Apiculture or beekeeping-Raring of Honey Bee

This document contain all of the relative information for apiculture which is also known as Beekeeping.
This document contain mostly related topics such as history, taxonomical classification, types of bees, production of honey and structure of hives.

1. 4/17/2019 Apiculture or
Beekeeping

Economics Zoology





































Muhammad Yousaf
ROLL NO: 24 M.SC 4TH SELF, AWKUM

2. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

APICULTURE

Definition:

Apiculture is a term and also a technique, Apis means “Bee”, as scientific names of most honey
bees starts with “Apis”, used for raring and maintenance of honey bees colonies for the purpose of
gaining honey, royal jelly, beeswax, bee pollen etc. Apiculture is also called beekeeping. These are
mainly groomed in hive or specific boxes created by human.
History:

The history of beekeeping and honey gathering go back many years. Opinions vary as some
sources state about 40 million years, others claim to be 150 million years back by studying fossils record.

The earliest records of humans eating honey, are believed to date back 10,000 years by taking
an overview of some of the paintings found in caves, drawings in Spain and Egyptian art also shows the
domestication of honey bees about 4500 years ago. After the understanding the whole biology and
lifestyle study of honey bees in 18
th
century by the European, which revealed that honey bees and their
hives can be harvested and are movable. Lorraine Langstroth was the first person who design a box
which was used for raring the honey bees or to be groomed and discovered that there was a
specific spatial measurement between the wax combs, later called the bee space. After that the
evolution of the bee raring chambers or boxes starts to different types which are discussed below.

Types:

There are 22000 species of bees in which 9 are honey bees. Bees, wasps, and ants are all part of
a group of insects called “ Hymenoptera ” which has further two group that are

•
•
Symphyta (sawflies and horntails)
Apocrita (ants, bees, and wasps)

Within group Apocrita, the bees are classified in Apidea family including all bees and wasps.
Members of Apis family are specially distinguished due to honey production and formation of nest from
wax. The bee genus Apis occurs naturally in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Taxonomy of honey bees is given
below;
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda
Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Family Apidea
Genus Apis

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APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING



There are four common species of genus Apis which are given below with details;

Apis Dorsata (The Rock-Bee)

Apis Dorsata, also called the giant bee due to larger size, commonly found in South and
Southeast Asia, mainly in forested areas but not found in North America. Three subspecies of Apis
dorsata are:

•
•
•
•
Apis dorsata dorsata,
Apis dorsata binghami
Apis dorsata breviligula
Apis dorsata laboriosa

They are mostly around 17–20 mm (0.7–
0.8 in) long. This species has a different nest design
built a single, large, in exposed places far off the
ground, like on tree limbs, under cliff overhangs, and
sometimes on buildings. They developed an effective
colony defense system to protect their combs. As
these bees are ferocious, produces honey in large
amount but domesticating them is very difficult
process because it stings so severely that causes fever and sometimes leads to the death.

ii. Apis Indica or Apis Cerana Indica

Apis Indica is a subspecies of Asiatic honey bee, best known for beekeeping due to relatively
non-aggressive behavior and are present
predominantly and found in Pakistan, India,
Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and
mainland Asia. There are eight recognized
subspecies of Apis cerana, including Apis cerana
cerana and Apis cerana indica. Their Hive consists of
several parallel combs in dark places such as cavities
of tree, trunks, mud walls, earthen pots, etc.

4. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

iii. Apis Florea

Apis florea, commonly called the Dwarf
honey bee, Red dwarf honey bee or little bee, is one
of two species of small, wild honey bees of southern
and southeastern Asia. It has a much wider
distribution than its sister species, Apis
andreniformis. These honey bees are important
pollinators and therefore commodified in countries
like Cambodia. Apis florea have open nests and small
colonies, which makes them more susceptible to
predation. This bee builds single small combs in bushes, hedges and its honey yield is poor.

iv. Apis Mellifera

The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12
species of honey bee worldwide. The western honey bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus, naturally occurs in
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This species has
been subdivided into at least 20 recognized
subspecies (or races), none of which are native to the
Americas. However, subspecies of the western honey
bee have been spread extensively beyond their
natural range due to economic benefits related to
pollination and honey production. This bee resembles
with the Indian bee (Apis indica) and has been
introduced in many parts of the world including
Pakistan. It is easily domesticated.

Life Cycle:

The life cycle and life stages of honey bee species. Honey bees are holometabolous insects,
which means they undergo four separate life stages (egg, larva, pupa, and adult).

Egg: A queen will lay one egg in an individual wax cell at a time. Eggs are small, white, and oval; they
look similar to a grain of rice. After three days, a larva will hatch from the egg.

Larva: The larvae are small, white, and maggot-like. They remain in their individual cells. They are fed a
steady diet of a protein-based liquid produced by younger adult workers. For six days, the larvae will eat
until their body weight attains that of a fully developed adult. They are usually found lying in the bottom
of a wax cell in the shape of a letter C.

Pupa: Once the larvae are ready to pupate, the workers cover the cell with a wax capping. The pupa
will remain undisturbed for 12 days.

5. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
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APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING














Adult: After completing the final molt and enclosing from the pupal casing, the adult bee will exit the
cell by chewing through the wax capping.

All honey bee species are superorganisms in that whole colonies, rather than individual bees,
are considered to be the biological unit. One colony can split into two colonies once the colony becomes
large in size and there are abundant food resources (nectar and pollen). This colony-level reproduction is
known as swarming.

The lifespan of Apis dorsata workers is not well characterized. Compared to Apis
mellifera workers, Apis dorsata seems to live significantly longer, especially during migration swarms
when workers will sometimes travel more than two months to reach a new destination and produce a
new generation of bees.

Castes:

Honey bee is a social insect. The nest of the honey bee is known as the bee-hive. A hive in
summer consists of 32 to 50 thousand individuals, depending on the locality. There are three types of
individuals in a colony, namely the Queen, worker and drone. Due to the existence of several
morphological forms, bees are said to be a polymorphic species. All these three castes depend on each
other for their existence.

1. Queen

It is a diploid, fertile female. The presence of queen in a colony is a must. The size of the body of
queen is much larger than other castes of bees of the colony. Her legs are
strong for she is always walking about on the comb. The queen has a sting
curved like a scimitar at the tip of the abdomen, which is in fact a modification
of the egg-laying organ known as ovipositor. The sting serves as an organ of
defense. She never uses it against anybody except her own caste. The queen is
responsible for laying eggs for a colony. She lays about 1000 to 1500 eggs
every day and lives a life of two three years.

However, the number of eggs laid per day may vary from individual to
individual, and it has been found that a queen may produce as much as 6,000

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APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

eggs per day. She lays both fertilized eggs (from which females develop) and unfertilized eggs (from
which males develop).

Amazing and very interesting life event occur in Queen that usually at the age of 7-10 days in her
parent hive, after the old mother queen along with some workers had left that hive, this new virgin
queen goes out for (nuptial) flights. The drones from the same hive chase her and may also be joined by
drones (male bees) from other hives. Mating takes place, while flying, on an average, the queen mates
with about six drones and then returns to the hive. The sperms she has received are enough for her
whole life, and she never mates again.

2. Worker

It is a diploid, sterile female. The size of a worker is the smallest among the castes but they
constitute the majority of the bees in a colony. Their function is to collect
honey, to look after young ones to clean the comb, to defend the hive and to
maintain the temperature of the hive. The body is covered with branched hairs
so that when a bee visits a flower, pollen grains adhere to the hairs and other
parts of the body.

The worker cleans off pollen grains with special structures, the antenna
cleaners on each foreleg, pollen brushes on all legs and pollen combs on hind
legs. All pollen is stored in the pollen basket present on the outer surface of
tibiae on hind legs. Water and nectar are gathered by means of sucking
mouthparts which are modifications of the maxillae and labium.

Workers are provided by a sting at the tip of the abdomen which is a modified ovipositor. A large
poison storage sac is connected with the base of the sting. Two acidic and one alkaline gland mix their
secretion to form poison which is injected by the operation of muscles to other animals. During the
withdrawal from the prey’s body, the stings along wi th other poison apparatus are torn off, resulting in
the death of that particular bee. Workers are female but are incapable of producing eggs. The life span
of a worker bee is 4 —5 months but during hard working days they persist for five to six weeks only. The
workers have an average life span of about 35 days and they have to perform different duties age-wise
are as follows:

•
•
•
Day 1-14 Activity inside the hive such as cleaning the hive, feeding the larvae, etc.
Day 14-20 Guard duties at entrance to the hive.
Day 21- 35 Foraging, i.e. collecting the food (nectar and pollen from the surroundings).

3. Drones

It is haploid, fertile male. The males are larger than workers and are quite
noisy. They are unable to gather food, but eat voraciously. They are stingless and
their sole function is to fertilize the female (queen). The number of drones in a
colony varies from 200—300, but during bad season they are driven out. The
drone develops parthenogenetically from unfertilized eggs.

7. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

Lifespans:

•


•

•
Workers live on average between four to six weeks during the active season, but those reared
late in the season may survive until spring, as they do little during the cold months except feed
and keep warm.
The average lifespan of a queen is one to three years. A drone dies immediately after mating
with the queen.
Drones are prevalent in the colonies during the spring and summer month but are evicted from
the hive, and soon after die, in autumn.

Bee Life-Stages Table:

Time duration passed by the queens, workers and drones in their life stages are given in
following table.

Type
Queen
Worker
Drone
Egg
3 days
3 days
3 days
Larva
5 days
6 days
7 days
Pupa
9 days
12 days
14 days
Total
17 days
21 days
24 days
Stimulation of New Queen:

When the queen gets older (usually in the third year) her body gives out a chemical stimulus to
the workers to construct a few rearing cells for queens. She places one fertilized egg in each of such
brood cells. The larvae are fed on royal jelly (saliva of workers). They turn into pupae and then into
queens. The first queen to emerge from the brood cells, kills the remaining ones. Now the old queen
takes to swarming along with a mixture of workers of all ages, leaves the old hive to develop a colony at
some new site. The new queen in the old hive takes to mating flight with the drones and returns to the
same hive, as discussed earlier.

Communication:

The bees are able to communication the presence, direction, distance, and nutrient strength of nectar
and pollen sources while foraging. In the late 1880's Australian Zoologist Karl von Frish artificially
manipulate forage sources and describe the two danced of the bees: the waggle and the round dance. If
a forage site is relatively close to the hive the bee will signal the others by doing the round dance.
Moving in a clockwise, then counter-clockwise circle, repeating the dance to give direction to the other
worker bees. The most remarkable dance of the bee is the waggle dance. This dance is performed when
a new forage source is found telling them what direction to fly and what to expect when they get there.

How a swarm is catched and hived?

When an old queen and some workers fly to form a new hive, is called swarm. Swarms are collected by
means of some collector which can be straw basket, when and where they are settled. After that, they are
transferred to hive where they form new colonies and honey is obtained by the either traditional method or quick
method

Commercial Production of Honey:

Honey bees produce honey, wax and other valuable products which are collected in various ways, some
of which are given below.

8. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

1. Indigenous Method

The old method commonly used by old apiculture is very crude, cruel and of unplanned type. This old
method is called as Indigenous method.

Two types of hives are used in indigenous method of bee keeping e.g. wall or fixed and movable hive.

WALL OR FIXED HIVE:

It is purely natural type of comb because the bees themselves prepare the hive at any space on the wall
or trees. There is an opening on one side through which bees come out of the hive.

MOVABLE HIVE:

It comprises of hollow wood logs, empty boxes and earthen pots etc. placed in verandas of houses.
There exist two holes one is for entrance and the other for exit of the bees. The swarmed bees usually
come to the box on their own accord. Some bee keepers use to take the clusters of the swarms from a
tree and keep them in the hive.

EXTRACTION OF HONEY

For honey extraction, burning fire is brought near the bee hive at the night as a result of which bees are
either killed or they escape off. Further the hive full of honey is being removed, cut into pieces and
squeezed to get honey. Sometimes smoking is done so that the bees may escape from their hives.

2. Modern Method of Apiculture

The drawbacks of indigenous method an advanced method based on scientific facts has been
developed. This was designed and invented by Longstroth in 1951. This invention has turned apiculture into a
cottage industry and has provided employment to lakhs of people.
The modern beehive is made up of a series of square boxes without tops or bottoms, set one above
the other. These hives have a floor board and a bottom stand at the bottom and a crown board at the top. Inside
these boxes, frames are vertically hung parallel to each other. The frames are filled with sheets of wax
foundation on which the combs are built by the bees.

They are divided into 4 types:

1. Typical Movable Hive

9. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

2. Queen Excluder













3. Honey Extractor








4. Uncapping Knife

10. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

Nutrient Facts of Honey:

Nutrient facts of honey per 125ml (87g) are given in table.

Amount
Calories 80
Fat 0.5g
Saturated 0 g+ Trans 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 0 mg
Carbohydrate 18 g
Fibre 2 g
Sugars 2 g
Proteins 3g
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Calcium
Iron


Products from a Bee Hive:
% Daily Value

1%
0%

0%
6%
8%


2%
10%
0%
2%

• Honey
Honey is the complex substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants and trees are
gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honey bees as a food source for the colony. All
living species of bees have had their honey gathered by indigenous peoples for consumption. For
commercial purposes, only the European honey bee & the Asian honey bee have been harvested
substantially. Honey is sometimes also gathered by humans from the nests of various native stingless
bees though this is typically in much smaller quantities. Chemically, honey is a viscous water solution of
sugar. Its approximate composition in percentage is as follows:

▪ Water 13-20
▪ Fructose 40-50

11. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19


APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

▪ Glucose 2-3
▪ Minerals Traces
▪ Vitamins (minute quantities)(B1, B2, C)
Nectar:

Nectar, a liquid high in sucrose, is produced in plant glands known as nectaries. Nectar is usually high in
moisture and this moisture is mostly evaporated by honey bees when they produce honey. Nectar plays
an important energy resource for honey bees and plays a significant role in foraging economics and
evolutionary differentiation between different subspecies. It was proposed through an experiment
conducted with the African honey bee, A. m. Scutellata, that nectar temperature impacts the foraging
decisions of honey bees. Nectar is a high source of carbohydrate in the bee’s diet.

• Beeswax:

Worker bees at a young age will secrete beeswax from a series of glands on their abdomens. They use
this beeswax to form the walls and caps of the honeycomb. However, some beekeepers use plastic as a
foundation or substitute for honeycomb. Just like the honey that bees produce, many people harvest
beeswax for various purposes like candles, lip balms, creams, polish and conditioners just to name a few.

• Pollen:

Bees collect pollen in their pollen basket and carry it back to the hive. However only the worker honey
bee is equipped to do this task. The queen bee and the male (drone) bee do not collect pollen. In the
bee hive pollen, is used as an essential source of protein to raise the bee brood. In some cases, excess
pollen can be collected from the hives of A. Mellifera and A. Cerana. It is often eaten as a health
supplement eaten in small amounts or even sprinkled on breakfast cereal for example. It also has been
used with moderate success as a source of pollen for hand pollination however, pollen collected by bees
and harvested for pollination must be used within a few hours because it loses its potency rapidly,
possibly because of the effects of enzymes or other chemicals from the bees; hand-collected pollen may
remain usable for weeks, if stored promptly under suitable conditions.

• Bee Bread:

Rather than what the name would suggest, bee bread is not made of bees but it is made by the bees.
Bee bread is essentially pollen collected by bees and packed into bee brood cells mixed with bee
digestive fluids and nectar. The bees then seal these cells with honey and stored in the hive for later
consumption. Bees do this because they do not consume pollen it’s raw form.

• Propolis:

The word Propolis comes from Greek origin and means to defend the city. Propolis or bee glue is created
from resins, balsams and tree saps. Some species of honey bees that nest in tree cavities use propolis to
seal cracks in the hive. Often when a swarm of honey bees take up residence in a possum box or tree
hollow, bees use propolis to make a small entrance to the hive. Dwarf honey bees use propolis to

12. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

defend against ants by coating the branch from which their nest is suspended to create a sticky moat.
Because of its’ high medicinal qualities, propolis is consumed by humans as a health supplement in
various ways and also used in some cosmetics. Propolis is available in capsule form and even used as an
ingredient in some toothpaste.

• Royal Jelly:

Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae, as well as adult queens. The
worker nurse bee secretes royal jelly from its’ hypopharynx glands. This is fed to the larvae of queen,
worker and drone bees.

When worker bees decide to make a new queen, because the old queen is either weakening or dead,
they choose several small female larvae and feed them with copious amounts of royal jelly in specially
constructed cells. These cells are known as queen cells and are much larger than a worker or drone cell.
This type of feeding triggers the development of queen morphology, including the fully developed
ovaries needed to lay eggs.

Royal jelly is secreted from the glands in the heads of worker bees, and is fed to all bee larvae, whether
they are destined to become drones (males), workers (sterile females), or queens (fertile females). After
three days, the drone and worker larvae are no longer fed with royal jelly, but queen larvae continue to
be fed this special substance throughout their development. It is harvested by humans by stimulating
colonies with movable frame hives to produce queen bees. Royal jelly is collected from each individual
queen cell (honeycomb) when the queen larvae are about four days old. It is collected from queen cells
because these are the only cells in which large amounts are deposited; when royal jelly is fed to worker
larvae, it is fed directly to them, and they consume it as it is produced, while the cells of queen larvae
are “stocked” with royal jelly much faster than the larvae can consume it. Therefore, only in queen cells
is the harvest of royal jelly practical. A well-managed hive during a season of 5–6 months can produce
approximately 500 grams of royal jelly. Since the product is perishable, producers must have immediate
access to proper cold storage (e.g., a household refrigerator or freezer) in which the royal jelly is stored
until it is sold or conveyed to a collection center. To aid the royal jelly shelf life, sometimes honey or
beeswax are added.

• Bee Venom:

When a worker bee stings, it injects bee venom. This is used as a defense mechanism of the worker bee
to protect itself or its’ colony. Also known as apitoxin, bee venom is a colorless, clear liquid containing
proteins that can lead to localized inflammation or in extreme cases, severe allergic reaction. Bee venom
has been used as an alternative medicine in apitherapy for some time for its’ benefits to health and to
treat some illnesses. Many believe the benefits of bee venom are not supported by scientific evidence.
Specially built machines are used to extract or milk bee venom from bees without harming the bee.

13. MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
4/17/19
APICULTURE OR BEEKEEPING

• Bee Hive Air:

The wondrous powers of bees are being harvested from the air honey bees create in their beehives. It is
becoming more popular now to see a natural therapist to include the ability to inhale the air created in
the beehive. This is sometimes done by attaching a hose and mask to the cover of the beehive. The
patient will then sit for sometimes inhaling the air circulated in the hive. We can’t say we have ever tried
inhaling beehive air directly with a mask but there seems to be good results for asthma sufferers. Plus,
as any beekeeper will tell you the smell of a beehive especially when bees are on a honey flow, can be
quite pleasant and unlike anything in nature.