3. 1) SPECIES OF HONEY BEES
a) Rock Bee Apis dorsata
A.dorsata colony on Tamarind Tree A.dorsata on Soap nut flower
i) Lives in wild
ii) The bees cannot be domesticated
iii) Good Pollinators of different crops
iv) Honey yield 50 – 100 kgs depending upon the size of the nest.
5. b) Dwarf Bee Apis florea
Apis florea colony Brood nest with honey crest
i) Lives in wild
ii) The bees can be partially domesticated in card board boxes.
iii) Honey is very sweet and believed to be having medicinal properties.
iv) Good pollinators.
v) Honey yield 0.5 – 1 kg per nest.
6. c) Indian honey bee Apis cerana indica
Apis cerana colony in rock crevices
i) The bees construct combs in termite mounds, hollow tree trunks, rock
and crevices.
ii) Bees can be managed in planned pollination.
iii) Susceptible to wax moth (Galleria mellonella)
iv) Honey yield – 5-7 kgs / annum / hive.
9. d) European Honey bee (Italian Honey Bee)
Apis melifera colony
i) Introduced from Haryana, during 1991 at ARS, Vijayarai.
ii) Maintains strong colonies (70 – 80,000 bees/ colony) and having very
gentle temperament.
iii) Very good pollinator of difficult crops.
iv) Tolerant to wax moth.
v) Very good honey gatherers, 10-15 kgs / hive / colony (stationary bee
keeping)
vi) Migratory beekeeping can yield 30 – 40 kgs / colony per year.
10. Comparative morphometric , behavioural and
economic characterstics of A.mellifera and
A.c.indica.
Characterstics A.mellifera A.c.indica
Body weight (mg) 90-120 50-70
Tongue length (mm) 5.7-7.2 4.39-5.53
Nectar load(mg) 40-80 30-40
Pollen load(mg) 12-29 7-14
Flight range(km) 2-5 0.8-2
Egg laying capacity of queen per day 800-1800 300-800
Colony build up at honey flow 40,000-60,000 20,000-30,000
Swarming Little High tendency
Absconding Very little High propensity
Aggressiveness Usually calm Sometimes furious
Yield(kg)/colony(Under Indian
Conditions)
20-30 5-8
11. e) Stringless Bees (Tetragonula iridipennis)
Stringless Bee colony entrance
i) Lives in cracks and crevices of abandoned buildings and hollows of tree
trunks.
ii) Collects and stores pollen and nectar in resin pots.
iii) Honey is having medicinal properties.
iv) Bees can be domesticated & reared in earthern pots and Bamboo
nodes.
v) Very good pollinator of crops.
Pollen Pots Brood
Honey extraction
with syringe
Honey Pots
23. Queen :
The queen is the only perfectly developed female and
is the mother of the colony .In the peak of the season, she
may lay large number of eggs in a day , weight of which is
almost twice the weight of her body.
She mates with the drones, the male bee, in the air
only once in her life-time. The stock of male sperms
received during mating is preserved in a pouch-like
structure, sperma theca , in her body. She draws upon it for
a long time(which may be two or three years) to regulate
sex of the off-springs.
32. Worker:
The worker bees are imperfectly developed females.
Unable to reproduce , but possess all the maternal
instincts. They are responsible for the maintenance and
welfare of the colony. Division of labour in worker bees is
on a physiological basis which is explained else where in
this book.
A worker bee has no individual existence and
throughout her life she labours for the good of the colony.
The worker bee is capable of performing a definite amount
of work and she dies when that is accomplished
.Consequently , during honey flow season when she has to
work at a tremendous pace , she lives only for about six
weeks.
34. Drone:
The only function of the male bee is to mate with
the queen. Drone has short tongue but does not collect
food from flowers. The tongue is used to receive food
from worker bees .Drone has no wax and scent glands.
Generally it takes 3 to 6 worker bees to feed a drone.
61. a) SACBROOD DISEASE
Sacbrood is a viral disease of European honeybees,
Apis millifera L. which is prevalent throughout world. The
disease was first reported by White in 1917 in USA and the
causative virus was isolated, identified and characterized by
Bailey and his colleagues in 1964 from samples received from
Europe, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea.
However, in India, Sacbrood virus (SBV) disease was first
detected in 1999 in A.mellifera L. in Kangra district of
Himachal Pradesh. However, now it is prevalent in different
states of the country.
62. THAI SACBROOD DISEASE (TSBV):
Thai sacbrood disease was first noticed during
1976 in Thailand in Apis cerana, causing up to 98 percent
mortality of bees. Because of certain physico-chemical
and serological properties, this virus has been
considered a new strain of sacbrood virus, named as
‘Thai sacbrood virus’ (TSBV). In India, first incidence of
TSBV in A.cerana F. was reported from Meghalaya in
1978 which subsequently spreaded to Assam, Sikkim,
north Bihar, north Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and
Jammu & Kashmir by 1986.
63. During 1991-92, the disease appeared in an
epidemic form in the sourthern belt of India viz.
Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It was estimated
to have destroyed 95 percent of the then existing
colonies of Indian bees in the country. The disease
is still prevalent in A.cerana F. colonies during active
brood rearing season although with less severity.
64. SYMPTOMS
Symptoms of Sacbrood and Thai sacbrood
diseases are identical. These viral
diseases affect the behaviour of the
bees in the colonies. Some of the
apparent symptoms of these viral
diseases are:
i) The workers try to eject the diseased
prepupae from the cells during early
phases of infection. Many diseased
prepupae can thus be seen thrown out
on the bottom board as well as on the
ground near the hives. When the
infection is severe and persistent, the
diseased prepupae are left in the comb
cells.
ii) The cells containing affected prepupae
are perforated. Combs show scattered
and perforated brood pattern.
65. iii) Dead prepupae with the head directed
outwards, lie straight in the cells.
iv) The infected brood turns grayish and
plumpy.
v) The prepupae assume “Sac-like body
contains grayish granular fluid.
vi) Dead brood is odourless and it can not be
drawn to rope. The cadavers soon dry
out as thin, soft, boat shaped scales lying
at floor of the cells which can be easily
removed.
66. vii) Colonies show reduced brood rearing,
foraging and cleanliness activities.
viii) In advanced cases, worker bees remain idle
and the colonies, show tendency to abscond.
Sometimes 2-3 colonies come together and
form a single colony by killing the queens, this
tendency is very common in A.cerana F.
67. CAUSATIVE ORGANISM
Both Thai sacbrood (TSBV) and Sacbrood (SBV)
viruses are isometric in shape with diameter of 30 nm.
These viruses infect cytoplasm of fat, muscle and tracheal
end-cells of honeybee larvae. Electron microscopic
observations of infected cells indicate that viral synthesis
takes place in electron dense areas randomly located in
the cytoplasm.
68. MANAGEMENT OF SBV AND TSBV
Being a viral disease, there is no effective and
specific control measure for TSBV and SBV disease as the
virus particles become part of the host cells. The virus
does not survive long and the disease may disappear
during honey flow period.
In mild cases of infection, take all the management
measures required to restore colony strength such as
providing food, adding to the worker population, pulling
out infected larvae and destroying them, caging the queen
for 7-8 days, using sterilized or fresh equipment and
combs and reducing humidity in hive should be practiced.
69. In severe cases, infected combs and bees should be
destroyed by burning. However, following measures help
in minimizing the possibilities of further spread of this
disease:
i) Isolate healthy colonies from infected ones. Keep
adequate safe distance between infected and healthy
colonies beyond flight range.
ii) Avoid exchange of equipment and combs etc. from
infected to healthy colonies.
iii) Keep colonies strong by adopting scientific bee
management practices and keep check on robbing,
drifting and absconding which may spread infection.
70. iiv) Avoid hiving stray swarms which may carry infection.
v) Sterlize the hives and other bee equipments before use
by soaking in a solution of soap and 7% formalin for
24 h.
vi) Feed oxytetracycline in sugar syrup to prevent
secondary infection.
71. BACTERIAL DISEASES
a) EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD DISEASE (EFB)
Symptomatology
The typical symptoms of European foul brood in A.
mellifera and A. cerana were almost found similar. Color of the
infected brood was pale yellow and slightly displaced upward or
downward direction from their actual position in comb cells.
Infected rotten larvae emitted sour or vinegar like smell. Death of
brood recorded at 3-5 days old age.
In A. cerana death of brood was generally recorded at
pupal stage and rarely in prepupal and larval stages which resulted
in perforation.
77. AMERICAN FOUL BROOD DISEASE (AFB):
This is the most destructive and highly infectious disease of
A.mellifera brood in many western countries. In India, except an
isolated report on A.cerana in 1961, it has not been reported in the
hive bees from any part of the country.
CAUSATIVE ORGANISM:
Causative organism is Gram-positive and spore
forming (Bacillus larvae) bacterium.
SPREAD OF DISEASE:
Infection spreads in the colony through the nurse
bees and from colony to colony or apiary to apiary through
robbing, drifting, absconding, manipulation and migration.
78. SYMPTOMS:
i) Scattered / irregular pattern of
sealed and unsealed brood.
ii) Caps of brood are discoloured,
darker, sunken and perforated.
iii) Brood dies in late larval or early
pupal stage.
iv) Colour of brood dull white
changes to light brown, dark
brown and finally black.
79. v) Dead larvae lie upright in the cells and
the pupal tongue protrudes from the scale
to the centre of the cell.
vi) The dead larvae dry into black or dark
brown scales which are brittle.
vii) Decaying brood is soft, sticky and has
decaying flesh like odour.
80. The body of decaying larva if picked
up with the help of a tooth-prick,
stretches into a rope of 2-3 cm.
81. MANAGEMENT OF FOUL BROOD DISEASES:
i) Keep the colonies strong by providing sugar syrup, by
adding sealed brood combs or worker population.
Unite weak colonies and replace old queens with
newly mated queens from comparatively resistant
stock.
ii) Kill the diseased colonies and isolate the healthy stock.
iii) Disinfect the hives, humidified (for 24 h) combs and
equipment with ethylene oxide (1 g/l) for 48 h at 430
C in fumigation chamber. Transfer the bees from
diseased colonies to the sterilized hives and the
combs (aired for about 48 h) or to fresh comb
foundations.
82. iv) Chemotherapy
Feed sodium sulphathiazole in sugar syrup @ 0.1 g/ Ltr.
(for AFB)
or
Feeding oxytetracyclin (Terramycin) @ 0.25 to 0.4 g/5
Ltrs. sugar syrup to a colony (for AFB).
or
Feed oxytetracyclin (Terramycin) @ 0.5 or 1 g/0.5 Ltrs.
concentrated sugar solution to small or large colony
(for EFB).
Feed tetracycline (tetracycline hydrochloride) 200
mg/300 ml sugar syrup for EFB of A.cerana.
Antibiotics can be given in the form of patties of pollen
substitute/supplement.
83. PRECAUTION:
No medication should be fed to the colonies when
there is danger of contaminating the honey crop. All drug
feeding should be terminated at least 45 days before the
start of the surplus honey flow.
When colonies are found to be infected with Americal
foulbrood disease, especially where a drug treatment is
routine, all bees, combs, and frames should be burned and all
wood more than 2 cm (about ¾-inch) thick should be
scorched.
84. FUNGAL BROOD DISEASES
Two fungal diseases, viz., chalk brood (Ascosphera apis) and stone brood
(Aspergillusflavus) are known in honeybees. Incidence of both is very
minor and there cannot be any problem in well attended apiaries because
incidence is there under cool and damp conditions. The brood which
remains unprotected by bees in the outer combs is infected by A.apis. The
larvae are reduced to white mummies and dark spots appear when fruiting
bodies are formed. In case of A.flavus infection the mummies are hard and
not spongy. These fungal diseases have not attracted attention and no
methods for control have been worked out. Both the diseases are unknown
to Indian apiculture.
Healthy larva and chalk brood infected
larvae
chalk brood infected larvae
(Mummified)
