BEE FARMING FOR PLEASURE

Dr. Alok bhartiRanchi Veterinary College

Ranchi

1. Introduction & Prospects

• As gentle men profession – as hobby• Bee keeping training centre at Jeolikot, UP• Indian Bee Journal• All India Bee Keepers Association • Cottage Industries under KVIC• The honey bee is the best little friend that a man has in this world

Sir John moor – an English gentleman • Products as honey “Amrita” is used as food, medicine, cosmetics

and holy ceremony.• Products as bee wax used in industry, medicine and cosmetics.• Produces bee venum and used for Api-therapy as

toxin:vaseline:salicylic acid (1:10:1) for rheumatism, heart diseases, decrease cholesterol and B.P.

• Collect propolis as resinous exudes for healing wounds/ cuts/ abscesses/ burns.

• Produces Royal gelly by hypo-pharyngeal glands in nurse bee (6-12 days) for feeding of larvae and queen which is yellow.

• Cross pollination for increased production of agricultural and horticultural crops (about 14 times more than the honey production)

• Bee farming is for pleasure and profit which can be done by gents, ladies, children, old, youngsters and retired personnels with little investments.

• Honey production for indigenous colony is 8-10kg and exotic 40-50 kg/ annum sold @ Rs.140-150/ kg.

• The honey bee teaches man the lesson of co-operation, loyalty, industry and discipline.

• Bee were used as war weapons during war.• Honey and bee wax was used as gift to the king by the people.• Bees can survive in different climatic and floristic conditions.• It requires light physical work for various production which can be done

by children and women • It does not require constant labour and does not compete with other.

2. Position in Animal kingdom

Kingdom: AnimalPhyllum: ArthropodaClass: Hexapoda or InsectaOrder: HymenopteraFamily: ApidaeGenus: ApisSpecies: i. Apis-dorsata - rock/ gaint bee

ii. Apis-florae - little beeiii. Apis-cerana indica - Indian beeiv. Apis-mellifera – European/ Italian bee

3. Anatomy of Honey bee

4. Castes of honey bee

i. Worker - Sterile females beeii. Drone - Male beeiii. Queen - potent/ fertile female/

mother bee

Life span and periods of development

castes Eggs (days) Larva (days) Pupa (days) Adult (total days)

Queen 2 - 3 yrs

3 5 - 6 7 15 -16

Worker 6 - 8 weeks

3 5 - 6 10 -11 19 -20

Drone 6- 8 weeks

3 6 13 -14 23 -24

5. Equipments

1. Bee hive/ box containsa. Top coverb. Inner coverc. Super/ honey chamberd. Brood chambere. Frames in honey & super chamberf. Bottom boardh. Standi. Alighting boardj. Water container

2. Comb foundation3. Queen excluder sheet4. Queen gate5. Honey extractor6. Uncapping knife7. Smoker8. Hive tools9. Overall

10. Bee veil11. Bee gloves12. Bee brush13. Bee feeder14. Swarm bag15. Swarm carrying box16. Queen cage17. Queen cell protector18. Dummy or division board19. Bee escape

A two-story Langstroth ten-frame hive.

Inspecting appliances

6. Catching, Hiving, Transferring and Inspection of bee colony

An Indian honeybees’ swarm being hived

Hive InspectionLeft-Taking out the frame Right-Inspecting a frame.

Hive InspectionLeft-Removing the super Right-Inspecting Brood chanber.

7. Bee colony uniting and dividing

• Bee colony can be united as and when needed by smoke and paper methods while division is made during spring (Feb-March) or Oct-Nov months. When bee population is large and queen develops.

8. Duties of honey bee

i. Indoor duties:a. Comb buildingb. Feeding the broodsc. Nursing broods and queend. Cooling and warming the hivee. Cleaning/ defendingf. Guarding the colony by guard beesg. Unloading the water, nectar, pollen and propolish. Honey ripening i.e. sucrose to levulose (fructose) & dextrose (glucose)

ii. Out door duties:a. Searching for food by bee dances or foraging dances as round dance <10mts, sickle dance 10 -100mts and wag-tail dance >100mts.b. Gathering for water, nectar, pollen and propolis.

9. Bee pasturages/ bee forage/ nectar and pollen plants

Honey flow period, major honey flow period, minor honey flow period and dearth period. During dearth period artificial feeding of sugar solution (1:1) or (2:1) may be given in the feeder during evening/ night.

Pollen substitute is as under • Expelled soy flour : 3 parts• Medicated yeast : 1 parts • Skimmed dry milk : 1 parts• Water should be provided near the apiary as such small

flow of running water may be provided near the apiary. The crops, vegetables, fruits, wild trees available in different localities may serve as the sources of pollen and nectar.

Wild trees: • Eucalyptus, karanj, plumb, semal, neem etc. are

good sources.Fruits: • Lichi, guava, banana, lemon, Jamun etc.Crops: • Maize, mustard, sun flower, niger, berseem,

lucerne etc.Vegetables: • Carrot, coriander, onion, kohra, nanuan, brinjal

etc.

10. Enemies and Diseases of honey bee

Bee enemies:• Man• Wax moths: greater and lesser wax moth - controlled by use of

PDB.• Wax beetle• Wasps• Black ants• Termites• Birds• Lizards• Cockroaches• Spider• Bears

Bee diseases

The adult and brood are affected by various bacteria virus, fungi, protozoa, mites etc. the brood diseases commonly caused by bacteria ,virus and fungi. The common symptoms are discolored larvae, dark capping, punctured and sunken capping as American foul board in which infected colony is burned ,use of sulpha antibiotic drugs ,sac brood, chilled brood.

11. Honey extraction, processing and packing for marketing.

Indigenous method of squeezing out honey

Frame with honey comb and bees

1. Brushing off the bees 2. Uncapping the cells3. Putting frame into the extractor 4. Straining and bottling

Honey processing plant.

Bottling of honey in wide mouth transparent glass.

Characteristics of honeySl. No. characteristics special Grade-A Standard

1Specific gravity at 270c

min.1.41 1.39 1.37

2 Moisture% by wt.-max. 20 22 25

3Total reducing sugar %

min.70 65 60

4 Sucrose % by wt.-max. 5 8 10

5 Fructose : glucose ratio 1 1 1

6 Ash %by wt.-max. 0.5 0.5 0.5

7Acidity as formic acid

% max.0.2 0.2 0.2

8Hydroxy methyl

furfural ppm-max.30 40 40

12. Pesticidal poisoning to honey bees

The agricultural farmer use pesticides to protect the crop from pest problem and accordingly the honey as well as bees get exposed to pesticide during collection of pollen and nectar. The common symptoms are: appearance of large number of dead bees in front of hives, paralytic bees, uncoordinated movements, distended abdomen, irritated aggressive bees may sting, chilling of broods, contaminated pollen and honey may produce dead young bees, queen stops laying and longevity may reduced.

The measures may be taken as to advice the farmers to spray in the evening or night time. Inform the bee keepers in the locality about the schedule of spray of pesticides and accordingly close the gate for prevention of foraging the bees, selection the pesticides as organic than inorganic ones. Use of bee repellents in pesticides, use of fresh pollen and sugar solution to protect the babies, transfer of colonies to safer place washing the comb by soaking in fresh water and uniting the bee colonies.

13. Testing the purity of honey

Some times fake/ adulterated honey with sugar solution/ water is sold in the market, which may be injurious to consumers. Therefore honey should be purchased from standard/ reputed/ faithful/ govt. shops/ organization. However the consumers can go for spot test for purity of honey as under.

• Put 2-3 drops of honey in clean transparent water from top. The pure honey will straightway go to the bottom and settled. The fake honey will dissolve and leave a ray of sugar solution while going to the bottom.

• Drop the honey on a glass plate which will form zig-zag structure for pure honey but expand on the plate for fake honey.

• The pure honey is transparent but fake honey is not so transparent.

• The housefly will not adhere or trap in the pure honey rather fly from the honey but the house fly will trap in the fake honey.

• The pure honey if put in the eyes will go for irritation for some time but do not stick to the eyes while fake honey will very much stick to the eyes.

• The thread/ wood will burn with pure honey but will not burn with adulterated honey.

• There will be specific flavor, aroma and test for unprocessed pure honey While the fake honey will be tasteless/ flavourless.

• The pure honey will go for crystallization on lower temperature and become white which will turn to original colour on melting while fake honey will not crystallize or if so will not melt.

• The pure honey will not form spot but fake honey will put spot on the cloth.

• The confirmatory chemical test will reveal that no colour formation with resorcinol test with pure honey while red colour will form with fake honey.

• However the consumer can test the purity of honey by their own experiences by putting in the mouth along with different sources of honey.

14. Economics of Honey productionThe bee keeping can be started with two boxes/ hives, extractors, bee

veil, gloves, decapping knife, hive tools etc. initially 4-5 farmers will keep only one honey extractor. The current price is as under.

S. No.Items Price (Rs.)1. Bee hive/ box 1200.002. Frame with bees @ Rs. 300.00 each for five frames 1500.003. Honey extractor 2200.004. Bee veil 100.005. Bee gloves 100.006. Comb foundation (Per Kg) 250.007. Sale of honey (Per Kg retail) 140.00-150.00

(Per Kg wholesale) 100.00-110.008. Sale of bee wax (Per Kg) 125.009. Production of honey on migration (Kg) 60-7010. Production of honey without migration (Kg) 30-40

• The bee farmer can start with 5-10 colonies which can sale 5-10 colonies each after proper division with retention of 5-10 colonies with them. Also the farmers can produce 2-3 colonies each year from single colony with modern scientific management.

Books on Bee Keeping (English)

• Bee farming in India - B. S. Rawat• Bee keeping in India - Dr. Sardar

Singh, ICAR• Honey bee and their management in India - R. C. Mishra,

ICAR• First lessons in Bee Keeping - Dadant• 500 Answers to bee questions - Root• Hive and the honey Bee - Dadant• ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture - Root

Books on Bee Keeping (Hindi)

• Safal Monpalan - B. S. Rawat• Rochak Monpalan - do• Prarambhik Monpalan - do• Saral monpalan - do• Madhumakhi Palan - R. K. Mission

Address of B. S. RawatThe ManagerThe Rawat Apiarries (Himalaya)Ranikhet, S. B. – 263648Dist – Almora (Uttrakhand)

Bee Journals/ Magazines

• The Indian Bee Journal (Quart.) - India• Indian Honey (Quart.) - India• The Bee World - England• British Bee Journal - England• American Bee Journal - USA

Training on Bee Keeping

1. Director for Bee Keeping Industries,Khadi & Village Industries Commission, Gramodyog, 3 Irla road, Vile Parle (West), Bombay-56.

2. Chhotanagpur Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Ranchi, Near Firayalal Chowk, Ranchi (Jharkhand).

3. HAU, Hissar, Hariyana4. NDRI, Karnal, Hariyana5. BAU, Ranchi, Jharkhand6. Bee keeping Training Centre, Jeolikote

Distt. – U.S. Nagar (Uttarakhand)

Drone Queen Worker