Apiculture or Bee keeping
Rearing , care and management of honey bees for obtaining wax, honey and other useful substances is called Apiculture.
Honey is used in eating and used as medicines also . This natural product is useful for different diseases like dysentery , vomiting and other stomachal problems or liver ailments. Honey should be taken in the morning when stomach is empty . one glass water with one tea spoon of honey. It improves our digestion and works as blood Purifier. It is also used for removing the problems like cold sore, throat , ulcer of stomach and intestine etc.
Products obtained from honey bees
By apiculture we can obtain the following useful products
Honey- Honey is a sweet,viscous fluid.
Components of honey-
sugar(sucrose,dextrose,levulose , enzymes, water, amino acids, Vitamins (Biotin, Riboflavin, Pyridoxin, , Ascorbic acid, Thiamine, Niacin and Pantothenic acid),
minerals (Calcium, Phosphate, iron, manganese.) and pollens.
One gram of honey possseses 3.2 calories .
Honey
Bee wax-Honey is found in the hives that is made of Wax. This wax is called bee wax. The melting point of bee wax is 40 ºF. Bee wax is secreted by the glands of worker bees.
Advantages of honey bees' keeping-
1-we can use this bee wax in the mufacturing of Cold cream, lipsticks lubricants, Polishes, candles , ointments, modelling work , shaving creams , etc.
Shaving cream made by honey
Vanilla Honey ice cream
2-Poison of honey bee is utilized in manufacturing of certain Ayurvedic and Homeopathic medicines.
3-Balms are also prepared from bees.
Honey bee varities used for bee keeping
Both Indian (vernacular) and Foreign varieties are used for bee keeping.
A- Indigenous (Indian) Varieties of honey bees-
1-Apis cerana indica(Indian bee)
2-Apis dorsata (Rock bee)p
3-Apis florae (Little bee)
Apis indica
B-Axotic (foreign) varieties of honey bees
1-Apis mellifera(Italian bee)
2-(Apis adamsoni(South African bee)
Italian beeo
Italian bees are commonly domesticated to enhance yield of honey. Apis melifera ligustica is the Italian bee which is a subspecies of western honey bee.
The Italian honey bee is though to be originate from the continental part of Italy.
These live in cold climate area so these eat v much to produce more energy in the body to compensate the body temperature.
South African bee
South Africa possesses two subspecies or races of honey bee in the name of Apis mellifera scutellata and Apis mellifera capensis. African bee is an aggressive bee with a hardy strain and produce a large amount of honey.
Quality of Italian bee-
1-It is gentle in nature.
2-It gives us good quantity of honey.
3-It has a power of protection from its enemies.
Colony of honey bee-
Honey bees live in a colony and diffrerent task are done by different groups of the bees in the same colony. A colony of Italian bee normaly has one queen , 40,000 to 100,000 workers and few hundred of drones. Bees are said to be polymorphic because thesr have different forms we call those forms as castes.
There are following types of the castes of bee
1-Queen
2-Drone
3-Worker
Queen in green circle
A-Characteristics of Queen-
1-Queen is much larger in size than other castes of the bees.
2-Queen is mother of the colony and lay the eggs.
Working of Queen-
1-It can lay 2000 eggs everyday.
2-Queen can lay fertilized (2n) and unfertilized(n) eggs both.
Life cycle of bees
3-Eggs of queen hatch into white, legless larvae which spin delicate silken cocoons around themselves and turn into pupae. Each pupa develops into an adult. The adult comes out by cutting wall of cocoon first and secondly by breaking the wax cap of the cell.
B-Characteristics of Drones-
1-Drones are haploid and fertile. These are male.
2-These are larger in size than the worker bees.
3-These make a noise very much.
4-These do not gather food and eat much. 5-Drones do not have stings.
Working of Drones-
1-The work of drones is to mate with Queen.
2-These remain in colony to sleep. Their work is to eat the honey too.
Characteristics of Worker bees-
1-The worker bees are sterile and diploid.
2-These are smallest among the castes of the bee.
3-These are most active in the colony.
4-Worker bees live for 3 to 4 months.
Working of the worker bees.
1-These perform all indoor ( the work in the colony ) and outdoor works (works out of colony).
2-The hypopharangeal glands of the worker bees secrete bee milk.
3-Wax glands secrete the wax for constructing the cells of hive.
4-They trap pollen on the hind lengs and promote pollination of pollen grain of the plants. Which helps cross Pollination of the plants.
These suck the nector of the flower of the plants and keep in mouth and collect in the hives.
Types of the workers-
1-Scavengers
2-Nurse bees
3-Field bees
Scavenger-For the first three days, each bee acts as a scavenger means clean the wall and floor of the cells of the colony.
Nurse bees-From fourth day to the sixth these feed the entire brood, like a foster mother with a mixture of honey and pollen. By seventh day these start to produce royal jelly.
Field bees-These forage (search new source of the nector).These collect nector probolis and pollen. Nector is changed.
Q-Why are bees important?
Ans-Albert Einstein has said "If the Bee disappeared off the face of the earth , Man would Have Four Years Left To Live" Bees not only produce honey for human being but also play a very important role in our food chain.
Albert Einsrtein
Why Albert Einstein said above
Ans-Because bees play very important role in our life. Bees help in performing a natural phenomenon called "Polination".( Pollination is the natural phenomenon in which pollen grains are carried with the help of natural resources like bees (animal) from one flower to another of same species
of plant. This is called "cross polination".
Season for bees to collect honey-
wind, cold and rain create obstruction for bees in collecting honey. While summer is generally a bussy time for them to make honey.
Water for honey bees-
1-We should create shallow ponds near the garden to where bee keeping or apiculture is being carried out so that bees use that water without dipping and take water from there regularly. water should be neat and clean.
2-Place pebbles or twigs in a source of water, so that bees have something to stand on and drink.
Bees drinking water
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