelly and pollen are obtained as bee hive products. It is a sweet, viscous edible food obtained by honey bees. The colour, flavour and odour of honey usually depend on flowers from which nectar is gathered. It is an energy rich nourishing food.

a.     Uses of Honey

Some uses of honey are as follows

1.     As food : Honey is a nutritious food, rich in energy and vitamins.

2.     As medicines: It is used as a carrier in ayurvedic and unani medicines. It acts as a laxative and prevents cold, cough and fever. Honey is an antiseptic and contains formic acid as the preservative.  

3.     Honey is a good laxative and a blood purifier. It prevents cough and cold and also relieves sore throat. Honey is a remedy for tongue ulcer and intestinal ulcer.

4.     It is used in religious ceremonies.

5.     Honey is made into alcoholic drinks by fermentation. These drinks are popularly known as mead or honey wines. Large amounts are used in skin and beauty lotions.

6.     Another important use is in scientific research for making bacterial cultures.

7.     It is also utilised for making poison baits for certain insect pests.

b.     Beeswax

Beeswax is secreted by the wax glands located on the underside of the last four abdominal segments (4th to 7th) of the worker bee. This wax is used in constructing bee combs in which the colony of the bees develops.

Uses of beeswax

Wax derived from bee hive are utilised as follows:

a.     Bee wax is used in candle industry and bee industry for preparing comb foundation sheets.   (the modern candles are made of paraffin wax, a petroleum product).

b.     Pharmaceutical and perfume industries are also major users of wax preparation of varnishes and paints.

c.      Water proofing and waxing of threads.

d.     Formation of comb foundation (wax foundation in apiaries).

e.      Wax is an important constituent  of cosmetics like cold creams, lipsticks and rouges because it adheres better to skin.

f.       It is also used in ointments, capsules, pill coatings and deodorants.

g.     Wax is used for preparing shoe polish, furniture, etc. because it acts as water proofing.

h.      Its minor use is made in adhesive, chewing gums ink etc.

c.       Royal jelly (Bee milk)

Royal jelly is secreted by glands of nurse bees of the age of 6-12 days. It is very nutritious food and is fed to the young larvae and adult queen. Royal jelly is milky white in colour. It is composed of protein, lipids, carbohydrates, water and ash. Royal jelly is a nutrious food for human beings as it increases vigour and vitality.

d.    Pollen:

The worker bees (field bees) collect pollen, which is the basic form of renewing species of plants as well as feeding the hive larva as well. The nurse bees of the hive will refine the pollen in to beebread or royal jelly for feeding to larva and young bees. Pollen is also used for human consumption since it’s packed with 25 protein and 18 amino acids.

e.      Bee Venom

Sting of worker bee is attached to a poison sac where venom is stored. It is composed of many substances such as histamine, apamine, acithinase, hydrocholoric acid, formic acid, orthophosphotic acid, sulphur, calcium, copper and magnesium sulphate.

1. Apitherapy : Bees can be made to sting the patient who has skin disease and the venom collected can be used as medicines for subcutaneous infections.

2. Ointment made by mixing apitoxin, vaseline and salicylic acid can be used to make the skin soft and increases penetration.

3. Bee venom is useful for curing many diseases and disorders especially Rheumatism.

4.It has stimulating effect on heart muscles. It decreases cholesterol level and also lowers blood pressure.

5.It is used in the treatment of neurosis, arteriosis and arthritis.

Diseases of bees and their enemies

Honey bees are affected by large number of viral, fungal, bacterial and protozoan organisms, ecto-endo - parasitic mites, insects and non-insect enemies.

Viral diseases

Sac brood : It is caused by a virus and found in 30% of this colony. This prevents larvae from pupating.

Kashmir bee viruses: This disease will affect in all stages of development Infected bees die in the affected colony.

Fungal diseases

Chalk brood : Caused by a fungus. Strands of fungus invade the larvae tissue and the larvae dies. The dead larvae become chalky white in colour.

Bacterial diseases

American foul brood (AFB): Caused by spore forming bacterium. This bacterium penetrates the gut wall and body tissue of the larvae. Infected larvae change colour from a healthy pearly white to dark brown and die after they are capped.

Protozoan diseases

Nosema : Caused by spore forming protozoa. It impairs the digestion and cause dysentry.

Acarine disease

Isle of wight - an acarine disease caused by a small parasitic mite due to the blocking of the trachea of bee. Infestation of this mite causes chronic bee paralysis.

Enemies

There are a large number of animals who act as enemies to the bee. Some of the enemies are wax moth, wax beetle, toads, snails, ants, dragon flies, praying mantis, termites etc.

Present situations  of apiculture industry in India

The number of bee colonies in India at present is about 5.75 lakhs irrespective of our goal of establishing 15 crores bee colonies. In Maharashtra, regular bee farms have been established at several places. Among the honey producing States, Tamil Nadu stands first followed by Kerala and Karnataka respectively. Bee research centers have been established at several places in India. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is engaged in research and developmental efforts in various disciplines of agriculture including api-culture.