Author : Sriman Krishna Balarama Das Email : kbd@sscclab.com Date Produced : February 12, 2015 Editor : Sriman Subhananda Hari Das Serial no : 38 of 54

2. Author : Sriman Krishna Balarama Das
Email : kbd@sscclab.com
Date Produced : February 12, 2015
Editor : Sriman Subhananda Hari Das
Serial no : 38 of 54
ORGANIC
BEEKEEPING

3. TOPICS
 1- History and origin
 2- Bees (biology and behavior)
 3- Traditional vs modern beekeeping
 4- Diseases
 5- Honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly
 6- Amazing facts
 7- Organic beekeeping regulation
 8- Questions

4. 1- HISTORY AND ORIGIN
 At some point, humans began to attempt to
domesticate wild bees in artificial hives made from
hollow logs, wooden boxes, pottery vessels and
woven straw baskets or "skeps". Honeybees were
kept in Egypt from antiquity.
 The art of beekeeping appeared in ancient China for
a long time and hardly traceable to its origin.
 The ancient Maya domesticated a separate species
of stingless bee

5.  On the walls of the sun temple of Nyuserre Ini from
the Fifth Dynasty, before 2422 BCE, workers are
depicted blowing smoke into hives as they are
removing honeycombs. Inscriptions detailing the
production of honey are found on the tomb of
Pabasa from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (c. 650 BCE),
depicting pouring honey in jars and cylindrical hives.
Sealed pots of honey were found in the grave goods
of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun.
 In prehistoric Greece (Crete and Mycenae), there
existed a system of high-status apiculture, as can be
concluded from the finds of hives, smoking pots,
honey extractors and other beekeeping
paraphernalia in Knossos.

6. SKEP, LOG…

7. Vedic Background and
Beekeeping in India
 Honey and beekeeping have a long history in India.
Honey was the first sweet food tasted by the ancient
Indian inhabiting rock shelters and forests. He
hunted bee hives for this gift of god. India has some
of the oldest records of beekeeping in the form of
paintings by prehistoric man in the rock shelters.
With the development of civilization, honey acquired
an unique status in the lives of the ancient Indians.
They regarded honey as a magical substance that
controlled the fertility of women, cattle, as also their
lands and crops.

8.  Tribal populations and forest dwellers in several
parts of India have honey collection from wild honey
bee nests as their traditional profession. The
methods of collection of honey and beeswax from
these nests have changed only slightly over the
millennia.

9. madhu-vrata-vrāta-vighuṣṭayā svayā
virājitaḥ śrī-vanamālayā hariḥ
prajāpater veśma-tamaḥ svarociṣā
vināśayan kaṇṭha-niviṣṭa-kaustubhaḥ
TRANSLATION
 An uncommonly beautiful garland of flowers
decorated His bosom, and because the flowers
were extremely fragrant, a large group of bees,
making their natural humming sounds, invaded
them for honey. When the Lord appeared, wearing
the Kaustubha gem on His neck, His effulgence
vanquished the darkness in the home of the
Prajāpati Kaśyapa. S.B 8.18.3

10. Lord Balarama & Varuni
Sent by Varuna flowed from the hollow of a
tree the divine [intoxicating spirit] Vârunî that
with its aroma made the entire forest even
more fragrant.
Lord Balarama, smelling the fragrance of that
honey flow carried over by the wind, sought
the place where it could be found and drank
from it together with the women.

11. 2- BEES
Castes
 A colony of bees consists of three castes of bee:
- a queen bee, which is normally the only breeding
female in the colony;
- a large number of female worker bees, typically
30,000–50,000 in number;
- a number of male drones, ranging from thousands in
a strong hive in spring to very few during dearth or
cold season.

13.  The queen is the only sexually mature female in the hive
and all of the female worker bees and male drones are her
offspring.
 The queen may live for up to three years or more and may
be capable of laying half a million eggs or more in her
lifetime. At the peak of the breeding season, late spring to
summer, a good queen may be capable of laying 3,000
eggs in one day, more than her own body weight.
 The queen is raised from a normal worker egg, but is fed a
larger amount of royal jelly than a normal worker bee,
resulting in a radically different growth and
metamorphosis.
 The queen influences the colony by the production and
dissemination of a variety of pheromones or "queen
substances". One of these chemicals suppresses the
development of ovaries in all the female worker bees in
the hive and prevents them from laying eggs.

15. Mating of Queens
 The queen emerges from her cell after 15 days of development and
she remains in the hive for 3–7 days before venturing out on a mating
flight.
 Mating flight is otherwise known as 'nuptial flight'. Subsequent
mating flights may last from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, and she may
mate with a number of male drones on each flight.
 Over several matings, possibly a dozen or more, the queen receives
and stores enough sperm from a succession of drones to fertilize
hundreds of thousands of eggs.
 If she does not manage to leave the hive to mate—possibly due to
bad weather or being trapped in part of the hive—she remains
infertile.
 Worker bees sometimes kill a non-performing queen and produce
another. Without a properly performing queen, the hive is doomed.

16. Worker Bees
 Almost all the bees in a hive are female worker bees.
At the height of summer when activity in the hive is
frantic and work goes on non-stop, the life of a
worker bee may be as short as 6 weeks; in late
autumn, when no brood is being raised and no
nectar is being harvested, a young bee may live for
16 weeks, right through the winter. During its life a
worker bee performs different work functions in the
hive, largely dictated by the age of the bee.

17. Sanatanam Dharma

18. Drones
 Drones are the largest bees in the hive (except for
the queen), at almost twice the size of a worker bee.
They do not work, do not forage for pollen or nectar
and have no other known function than to mate
with new queens and fertilize them on their mating
flights.
 When queen-raising for the season is over, bees in
colder climates drive drones out of the hive to die,
biting and tearing their legs and wings.

19. Differing Stages of
Development

20. Formation of
New Colonies
 Colony reproduction: swarming and supersedure
- Supersedure: queen replacement within one hive
without swarming
- Swarm cell production: the division of the hive into
two colonies by swarming

21. Swarming

22. 3- TRADITIONAL VS
MODERN BEEKEEPING
 Fixed comb hives
 A fixed comb hive is a hive in which the combs cannot be
removed or manipulated for management or harvesting
without permanently damaging the comb. Almost any
hollow structure can be used for this purpose, such as a
log gum, skep or a clay pot. Fixed comb hives are no
longer in common use in industrialized countries, and are
illegal in some places that require inspection for problems
such as varroa and American foulbrood. In many
developing countries fixed comb hives are widely used
and, because they can be made from any locally available
material, are very inexpensive. Beekeeping using fixed
comb hives is an essential part of the livelihoods of many
communities in poor countries.

23. Modern Beekeeping
Langstroth Hives
 Movable frame hives
In the USA and Canada, the Langstroth hive is commonly
used. The Langstroth was the first successful top-opened
hive with movable frames, and other designs of hive have
been based on it. In the United Kingdom, the most common
type of hive is the British National Hive, which can hold
Hoffman, British Standard or popular Manley frames, but it
is not unusual to see some other sorts of hive.
Straw skeps, bee gums, and unframed box hives are now
unlawful in most US states, as the comb and brood cannot
be inspected for diseases. However, straw skeps are still
used for collecting swarms by hobbyists in the UK, before
moving them into standard hives

25. 4- DISEASES
(Bees and Brood)
 The common agents of disease that affect adult
honey bees include fungi, bacteria, protozoa,
viruses, parasites, and poisons. The gross symptoms
displayed by affected adult bees are very similar,
whatever the cause, making it difficult for the
apiarist to ascertain the causes of problems without
microscopic identification of microorganisms or
chemical analysis of poisons.
 Since 2006 colony losses from Colony Collapse
Disorder have been increasing across the world
although the causes of the syndrome are, as yet,
unknown.

26. 5- HONEY, POLLEN,
PROPOLIS AND ROYAL JELLY
 Honey Health Benefits
From ancient times, honey was not only used as a
natural sweetener but also as a healing agent.
Frequently honey was mixed with herbs, grains, and
other botanicals.
Uses that have continued into modern folk medicine
include treatment for coughs and sore throats, lotus
honey for eye diseases in India, infected leg ulcers in
Ghana, ear aches in Nigeria, topical treatment of
measles in the eyes to prevent corneal scaring, gastric
ulcers and constipation.

27.  The past two decades have brought a resurgence of
interest in learning more about antimicrobial and wound
healing properties of honey. Studies conducted in various
parts of the world indicate the following:
 Honey has anti-inflammatory effects. It is used to relieve
sore throat pain.
 Honey is a carbohydrate and will increase the level of
tryptophan - an amino acid that is used in the production
of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter in the brain that
will induce a sense of calm and drowsiness. That is why
some people drink a cup of water with a spoonful of
honey before sleep.
 A regular administration of honey helps to prolong and to
give a better life quality to the seniors.

28.  Consider as a rasayana in ayurveda and as a carrier
for medicinal substance
 Used in UK hospital for treating severe 3rd degree
burnt
 Specially indicated for children and elderly people
 Note on manuka honey

31. Propolis
 Propolis or bee glue is a resinous mixture that honey
bees collect from tree buds, sap flows, or other
botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for
unwanted open spaces in the hive.
 Its color varies depending on its botanical source,
the most common being dark brown.
 Propolis is sticky at and above room temperature,
20 °C (68 °F). At lower temperatures, it becomes
hard and very brittle.

32.  Medical uses
- (Traditionally) used in Herbal Medicine to help relieve
sore throat and/or other mouth and throat infections
- As an antimicrobial
- As an emollient
- As an immunomodulator
- As a treatment for allergies
- As an oral hygiene product
- As an antioxidant
- In cancer treatment and cancer prevention

33. Pollen
(Bee Bread)
 Bee pollen is the pollen ball that has been packed by
worker honeybees into pellets. Bee bread is the bee
pollen with added honey and bee secretions and
stored in brood cells, chambers of wood and mud
created by female ground-nesting bees. When the
pollen ball is complete, a single female lays an egg
on top of the pollen ball, and seals the brood cell.
Pollen balls are harvested as food for humans. Bee
pollen is sometimes referred to as ambrosia.

34. Use as a
Health Supplement
 Bee pollen has been touted by herbalists as a treatment
for a variety of medical conditions, but there is no
scientific evidence to show that it is has any health
benefits. Bee pollen is safe for short term use, but side
effects include allergic reaction (shortness of breath,
hives, swelling, and anaphylaxis).
 Bee pollen is not safe for pregnant women and should
not be used during breastfeeding. The Food and Drug
Administration has warned against the use of some bee
pollen products because they are adulterated with
unapproved drugs including sibutramine and
phenolphthalein.

35. Composition
 Like honey and propolis, other well-known honey bee products
that are gathered rather than secreted (i.e., in contrast to royal
jelly and beeswax), the exact chemical composition depends
on the plants the worker bees gather the pollen from, and can
vary from hour to hour, day to day, week to week, colony to
colony, even in the same apiary, with no two samples of bee
pollen exactly identical.
 Accordingly, chemical and nutritional analyses of bee pollen
apply only to the specific samples being tested, and cannot be
extrapolated to samples gathered in other places or other
times. Although there is no specific chemical composition, the
average composition is said to be 40-60% simple sugars
(fructose and glucose), 2-60% proteins, 3% minerals and
vitamins, 1-32% fatty acids, and 5% diverse other components. A
recent study of bee pollen samples showed that they may
contain 188 kinds of fungi and 29 kinds of bacteria.

36. Royal Jelly
 Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition
of larvae, as well as adult queens.
 It is secreted from the glands in the hypopharynx of worker
bees, and fed to all larvae in the colony, regardless of sex or
caste.
 Citing various potential health benefits seen in lab studies,
royal jelly is collected and sold as a dietary supplement for
humans, but the European Food Safety Authority has rejected
these claims stating that the current evidence does not support
consuming royal jelly will give health benefits in humans.
 In the United States, both the Federal Trade Commission and
the Food and Drug Administration have taken legal action
against companies that have used unfounded claims of health
benefits to market royal jelly products.

37. Beeswax
 Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive
of honey bees of the genus Apis. The wax is formed
by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal
segments 4 through 7 of worker bees. The workers
collect it and use it for structural material in the hive.
Chemically, beeswax consists of mainly esters of
fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols.
 Beeswax is a tough wax formed from a mixture of
several compounds. About 6% of the molecules have
not been identify yet.

38. 6- AMAZING FACTS…
 The honey bee's wings stroke incredibly fast, about 200
beats per second, thus making their famous, distinctive
buzz. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast
as 15 miles per hour.
 The average worker bee produces about 1/4 teaspoon of
honey in her lifetime.
 A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of
three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg of honey.
 It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee's flight around
the world.

39.  A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a
collection trip
 A bee flies to thousand of flowers only to make a
spoon of honey and may visit roughly about 35000
flowers per day.
 The bee's brain is oval in shape and only about the
size of a sesame seed, yet it has remarkable capacity
to learn and remember things and is able to make
complex calculations on distance travelled and
foraging efficiency.
 Honey bees communicate with one another by
dancing. More on their awesome sense of time,
communication of distance and direction in "The
Awesome Honeybee Dance".

40. "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth,
man would have no more than four years to live?”
~ Albert Einstein
 Honey bees – wild and domestic – perform about 80
percent of all pollination worldwide. A single bee
colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day.
Grains are primarily pollinated by the wind, but the
best and healthiest food – fruits, nuts, and
vegetables – are pollinated by bees.
 Seventy out of the top 100 human food crops, which
supply about 90 percent of the world's nutrition,
are pollinated by bees.
Source Greepeace

41. 7- ORGANIC BEEKEEPING
REGULATION
 Several International organizations can issue organic
certification
 Managing organic apiary
 No heat in the processes of honey extraction while
conventional use heated knife
 No use of antibiotic
 Range of 5-8 km circumference without mass
production and pesticide
 Comment of biodynamic beekeeping DEMETER

42. All my gratitude to my beloved Guru Maharaja who gave
me the inspiration and motivation of continuing this
important beekeeping project mission started in 2006.

44. About the Author
• Name in full Sriman Krishna Balaram das
• Age and Gender 48, Male
• Country/State of Origin Canada, Quebec
• Highest Degree and Year BVSc & AH 2000
• Educational Institution College of Homeopathy - Montreal
• Professional Work Homeopathic Doctor - Consultant
• Affiliation with ISKCON Since 1995
• Present Service Goverment Health Inspector

45. Sriman Krishna Balaram das

46. Thank you
and
All the best