Beekeeping -  in India

What is beekeeping?
                       Beekeeping is a branch of applied zoology. Beekeeping is the practice of bringing bees from their natural environment and creating a conducive environment for beekeeping in a modern and scientific way. Indian bees are best suited for breeding. These bees, which are small in color and white striped, live in tree holes or other holes with multiple parallel hives. The wheels are arranged parallel to the entrance to the hole. Wooden boxes are made in keeping with the bee habitat. Wood bee keeping is a modern beekeeping.

Three species of bees are commonly found in India.

1.Mountain bees: These are the largest in size. They tie wheels on the branches of big trees and on the hills. The average honey production per wheel is about 10 kg each time. They do not mean pets so they cannot be reared in boxes.
2.Indian bees: They are medium in size. They tie wheels in dark or hidden places like tree folks, cracks in walls, cupboards, brick piles etc. The average honey production per wheel is about 4 kg. They are calm in nature. So it can be nurtured in a box.
3.Small bees: These are the smallest in size. They attach to the branches, leaves and dry sticks of shrubs. Wheel size is too small. Tied up. The average production of honey per wheel is about 200 grams each time. They are calm in nature. However, do not stay in one place for long.

Family of honey bee:

1.Queen bee: The queen bee is the largest in nature. Its abdomen is quite long and wide and its wings are short. There is only one queen bee on a wheel. Its only job is to lay eggs. 
The queen bee is mixed with only one male bee once in a lifetime. Within a week of her birth, the new queen flew into the sky with some male and worker bees. At the end of the reunion, the queen returned to the wheel with the workers. Once reunited in life, the queen stores enough sperm in the sperm inside her body. 
The queen lays two types of eggs - fertilized eggs (mixed with sperm) and unfertilized eggs (mixed with sperm). What kind of eggs the queen will lay is up to her. 
The new queen will be made from fertilized eggs. The new queen is created by eating a special type of food (royal jelly or rajsudha) under the supervision of worker bees. For this food he is able to lay eggs later and his life span is increased. The lifespan of a queen bee is about 2/3 years.
2.Male bees: They are medium sized. Their eyes are big. But they do not have stings. Their only job is to meet the queen. They are very lazy in nature. Even they often do not take their own food. The workers feed. Only one male bee is able to mate with the queen. But after the meeting, the man died. The lifespan of male bees is about one and a half month.

3.Worker bees: These are the smallest. Their eyes are small, but they have holes. All members except the queen and the male are worker bees. They are divided into groups and perform all the tasks of the wheel (such as making the wheel, collecting the sweet juice and pollen of the flower, making honey, controlling the temperature of the wheel, keeping the wheel clean and tidy, etc.). Their life span from fertilized eggs is about one month.

Bee hive :
Bee hive made of wax. The wheel has small niches. Each niche has six walls. However, the nests of child laborers and honey collectors are a little smaller in size, a little bigger for male children and much larger and taller for baby queens. 
Babies are usually at the bottom of the wheel and honeycombs are at the top. The baby queen's nest is usually at the bottom edge of the wheel. 
Before laying eggs, the queen looks at the size of the nest, so that she lays certain types of eggs in the nest of a certain size. Within three days of laying, the larvae hatch.

 The worker bees feed these baby bees for the first three days with honey and pollen as well as royal jelly. Royal jelly is made from a special gland in the mouth of a worker bee. 
After about 8/9 days, all the larvae of the worker are covered with wax. In this closed nest the larvae transform into moths or pupae. In case of future queen, the closing time of the nest is about 7 days, in case of workers it is 12 days and in case of men it is 15 days. The beetle then transforms into a full-grown bee and emerges from the mouth of the hive.

Honey and wax:

Honey is a delicious food made exclusively by bees. The worker bees absorb the sweet juice of the flower and store it in a special organ above the stomach called the honeycomb. 
When the sweet juice of the flower is deposited in the honeycomb, various enzymes secreted from the salivary glands are mixed with it. As a result, the sweet juice is changed into partial honey, which is brought to the wheel and poured into the honeycombs.
 The young worker bees come running at this time and fill the honey again in their mouths and mix it with their saliva to make real honey and store it in the cocoon.
 The worker bees flutter their wings to remove excess water from the hive. As a result, the sweet juice of the flower becomes thick honey, which is stored as food for oneself and children. 
After storing the honey, the mouths of the nests are closed with wax. The wax glands are folded like pockets under the abdomen of worker bees. Wax particles like tiny leaves are formed there. Workers make houses with this wax.

Beekeeping Managemente:

  • Beekeeping boxes:
Mainly Indian bees are reared in Bangladesh. The beehive is usually made of jackfruit wood and measures 26.6 cm x 26.8 cm x 16.4 cm. 
It is open at the bottom, which is placed on a wooden deck. There is a wooden lid on the box. There are seven parallel wooden frames under the lid. These bees tie the knot. 
Another cell with a frame is placed on this cell. The upper cell is called the honey cell and the lower cell is called the baby cell. 
A beehive should be set up in a relatively high, secluded, smokeless or gas-free, dry and shady area with adequate flowering plants in the vicinity.

  • Collection of bees and management of artificial food:
Beekeeping activities are started by collecting Indian bees (queen and some workers) from real or by purchasing from established beekeepers. For the first 3/4 days of boxing, it is necessary to give artificial food such as thick sugar syrup. 
The bees then collect their own food. Sometimes there is a shortage of food in the environment and it is necessary to give artificial food.

  • Bee-friendly tree:
Bees need flowering plants rich in sweet sap and pollen. The following plants can be planted or cultivated in the vicinity of the bee area (within 2/3 km) to ensure the availability of sweet juice and pollen rich flowers throughout the year. Mango, Blackberry, Banana, Litchi Guava, Pomegranate, Coconut, Bell, Orange Lemon, Chhola, Soybean Shimul, Carpus, Cashew Nut etc.

  • Bee swarm :
Bee hives are usually found in spring and summer. When the number of bees in the box increases, the bees swarm and fly away when there is a shortage of food.
 Before the old queen flew away, the workers first made beehives for the future males and then the future queen bees. 
If these are found and carefully cut off, the swarm can be controlled. If a new queen's nest is seen on the frame wheel, the frame can be transferred to a new box with some bees to make a new wheel.

  • Care of Bee Colony:
Beekeeping in different seasons can be divided into three categories. For example, during beekeeping, when there is plenty of food in nature, and during food crises.

  • breeding :
Growth is the time when the queen bee lays a lot of eggs and the number of bees in a hive increases. Flower ceremonies are seen in nature at this time and bees collect large amounts of pollen and flower sap. As the family grows, new frames will have to be given to the nursery. 
Any old  and any  defective queen has to be removed from the box and a new queen has to be added. Bees usually swarm towards the end of the growing season. Necessary measures have to be taken so that the bees do not fly away in swarms.
 Then the newly created male, queen bees will not be able to fly anywhere else. If the number of bees is much higher, they should be divided into multiple boxes. During beekeeping, bee colonies should be inspected from time to time to look for other problems.

  • Care during food storage:
Lots of flowers are found in nature at this time. The pollen collected by the bees is fed to the baby bees. Bees make honey from flower juice and deposit it in the hive. So that there is no shortage of space to keep honey, more new wheels should be given in the honey house. When the bees cover 75 per cent of the hardness of the bee with thick honey, they have to extract the honey from the bee. If necessary, the beekeeper should remove some of the beehives and move them to another place so that the bees can store more honey from a particular area. Winter nights so that bees do not suffer from severe winter outbreaks

  • Food crisis care:
At this time there are very few flowers in nature to collect food, so the bees are in food crisis. This syrup is made by mixing sugar syrup at this time to meet the shortage of food.
 The container in which the syrup will be served should be placed inside the beaker and a stick or leaf should be given after the syrup so that the bees can sit on it and eat the juice.
 The syrup should be served at a certain time of the night (evening), so that the bees do not come to the other bee and fight for food. If there is a possibility of damage due to storms, the entrance of Maubangti should be kept in a safe, customs place by reversing the wind and growth.
 Otherwise the box should be covered with a covering on the roof to protect the bees from heavy rain. During a food crisis, the colony may become weak. The box should be a small number of four wheels with a bee in the wheel and a bee box should be placed.
 The food crisis does not occur at the same time in all areas. For this, the mowbox can be moved to an area where lots of flowers can be found. During the food crisis, bees are more susceptible to diseases and germs, so the colony should be kept a watchful eye at this time.

  • Honey management:
Caring for B-plants in the area.

Temporary relocation of the colony to an area surrounded by adequate B-plants to collect more honey.

Arrange for colony consolidation as required to obtain honey during scheduled flowering.

Open the whole part of the movement door during the day. However, if the tendency to leave the swarm is observed, the quingate must be installed.

In some cases it is necessary to place a queen excluder between the brood and the super chamber.

To facilitate the queen bee to lay more eggs, the foundation wheel in the brood chamber and the old good wheel need to be placed between the two frames alternately.

In the same way, the foundation chamber and the old good wheel can be placed in the super chamber to provide more honey storage.

If 80% of the honey storage cells in the super chamber are covered, honey should be collected with the help of honey extractor.

At the time of last honey collection at the end of honey season, at least one chak should be kept in the colony along with honey.

If for some reason it is not possible to collect honey in time, it is better to set up another super chamber temporarily.

If male and female cells have been created unnecessarily, they should be cut off.

Collected honey should be processed in a modern way and kept in clean airtight containers.

At the end of the honey collection, all the wheels of the super chamber and the extra wheels of the brood chamber should be dried in the sun and stored.

Sometimes, despite having enough bees in the colony, the worker bees are reluctant to make chak in the super chamber or even if they give chak, they do not store honey in it. In these cases, good results are obtained by cutting the upper part of 2/1 wheel from the brood chamber with honey (partial / complete) and attaching it to the super frame. Apart from this, honey from any other colony can also be brought in a super frame and placed in the super chamber of such a colony.

The number of colonies can be increased by dividing some bee colonies at the end of the honeymoon.

Honey Collection:

While collecting honey, honey is extracted by squeezing the whole wheel by hand. This honey contains bee droppings and waste product.
 In addition, this type of honey is spoiled within a few days. On the other hand, honey can be extracted from the hive with the help of a honey extractor. Only honey comes out of the wheel, but the wheel is not damaged and can be reused.


Bee enemies and disease :
The bee colony is affected by various types of enemies and disease.
  • Wax worm:

Wet, humid weather is most common for beetle infestation. It can be understood by looking at the cobweb-like cover on the wheel chamber. A wax worm -infested pupae cell was found open and dead pupae were found inside.
 The solution to this problem is to keep the beebox clean, remove old and dirty wheels and clean the floor with potassium permanganate. In the event of a beetle infestation, a small amount of a drug called paradichloro benzene can be placed in the corner of the box to prevent the infestation. The gate of the box should be kept closed at night and in the morning.

  • Accrain:
The disease usually affects adult bees. The wings of sick bees split and become like the English letter 'J' and many bees are seen walking on the chest in front of the box.
 In front of the box lies a yellow stool like diarrhea. Bees swarm haphazardly in the colony. In many cases paralysis is seen in them. The infected queen stops laying eggs. Seen to be acarine. 
The cure for acne is to give methyl salicylate vapor inside the honeycomb. For this you need to cover the mouth with a rubber cork with methyl salicylate in a small bottle.