Apiculture ( Bee Keeping)
Apiculture ( Bee Keeping)
Bee keeping or Apiculture ( L. apis = bee, culture= cultivate ) is the rearing, care and management of honey bees for obtaining honey, wax and other substances. Honey is known to have medicinal value. It is found to be quite useful in the treatment of various disorders of human beings related to digestion, dysentery, vomiting and stomach or liver ailments.
Bee keeping being ,a low investment enterprise, has become a favourite source of some extra income for the farmers .Bee keeping is also helps in cross pollination of flowers.
Products obtained from Apiculture -
(1) Honey - Honey is a sweet, viscous edible fluid containing sugars , water, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes and pollen. Sugars present in honey include levulose , dextrose, sucrose and dextrin. Minerals of honey are calcium, iron, phosphate and manganese. The colour,flav fla and odour of honey usually depends on the flowers from which nectar is gathered. 1 kg of honey contains 3200 calories and is an energy rich food.
(2) Bee wax - It is a wax of high melting point ( about 140° F ) . It is secreted by wax glands of worker bees. Bee wax is utilised in the construction of hive . This wax is used by human beings for several purposes such as manufacturing of cosmetics, cold creams, shaving creams, polishes , candles, oinmenoin, lipsticks , lubricants in modelling work,e etc.
(3) Propolis - Propolis and balms are other collections of bees from the plants. These substances are used in repairing and fastening of comb .
(4) Poison - Poison of bee is used in manufacturing of certain Ayurvedic and Homeopathic medicines.
Honey bee varieties used for bee keeping -
Both indigenous and exotic varieties of honey bees are used for commercial production of honey .
(A) Indigenous varieties of honey bees -
1) Apis dorsata
2) Apis florae
3) Apis cerana
(B) Exotic varieties of honey bees -
1) Apis mellifera
2) Apis adamsoni
Colony and castes of honey bees-
Honey bee is a social insect. The nest of honey bee is known as the bee - hive. Honey bees provide a good example of team work and division of labour.
Honey bees live in a colony and different tasks are completed by different groups of bees in the same colony. A colony of Italian bee normally has one queen, 40000 to 100000 workers and few hundred (up to 300 ) of drones. According to roles, there are following three types of castes in the colony of bee :-
(1) Queen - The body size of queen is much larger than other castes of bees of the colony. Her legs are strong for she is always walking about on the comb . The queen, as the mother of the colony, is responsible for laying eggs. She lays up to 2000 eggs every day of each season. Queen lays both fertilized ( diploid,2n ) and unfertilized eggs, where as drones come out from unfertilized eggs. Thus queens are larger , they mate , lay eggs , eat proteinaceous food and often do not forage or defend the colony.
(2) Drones - It is haploid, fertile male. Drones are larger in size than workers and are quite noisy. They are unable to gather food, but eat voraciously. Drones are stingless and their main role is to mate with queen and remain in colony to sleep and eat honey.
(3) Workers - Worker is diploid, sterile female. The size of worker is the smallest among the castes of bees. Workers are the most active member of the colony. They have almost all responsibilities on their shoulder.
Workers live for 3 to 12 months. The function of workers change with age. During the first half of their life, workers are engaged in indoor duties as scavenger, nurse bees, fanner bees , the worker been of a hive fall under three major age groups. These are -
(a) Scavenger bees - For the first three days, each worker bee acts as a scavenger. Cleaning the walls and floor of empty cells of the colony for reuse.
(b) Nurse bees - From the fourth day onwards, each worker bee feeds the entire brood, like a foster mother, with a mixture of honey and pollen. By seventh day it starts producing royal jelly, which is fed to queen and future queen bees . Nurse bees also perform guard duties. They defend the colony from intruders. They kill the intruder by stinging but also get killed with the loss of sting.
(c) Foraging or field bees - They explore new sources of nectar. Forager bees collect nectar, pollen and propolis. Nectar is changed into honey in their crops.
Bee keeping or Apiculture ( L. apis = bee, culture= cultivate ) is the rearing, care and management of honey bees for obtaining honey, wax and other substances. Honey is known to have medicinal value. It is found to be quite useful in the treatment of various disorders of human beings related to digestion, dysentery, vomiting and stomach or liver ailments.
Bee keeping being ,a low investment enterprise, has become a favourite source of some extra income for the farmers .Bee keeping is also helps in cross pollination of flowers.
Products obtained from Apiculture -
(1) Honey - Honey is a sweet, viscous edible fluid containing sugars , water, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes and pollen. Sugars present in honey include levulose , dextrose, sucrose and dextrin. Minerals of honey are calcium, iron, phosphate and manganese. The colour,flav fla and odour of honey usually depends on the flowers from which nectar is gathered. 1 kg of honey contains 3200 calories and is an energy rich food.
(2) Bee wax - It is a wax of high melting point ( about 140° F ) . It is secreted by wax glands of worker bees. Bee wax is utilised in the construction of hive . This wax is used by human beings for several purposes such as manufacturing of cosmetics, cold creams, shaving creams, polishes , candles, oinmenoin, lipsticks , lubricants in modelling work,e etc.
(3) Propolis - Propolis and balms are other collections of bees from the plants. These substances are used in repairing and fastening of comb .
(4) Poison - Poison of bee is used in manufacturing of certain Ayurvedic and Homeopathic medicines.
Honey bee varieties used for bee keeping -
Both indigenous and exotic varieties of honey bees are used for commercial production of honey .
(A) Indigenous varieties of honey bees -
1) Apis dorsata
2) Apis florae
3) Apis cerana
(B) Exotic varieties of honey bees -
1) Apis mellifera
2) Apis adamsoni
Colony and castes of honey bees-
Honey bee is a social insect. The nest of honey bee is known as the bee - hive. Honey bees provide a good example of team work and division of labour.
Honey bees live in a colony and different tasks are completed by different groups of bees in the same colony. A colony of Italian bee normally has one queen, 40000 to 100000 workers and few hundred (up to 300 ) of drones. According to roles, there are following three types of castes in the colony of bee :-
(1) Queen - The body size of queen is much larger than other castes of bees of the colony. Her legs are strong for she is always walking about on the comb . The queen, as the mother of the colony, is responsible for laying eggs. She lays up to 2000 eggs every day of each season. Queen lays both fertilized ( diploid,2n ) and unfertilized eggs, where as drones come out from unfertilized eggs. Thus queens are larger , they mate , lay eggs , eat proteinaceous food and often do not forage or defend the colony.
(2) Drones - It is haploid, fertile male. Drones are larger in size than workers and are quite noisy. They are unable to gather food, but eat voraciously. Drones are stingless and their main role is to mate with queen and remain in colony to sleep and eat honey.
(3) Workers - Worker is diploid, sterile female. The size of worker is the smallest among the castes of bees. Workers are the most active member of the colony. They have almost all responsibilities on their shoulder.
Workers live for 3 to 12 months. The function of workers change with age. During the first half of their life, workers are engaged in indoor duties as scavenger, nurse bees, fanner bees , the worker been of a hive fall under three major age groups. These are -
(a) Scavenger bees - For the first three days, each worker bee acts as a scavenger. Cleaning the walls and floor of empty cells of the colony for reuse.
(b) Nurse bees - From the fourth day onwards, each worker bee feeds the entire brood, like a foster mother, with a mixture of honey and pollen. By seventh day it starts producing royal jelly, which is fed to queen and future queen bees . Nurse bees also perform guard duties. They defend the colony from intruders. They kill the intruder by stinging but also get killed with the loss of sting.
(c) Foraging or field bees - They explore new sources of nectar. Forager bees collect nectar, pollen and propolis. Nectar is changed into honey in their crops.
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