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Apiculture

Honey bees are important pollinators and producers of honey and beeswax. There are four main species of honey bees - the rock bee, Indian hive bee, little bee, and European bee. Honey bees live in hives with one queen, several hundred drones, and thousands of workers. The queen lays eggs which hatch into larvae and develop through pupa stages before emerging as adult bees. Honey bees collect nectar and pollen which they use to make honey through regurgitation and dehydration. In addition to honey, beeswax is an important product with various uses. Honey bees play a vital role in pollinating crops and flowering plants.

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 Apiculture - Latin name Apis mellifera, meaning ‘honey gatherer’.  the vital role all bees play in the pollination of crops and flowering plants has caused apiculture to also include the management and study of non-Apis bees such as bumblebees and leafcutter bees.  The wasp-like ancestors of bees took advantage of the food made available by flowers and began to modify their diet and physical characteristics. Since then, flowering plants and bees co-evolved.  This eventually led to a complete interdependence, meaning that flowering plants and bees cannot live and reproduce without each other.
Honey Bee - Classification KINGDOM : ANIMAL CLASS : INSECT FAMILY : APIDAE PHYLUM : ARTHROPOD ORDER : HYMENOPTERA GENUS : APIS SPECIES : APISMELLIFERA
TYPES OF HONEY BEE Honey bee Scientific name Average yield/colony The rock bee Apis dorsata 50-80 kg The Indian hive bee Apis cerana indica 200-900 g The little bee Apis florea 6-8 kg The European or Italian bee Apis mellifera 25-40 kg Dammer bee or sting less bee Melipona irridipennis 300-400 g
Rock bee (Apis dorsata)  They are giant bees found all over India in sub-mountainous regions up to an altitude of 2700 m.  They construct single comb in open about 6 feet long and 3 feet deep .  They shift the place of the colony often. Rock bees are ferocious and difficult to rear.  These bees are the largest among the bees described.
Indian hive bee / Asian bee (Apis cerana indica)  They are the domesticated species, which construct multiple parallel combs with an average honey yield of 6-8 kg per colony per year.  These bees are larger than Apis florae but smaller than Apis mellifera.  They are more prone to swarming and absconding.
Little bee (Apis florea)  They build single vertical combs. They also construct comb in open of the size of palm in branches of bushes, hedges, buildings, caves, empty cases etc  They are not rearable as they frequently change their place.  smallest among four Apis species described and smaller than Indian bee.  They are distributed only in plains
European or Italian bee (Apis mellifera)  They are also similar in habits to Indian bees, which build parallel combs.  They are bigger than all other honeybees except Apis dorsata.  They have been imported from European countries (Italy). They are less prone to swarming and absconding.
Dammer Bee  Melipona and Trigona occur in our country in abundance.  These bees are much smaller than the true honey bees and build irregular combs of wax and resinous substances in crevices and hollow tree trunks.  The stingless bees have the importance in the pollination of various food crops.  They bite their enemies or intruders.  It can be domesticated.   Melipona and Trigona occur in our country in abundance.  These bees are much smaller than the true honey bees and build irregular combs of wax and resinous substances in crevices and hollow tree trunks.  The stingless bees have the importance in the pollination of various food crops.  They bite their enemies or intruders.  It can be domesticated. 
 Melipona & Trigona occur in our country in abundance.  These bees are much smaller than the true honey bees and build irregular combs of wax and resinous substances in crevices and hollow tree trunks.  The stingless bees have the importance in the pollination of various food crops.  They bite their enemies or intruders.  It can be domesticated. 
CASTES  The individuals of bee colony belong to three types of castes.  The queen is a fertile female. There is only one queen in a hive and only she can lay eggs.  queens may lay up to 1,500 eggs per day & 250,000 eggs per year and possibly more than a million in her lifetime.  The queen can live from 2-5 years.  Drones are males. There may be several hundred in a hive. Their function is to fertilise the queen  The drone lives 40-50 days.  Workers are sterile females. There may be 20,000 to 80,000 in a hive. They do all the work of building the combs, collecting and storing nectar and pollen, feeding the larvae and cleaning the hive.  They work hard making honey and stinging .They live from 1-4 months.
 The workers build three types of wax cell, differing in size or shape.  The queen lays eggs in each of the cells and the eggs hatch into larvae.  The workers feed the larvae until they are ready to pupate and then they put a wax capping over the cell.  After 10-11 days the capping is bitten off and the adult bee emerges. The eggs laid in the drone cells are unfertilised and develop into males.  The eggs laid in the worker cells and queen cells are fertilised but the queen larvae are fed a different diet from that of the larvae in the worker cells.  The difference in diet causes the workers to be sterile and the queen to be fertile.
worker Drone Queen
Life cycle of honey bees
Egg A queen lays soft white eggs in the comb. The egg stage takes place during days 1 through. The queen lays each egg in a different cell of the honeycomb. Larva  In three days, the egg hatches into a larva. Workers feed it bee milk and bee bread. It spins a cocoon around itself. The larva stage takes place during days 4 through 9. As soon as the egg is laid, the larva is growing inside it.  After three days, the egg hatches and a larva crawls out.  As the larva grows, it sheds its skin. It does this five times .  Eight days after hatching, the bee larva is fully grown.
Pupa  In the cocoon, the larva turns into a pupa. It now has eyes, wings, and legs. It looks more like a bee. This stage is during days 10 through 23, depending on the type of bee it will become. The larva cannot feed anymore and it starts to change into a pupa Adult  This is the final stage in a bee's complete metamorphosis. It is full grown. The bee chews its way out of the cell. It becomes an adult on days 16 through 24, depending on what type of bee it is. After nine days, the pupa changes colour. It has turned into an adult .When it's about three to four weeks old, the bee will leave the hive
Enemies of bees  Have numerous enemies-bears,monkeys, skunks,beemartins,man&many other animals. Their combs are destroyed by termites,ants & wax-moth caterpillars. Bees are parasitized by many insects and are subject to epidemic dieases such as “foul brood”.
Economic importance of honey bee HONEY In nature, the bees are able to make honey, but man could not . The salivary enzyme converts the complex sugar of nectar into the simple sugar of honey.  Honey makes an important food for man and other animals. It is a natural antiseptic due to the presence of an anti-bacterial agent, which also prevents honey from spoiling. It prevents infection if placed on a wound.
 Pollination: The honeybees are probably of greatest importance of agriculture in the pollination of plants. BEESWAX It is secreted in the form of small flakes by five pairs of ventral abdominal glands. Bees consume 10kg of honey to produce one kg of wax. It is used extensively in the manufacture of slaves, varnishes, polishes and various waxes. It is also used for medical purposes.
Contents of honey  Sugars like fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, lactose and other disaccharides and trisaccharides.  Proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids.  Volatile aromatic substances.  Ashes and water etc.  Various ingredients of honey have helped it to become not only a sweet liquid but also a natural product with high nutritional and medicinal value.  The medicinal quality, taste, texture, color, aroma of honey differs according to the geographical area and the species of plants from which it has been collected.
Therapeutic uses of Honey:  1. As it contains sugars which are quickly absorbed by our digestive system and converted into energy, this can be used as instant energizer.  2. As it is hygroscopic it speeds up healing, growth of healing tissue and dries it up.  3. Honey acts as a sedative and is very useful in bed wetting disorders.  4. Honey is very good antioxident which restores the damaged skin and gives soft, young looks.  5. Honey has antibacterial properties due to its acidic nature and enzymically produced hydrogen peroxide.  6. Constant use of honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacteria and viral diseases.
Therapeutic uses of Honey  1. As it contains sugars which are quickly absorbed by our digestive system and converted into energy, this can be used as instant energizer.  2. As it is hygroscopic it speeds up healing, growth of healing tissue and dries it up.  3. Honey acts as a sedative and is very useful in bed wetting disorders.  4. Honey is very good antioxident which restores the damaged skin and gives soft, young looks.  5. Honey has antibacterial properties due to its acidic nature and enzymically produced hydrogen peroxide.  6. Constant use of honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacteria and viral diseases.
Conclusion  Beekeeping is a vast scientific subject, related to agriculture, food, nutrition, industrial products & environment.  Honey quality can be improved by training beekeepers to respect hygienic conditions.  The development of beekeeping in tropical region can be achieved using local methods by beekeepers who like honeybees.  The rural development can play a vital role as one of the economic activities.
REFERENCES  D.B.Tembhare.,modern entomology ., (2009) himalaya publishing house, hyderabad.  http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/apiculture/fe_apicultur e_home.html  http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/apiculture/profile.htm http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/f/be esmakehoney.htm  http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/how-do- bees-make-honey.html  http://library.thinkquest.org/5382/lifecycle.html
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