Introduction to bee farming:
Honey bee farming is becoming popular due to its international market demand.
Not only the farmers make a sweet dividend but beekeeping also help increase Agricultural productivity through natural pollination.
These bees produce honey, bee wax and royal jelly as additional benefits to the farmers. More and more farmers are inclining towards bee farming to maximize agricultural production, honeybees can be used as an important input factor.
Crop plants need to receive pollen from other plants of the same species with the help of external agents.
One of the most important external agents is the honeybee. Apiculture training should be considered before commercially producing honey in farms.
Honey bees are very social Insects, they are the members of Apiae family of arthropoda phylum, a honey bee usually live for average 136 days (+4 months).
A honey bee colony consists of a queen, several thousand workers and a few hundred drones in a division of labour and specialization in the performance of various functions.
Honey bee nests are called “honey combs” made up of wax, which is secreted from the wax glands of worker bees.
The bees use hexagone cells of the comb to rear thin brood and store food. Honey is stored in the comb's upper part. Under the comb, there are rows of pollen storage cells followed by worker brood cells and drone brood cells.
Some bee species build single comb in open where some build multiple combs on dark cavities.
Farmers may benefit from utilizing honeybees for pollination in their fields and also beget many other benefits, its like having a cake and eating it too.
The methods used depend on the type of bees available and the resources available to the skilled bee keeper.
Social formation of honey bees:
Every honey bee colony comprises of a single queen, a few hundred drones and several thousand worker castes of honey bees.
Queen is a fertile and functional female but the workers are sterile female and the drones are male bee insects who's only life goal is to get laid with the queen and then they die.
There are 5 commonly used species of honey bees
1. The Indian hive bee.
2. The rock bee.
3. The little bee.
4. The European or Italian bee.
5. Dammer bee or Stingless bee.
