Apiculture

1.Rearing of honey bee for honey is called

apiculture.
2.This term is derived from the scientic name of
honey bee, Apis.
3.It is also called bee – keeping.
4.Apiculture is an applied zoology.
5.This is a cottage industry.
6.Formerly this industry was called bee-keeping.
7.L.L.Lanstroth is the father of bee- keeping.
8.The honey bee is domesticated by the farmers to
produce honey and bees-wax,
9.As a result, bee-keeping is developed as a agro-
based cottage industry.
Scope of apiculture
1.Apiculture provides employment to the rural
people.
2.Apiculture is a cottage industry , it needs
minimum semi -skilled industry.
3.It is economically important because it is a
profitable rural- based industry.
4.Apiculture develops as small scale industry with
less capital investment.
5.Apiculture related research institution also offers
employment to the research workers.
6.The important product of bee-keeping is the
honey which is used as medicine and nutritive
supplement.
Varieties of honey bees
Honey bees are divided into 4 types.
They are
Apis dorsata
Apis florea
Apis cerana indica
Dammer bee
Apis mellifera is an exotic species.
Apis dorsata
1.It is commonly called rock bees.
2.It is distributed all over India.
3.It is one of the largest honey bee.
4.It is wild and violent.
5.It is found in the hills.
6.It builds a single comb which is one meter
in length.
7.It is found hanging down from the rocks
and branches of tall trees.
8.The comb consists of hexagonal cells.
9.The size of brood cells of worker and
drone are equal.
10.The queen bee is easily distinguished by
its larger size.
11.The colour of the queen is darker in
colour than worker bee.
12.They are good honey gatherers.
13.A single colony can yield 30 kg of honey
per year.
14.Since these bees are ferocious and
venomous, they are not domesticated.
15.So they are also called wild bees.
Apis florea
1.These are popularly called little bees.
2.They are small in size.
3.They are distributed all over India.
4.They migrate from one place to another at
regular intervals (5 months).
5.The colony consists of a single comb
which is small in size.
6.The comb is suspended from the branches
of bushes.
7.A single colony yields 200-500 gms of
honey per year.
8.These bees are helpful to pollinate
flowers.
9.They are not domesticated.
Apis indica
1.They are generally called Indian bees.
2.They are very clam.
3.They are suitable for agriculture.
4.They build their combs in dark places.
5.They are yellowish brown in colour.
6.They have two types of combs.
7.They are honey comb and brood comb.
8.They can produce 2-3 kg of honey per
year.
9.They are domesticated in South India.
Dammer bee
1.These bees are small.
2.They posses a vestigial win
3.The body is black in colour.
4.The comb is built by a dark material
called cerumen.
5.The honey has high medicinal value.
6.It is not easy to tame these bees.
7.They bite enemies.
8.The adults live for about 15 days only.
Bee colony
1.Honey bee social insect.
2.They live in colonies.
3.They show high degree of division labour.
4.Each colony consists of three castes.
5.They are queen, drones and workers.
6.The colony is comprised of only one
queen, 40000 workers and 200 drones.
Queen
1.The queen is the largest member of the
bee colony.
2.There is only queen in a colony.
3.She is the mother for all the members of
the colony.
4.She is the only fertile female of the
colony.
5.The queen is characterized by the
presence of short wings.
6.The body is dark brown in colour.
7.The body consists of a head , a throax and
an abdomen.
8.The head consists of a pair of compound
eyes, mouth parts and a pair of antennae.
9.The thorax is made up of 3 segments
namely a prothorax, a mesothorax and a
metathorax.
10.The thorax bears 3 pair of legs and two
pairs wings.
11.Her main function is to lay eggs.
12.So the queen is called mother of the
colony.
13.She lays about 1500-2000 eggs per day.
14.She is larger than the workers and larger
than the drones.
15.She does not have the wax plates or
pollen baskets.
16.She has pointed mandibles and shorter
mouth parts.
17.She develops from a fertilized egg.
18.The developing larva feeds on royal
jelly.
19.Mating occurs during nuptial flight.
20.Eggs are laid after 8 hours of mating.
21.The life span of a queen bee is 5-
6 years.
Drones
1.Drones are male bees .
2.They are fertile.
3.They are larger than the workers.
4.The body is black in colour.
5.The body consists of a head, a thorax and
a abdomen.
6.The head consists of a pair of compound
eyes, mouth parts and a pair of antennae.
7.The thorax is a made up of 3 segments,
namely a prothorax, a mesothorax and a
metathorax.
8.The thorax bears three pairs of legs and
two pairs of wings.
9.They can mate with the queen.
10.They will die after mating.
11.They do not possess pollen basket, sting
glands and wax glands.
12.They have short proboscis.
13.They are the laziest flies among the
members of the colony.
14.They do not work.
15.They develop from unfertilized eggs.
16.The nuptial flight takes place after 12
days.
17.The life span is for about 21 days.
18.Their main function is to fertilize the
eggs by the production of sperms.
Workers
1.The workers are sterile female bees.
2.They are smallest members of the colony.
3.The body consists of a head , a thorax and
an abdomen.
4.The head consists of a pair of compound
eyes, mouth parts and a pair of antennae.
5.The thorax is made up of 3 segments
namely a prothorax, a mesothorax and a
metathorax.
6.The thorax bears 3 pairs of legs and 2
pairs of wings.
7.They do not produce eggs.
8.They have the organs such as pollen
baskets, wax glands, and scent glands.
9.The head is longer and triangular than
queen.
Bee -keeping
1.Bee keeping refers to the rearing of honey
bees.
Primitive hives
1.The earliest method of bee- keeping is
called primitive method.
2.The primitive method is adopted by
villagers.
3.They use various types of hives.
4.Such hives are called primitive hives.
5.The primitive hives are two types.
6.They are fixed type and movable type.
Modern hives
1.Modern method of bee keeping involves
the use of movable frame hives.
2.In such a type of method , artificial hives
are used.
3.Thus hives are used as the tools of the bee
keeper.
4.This helps to improve the method of
keeping bees.
5.There are two types of modern hives.
6.They are Langstroth ten frame,

Newton”s hive
1.It is modern hive designed by Rev,Fr.
Newton in 1919.
2.It is formed of two movable frames.
3.It is useful to rear small colony.
4.This hive consists of 5 components.
5.They are
Floor broad
Brood chamber
Brood frame
Super chamber and super frame
Stand
Top cover
6.Floor board has a dimension of 40cm x 30
cm.
7.Brood chamber is a box of 27 cm x 15 cm
size without top and bottom.
8.At the base there is an entrance [8 cm x 1
cm].
9.The brood chamber is placed over the
floor board.
10.Brood frame has top bars and side bars.
11.It is hanged down inside the brood
chamber.
12.The brood chamber consists of seven
frames.
13.A super chamber of 27 cm x 25 cm x 7
cm size is placed over the brood chamber.
14.There are seven super frames [20.5 cm x
14 cm x 6.1 cm ].
15.Stand is a piece of wood [10 cm in
diameter].
16.It is fixed deep in the ground.
17.A board is attached on its top.
18.The hive is placed on the platform.
19.The top cover consists of two slopping
planks.
Bee-keeping equipments
1.Equipments are accessories required for
modern method of bee- keeping.
The equipments are
Comb foundation sheet
1.It is a sheet formed of pure wax.
2.It is proper size and attached to super
frames of thin wires.
3.The bees make comb cells over this sheet.
Dummy division board
1.It is a frame usually placed with regular
frames.
2.It provides limited space to the bees,
Porter bee escape board
1.It is a board which covers the brood
chamber.
2.It has one-way opening at the centre,
3.It is useful to clean the super.
Drone excluder
1.Drone excluder is otherwise called drone
trap.
2.It is made of a long of wood with a
shallow opening.
3.Drones are trapped by this equipment.
Swarm trap
1.It is a rectangular box which opens at the
broad side and a wire guage is attached to
the other side (2/3 of its weight).
2.The queen excluder is fixed onto the other
one third.
3.Then one or two frames with comb
foundation sheets are placed inside the box.
4.When a swarm comes in this way, settles
down along with queen and workers.
5.Now the swarm is transferred to the hive.

Queen excluder
1.It is an equipment which is helpful to keep
the queen in a particular portion of the hive.
2.Queen excluder can separate brood
chamber .
3.It is perforated zinc sheet mounted on a
wooden frame.
4.The size of the pores is 3.5mm.
5.The queen bee is prevented from passing
through it.
Smoker
1.Smoker is an equipment to produce
smoke.
2.Smoker is useful to handle the bees.
3.Smoker is made of a fire pot with a funnel
at the end.
4.Base of the pot is provided with bellows
of leather.
5.A tube connects the bellows and the fire
pot.
6.Coconut fibres are used to produce
smoke.
Honey extractor
1.It is machine used to extract honey from
the honey combs.
2.Honey comb is rotated in a wire cage
placed in a container made a metal.
3.Modern extractor is provided with a
wheel and a hand crank.
4.The inner wire cage is rotated to a speed
of 60 rpm per minute.
5.Honey is separated from the comb by the
centrifugal force.
6.Firstly the wax is removed from the
combs.
7.They are placed in the cage.
8.The cage is rotated using the crank.
9.The honey is accumulated at the bottom.
10.The honey is accumulated at the bottom.
11.Then the honey is removed for storage.
Uncapping knife
1.It is steel knife with a double -edged
blade.
2.The cells of the honey combs are filled
with honey.
3.They are sealed with wax.
4.To remove the cappings , the uncapping
knife is used.
Queen gate
1.It is metal piece fixed at the entrance of
the hive.
2.It is used to prevent the escape of queen
from the hive.
3.It is made of a slit-like opening of at 4 mm
size.
Bee veils
1.It is a protective covering used when
handling the bees.
2.It is made up of various materials like silk,
cotton and mosquito net.
3.It can cover the face.
4.It protects the essential parts of the head.
Bee brush
1.It is a brush with soft bristles.
2.It is used to remove bees from the honey
combs.
Feeders
1.Feeders are the devices used to feed the
sugar syrup.
2.Bees are fed with honey syrup or sugar
syrup when there is insufficient amount of
honey in the hive.
Honey uses
1.Honey is an aromatic sweet material
collected by honey bees from the nector of
plants.
2.It is a natural food.
Chemical composition
1.Honey is a natural product.
2.It consists of water (17%),
fructose(38%), sucrose( 1.3%), other sugars
(9 %), total acids (0.57%), ash (0.17%),
nitrogen (0.04%) with negligible amount of
enzymes and vitamins.
3.Honey is sweet because it contains
glucose and fructose.
4.The carbohydrates consist of both
monosaccharides and disaccharides.
5.Honey also contains proteins and free
aminoacids.
6.Acids found in the honey are citric acid,
gluconic acid and hydrochloric acid.
7.Honey also contains ash.
8.Minerals, namely iron, copper,
magnesim, sodium, potassium, calcium,
silica and phosphorus are also found in
small quantities.
9.Vitamins occur in the honey are ascorbic
acid, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin
and thiamine.
9.Varying quantities of enzymes such as
invertase and diastase are present in the
honey.
Nutritional value of honey
1.Honey is full of energy since it contains
carbohydrates.
2.A teaspoon of honey liberates 100
calories.
3.Honey is formed of dextrose and levulose
which provides energy.
4.Honey is also considered to be the drug of
immortality.
5.It has the antibacterial property.
6.It enhances appetite.
7.It is useful in relieving dryness of the
mouth and body.
8.It provides essential aminoacids required
for the growth of the body.
9.Honey improves metabolism.
10.Minerals found in the honey aids in
blood circulation.
Medicinal value
1.Honey plays an important role as
medicine.
2.Honey possesses antibacterial property.
3.Honey can cure cuts, burns and sore
throat.
4.It acts as an antibiotic.
5.It products the skin and eyes.
6.It promotes the growth of healthy tissues.
7.Honey is also used to treat cough, cold
and intestinal disturbances.
8.Honey cures headache due to
sleeplessness.
9.It has antieosinophilic property.
10.It enhances digestion and appetite.
11.It acts as medicine to cure jaundice.
12.It protects the deposition of fats.
13.It is good for kidney patients.
14.It is used as a medicine for bedwetting.
15.Honey can be applied to any swelling.
Bee-wax
1.Bees wax is the natural product.
2.It is the by- product secreted by the
worker bees to make combs of the bee-hive.
Production of bees- wax
1.It is a true wax produced by 4 pairs of wax
glands which are situated on the ventral side
of the abdomen.
2.The pure is white in colour.
3.The yellow colour is due to the carotene
pigments.
4.Brood combs are dark in colour.
5.Wax is obtained from cappings, bits of
combs and old combs.
Production involves the extraction of wax
using different methods.
There are four methods to produce wax.
They are
1.Solar wax extractor
2.Submerged brood chamber method
3.Submerged sack method
4.Steam wax extraction
1.Wax is extracted by a solar wax extractor.
2.It consists of an empty tin. On one side
there is a glass pane. The extractor is placed
in the sunlight.inside the tin there is a wire
gauge on which comps are placed. The heat
melts the wax.
3.In the submerged brood chamber method
the hive filled with combs is closed above
and below with wire mesh.
4.It is introduced into a tank of boiling
water. The tank is cooled. The hardened
wax is removed from the water.
5.In submerged sack method the pieces of
combs are kept in a sac and the sac is placed
in boiling water. Then the wax may float on
the surface.
6.Steam wax extraction involves steam to
melt the wax. Thus the melted wax settles
down in the vessel located at the base.
Uses
1.The bee wax is used in many ways.
2.They are widely used in cosmetic
industry.
3.The wax is used to polish the shoe.
4.Bees wax is used to manufacture cold
creams, lip sticks .
5.Bees wax is also used to make candles.
6.The bee wax is used to coat papers and to
fill the pores in the wood.
7.It is also helpful to produce comb
foundation sheets.
8.Quality wax is utilized for the preparation
of ointment.
9.It is used to make models and
pharmaceutical preparations.