1. HISTORY OF BEEKEEPING IN INDIA PRESENT
STATUS AND FUTURE
HISTORY OF BEEKEEPING IN INDIA
Beekeeping Extension
Khadi and Village Industries Commission
State Khadi and Village Industries Board
Directly Aided Organisation
All India Beekeepers’ Association (AIBKA)
BEEKEEPING RESEARCH
Department of Agriculture and Colleges
Apicultural Research Laboratory, Mahableshwar (M.S.)
Central Bee Research and Training Institute (KVIC)
All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Honey Bee Research and Training
Punjab Agricultural University
Other Apicultural Departments
TRAINING IN BEEKEEPING
MARKETING OF BEE-PRODUCTS
PRESENT STATUS
Extension
Research
Training
Marketing
CONSTRAINTS
FUTURE PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT
The Changing Scenario Under KVIC
Indian Council of Agricultural Research
NATIONAL BEE BOARD
Action Plan
Extension
Research
Training and Education
Marketing
2. WORLD SCENARIO IN BEEKEEPING
THE PATTERN OF BEEKEEPING TODAY
RACE OF HONEYBEES
Dark bees, A. mellifera mellifera L.
Italian bees, A. mellifera Ligustica Spin
Carniolans. A. mellifera carnica (Pollmann)
Caucasian, A. mellifera caucasica Gorb
HONEY PRODUCTION
BEEKEEPING IN EUROPE
GRADING, PACKING AND MARKETING OF HONEY
INJURY TO HONEYBEES BY POISONING
3. BEEKEEPING IN INDIA—ROLE OF KVIC
KVIC
GROWTH OF BEEKEEPING UNDER KVIC
Organisational Set Up of Beekeeping Under KVIC
Growth of Beekeeping in Different States/Areas
DIRECTORATE OF BEEKEEPING
ORGANISATIONAL SET UP UNDER CBRTI, PUNE
Apiculture
Development of Beekeeping Equipments:
Role of RBRCs/FOS
Introduction of Exotic Bees
Entomology
Bee Pathology
Bee Botany and Melletopalyonology
Bee Pollination
Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding
Rock Bee
Bee Chemistry
Training
Bee Library
4. BEEKEEPING RESEARCH SET-UP,
ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE STRATEGIES
RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE
STRATEGIES
Beekeeping Industry and Honeybee Species
BEE FLORA
EQUIPMENT AND MANAGEMENT
GENETICS AND BREEDING
DISEASES & ENEMIES
POLLINATION OF CROPS
HONEYBEE PRODUCTS
PESTICIDAL POISONING
5. MAJOR CONSTRAINTS IN BEEKEEPING
BEEKEEPING WITH APIS CERENA INDICA AND
APIS MELLIFERA
THE MAJOR CONSTRAINTS FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF BEEKEEPING IN INDIA
ARE AS FOLLOWS
Using the Correct Species for Beekeeping
Availability of Genetically Superior Queens
for Increased Honey Production
Lack of Technical Knowledge for Efficient
Management of Colonies for High Honey Yields
Lack of Infrastructure at the Grass Roots and National Level for Beekeeping
Poor Quality Control for the Production of Honey
Emphasis on Production of Honey Instead of other Bee Products
Bees Wax
Pollen
Propolis
Bee Venom
Royal Jelly
Disease Prevention, Control and Analysis
Lack of Sufficient Financial Help from Government
and Lending Institutions for the Development of
Beekeeping
No Tax or Other Monetary Benefits for Beekeeping
No Control on the Use of Pesticides by Farmers
Leading to Death of Bee Colonies in Field Locations
Pricing Structures for Honey
Lack of Finances for Packers or Beekeepers to be
Able to Store Honey
Beekeeping Being not Recognized as a Priority Agricultural Activity and Getting Governmental
Support
There is No Promotion of Mass Planting of
Bee Flora
Apiculture not Being Recognized as a
Specific Field
Lack of Consumer Awareness of Honey
and its Products
Beekeeping not Being Considered as
an Employment Generation Activity
CONCLUSION
6. BEES AND THEIR ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
WILD BEES
SPECIES OF HONEYBEES
7. MORPHOLOGY, ANATOMY, COLONY ORGANIZATION AND LIFE CYCLE
MORPHOLOGY
ANATOMY
COLONY ORGANIZATION
DEVELOPMENT
POINTS OF CASTE DISTINCTION
8. BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS
LANGSTROTH TEN-FRAME HIVE
NEWTON HIVE
OTHER BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS
EQUIPMENTS FOR HANDLING BEES
9. SEASONAL ACTIVITIES AND SOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR OF HONEY BEES
SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR OF HONEYBEES
SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES IN THE LIFE OF BEES
DIVISION OF LABOUR
COMMUNICATION AND MEMORY OF HONEYBEES
Dance Language
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATION
PHEROMONES
WORKER PRODUCED ODOURS
QUEEN - PRODUCED ODOURS
Inhibition of Queen Rearing and Swarming
Prevention of Worker Ovary Development
Attraction of Drones for Mating
Attraction of Swarms and their Stabilization
Stimulation of Nasonov Pheromone Release
and Worker Foraging
QUEEN ATTRACTIVENESS AND RECOGNITION
Other Pheromones
CONTROL OF REPRODUCTION IN HONEYBEE
COLONIES
Foraging Activities
Nectar
Pollen
Water
Propolis
Maintenance of Nest/Hive Temperature
FORAGING RANGE
WORKING HABITS OF FIELD BEES
SPEED OF FLIGHT
COLONY DEFENCE ACTIVITIES
10. FOOD OF THE HONEYBEES, BEE FLORA
AND HONEY FLOW PERIODS
FOOD OF THE HONEYBEES
BEE FLORA
NATURAL AND ORNAMENTAL FLOWERS
PROPAGATION OF BEE PLANTS
11. SEASONAL MANAGEMENT OF HONEYBEE COLONIES
WINTER MANAGEMENT
Adequate Population of Young Bees
Stores of Food in a Colony
Protection from the Humidity and Cold
(a) Reduced Entrance and Adequate Ventilation
(b) Winter Packing
SPRING MANAGEMENT
SWARMING
CATCHING THE SWARM
PREVENTION OF SWARMING
MANAGEMENT DURING HONEY FLOW
HONEY EXTRACTION
SUMMER MANAGEMENT
MONSOON MANAGEMENT
POST-MONSOON MANAGEMENT
CONTROL OVER DESERTION OF BEE COLONIES
12. MIGRATORY BEEKEEPING
TRANSPORTATION OF BEE HIVES
13. DISEASES OF BEES AND THEIR ENEMIES
VIRAL DISEASES
Thai Sac Brood Virus
Apis Iridescent Virus
Kashmir Bee Virus
Bee Viruses not Found in India
BACTERIAL DISEASES
American Foul Brood
European Foul Brood
PROTOZOAN DISEASE
Nosema Apis
FUNGAL DISEASES
MITES
Acarapis Woodi
Varroa Jacobsoni
Tropilaelaps Clareae
INSECT ENEMIES OF BEES
Wax Moths
Greater Wax Moth
Lesser Wax Moth
Predatory Wasps
Black Ants
BIRDS AND OTHER ENEMIES
14. BEE HIVE PRODUCTS
TYPES OF HONEY
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF HONEY
HYGROSCOPICITY
VISCOSITY
SPECIFIC GRAVITY AND REFRACTIVE INDEX
AROMA AND COLOUR
HONEY, AN ENERGY FOOD
Nutritive Value of Honey
Honey - A Tonic
Consumption of Honey
Anti-bacterial Effects
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF HONEY
Honey as Medicine
HONEY IN INFANT FEEDING
HONEY AND DIABETES
Diabetes
Composition of Honey
HONEY IN HOME PREPARATIONS
Honey Spread
Honey Water
Comb Honey
Honey in Cooking and Baking
Honey in the Kitchen Angel Biscuits
Honey Butter
Apple-Oats-Musli
Orange-Apple-Musli
Carrot Salad with Honey
Comb Lemon Squash
Honey Mango Squash
Honey Jam
Honey Candy
Honey and Egg
Honey Ice-cream
Honey Chocolate
Honey Chikki
Honey Jelly
Honey Soap
OTHER USES OF HONEY
GRANULATION
MOISTURE CONTENT AND FERMENTATION
Honey Processing
CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF THE HONEY PROCESSING UNIT
WORKING OF THE UNIT
TIPS TO USE HONEY
TESTING OF HONEY FOR PURITY
Pollen
COMPOSITION
USES
BEES WAX
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
USES
EXTRACTION OF WAX
Extraction Over Boiling Water
Chemical Bleaching
By Wax Presses
15. BEES AND AGRICULTURE
CROSS-POLLINATION OR OUTCROSSING
BIOTIC POLLINATION
EFFICIENCY OF POLLINATING BEES
ORCHARD MANAGEMENT
PLACEMENT OF HIVES IN ORCHARDS
LOCATION OF THE HIVES
ROLE OF BEES IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
AND ENVIRONMENT
BREEDING BEES FOR POLLINATION OF SPECIFIC CROPS
POLLINATION REQUIREMENTS OF CROPS
EFFECT OF INSECT POLLINATION ON
ENVIRONMENT
MANAGEMENT DURING POLLINATION
16. NON-APIS BEE POLLINATORS
NESTING HABITS
BEE NESTING MATERIALS
TRAP-NESTING SOLITARY BEES IN THE
HUMID AND WET TROPICS
Material Preparation
Placement of Artificial Domiciles for Bee Culture
Bees Commonly Using Trap Nests
Nest Parasites and Pests
Recommendations for Future Work
FORAGING CYCLE IN RELATION TO
SEASONALITY OF THE HOST PLANTS
Role of Non-Apis Bee Pollinators in Seed/Fruit
Production
PRESENT STATUS OF MANAGEMENT OF
NON-APIS BEE POLLINATORS
Conclusions and Future Strategies for Management
and Conservation of Wild Bee Pollinators
17. PESTICIDAL POISONING TO HONEYBEES
HOW ARE BEES EXPOSED TO
PESTICIDAL HAZARDS
SYMPTOMS AND EFFECTS OF PESTICIDAL
POISONING
PESTICIDES AND THEIR RELATIVE
TOXICITY TO BEES
PESTICIDES MOST TOXIC TO BEES
PESTICIDES VERY TOXIC TO BEES
PESTICIDES LESS TOXIC TO BEES
PESTICIDES LEAST TOXIC TO BEES
REDUCE PESTICIDAL POISONING TO BEES
CARE OF THE POISONED COLONIES
PLANT POISONING TO BEES
18. BEE PASTURAGE
NECTAR-SUGAR CONCENTRATION
NECTAR COMPOSITION
FACTORS AFFECTING NECTAR SECRETION
BEE FLORA OF INDIA
Avenue, Amenity and Timber Tree
Fruits
Cultivated and Wild Bushes, Shrubs and Field Crops
Vegetables
Ornamentals
19. QUEEN REARING AND ARTIFICIAL QUEEN
BEE INSEMINATION
SELECTION OF MOTHER STOCK
BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF QUEEN REARING
METHODS OF QUEEN REARING
ARTIFICIAL MATING
INSTINCT OF REPRODUCTION AND RELATED
MANAGEMENT
CONTROL OF REPRODUCTION
QUEEN AND ITS MANAGEMENT
LAYING WORKERS
REPRODUCTION OF SPECIES — SWARMING,
PREVENTION AND CONTROL
MAKING COLONY INCREASE
20. BEEKEEPING AND ANCILLARY INDUSTRIES
BEEKEEPING AND ANCILLARY INDUSTRIES
Honey Based Industries
Honey in Pharmaceuticals
Honey in Meat Packing
Beeswax in Industries
Bee Venom
Royal Jelly
Bee Nurseries
Bee Equipments and Hives
21. HANDLING BEES
INTRODUCTION
BEHAVIOUR OF BEES
WHEN TO MANIPULATE BEES
HOW LONG TO KEEP A HIVE OPEN
DRESS AND PERSONAL HYGIENE
MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES
MANIPULATING DIFFICULT COLONIES
BEE STINGS PRECAUTIONS AND TREATMENT
PRECAUTIONS
IMMEDIATE CARE
BEE VENOM AND ITS MEDICINAL VALUE
STINGING BEES IN WAR FARE
22. MARKETING OF BEE PRODUCTS
23. HONEYBEES - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INDICATORS
24. HONEY ANALYSIS
DESCRIPTION
METHODS OF ANALYSIS AND SAMPLING
MISCELLANEOUS
METHODS OF ANALYSIS
Qualitative Fieche’s Test
PROCEDURE
Specific Gravity
PROCEDURE
Water Moisture Content (%)
Total Reducing Sugars
PROCEDURE
Non Reducing Sugars (sucrose)
PROCEDURE
25. PROMOTION OF BEEKEEPING IN KERALA
26. PROMOTION OF BEEKEEPING IN PUNJAB
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF BEEKEEPING
DEVELOPMENT IN PUNJAB
SUPERIORITY OF A. MELLIFERA OVER
INDIGENOUS HONEYBEE
CLIMATIC SUITABILITY
MAJOR BEE FLORA AND THEIR VALUES
TRAINING IN BEE MANAGEMENT
DEVELOPMENT OF BEEKEEPING IN PUNJAB
SPREAD OF A. MELLIFERA IN OTHER STATES
SUBSIDIARY INDUSTRIES AND RURAL ECONOMY
FUTURE PROJECTIONS
MARKETING OF HONEY
OBJECTIVES OF PUNJAB STATE BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION
CASE HISTORY OF IMPORTANT BEEKEEPERS
27. BEEKEEPING IN HIMACHAL PRADESH
BEEKEEPING WITH A. MELLIFERA
MIGRATORY BEEKEEPING
DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF A. MELLIFERA
PROBLEMS FACED BY BEEKEEPERS OF
HIMACHAL PRADESH
HONEY : MEDICINE FOR HEALTH, FRESHNESS & BEAUTY
28. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE STRATEGIES
29. BEE FORAGE IN INDIA
30. LIST OF IMPORTANT BEE KEEPERS AND
SUPPLIERS OF BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENT
IN DIFFERENT STATES
APPENDIX
ASSAM
Leading Beekeepers
DEALERS OF BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS
JAMMU AND KASHMIR
Leading Beekeepers
HIMACHAL PRADESH
BIHAR
Leading Beekeepers
ANDHRA PRADESH
Leading Beekeepers
SUPPLIERS OF BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS
HARYANA
List of Beekeepers
SUPPLIERS OF BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS
ORISSA
Leading Beekeepers
SUPPLIERS OF BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENTS
PUNJAB
Suppliers of Beekeeping Equipments

^ Top

 

History of Beekeeping in India Present Status and Future

         After independence, India launched a massive programme of rapid industrilization with the belief that the benefits would percolate down to the masses. Contrarily, only elites got benefited and rural people continued to be poor resulting into movement of the unemployed to the cities.

As 80 percent of the population lives in rural India and depend on agriculture, it received more emphasis in the second phase of development. Consequently huge investments were made in agricultural research and extension and India became self-sufficient in food production ranking World’s fourth largest grain producer. Special efforts were also made to develop various agro-base industries like dairy, poultry, fish farming, sericulture and beekeeping. Out of them beekeeping industry received inadequate attention resulting in its stagnation. Following paragraphs trace history and present status of beekeeping in India followed by suggestions to rectify the current state of affairs and give this industry a status it rightfully deserves.

History of Beekeeping in India

Although honey and honey bees are known to human beings since time immemorial, still beekeeping is not a Strictly traditional industry in India. Efforts were made to introduce Apis mellifera, the European honeybees in India since 1880. For various reasons these experiments did not meet with success. It was around 1910 that Rev. Father Newton designed a smaller hive, suitable for the Indian honeybee Apix cerana indica in Kanyakumari and successfully maintained it in hives. Mahatma Gandhi realised the importance of beekeeping industry and included it in his rural development programme. Several freedom fighters were trained in his Ashram at Wardha in the art of maintaining honeybee colonies. These Freedom fighters from all over the country initiated beekeeping industry in their respective States. Swami Shambhavananda from Coorg District in Karnataka, Y.M.C.A., Martandom and Dr. Spencer Hatch from Southern most coastal strip of India, Shri S.K. Kallapur and Shri S.G. Shende from Western Peninsula, Shri R.N. Muttoo from Central Himalayas, Smt. Rama Devi and Manmohan Chaudhary from orissa, Shri Rajdan from Jammu and Kashmir did pioneering work in the establishment of modern beekeeping in India. All these efforts, however, were restricted to small pockets only. After independence, Government of India took a policy decision to revive various traditional industries and an All India Khadi and Village Industries Board was constituted to undertake this work. The task of development of beekeeping industry was also entrusted to this Board. This Board was later reconstituted as Khadi and Village Industries Commission a statutory body of Ministry of Industries. It was only after the establishment of KVIC at Central level and Khadi and Village Industries Boards at State level that beekeeping industry received serious attention for its development in a coordinated manner throughout the country through well-knit organisations like Village Industries Boards, Beekeepers’ Co-operative Societies, registered public Institutions etc. In addition to this a few states like Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh. Karantaka and Uttar Pradesh developed Departments of Beekeeping that functioned under Ministry of Agriculture or Industries.

Beekeeping Extension

The (KVIC) an Autonomous Statutory Body was established by an Act of Parliament in 1956 to plan, organize and implement the programmes for the development of Khadi and Village Industries. Since beekeeping industry was included in the schedule of KVIC, the Commission established Beekeeping Directorate with adequate staff at its Headquarters in Bombay and network of technical and extension staff in all states reaching through Districts to potential villages. The organisation of Beekeeping extension programme was as under:

Khadi and Village Industries Commission

The KVIC had a Technical Staff of about 200 workers. The Beekeeping Directorate had evolved about ten different patterns of assistance for providing financial assistance to Beekeepers’ Co-operatives, Institutions and individuals. Some of the patterns of assistance are (i) Establishment of beekeeping sub-stations (ii) Model apiary-cum-nursery, (iii) Migration of bee colonies, (iv) Construction of honey house (v) Purchase of beekeeping equipment (vi) Training in beekeeping, etc. Every year developmental plan for each state was finalised and financial as also technical assistance was provided by the KVIC to State Boards, Institutions, or Co-operatives for implementing the approved programme.

State Khadi and Village Industries Board

What is Khadi and V.I. Commission to Govt. of India is Khadi and V.I. Board to State Government. The state Khadi and V.I. Boards receive financial and technical assistance from Khadi & V.I. Commission for implementing development programme. Each State Board has its own beekeeping extension staff for implementing and supervising the programme. The State Khadi and V.I. Boards implement the developmental programme directly or through Co-operatives and registered Institutions. At one time there were 600 Bee-fieldmen working on contract basis on 600 Beekeeping substations all over the country.

Directly Aided Organisation

The registered institutions or the Co-operative Societies established prior to the establishment of the State Boards were taken on the list of “directly aided institutions” by the KVIC. Kerala Sarvodaya Sangh, Punjab Khadi Gramodyog Sangh, Bihar Khadi Gramodyog Sangh are some of the very big organisations.

All India Beekeepers’ Association (AIBKA)

All India Beekeepers’ Association was established in Nainital in 1937. Shri R.N. Mutto Founder of the Association devoted his life for the development of beekeeping industry in Uttar Pradesh. In the initial years, the Association organised All India Beekeeping Conferences, which popularised modern beekeeping and brought awareness about pure honey extraction using centrifugal machine. The Association, as a directly aided institution of KVIC took up beekeeping development programmes in Uttar Pradesh. This Association has been publishing for the last 50 years a Journal entitled “Indian Bee Journal”. Besides publication of journal other major activities of the Association are standardization of beekeeping equipment, supply of beekeeping books, charts and other audio-visual aids/literature.

Beekeeping Research

Bee research in India, like beekeeping industry has a very recent history. Its growth and development can be traced back to a little over four decades as follows: -

Department of Agriculture and Colleges

Prior to independence, most of the earlier research on honeybees was confined to the entomology departments. The emphasis of this research work was naturally on the academic aspects of Indian honeybees and provided very valuable basic data.

Apicultural Research Laboratory, Mahableshwar (M.S.)

The Bombay Village Industries Committee initiated beekeeping development programme in Mahableshwar way back in 1948 under the leadership of Shri S.G. Shende (now Chairman, All India Beekeepers’ Association). During this extension programme Shri S.G. Shende associated Prof. G.B. Deodikar with bee research programme realizing importance of source to sink. A comprehensive programme of bee research was conceived which included research on standardisation of beekeeping equipment, standardisation of bee management practices, studies on bee-botany, bee genetics, bee-pathology, chemistry and quality control of bee products etc. The Apicultural Research Laboratory was thus established in Mahableshwar in 1952 formally inaugurated by Shri Morarji Desai, the then Chief Minister of Bombay State.

It was unique in the sense that it devoted to field-oriented research and simultaneous attention was paid to different disciplines of bee science like botany, management genetics and breeding, pathology and quality control of bee-products etc.

Central Bee Research and Training Institute (KVIC)

The Apicultural Research Laboratory, Mahableshwar undertook various research projects of applied nature and published series of articles thus attracted the attention of KVIC, which recognised this Laboratory as All India Training Centre for beekeeping and also provided financial assistance for the research programmes. The work of Laboratory however was confined to limited area of Mahableshwar plateau and surrounding valleys in Western Ghats. A need was then felt to expand the scope of bee research activities to entire country. KVIC with the help of Maharashtra State Khadi and Village Industries Board established Central Bee Research and Training Institute (CBRTI) in Pune on 1st November 1962.

The CBRTI in turn established Regional Bee Research Laboratories. Field observation Stations and experimental apiaries all over the country. It undertook field-oriented research programmes under its Departments of Botany, Melissopalynology, Bee-management, Bee-breeding, Bee-pollination, Bee pathology and Bee-Chemistry. The work done on different aspects was regularly published in national and international journals. More than 100 scientific papers were published by the CBRTI. It also prepared 10 to 15 drafts for secrutiny and adoption by Bureau of Indian Standards. Gradually, CBRTI received national recognition by organizations like Bureau of Indian Standards and AGMARK. The University of Poona accepted it as a Centre for postgraduate studies on bees and beekeeping. Similarly International Bee Research Association, London and the Canadian International Development Agency, also sent their recognitions. Members of the National Commission on Agriculture (NCA) visited CBRTI and had series of meetings with the Scientists. The NCA in its final report to the Government of India (1976) wrote one Chapter on Apiculture and made many recommendations for the development of beekeeping in India. One of the major recommendations was that CBRTI should be developed as a primary national centre for honey and honeybee research & training. It was further recommended that the institute be treated at par with other Central Institutes of the ICAR and the necessary funds and facilities should be placed at the disposal of the institute.

The Department of Science and Technology at the request of KVIC provided funds for construction of building at Pune.

All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Honey Bee Research and Training

The Ministry of Agriculture accepted the report of the NCA and passed it on to Indian Council of Agricultural Research for implementation. In light of the recommendations of NCA and the needs of a vast country like ours with climatic, floristic and phenological heterogeneity, a much larger and co-ordinated programme was an obvious necessity. At CBRTI, in July 1981, broad areas of research and training were identified for implementation at eight different co-operating Centres under All India-Co-ordinated Research Project on Honeybee Research and Training with main co-ordinating centre located at CBRTI, Pune. The Headquarter of the Main Co-ordinating Centre remained at Pune for a couple of years. Subsequently it was shifted to Haryana Agricultural University Hissar. Other Co-operating Centres were located at Ludhiana (Punjab) Vijayrai (AP) Jorhat (Assam), Pusa (Bihar) Vallyani (Kerala) Pantnagar (UP) Solan (HP) Bhubaneswar (Orissa). Similarly one centre each at Indian Agricultural research Institute (New Delhi) and the Chithali station of Indian Institute of Hoticultural Research (Karnataka) was established.

 World Scenario in Beekeeping 

Beekeeping is practised over a greater area of the earth’s surface than perhaps any other single branch of agriculture and on it depends the success of many other branches of agriculture. Honeybee originally belongs to the old world-Europe. Africa and Asia and the bees spread to the new world after 1638 in America, 1822 in Australia and 1842 to Newzealand. The real boost to scientific beekeeping took place with the discovery of moveable frame hive by Langstroth 1851. Later, sequence of events took place by studying the biology of honeybees, development of beekeeping methods, identification of different castes, queen mating, role of bees in pollination etc. Although the beekeeping has since undergone tremendous change both in equipment and management but the basic principles have remained the same, as advocated by Langstroth and Dadant and still form the basis of modern beekeeping. During the next half century i.e. between 1850 to 1900, beekeeping exploded in the New World.

Today most of the countries practise beekeeping with the European honeybee Apis mellifera which surpasses the Asian honeybee Apis cerana in almost all the departments. This species has an unusually large distribution, which encompasses widely different environments. A. mellifera is one of the most successful species in the animal kingdom which has become independent from environmental conditions to a great extent: one and the same species is able to survive in semidesert tropical regions as well as in cold temperate zones. Even countries like China and Japan, which for a long time were practising beekeeping with Apis cerana, are replacing the species with A. mellifera.

The Pattern of Beekeeping Today         

We have now seen that honeybees live in all the parts of the world, except polar regions. However, the pattern of beekeeping in old and new worlds tends to be different. In general, the new worlds tend to give richer honey harvest, but the old world is densely populated with honeybees; as it is with people. The new world provides more useful inventions for handling bees and their products, whereas the old world still contributes more fundamental discoveries about bees. Broad distinction with exception is between the equipments used for beekeeping. Beekeeping equipment used in the new world tends to be simple, uniform and mechanism perhaps due to expensive labour. Mainly Langstroth and Dadant hives are used. In European countries one man can look after 100 to 300 colonies. In Australia the figures are still higher, the most mechanised beekeepers among all are in California where beekeeping started around 1850 and a beekeeper can run 1000 or even 2000 hives each.

In new world, beekeeping is generally a means of livelihood and average honey yield in most of the countries ranges from 10 to 20 kg/colony and the average yield in best beekeeping district ranges from 100 kg to 150 kg or even 200 kg. Contrary to this in the old world the beekeeping is a hobby and sideline beekeepers are much higher, each owning 5, 10 or upto 50 hives and getting a harvest of 5kg to 20 kg/hive.

In good areas beekeeping is being adopted even without knowing great deal about the bees themselves and beekeepers are neither much interested in bees nor in beekeepers organisations. Contrary to this, in European countries like Australia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland, where there is much awareness, with strongest beekeepers’ organisations, per hive honey production is low mainly because of greatest density of hives. All these countries have more than 10 colonies per square mile and their honey yields are amongst the lowest in Europe.

Race of Honeybees

The most predominant species of hive honeybees in the world is Apis mellifera, whose races can be divided into three:

1. European races, 2. Oriental races and. 3. African races.

One can determine some relationship between dark European bee and the North African Tell bee and between Caucasians, Anatolian and Carniolan bees. However, from point of view of economic value, there are four races of Apis mellifera and they are:

1. Dark bees, A. mellifera mellifera L.

They are spread throughout Europe, north and west of Alps and Central Russia. But in the last decade they lost ground almost everywhere and presently are confines to Spain, France, Poland and Russia. These are big bees with short tongue, broad abdomen, dark chitin with small yellow spots, nervous in temperament, good wintering, weak disposition in swarming, and susceptible to diseases.

2. Italian bees, A. mellifera Ligustica Spin

Its original homeland is Italy (exclusive of Sicily) and is somewhat smaller than A. mellifera mellifera with slender abdomen. The bee is of light colour with scutellum; hair have yellowish colour. These are very clam bees, generally gentle, build exceptionally strong colonies with high consumption of food. The good building instinct of this race has been praised many times.

3. Carniolans. A mellifera carnica (Pollmann)

With original homeland Austrian Alps, this bee is generally quite similar to ligustica. Slender with long tongue, its chitin is overwhelmingly dark with brown spots. Hair is grey. It is the quitest and the most gentle race. Diseases of brood are virtually unknown.

4. Caucasian, A. mellifera caucasica Gorb

Original homeland is Central Caucasus. In shape and size it resembles carnica. Colour is dark with brown spots on abdomen. Hairs are grey-brown. It is also gentle and calm. It raises strong colonies. Produces only weak swarms cold hardy.

Besides these important races. Apis mellifera adansoni has also been much talked about these days. This north African bee is a very small, dark in colour, highly aggressive in behaviour, high tendency to swarm and migrating over long distances but excellent for honey production in extreme climate of Africa.

In addition to these races of Apis mellifera, we have the Asiatic hive bee Apis cerana which closely resembles Apis mellifera in its body structure. It is relatively cold hardy. It is genetically separated from A. mellifera and attempted intermating produces lethal offspring. It does not produce a strong colony and is, therefore, kept in smaller hive. It is resistant to nosema disease. It produces relatively less honey and has great swarming and absconding instinct.

There are two other species of genus Apis in southern Asia, which are entirely tropical. Both build only a single comb and nest in the open. Neither of them can be kept in a hive although honey can be obtained from nests of wild bees. These two species are, a dorsata and A. florea.

Honey Production

The total honey production in the world is 1.1 million tones according to 1990 FAO estimates, out of which 66 per cent is produced by 10 major honey producing countries of the world. In the foregoing account only the major honey producing countries have been briefly described.

Beekeeping in Europe

About a decade ago Europe (excluding USSR) had about 13 million colonies, with an average 7-colonies/square mile, a hive density seven times as great as in any other continents. The average honey yield was l0kg/colony/year. It was low as compared to the new world as a whole. Europe consumes more honey than it produces and Western Europe is the world’s greatest honey importing region. In 1972, Europe imported 70,000 tons from New World of which 46,000 tons was imported by West Germany. The honey production in Europe was 2,00,000 tones.

According to the figures available for 1989 for European Economic Community (EEC), the average yield per colony was minimum at Luxemburg (7.7 kg/colony) and maximum at Denmark (35 kg/colony) (Table - 1). Spain had maximum number of bee colonies (1.6 million) and Luxemburg the least (10,400). West Germany still Remains the world’s biggest importer of honey which produced about 18,00 M. tons of honey in 1988 and imported 83,000 M. tons during the same period.

        According to the 1984 estimate, the erstwhile USSR had 10 million colonies, which had been built after World War II, the earlier stock was mostly destroyed during the war. Its honey production was more than one lac tons (average yield 11 kg/colony). The entire produce is consumed in the country. Its beekeeping is on the pattern of Europe and even the equipment is similar to that used in Europe. Most of the beekeeping farms are run by the State, each of which maintains as many as 6000 colonies. Since most of the activities are centrally governed, there is virtually no conflict between beekeepers and plant protectionists and all beekeeping and crop spraying activities are systematically organised. The value of bees in fruit and seed production is very well realised and growers and beekeepers work in harmony. Efforts are a foot to become surplus in honey and wax production. The USSR had traditionally exported small amount of honey primarily to Eastern Europe. One of the constraints to Soviet export was lack of high quality packaging material, which forced the USSR to sell honey wholesale as opposed to the more profitable retail market.

Asia: Till recently, Beekeeping in many Asian countries was a traditional household activity. It is only recently that its importance has been commercially realised in countries like China, India and Pakistan, as a result of the introduction of high honey yielding species of Apis mellifera. In other countries of this continent, there are small beekeepers who keep one to five colonies of Apis cerana in different traditional hives and produce honey by ‘squeezing method’. The total honey production in Asia is only to the tune of about 2,50,000 M. tons.

China: There are at present 8.5 million colonies in China out of which 7 million are kept in modern hives. Out of these 70 per cent are Apis mellifera and others are Apis cerana. The annual honey production is about 2,00,000 metric tons per year and total Royal Jelly and bee pollen production is 1,800 and 1,000 tons per year, respectively. In addition, bees wax and propolis are two other important hive products that are harvested. About 30 to 40 per cent of hive products are exported and rest are retained for domestic consumption. About 90 per cent of honey and all the Royal Jelly is produced from Apis mellifera. Royal Jelly is sold at a rate of US$100/kg. The Institute of Apiculture Sciences of the Chinese Academy is mainly responsible for beekeeping research and extension activities. There are more than 1,00,000 apiaries in China each having 30 to 80 hives. Beekeeping with Apis cerana is practised in mountain areas. Each A. mellifera colony produces from 0.3 to 0.5 kg of Royal jelly per year. Beekeeping got a boost in China between 1949 to 1959 after the introduction of European honey bee.

        At present China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of honey. Honey production in China is mainly a sideline activity engaged in by crop farmers to enhance income but others specialise in honey production. These producers move from region to region depending upon season and local flowering conditions. They sell honey to total supply and sale cooperatives’, which act as middlemen and re-sell honey to retailers, food and beverage processors, producers of Chinese medicine or in case of honey destined for export market to the ‘Native products Import/Export Corporation (TUHSU)’.

India: As per 1986 statistics (FAO) there are about 1 million bee colonies of A. cerana and A. mellifera in India and annual honey production is about 18,000 M tons. About half or more of this quantity is harvested from wild colonies of A. dorsata and A. cerana. Beekeeping covers 4,00,000 villages providing part-time employment to 2,50,000 persons. India has the potential of accommodating 5 million colonies and a potential of producing 6,00,000 M tones of honey. Himachal Pradesh is the only area in Southern Asia, which has announced support price for honey.

Pakistan: Our neighbour, Pakistan, produces about 640 M tones of honey of which 14 to 18 per cent comes from A. mellifera and A. cerana kept in modern hives and the remaining from wild colonies of A. dorsata and A. cerana.

Nepal: Its beekeeping is mainly with A. cerana and average yield is 5 to 6 kg, although some beekeepers obtain as high as 25 kg/colony. It has mainly traditional beekeeping. Other species such as A. dorsatal A. Laboriosa and A. florea are erratic honey yielders.

Bangladesh: Beekeeping is with A. cerana, A. dorsata and A. florea. A cerana yields around 4 to 10 kg honey per colony. There are about 10,000 A. cerana colonies kept in different types of hives by about 8,000 beekeepers.

Japan: In 1990, Japan produced 4,300 M tons of honey fulfilled only 77 per cent of the total annual consumption for a year. Japan is the second largest importer of honey in the world. In 1990 Japan imported 69,435 M tons of honey; China being the dominant supplier accounting for 86 per cent of the honey for industrial use and only 35 per cent for table purpose.

In other countries of Asia like Bhutan and Burma, beekeeping is virtually non-existent and attempts are being made to boost beekeeping with A. mellifera, however, it will take sometime.

 Beekeeping in India - Role of KVIC 

        Success of an Industry is measured by its achievement and the role of Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) in the upliftment of Beekeeping Industry is spectacularly well established.

Beekeeping is an ideal agro-based subsidiary industry, providing supplementary income to a target group of people from rural, hilly and tribal tracts including horticulturists and agriculturists because of abundantly, widely, and well distributed, bee flora. Apart from the direct benefits of honey and bee wax, the indirect benefits through pollination etc. are almost impossible to quantify which may simply outclass the direct benefits.

KVIC

The KVIC is a statutory body created by an Act of Parliament (No. 61 of 1956 and as amended by Act No. 12 of 1987). It is charged with the planning, promotion, organisation, and implementation of programme for the development of Khadi and other Village Industries in the rural areas in Co-ordination with other agencies engaged in rural development, wherever necessary. The Village Industry means any industry located in rural areas with a population not exceeding 10,000 which produces any goods or renders any service with or without the use of power with the fixed capital investment not exceeding Rs. 15,000/- per artisan or worker.

Thus, the beekeeping fitted perfectly in the perview of KVIC as it being the only such organisation with a will to work and network in such areas.

Growth of Beekeeping under KVIC

Until 1953, the beekeeping in Indian subcentinent was in a badly disorganised shape until this activity was taken over by All India Khadi & Village Industries Board and subsequently by the KVIC in 1957.

The KVIC is responsible for taking Beekeeping Industry to the present height from a mere 16,557 colonies to 13.44 Lakhs colonies and the honey production consequently increasing from 0.21 Lakhs Kg. to 82.02 Lakhs Kg respectively.

The liberal financing by the KVIC coupled with the technical support in the form of technical manpower, training, literature, supply of equipments, followed by the marketing umbrella support to the beekeepers has led to the present scale development of Beekeeping Industry.

Thus making beekeeping in India and KVIC Synonymous.

Organizational set up of Beekeeping under KVIC

The organisational set up is the key to effective planning and implementation of beekeeping programmes.

Table 1

Growth of Beekeeping in different States/Areas

Being entirely an agro-based industry, bee keeping is feasible only in areas with adequate bee flora, atleast for a period of 6 to 8 months, with one major honey flow season. Initially beekeeping activity was concentrated in some southern states only. The KVIC is instrumental in spreading it to entire India except the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan where it is practiced at low key.

Table 2

The southern states of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala contributed almost 40% of the total honey production till a fatal disease “Thai Sac Brood Virus” (TSBV) damaged the whole of Beekeeping activity in these States. Now the leading states are U.P., Bihar, Bengal, Punjab and Haryana.

In addition to directly aided institutions, beekeeping programme is implemented mainly through institutions, cooperatives, and individuals financed by State Khadi & V.I. Board, which receives funds from KVIC.

Role of Central Bee Research & Training Institute (CBRTI) Pune in research and technology development

While implementing the bee keeping extension programme, the immense potential of bees to reap unlimited floral wealth of India was realised which resulted in the initiation of a KVIC sponsored comprehensive research programme, relavant to Indian conditions, at Apicultural institute in Mahabaleshwar (Maharashtra) in 1952.

Organizational set up under CBRTI, Pune

This set up is unique in the sense that all the related aspects of the beekeeping research are undertaken under one roof. In case of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), universities, colleges, institutions etc., the emphasis on research is mainly devoted to Entomological and pollination aspects whereas it is integrated on all aspects at CBRTI.

The achievement of CBRTI in different divisions/departments are summarised here.

1. Apiculture

(a) Development of Beekeeping Equipments:

It is an important task and CBRTI has designed lots of equipments

(i)       Bee hives ISI (A-type, B-type and C-type)

(ii)      Bee hives stand (folding type and fixed type)

(iii)     Honey extractor Tangential and radial type

(iv)     Comb foundation sheets

(v)      Comb foundation mill

(vi)          Travelling bee box

(vii)    Wasp trap

(viii)   Lay out of honey house

(ix)     Lay out of honey processing plant

(x)      Solar wax extractor.

The above-mentioned equipments have already been standardised by Bureau of Indian Standards (formerly ISI). The following approved drafts awaiting standardisation are:

(i)          Cylinderical bee packages

(ii)      Honey extractor tangential

(iii)          Beeman’s kit.

(b) Role of RBRCs/FOS

The RBRC’s and FOS’s with apiaries in different agroclimatic conditions were established as per the recommendations of National Commission on Agriculture (1979) to perfect management techniques in different climatic conditions of India. The beauty of the idea is that after every 5 years they move to virgin areas. This has led to phenomenal recourse in managing different bee apiaries in different agroclimatic zones of India.

Some of these techniques include:

(i)          Management of apiaries year round

(ii)          Supplementary feeding in dearth period

(iii)          Swarm control

(iv)          Management for higher yields

(v)      Apis mellifera management

(vi)          Migration both local and distant.

(c) Introduction of exotic bees

The exotic bee, Apis mellifera was initially introduced in Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir on the individual level as well as by Agricultural University, Ludhiana. After its successful introduction Apis mellifera bees was popular and it was taken up in Punjab on commercial basis. The KVIC after due experiments in the States of Bihar, U.P., M.P. and Punjab approved introduction of A. mellifera in nothern States and approved the pattern of assistance of Apis mellifera under its scheme of beekeeping for the southern-northern States. The experiment is in progress for introduction of A. mellifera in southern states.

2. Entomology

Achievements include identification, extent of damage and management of pests, parasites and predators of bees including green bee-eater, wax moth, mites etc. The control of the mites was achieved employing advanced indigenously prepared strips impregnated with insecticides. The most important work includes isolation; purification and identification of mandiculat gland pheromone of different bee species different insecticides with low LC 50 to bees were taken.

3. Bee Pathology

The section made detailed studies on the isolation, fungal, identification, etiology and management of different bacterial and viral diseases including EFB, TSBV, etc. The hill variety of bees A.c. indica was found to be relatively tolerant to the TSBV, which has played havoc on beekeeping industry.

4. Bee Botany and Melletopalyonology

This department has collected and classified more than 3000 plants species useful as bee plants. More than 300 spices and plants have been given to forest/ agricultural department. The polynarium with more than 4000 slides of pollen types of India is unique which serves as a reference task to the scientists from India and abroad. Analysis of pollen loads, pollen stores and honey samples to identify its sources is another Analysis of pollen loads, pollen stores and honey samples to identify its sources is another facility created. 

Beekeeping Research Set-up, Achievements and Future Strategies 

Honeybees and honey find special mention in the Indian epics and bee hunting for honey dates back to some 2000 to 2500 years. The innovation of movable frame hive in the west in 1950’s ushered an era of revolution in the field of Research in Beekeeping. Some attempts were also made in India by the end of 19th century to keep bees in moveable frame hives but nothing much was done till the recommendations of Royal Commission on Agriculture in 1928. During 1930’s and 1940’s some beekeeping stations were established in different parts of the country and some research was initiated at places like Coimbatore, Pusa, Lyalpur and Nagrota (H.P.).

After independence, Village Industries Boards at state levels to promote cottage industries including beekeeping, were established. For co-ordination between the state boards, the national Government established All India Khadi and Village Industries Board in 1953, which later became autonomous Khadi and Village Industries Commission in 1956.

One organisation set up after independence was Bombay village Industries Committee which was later re-organised as the Village Industries Board for earstwhile Bombay state and under its aegies appreciable beekeeping extension work was done in Mahableshwar hills. A “Bee Research Centre” was started at Mahableshwar in 1952 which was upgraded as Apiculture Research Laboratory in 1954. Work done in this laboratory, especially in survey of bee flora, palynology, cyto-genetics and honey analysis etc. provided good base for KVIC to establish a Central Bee Research & Training Institute at Pune in 1962. The CBRTI has been implementing research programmes through regional Bee Research centres and field observation stations. Some good popular articles and bulletins were published and research findings emanated till early 1900’s when the Institute suffered set back in terms of technical resource personnels.

Beekeeping as a matter of stark fact should have been a part of agriculture but to greater dismay the field remained neglected by the agricultural Universities and Indian Council of Agricultural Research. It is only recently that the beekeeping has come to be realised as an input of agriculture. Entomologists working in some Universities/Institutes in erstwhile Punjab Agril. University and later state Universities of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have done some pioneering work in some respects. All these efforts had been fragmented approaches for resolution of research problems in apiculture. In 1980 a need was felt by the ICAR for multilocational Research and All India co-ordinated Project on Honeybee Research and Training (AICRP) was perceived, enroping six Institutes/Organisations where co-ordinated Project on Honeybee Research and Training (AICRP) was perceived, enroping six Institutes/Organisations where co-ordinating centres were located. Later on the umbrella of the AICRP was broadened by adding more centres. The project now operates with co-ordinating centres in important beekeeping states of the country. But these co-ordinating centers are not provided with specialist scientists in each field of honeybee research and even now the research efforts are little less than systematic. Besides the co-ordinating centres of AICRP, there are only few state Universities like H.P. University, Simla; H.P. Krishi Vishva Vidyalaya, Palampur; Haryana Agril. University, Hisar; University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore which have provided some set up for honeybee research.

Research Achievements and Future Strategies

Beekeeping Industry and Honeybee Species

Growth and development of beekeeping industry in India has not been satisfactory. Honeybees in India are estimated to be availing about one fourth of the floral resources available in the country. Thus there is enough scope for expansion of beekeeping in potential areas. The average honey production with Apis cerana indica is 5-10 kg per colony per year in most areas and this production can go upto 25 kg in some very good areas.

Three species of true honeybees viz. A.c. indica, A. dorsata and A. florea are indiginous to India and the fourth, A. mellifera (the exotic species) is now established in the country and serving the commercial beekeeping in many states. There is also likelihood of encountering the other three recently described species of the genus Apis. A. dorsata and A. florea are wild and honey hunters squeeze honey in forested areas. Some efforts have been made to semi-domesticate and manage its bee colonies. These bees offer some scope for management on commercial lines.

Many unsuccessful attempts were made by various workers to introduce and establish A. mellifera in India since 1920’s. These attempts met with failures, possibly because of lack of basic knowledge of apicultural concepts and management skills. Successful introduction of A. mellifera in India dates back to 1962-66 and the credit goes to the foresight of Dr. A.S. Atwal. Two, three and twenty eight queens of the English strain (developed by hybridising indigenous bees in U.K with Dutch and Itallian bees), the Italian strain and californian strain were imported from U.K., Italy and California (USA), respectively and one, two and fifteen queens of the respective strains could be successfully introduced in A. cerana indica young worker bees. The combs of A.C. indica where gradually replaced by A. mellifera cell size foundations and thus the colonies of the species were raised. Lateron 20 nuclei (two lots of 10 each) were obtained from California in 1964 and 1965. During 1966, 24 nuclei each of Starline (mid-west hybrid; mixture of yellow and Caucasian blood) and Midnite strain (Caucasian hybrid) were imported from Florida (USA). Initially the colonies of the exotic species were maintained at Nagrota, Himachal Pradesh (then a part of Punjab) and comparative performance of Indian bee and five strains/hybrids of the exotic species were studied. This was also the first successful example of inter-specific queen introduction. The species has brought major revolution in honey production in some states of India Dearth periods in subtropical regions are relatively short and the bees that evolved there are poor honey gatherers. On the contrary, bees of temperate region store large quantity of honey to survive during extended dearth periods.

Therefore, temperate zone honeybees are better suited for commercial honey production for India. Average honey production with A. mellifera is 20-30 kg/year/ colony but through migration, beekeepers are getting the high averages of 60-70 kg. Although, the beekeeping with introduced A. mellifera is flourishing in some states, the species should be quickly tested for its performance to spread to other potential regions with greater research and extension support.

Bee Flora

Information on different aspects of bee forage is essential for the efficient management of honeybee colonies. Management scheme for each apicultural region is closely correlated with the flowering of local honey and pollen producing plants as also the climatic conditions. Basic research in the area of forage ecology has been done and floral calendars for different regions have been prepared. On the basis of surveys potential beekeeping areas have been identified.

The most serious problem for Indian beekeeping has been the decline in flora due to deforestation and clearing of wastelands for extensive agriculture. Improvement of bee flora is not possible by individuals’ efforts and a beekeeper has to adopt and adjust only to the cropping patterns of the area and forest wild flora available in the locality. Recently central and state Governments and local organisations have helped in expansion of planted areas of bee forage along highways, wastelands etc.

To get good results, plantation of selective trees and shrubs is essential and this should be done on the basis of multiple use principle including bee forage as one of the uses. Flowers of many plant species are visited by bees for nectar and or pollen but relative importance depends on the quality and quantity of rewards available and also on the density of the plant species. Intensive research in this area has generated this type of information on many of the important flora. The knowledge accumulated can be made use of while planning plantations on the basis of accessibility of the potential bee forage areas and migration schedules can be worked out. Migratory beekeeping is practised by many commercial beekeepers in states like Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and south India but micro-regional survey of bee forage would be required for planning short and long distance migration schedules.

Equipment and Management

Efficient management requires the use of appropriate equipment and operations concerning the well-being of bees. Many types of hives had been in use in India and attention of the scientists was attracted to standardise the hives and with these efforts the ISI (BIS) hive specifications laid down on the basis of body size (bee space). Increase in brood and super chamber capacities has been suggested keeping in view the colony build up capacity and length of build up and honey flow reasons. BIS have also formulated standards for other bee equipments.

Knowledge of biometry of bees is helpful in standardising bee equipment, for breeding work, and for gathering information on the races of a species. Good information on body size, tongue length and other morphometric characters is available for A.c. indica. Egg laying capacity of queens and consequently colony build up capacity varies from south to north of the country. Therefore, exhaustive studies are required for all the regions, to develop suitable queen excluders, comb foundation mills, bee escape, honey extractors, pollen traps etc. For A. mellifera only standard Langstroth hive is being used everywhere in India whereso-ever the species is present. In these and other areas need might arise to make suitable amends in sizes and number of frames etc. to suit different zones. Timber is becoming expensive and cost of hives is increasing. To keep the investment in beekeeping low some alternative materials like polurethene, polystyrene and compressed sheets etc. shall have to be tried.

Many other practices for better management of honeybee colonies have been worked out and standardized. Mass queen rearing for colony multiplication is a very useful practice. The queens (30-40) reared in one queenless or queen right colony can be given to new divides just before the emergence. This saves the wastage of many days for queen rearing by each divide. Time and length of divides in regions have also been worked out. Oversummering is a problem in many parts of our country because bees are troubled by high temperature and it is also no flora period. Methods have been recommended for successful summer management, which also includes feeding of pollen supplements, and substitutes to make colonies to continue rearing some brood.

India presents a variety of ecological conditions from north to south and east to west. To some extent the art of beekeeping can be uniformly adopted but some management problems, specific to different regions, are needed to be tackled on priority. Similarly, summer and rainy season dearth periods need immediate attention. Other problems that should attract the attention of bee scientists are strength of divides for colony multiplication etc. Little work has been done on the problem of swarming and absconding in A. cerana indica. In addition work on behavioural aspects of Apis spp. is needed to evolve the management calendar for bee apiaries. Limited information is available in India on communication behaviour, foraging distance and nectar and pollen carrying capacity. Exhaustive information on these aspects is needed to standardise management practices for different ecological regions for efficient management of hive bees.

Genetics and Breeding

Information on genetics and reproductive biology is required for planned bee breeding and stock improvement programmes. It was hypothesised by Dr. Deodikar and co-workers that during the course of its trans-Himalayan migration, the primitive tetraploid Indian honey bee might have gradually differentiated into an advanced tetraploid Apis mellifera. All along these migratory routes, Apis mellifera differentiated further into a number of African, European and Sino-Japanes races. Cytogenetic studies of Apis spp. have shown that A. cerana indica has the same number of chromosomes as the European bee. The male has 16 chromosomes, which occur in 8 homomorphic pairs showing pronounced somatic association, it was inferred that the males though numerically haploid, may be closely approaching diploid condition genetically. The females show a close approximation to a tetraploid condition. This inference has been corroborated by chromosomes in A. Florea and A. dorsata which have 16 chromosomes in female and 8 in the male. Reproductive biology is also worked out in Indian honeybee. The queens of the species can be inseminated with instrument but difficulties like production of low quality semen; its separation from mucous and lesser concentration and activity of spermatozoa are encountered. Experiments on hybridization between two hive species have not proved successful. Intensive research in needed in reproductive biology and genetics of Indian honeybee and breeding of Apis spp. The present day A. mellifera stock has descended from varied and heterogeneous blood, therefore, we have to talk about inbreeding depression with caution and verifying the facts. We will have to be over cautious in importing more A. mellifera bees since it will run the risk of introducing diseases and enemies. Artifical queen bee insemination techniques has been standardised/ practised in our country, therefore safest alternative would be to import semen and use for hybridisation as and when the need arises. 

Major Constraints in Beekeeping 

BEEKEEPING WITH APIS CERENA INDICA AND APIS MELLIFERA

The KVIC since 1952 promotes A.c indica, the Asian honey bee. The number of colonies of this bee in India is about 0.96 million, yielding 6300 metric tonnes of honey with an average yield of 6.7 kg per hive.

Various Agricultural Universities of (Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh) for the last three decades promoted Apis mellifera, the Italian honeybee. The colony number of which is about 0.1 million with a total honey production of 13,700 tonnes, with an average yield of 13.7 kg per hive.

Compare this data to that of China which took up commercial beekeeping with A. mellifera around 30 years ago and now has 6 million bee colonies yielding 180,000 metric tonnes of honey and is the worlds largest exporter.

Obviously, there is something wrong with the impetus, direction and assistance given to beekeeping in India. This paper, therefore, attempts to define the constraints in this regard and suggest suitable measures for overcoming them.

THE MAJOR CONSTRAINTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEEKEEPING IN INDIA ARE AS FOLLOWS

1. Using the Correct Species for Beekeeping

All over the world, the Italian honeybee is acclaimed to be the choice for commercial beekeeping. However, the controversy regarding the suitability of the species i.e. Asian honeybee, A.c. indica and the European bee A. mellifera for beekeeping in India, which has been going on for the last three decades, gave a severe set back. Thank God this has now been resolved and the two species have been accepted to be complementary to each other. Even then if we are to put India on the world honey map we must decide to use A. mellifera for commercial beekeeping all over India.

2. Availability of Genetically Superior Queens for Increased Honey Production

America has developed hybrids of high yielding queens of A. mellifera, Australia has a programme in New South Wales for developing superior queens of this species, U.K. has the Buckfast bee developed by brother Adams. In India research programme needs to be oriented in this direction so that desired results may be obtained and we may increase the yield per colony to the desired level.

Queen breeding is a long, and tedious developmental process. During our last 17 years experience of breeding, A. mellifera at our own apiary, we have managed to do line selection of queens giving upto 80 kg of honey per hive, but because of the unavailability of queen insemination equipment, we have not been able to standardize the genetic stock. Even though our queens are raised by grafting, yet they mate in the air and drone population cannot be controlled entirely in the vicinity of the mating yards.

It is imperative that queen breeding by grafting and artificial insemination be taken up intensively to improve the genetic stock and develop line breeding and hybridization of both the species.

It is essential to give grants to private breeders and governmental breeding institutes to enable them to set up the requisite infrastructure for the production of large volumes of genetically superior queens for supply to the beekeepers.

3. Lack of Technical Knowledge for Efficient Management of Colonies for High Honey Yields

This is a major constraint. Beekeepers are not aware of international methods of efficient management. Some of the wrong practices followed by beekeepers are: -

(a)      Few beekeepers use queen excluders, Further the excluders that are locally available get rusted and damage the bees.

(b)      We have heard of outdated concepts like queen gates being recommended for bee colonies to prevent bees from absconding.

(c)          Efficient swarm control is not practiced by beekeepers and they are most unaware of these techniques. Most beekeepers just divide colonies to prevent swarming.

(d)          Although maximum yields from A. mellifera are obtained when the colonies go upto 3 to 4 chambers with populations of 50,000 to 70,000 bees yet few colonies with beekeepers are raised to that level.

(e)          Beekeepers do not know the concept of the food chamber as a measure of colony build up and mostly maintain colonies on a single chamber leading to weak colonies that die in dearth periods.

(f)       Few beekeepers change queens every season before the honey flow leading to loss of queens during the crucial honey flow.

(g)      Some beekeepers even do not use full comb foundation sheets and only use strips of wax sheets for the frames which leads to excessive drone comb construction besides wasting the time and effort of bees in making extra comb. Therefore, there is a great scope for improvement.

4. Lack of Infrastructure at the Grass Roots and National Level for Beekeeping

This is the major cause for the use of wrong management practices by beekeepers and needs to be urgently attended to for the success of beekeeping in India.

(a) Our agricultural universities do not have departments of Apiculture but only departments of Entomology where bees are just one of the insects in the department. Beekeeping has to be given the same status as poultry and dairying in our institutes and then only can we turn out beekeeping specialists from the universities who specialize in bee management, breeding, disease control, quality control and so on. At the moment the universities only turn out entomologists who have knowledge of beekeeping and who in any case are too few to be able to have any impact in the field.

(b) There is no concept of beekeeping inspectors, or trainers in beekeeping at the village or even district level.

(c) Beekeeping, by its nature, has seasonal crises of disease, management and so on. It is not sufficient to have a few people in universities for advise on beekeeping. The only way that China managed to take up beekeeping so fast and so successfully was the availability of trained field workers in beekeeping at the village level. We must therefore have a hierarchy of beekeeping experts and trainers in the villages, blocks, Tehsils, Districts and then finally in the universities to be able to have effective feed back to and from the beekeepers.

(d) There are no organized forums for the meeting and discussions amongst beekeepers, which are essential and are available all over the world. In India beekeepers work in isolation and hence loose the benefits of interaction with others in the field. Whereas we have found during our visits and interactions with beekeepers in Europe, Australia etc. that there is free flow of beekeeping information and knowledge amongst beekeepers in those countries. In the field of beekeeping all over the world, new techniques and improved methods of beekeeping have essentially been developed in the field by this interaction amongst beekeepers and then scientists in the field.

It is thus essential to improve our infrastructure and communication for the success of beekeeping in India.

5. Poor Quality Control for the Production of Honey

This is a very important aspect of beekeeping and needs to be stressed on if we are to progress. It is not enough to produce large amounts of honey but that is more essential to produce quality honey. It is because of this reason which most Indian honeys do not come up to international quality standards. The beekeeper should therefore be quality conscious.

(a) Some beekeepers extract honey from brood frames which process damages the brood and the honey extracted is of poor quality.

(b) All beekeepers do not maintain separate super chambers for the production of honey. The honey is produced in old brood frames and so gets darker in colour and also is not so clean as if extracted from only super frames. Dark honeys fetch very low prices internationally.

(c) Since many beekeepers do not use queen excluders, the queen lays eggs in the honey chamber thereby lower the honey quality.

(d) Many beekeepers do not wait for the honey to be properly sealed before extracting. Honey only develops the flavour, which is particular to each flower source if it is allowed to stay in the hive a little more after the bees seal the frames. Most beekeepers extract the honey while it is still fresh and not entirely sealed. This leads to high moisture content and low quality.

(e) Beekeepers do not use the technique of keeping supers in warm rooms with a forced airflow before extraction. This produces honey with excess moisture. In the absence of desired warm extraction, it cannot be sufficiently clear and so requires further heating before filtration, which causes deterioration of quality. Honey from warm supers can be easily extracted and cleaned straight away by simple filtration through muslin.

In case unripe honey is extracted, it is high in moisture content and lacking in colour, flavour and quality. In order to be able to market our honey, we must improve its quality.

Honey is also poorly stored by beekeepers in old tins, which rust and so darken the honey further. Besides, the honey in contact with the old tin plate becomes blackish in colour and loses flavour, the tins being produced now are mainly for oils and ghee and do not have sufficient tin plating to be able to store honey cleanly. Lacquered tins are expensive and so beekeepers do not use them for storing honey. Food grade plastic containers need to be developed for storing honey.

6. Emphasis on Production of Honey Instead of other Bee Products

At the moment only honey is produced by the beekeepers. Honey bee can also produce pollen, propolis, royal jelly, beeswax, bee venom which can add to the overall income from the bee live.

(a) Bees Wax

This is easily produced, has great demand in the world market and is used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. The most important producer of beeswax in India is Apis dorsata. This is not so pure as the beeswax obtained from Apis mellifera, which has a greater export demand. However to produce beeswax from the bee colonies, supers must have only 7 to 8 frames instead of 9 frames so that beekeepers can produce larger quantities of beeswax from the bees.

(b) Pollen

Pollen is not produced at all in India. Pollen is a natural vegetarian protein source containing many nutritive elements and minerals and can do much to improve the general nutritional intake in rural areas. It also has a great demand in the export market.

There is tremendous potential for pollen production by the bees, particularly from coconut, the mustard species of oilseeds, maize, sunflower etc. Pollen is easy to produce and beekeepers can use simple technology to supplement the income from the hive by inducing bees to collect pollen. Pollen can be produced in tons.

(c) Propolis

Propolis is the resinous substance collected by bees from trees to seal cracks in the hive. Propolis has been found to be a natural antibiotic and has many medicinal qualities when used externally or internally and is valuable in the field of Apitherapy. There is great demand for propolis for export.

Propolis collection is by the use of special propolis screens and can be easily mastered by the average beekeeper.

A.c. indica does not collect propolis and there is great scope for the use of a mellifera for propolis collection.

(d) Bee venom

This is an unexploited source of production from the bees in India; Bee venom has various medicinal uses in Homeopathy, Allopathy and systems of natural medicine. Extraction is complicated and can be done by beekeepers with great technical skill using special bee venom extractors in front of the hive.

(e) Royal Jelly

This is secreted by the bees from special glands in their body and is used to feed the queen bee larva. It is supposed to have rejuvenant and beneficial properties, like Ginseng. It contains various natural hormones and is a highly concentrated food. It has a great demand for exports. China has become a major producer and exporter of royal jelly. Royal jelly however, can only be produced by beekeepers having high technical knowledge.

All the above by-products from bees are not produced yet in India and can add to the income of beekeepers, besides having great scope for exports.

7. Disease Prevention, Control and Analysis

This is the major constraint for the development of beekeeping in India. We need to have regional and also central bee disease analysis laboratories. At the moment this is lacking and as has been seen in the recent outbreak of sac brood in the South, the beekeepers could not get timely help or advice regarding the disease that was killing their bees.

(a) We do not have disease control inspectors to visit the beekeepers all over India. These inspectors need to have detailed training in being able to identify all the bee diseases and also take samples from apiaries to have them tested.

(b) There is no method of registration of apiaries and beekeepers all over India. In America disease inspectors are there in each state who register apiaries and take regular samples to declare them disease free.

(c) Breeding apiaries must be registered as such and only those whose colonies are free of disease should be allowed to sell queens and bees all over India. This is followed in America where breeders get their bee colonies certified disease free before supplying queens to other beekeepers.

(d) There is no control on the movement of bee colonies all over India. Only colonies free from bee diseases should be allowed to be moved all over for migratory beekeeping. This requires us to set up the infrastructure for sampling and analysis of bee colonies from each apiary.

(e) Beekeepers use poor management techniques like continued use of old frames and extracting honey from brood chambers. Weak colonies are allowed to survive and have the danger of absconding and spreading disease. Honey is a carrier of brood diseases of honeybees and the practice of extracting honey from brood chambers is dangerous as brood can die when the honey is extracted and the dead brood in the frame is a source for the development of disease.

(f) Beekeepers do not use good management practices of keeping their colonies clean and so the danger of disease is even more. Beekeepers need to be educated regarding these procedures.

As can be seen there is much to be done for disease analysis, prevention and control at the National and regional level.

8. Lack of Sufficient Financial Help from Government and Lending Institutions for the Development of Beekeeping

(a) Beekeeping requires long-term loans at easy rates of interest. That is the procedure used by China to take up beekeeping in a big way. The bee colony produces honey only after almost a year initially and then seasonally. Beekeepers need help to be able to get finance for bee colonies and equipment.

(b) Insurance of bee colonies needs to be done at a reasonable premium so that beekeepers can recover their losses in case of disease or the loss of bees due to other factors.

9. No Tax or other Monetary Benefits for Beekeeping

(a) Beekeeping is neither considered an industry nor an agricultural activity and there is no tax benefit on beekeeping income. Beekeeping is a long-term developmental activity and requires to be given tax incentives for people to take it up in a big way. China gave the beekeepers many incentives for them to take up beekeeping and so had a quick growth in this field.

(b) Beekeeping is also a high-risk activity and is dependent on the vagaries of the weather for production. Many times, even though flowering crops are available, nectar secretion is low because of climatic factors like moisture in the soil. Some times rain at the time of flowering causes the bees to collect little honey. The bee keeper has to be given financial support during seasons of bad honey harvest to sustain his colonies for the next season.

10. No Control on the Use of Pesticides by Farmers Leading to Death of Bee Colonies in Field Locations

The indiscriminate use of pesticides leads to the destruction of bee colonies in the field

(a)      There is no legislation restricting the farmer from the use of pesticides that are harmful to bee colonies. In many countries farmers are required to inform beekeepers in their area as to when they may be spraying pesticides on their crops. India has no such system and bee colonies perish by the farmers using pesticides harmful to bees.

(b)      Only pesticides that are not harmful to bees should be used and should be propagated with farmers. Bees are very important pollinators and destroying them is a national loss as well.

11. Pricing Structures for Honey

There is a lot of lobbying by farmers, beekeepers and beekeeping societies to give the beekeeper high prices for honey. Himachal had fixed a support price for honey at Rs. 30 per kg. This has resulted in large stocks of honey lying unsold as beekeepers refuse to accept lower prices for their honey. International prices are around Rs. 20 per kg for the most superior quality honey. If Australia can meet that basic price with their high basic costs as compared to India, why should Indian beekeepers expect more for their honey here which in any case is not even up to world quality standards? To get more income from honey, yields should be increased and not prices.

Morphology, Anatomy, Colony Organization and Life Cycle

The honeybee belongs to family Apidae of order Hymenoptera. It shares the general characters of class Insecta. But the organ systems are variously modified to lead a specific life that is food habits, social life and other ways of life. A brief account of different organs and the way they have been modified to perform a particular function, as essential for understanding the activities of bees, is given below.

Morphology

Head. The head of adult bee bears a pair of geniculate antennae. The third portion (flagellum) has many sensory structures, which are mainly chemo- and mechano-receptors. The compound eyes are placed on the lateral sides of the head. Bees can distinguish colour but are red blind. They can perceive ultraviolet rays but cannot perceive the red light spectrum that is beyond 620 m wavelength. Bees can also see polarized light. It is well known that bees communicate the food sources with reference to the position of the sun but even in cloudy days or when the sun is obscure the bees perform communication dance with reference to the position of the sun and this is done by receiving polarized light. In the top portion of head capsule the bee has three ocelli. The ocelli perceive only the degree of light and do not form an image on the retina.

Two mandibles are attached to ventro-lateral part of the head capsule. The mandibles differ in the three castes of honeybee (Fig. 1). In workers the mandibles are narrower in the middle and broader at the base and at distal end. Each mandible has a channel, both sides of which have fringed hairs. This channel leads to a groove, which ends at the opening of mandibular gland. The mandibles are used for grasping, scraping pollen from anthers, feeding pollen, and manipulating wax during comb building. Mandibles of the queen differ from those of workers in that they have bilobed distal end and there is no groove from the mandibular gland opening. Mandibles of drone are smaller in size and have faint groove, covered with long hairs, with an apical projection.

Fig. 1. Head capsules and mandibles of castes of honeybees.

The mouthparts in worker bees are modified for sucking and lapping. The proboscis or tongue, which is used for ingesting liquids, is formed by median labium and two lateral maxillae. Labium has long glossae. At the time of sucking food, galeae of maxillae and labial palpi form the anterior and posterior coverings and are appressed together with paraglossae forming the axial part of the food tube. The two paraglossae are united together. The tongue has a deep grove with a partition made by a rod, which is curved backwards. One canal serves as salivary canal through which the saliva is ejected on the food before feeding and the food is ingested through the second canal. The tongue has a spoon shaped lobe at the end. With the lapping motion of the tongue the liquid food is drawn into the food canal of the proboscis and the food channel leads to mouth cavity. The preoral cibarium and postoral pharynx form sucking pump. With the help of sucking pump the food is forced into the oesophagous and honey stomach.

Worker bees feed the young larvae and the queen with the glandular food called ‘royal jelly’. The food is secreted by hypopharyngeal glands, which are long coiled strings of small lobes and are present in the head region. The brood food appears at the base of the open mandibles of the nurse bees.

Thorax. As is common with other insects the second body region, thorax, consists of three segments and is joined to the third region, abdomen, by a narrow propodeum. Thorax carries the organs of locomotion, the legs and wings. The leg of honeybee is composed of basal coxa, femur, long tibia, tarsus and pretarsus. Tarsus is subdivided into tarsomeres and small pretarsus bears the claw. Besides locomotion the legs in honeybees are also modified to perform other functions. Prothoracic legs serve as antenna cleaner. The basal part of the basitarsus has a notch and small lobe projects from the distal end of tibia. The notch has two rows of spines. The flagellum of the antenna is placed on the notch and the tarsus is flaxed against tibia. The antenna is drawn upward and is thus cleaned in between the notch and the projecting clasp. The modification is met with in all the three castes of honeybees. Hind legs in worker bees are modified for pollen and propolis collection. The tibia has double row of curved hairs, the space enclosed in between these is called corbicula or pollen basket. Adjacent margins of tibia and tarsus have notch. Notch on the tibial margin has a row of stiff spines and the opposite trasal margin is modified into a lip called auricle which is also fringed with hairs. Hairy brushes on the tarsi of fore and middle legs collect pollen sticking to head and thorax regions, respectively. The pollen from fore leg is transferred to middle leg of the respective side. The spines on the tibial end of the hind leg brushes the pollen from opposite leg. The pollen falls on flat surface of auricle. By the upward movement of tarsus the pollen on the auricle is pressed against the outer surface of the tibia and thus a pollen load is accumulated.

Fig. 2. Mouth parts of worker bee.

Abdomen. The abdomen in adult worker and queen appears to be six segmented, segments 8 to 10 are reduced in size whereas first is transferred to thorax during pupal stage. The abdomen bears sting, wax and scent glands and genitals and also contains the principal viscera inside.

Fig. 3. Hind leg of worker bee.

Sting. In worker bee the egg-laying apparatus (ovipositor) is modified into a sting. Sting is formed by three long stylets attached to the bulb. The ends of the stylets have two lancets, which are hollow, and when in contact with each other, they form a poison canal. The bulb at the base of shaft made by lencets is supplied by poison sac, which is the reservoir of poison gland. Venom is injected into the body of the victim with each movement of the stylet. These movements continue even after the sting has been inserted. The lancets have curved barbs and the sting apparatus is broken off from the bee’s body in the attempt to pull it out. Queen has well developed poison glands with large poison sac but the lancets lack the curved barbs and she uses it for stinging the rival queens.

Wax glands. Wax glands are situated in the sternites of 4 to 7 abdominal segments. These are polished plates (mirrors) and formed by the modification of epidermis. The wax glands become active in the worker bee at the age of 14 to 18 days. Wax is secreted in liquid form, which solidifies into thin flakes.

Scent glands. The scent glands are present in the thin membrane connecting the last two abdominal terga. The Bee bends her abdomen and exposes the membrane to produce the scent. The odour produced by the cells is derived from scented waste products of metabolism.

Anatomy

The first part of the digestive tract consists of mouth, pharynx and oesophagus with expanded honey stomach. Following the honey stomach (sac) is a valve, which regulates passage of food into ventriculus. The valve can remove the pollen from nectar and by the action of this valve nectar can be retained in honey sac while the pollen passes to the ventriculus. Digestive enzymes are released by the epithelial lining of the stomach. Digested sugars are absorbed into the blood through the walls of the ventriculus. Digested proteins (amino acids) are absorbed in the small intestine. The small intestine leads to rectum, which holds the faeces until it is discharged during flight.

Honeybee has open circulatory system formed by the heart and the aorta. The blood is pumped from the five-chambered heart into the aorta. The chambers of the heart have ostial valves which allow the blood to enter into the heart but backward movement to body cavity is prevented. The blood is poured into the body cavity below the brain at the anterior opening of aorta. The organ systems freely bathe in the blood in the body cavity. The muscle movement of dorsal diaphragm helps in pumping the blood, whereas ventral diaphragm beats in backward direction.

Respiration takes place through spiracles present on lateral sides of various segments of the body. Spiracular openings are attached to tracheae, which ramify into trancheoles. The tracheae and tracheoles supply oxygen to respective segments of the body.

Excretory system is of generalized type. Many thin tubes called Malpighian tubules; extend in the body cavity around various organs. They collect waste metabolites from the blood present in the body cavity.

Brain and ventral nerve cord constitute the central nervous system. Brain has three distinct parts; the anterior most having optic lobes, antennal lobes and mushroom bodies. Mushroom bodies are the centres of instinct and memory co-ordination. Ventral nerve cord has seven nerve centres (ganglia). These centres innervate the various body regions. Sensory nerves extend from the receptive cells of the sense organ to central nervous system. Eyes are the important sense organs. On the body of the bee, there are innervated hairs, which perceive the mechanical stimulus. Small thin-walled peg-like hairs can perceive odour.

Female reproductive system is fully developed in queen but in workers the system is greatly reduced. Two large ovaries have a number of egg tubules or overioles, which lead to lateral oviducts. The two lateral oviducts join posteriorily to form median oviduct, which leads to vagina. Spermatheca is a pouch like structure and serves as storehouse for sperms. The spermatheca is connected to vagina by a spermathecal duct. Tongue like valve fold closes the opening of median oviduct when the sperms are pushed into the spermatheca. Bursa copulatrix accomodates penis at the time of copulation. The valve fold when raised, makes the micropyle of the egg to come in contact with the sperm released from the spermatheca and the fertilization takes place. The ovipositor which is modified into a sting helps in depositing the egg. Soon after mating, the sperms migrate from the vagina to the spermatheca, which stores about five million spermatozoa. These spermatozoa remain viable, get nourishment during storage and are released in small numbers for the fertilization of the eggs. Male reproductive system has paired testes with one vasa deferentia each. Both the vasa defrentia join posteriorly and form an ejaculatory duct, which leads to penis. Two mucous glands unite with ejaculatory duct. On an average each drone produces 1 mm3 semen in A. mellifera and 0.16 mm3 in A. cerana indica.

Fig. 4. Reproductive organs of drone, worker and queen.

Colony organization

Honeybees are social insects and live in colonies with a highly organized system of division of labour. There are three castes: queen, workers and drones. In a normal colony there is one queen, 10,000 to 30,000 workers and a few hundred drones. In A. mellifera colony the number of workers before honey flow may go to 60,000-70,000.

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 lifetime. The stock of male sperms received during mating is preserved in a pouch-like structure, spermatheca, in her body. She draws upon it for a long time (which may be two or three years) to regulate the sex of the offsprings. She can lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs at her will. From the former, workers and sexual females or potential queens and from the latter drones are produced. The differentiation in the workers and the queen is not due to the quality, as previously believed, but to the quantity of the food fed to the larvae. The partial stravation, from about the third day, of the female larvae that are reared in worker cells, results in their differential growth and they become workers instead of queens, which they would have become if they would have been lodged in the larger queen cells and had constant access to more food. The queen in her rounds over the combs lays eggs in the worker, queen or drone cells. The eggs are generally laid in concentric circles. As the old queen shows signs of decline in laying fertilized eggs or if a colony is under swarming, supersedural or emergency impulse, new queens are reared in specially prepared queen cells. On emergence a new queen roams about on the combs, feeds herself on honey and takes one or more orientation flights out of the hive after 5 to 10 days of emergence. On her mating flights she is followed by drones and have multiple matings in one or more days. Her mate dies during the act of copulation and falls on the ground. The queen returns to the hive with the mating sign, the male reproductive organ attached to her reproductive opening, which is removed by the worker bees. After 2 to 4 days she starts laying eggs, first slowly then vigorously. The number of eggs laid depend upon the amount and kind of food she receives from the workers and the availability of other favourable conditions for egg laying and brood rearing.

The queen is heavily worked individual and quickly transforms the food, given to her by the workers, into eggs. She, however, lacks the motherly instinct and the function of nursing the young ones is performed by the worker bees. An A. mellifera queen lays up to 1,800 eggs per day during active brood-rearing season but A. cerana indica queen lays from 500 to 1,000 eggs per day. Number of eggs laid by queen of Indian bees in Kashmir is comparable to A. mellifera. Egg-laying rate diminishes with the age and in failing queens.

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 elsewhere 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 but during off season., as in winter or in cold climate her life extends up to six months. At Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, which has equitable climate, A. cerana indica worker lives for 50 days, the extremes being 44 and 54 days. Kapil found the life span to be 25-42 days from January to April and 45 days in May in Uttar Pradesh.

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. Drones are reared and tolerated during the breeding season in spring and in some places in autumn, when new queens are to be mated. They are driven out of the hive to die of starvation when not needed. The normal life span of an A. cerana drone has been worked out to be 57 days in Tamil Nadu.

The three castes of bees depend on each other for their existence. The lonely worker bee may not live for more than two or three days under the best of simulated environmental conditions. The queen bee also cannot form or even start a colony because she is physically incapable of secreting wax, building a comb, collecting food from the field or rearing brood. In fact, she requires the services of several wokers to feed and groom her and to do other jobs for her. A drone would not last beyond four hours without food. A normal colony must have a fecundated queen capable of laying plenty of fertilized eggs and a large number of workers of varying age as the latters’ fitness to do different tasks depends on their age. A colony is termed ‘weak’ or ‘strong’ according to the number of worker bees it possesses. A colony of Apis cerana indica bees with 10,000 to 15,000 bees (906-1359 g) is considered an average colony at higher altitudes. Drones are not necessary to the normal welfare of a colony but they are needed only during the mating seasons to fecundate virgin queens.

Development

The honeybee undergoes an indirect development (metamorphosis). The four stages of development are: the egg, the larva, the pupa and the adult. Duration of development of worker bee of A. cerana indica is given in Table 1. The mother queen glues or sticks a short delicate white tubular egg, slightly curved on one side, at the bottom of the cell of a comb. From this egg, a tiny, white larva hatches out and feeds voraciously on the food supplied by the nurse bees. When-fully fed it weighs more than 1,500 times of its original weight. The cell is capped by the worker bees with a waxen cover. The fully fed larva spins a cocoon in the cell and enters a period of rest during which it transforms itself into pupa. The major changes in the structure of the body occur at the cost of the fat stored in the body by the larva. The pupa is similar in appearance to the adult bee, having developed mouth parts, legs, wings and other appendages of the body. The adult bee emerges after cutting the cocoon and the waxen capping of the cell. Table 2 shows the time taken by the three castes of the Indian honeybee in the three stages of development.

Food of the Honeybees, Bee Flora and Honey Flow Periods 

Food of the Honeybees

The natural diet of the bees consists of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, salts etc. The nectar of the flowers, which the bees collect and convert into honey, is the source of carbohydrates and vitamins. Pollen, the yellow powder in the flowers, is the main source of protein and it is mixed with honey before it is fed to the larvae. The winged bees, when they are young, also feed on this mixture. Soon they become strong and secrete the royal jelly, which forms the food of the queen, and of the larvae in the early states of growth. These young bees thus act as nurse bees; but as they grow older they take up the field duties and feed on honey only. In a hive, the nurse bees are often seen going from one cell to another, feeding the young larvae.

For brood rearing, it is important that there are plenty of flowers in nature as the source of pollen and honey. For the growth of one larvae of honeybees into an adult bee, one cell full of honey and one cell of pollen is required. In other words, two frames of honey and pollen are required by the bees to raise one frame of brood.

Bees can also use the sugar syrup as food (sugar dissolved in an equal quantity of water). Sugar is offered to supplement honey resources or in the extreme case to save the weak colonies from starvation. Early in the spring, when the flowers are not in abundance bees can be stimulated to start brood rearing, and it should synchronise with the main honey flow, so that the bees can take best advantage of it. Under proper management, not more than one or two kilograms of sugar are needed to be used in a year/colony. A colony of normal size should have at least six to eight pounds of honey (two or three frames) in reserve. When the stores fall below this level, bees should be fed artificially. If sugar is given as a winter reserve, the syrup should be thick, prepared by mixing two parts of sugar with one part of warm water.

To prevent robbing by the bees of other colonies, sugar feeding should be done in the late evening. The hive should be made bee proof that is all crevices, holes should be closed. Then sugar is put in a feeder or in a wide mouthed cup and placed inside the hive. Small pieces of wheat or rice straw should be placed to serve as floats on the surface of the liquid. Bees will sit on these floats while feeding and will not get drowned or smeared with sugar. The sugar syrup can also be filled in the combs. For this purpose, an empty comb is removed from the colony and is held in the standing position in a tray. The sugar syrup is poured on or made to run over the comb. When one side is full, the other side can be filled. This is the safest and easiest method of feeding the bees.

Collection of food in honeybees is a social enterprise and more then 10,000 of foragers may be engaged together in collecting nectar and pollen. The foraging is designed in a way to achieve high efficiency. The foragers sacrifice their individual foraging efficiency for colony efficiency. When they have discovered a rich source of food, they communicate the information through various types of dances to their hive mates. High foraging efficiency is achieved as a result of sharing information about location of rich food sources. Four important resources include nectar, pollen, water and resin. Nectar and pollen are diet, water is used for evaporative cooling of the nest in hot days and resin is used for plugging the unwanted openings.

Colonies managed for honey production rear 1,50,000 to 2,00,000 bees annually and consume 15 to 30 kg of pollen and up to 80 kg of honey. The number of trips required to pool these materials could be quite astonishing. To collect 20 kg of pollen, approx 1-3 million foraging trips are required. Each trip on an average measure 4-5 km of distance. Likewise, to collect 60 kg of honey, 3 million foraging trips are required. In brief each colony can be thought of as an organism which weighs 1 to 5 kg (biomass of bees 7700 bees/kg), rears, 1,50,000 bees, and consumes 20 kg of pollen