Beekeeping has a long history dating back to ancient civilizations. In India, references to honey bees can be found in religious texts from ancient times. However, beekeeping methods were primitive until the 19th century. In 1851, Langstroth designed the movable frame hive, revolutionizing beekeeping. This allowed extraction of honey without disturbing the hive. Other advancements included the honey extractor in 1865 and foundation sheets in 1857. Modern beekeeping was introduced to India in the late 19th century through individuals' efforts. The government began promoting beekeeping in the early 20th century through research stations. Karnataka has a long history of beekeeping focused in districts like Coorg. Though production has declined due to disease, the state

1. History and Development of bee keeping from ancestral
and 1851 onwards, History of beekeeping in India,
Karnataka, Institutes and Societies of beekeeping

2. Honey bees are reared in artificial hives for produces they give
viz., honey, bee wax, royal jelly and for they help they render
in pollinating crop.
The practice of rearing bee is called ‘Apiculture’ or
‘Beekeeping’
The place where the hives are maintained is called ‘Apiary’

3. Man had known that honey is delicious, sweet and nutritious
food long before he learnt the method of keeping bees in hives
to provide him a more accessible supply of honey.
Mention of this winged creature is found in all most all the
religious epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the
Vedas, the Puranas and the Upanishads and Quran and many
of other ancient books.

4. The Indian systems of medicines belonging to both Ayurveda and
Sidha school heavily rely on honey as a carrier which enhances the
properties of drugs
Honey had been in use from very ancient days for religious rites of
sanctity.
There was flourishing trade of honey and wax in our country till
the introduction of cane sugars

5. Figures, drawings and carvings of the honey bee and its combs
are found in tombs, coffins, crowns and maces of Egyptian
kings and coins of ancient and modern empires.
Egyptians also hold bees in higher order.
The great Prophet Mohammed is said to have advised many of
his followers to use honey for various ailments

6. Hippocrates, piny and others have advocated the use of bee tea
prerpared of burnt bees as a cure for kidney troubles and also a
stimulant for growth of hair
Though the virtue of honey bee and the utility of honey have
thus been known from ancient days, the methods of bee
keeping and honey extraction have been primitive and crude all
over the world till recently.

7.  The changes in Bee keeping is observed between the year1500
and 1851.
– 1586: Luis Mendez de Torres first described the Queen bee
as female that laid eggs. It was the first revolutionary
discovery.
– 1609: Charles Butler identified drone as Male bee
– 1637: Richard Remnant recognized worker bees as females.
Advances in bee keeping

8. The understanding of the life cycle helped the beekeepers in
management and care of their colonies.
The next advancement was successful extraction of honey with
least damage to the hive and bees.
The understanding of the life cycle and the ability to harvest
honey without disturbing the hive made beekeeping easier.

9. In 1851:
L. Langstroth studied the natural colonies of bee and found
the bees maintaining space between combs.
Based on this bee space he designed a bee hive with movable
frames with proper spacing which made it easy to extract
honey without affecting the bee population.
This created history in modern bee keeping.

10. Hence, Langstroth is considered as ‘Father of Modern beekeeping’ in
USA
He revolutionized the concept of bee keeping in India from 1851
onwards.
Bee spaces or passage way: is the space required between any two
frames for the bees to move conveniently between the combs and it is
too small to encourage bees building combs and too large to induce
their depositing propolis.
It is about 0.635 cm for A.cerena indica and 0.794 cm for A.mellifera

11.  1865 AD:
– During this period Major Von Hruschka invented the
honey extractor for the first time
– Advantages of honey extractor are:
• We can get pure honey
• Bees are safe
• Combs can be reused

12. The successful use of movable frames, the discovery of bee
space and invention of honey extractor completely
revolutionized the primitive crude way of keeping bees and the
modern bee hive came to be designed.
This break through even increased the production of honey.

13. 1857 AD:
Johanns Mehring invented the artificial comb Foundation
sheet.
This invention was another milestone in bee keeping
Because worker bees have to secrete wax from their wax glands.
They secrete wax after consuming ten times of its weight of
honey besides labour they put in.

14. Therefore in the process it reduces production of honey firstly
because of additional consumption
Secondly due to additional labour which otherwise could have
been utilized for the collection of honey.
In India:
In our country also beekeeping industry was in its primitive
stage till recently.

15. – In ancient times honey bees used to be kept in a crude manner in
India as in other countries of the world.
– The earliest method of keeping bees was first started in South
India in the 2nd half of 18th century, in parts of Karnataka
(Coorg), Kerala and TN and later in J&K, WB
– In Karnataka they started bee keeping with log hives called
horizontal log hives, empty pots or any other suitable receptacles
smeared with wax and sweet scented leaves of Cinnamomum iners
on the inner surface.

16. – Then those receptacles are kept in jungles to entice the bees, during
swarming seasons
– When the bees are settled there, those receptacles are carried to and
kept in desired places.
– This type of hive is called as Pot hive
– Hollowed wooden log with one end closed and another end is
opened but closed with wooden plank and with a hole in centre.

17.  Modern Bee keeping in India:
– 1882: During this period first attempt to keep bees in the
standard/movable hives in India was made in W.B
(Calcutta) by Mr. John Douglas, working in post and
telegraph dept.
– He also in 1884 wrote a book called ‘Handbook of
Beekeeping’ which was perhaps the first published book on
beekeeping in India.

18. – 1883: GOI collected information on bee keeping from different
states and published in booklet form
– 1911: In South India , Father Newton designed a smaller hive
suitable for Indian bee A. cerana in Kanyakuamri district and
successfully maintained the honey bee in hives.
• This smaller hive named as Newton hive is in common use
even today for bee keeping in maidan areas. He also gave
training in beekeeping for many from 1911-1917

19. – 1917-25: Work on beekeeping was started in Thiruvancoor
and Mysore in 1925
• Beekeeping was started during 1927, 1931, 34 and 1938
in Kashmir, Madras, Coorg and UP respectively.
– 1938-39: During winter season of 1938-39, beekeepers of
India formed ‘All India Beekeepers Association’. This
Association started publishing ‘Indian Bee Journal’ and
also held conferences and meeting all over India

20. – 1945: ‘Indian Council of Agricultural Research’ established
‘Central Beekeeping Research Station’ (CBKRS) in
Punjab. Six year after this i.e., during 1951 ICAR also
started CBKRS at Coimbatore (Madras), Baptala (AP) and
Sundernagar (HP)
• IARI also carried out scientific investigation on cultural
problems at New Delhi and Pusa (Bihar)

21. – ‘All India Khadi and Village Industries Commission’
(AIKVIC) started ‘Central Bee Research Station’
(CBRS) at Pune and Mahabaleshwar (Maharashtra) which
transfers latest findings of research on beekeeping to
various grass root implementing bodies.

22.  The pioneering work in the establishment of modern beekeeping
in India were done by certain noble personalities in their
respective states. Notables were:
– Swami Shambhavananda from Coorg district in Karnataka
– Marthandam and Dr. Spencer Hatch from the southern most
costal India
– Shri R N Muttoo from the Central Himalayas
– Smt. Ramadevi and Manamohan Chowdhary from Orissa

23. – Shri T C Razdan, J N Raina and A M Shah from J&K
• All these efforts were restricted to smaller pockets in
different states of the country
 After Independence the GOI took a policy decision to revive
various traditional Industries and ‘All India Khadi and
Village Industries Board’ was constituted to undertake this
work.

24.  This board was later re-constituted as ‘Khadi and Village
Industries Commission’ in 1956, a statutory body under the
Ministry of Industry.
 However large scale implementation of bee keeping was
possible due to role played by Khadi and Village Industries
Commission and various ‘State Khadi and Village Industries
Boards’.

25.  Present Status of Beekeeping
– Apis cerena and Apis mellifera are only two species
maintained in hives.
– European, A.mellifera bee is much better than Indian bee in
all aspects and it has wide distribution both in Tropical and
Temperate Countries and regions.
– European bee has 5 strains/races which are maintained in
different regions

26. – A.cerena found in Asian countries. In recent years it is replaced
by A.mellifera in Japan and China (70% honey comes from
this)
– In India also maintaining A.mellifera in Karnataka, TN and
Kerala (South Indian states); in Punjab, HP, J&K, Haryana,
Bihar and UP (North Indian states)
– In western countries they mainly maintain European bee.
– They done this on a large commercial scale and as a main
occupation

27. – In America, a bee keeper can maintain an average number of
100-300 colonies, can harvest an average yield of 15-20
kg/colony/year
– Similarly in California, 1000-2000 colonies; yield 35kg/colony.
– In some places where there are lot of bee flora, have recorded
upto 100-150 kg honey/colony/year.
– But in developing countries, the bee keeping is not done on a
commercial, large scale.

28. – A bee keeper can maintain an average number of 10-20
colonies (at the most 50 colonies) and can harvest 8.5 kg
honey/colony/year in India [that too after the introduction
of European bee otherwise still low]
– World honey production is 1.1 million tonnes (1991).
– Out of this major contributors are Europe [>2,00,000 m.t],
USSR [>1,00,000 m.t] and USA [1,10,000 m.t]

29. – Worlds largest producer is China – production >2,00,000
metric tonnes (1991). China also produces 1800 m.t of royal
jelly & 1000 m.t of pollen and exported
– Royal jelly and pollen are good source of proteins and
Royal jelly is in demand in America
– Because it is believed to delay ageing or prevents ageing.
– Most of honey is imported by Europe

30. – According to 1994 data, India’s production in 30000 m. tonnes
– >50% of honey comes from natural colonies. Though we have the
capacity to keep 4 million colonies and the potential is about 6 lakh
metric tonnes of honey, we have only 1 million colonies in the
country.
 In Karnataka:
– In Karnataka, actual bee keeping started in 1925 in Coorg by
Swami Shambhavananda [Associated with Ramakrishna mission]
is the father of bee keeping in Karnatka

31.  He found that Newton hive was very small and he brought
some Langstroth hive which was very long and he constructed
hives called as ‘Coorg Standard hive’
 In 1936 he started ‘Coorg honey and wax produces Co-
operative society’ as a leading society in Karnataka.
 In Karnataka, bee keeping is practiced in 18 districts: Coorg,
S.Canara, N.Canara, Hassan, Kolar, Bengaluru and Dharwad.

32.  During 1979 – ‘Bengaluru Beekeepers Association’ was registered
with 300 members.
 Today there are 12 registered Beekeepers Associations
– Sirsi
– Bhagamandala
– Sakaleshapura
– S. Canara
– N. Canara

33.  In dry belt:
– Kolar
– Dharwad
– Bengaluru
 Among these ‘Coorg Progressive Bee keepers Society’ (CPBKS)
is the major one.
 “Bengaluru Beekeepers Association’s” head quarters is
Entomology Department, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru.

34.  In 1997, a separate department for Apiculture was started by
Dr. G K Veeresh was the then Vice – Chancellor of UAS and
Dr. D Rajgopal was made as Head of the Apiculture
 Number of bee keepers in Karnataka – 51200

35.  Bee Products in Karnataka
* Decrease is due to viral infection known as THAISAC
Brood diseases [Thai – Thailand, the brood becomes sac like]
Production 91-92 93-94
No of colonies 1,60,000 45119*
Honey 860 metric tons 206 m.tons*
Wax Production 8.2 metric tons* 2.09 m tons*

36.  Thaisac brood disease was 1st appeared in J&K in 1980’s and in
1991-92 attacked in South India
Research on Beekeeping
 In the last few years, GOI has shown a very keen interest in
this eco-friendly activity and launched a number of new
research schemes with the following objectives:

37. 1. To promote the development of bee keeping and honey
production in the country
2. To identify the potential of beekeeping in different agro-climatic
zones of the country.
3. Confronting problems and their possible remedies
In 1952, the first research institute was established
[i.e., Apicultural Research Laboratory in Mahabaleshwar (near
Bombay) –

38.  Here major work done is standardization of bee keeping
equipments, management practices; bee flora; Bee genetics and
quality control of Bee products etc.
 In 1962, “Central Bee Research and Training Institute” was
started in Pune (Maharashtra) by KVIC. Now it is a premier
institute
 It also have substations: One is at Aldur (Chickmagalur
district).They train people in bee keeping

39.  AICRP: [All India Co-ordinated Research Project] on honey
bee research and training started in 1981 and funded by ICAR.
 It has 8 centers in different parts of the country. One is in
Coorg in Chetthalli [Near Gonikoppal]
 Training in bee keeping is also extended by ‘Central Bee
Research and Training Institute’. There are 2 courses in
Pune:

40. – Apiary men course
– Demonstrator course/ Field man course
3 month duration course
 At local level, Co-operative societies also conduct 3 days
training.
 Even our UAS also conduct training.

41. Thank you