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The study of human anatomy and physiology is one of the crucial Biology Topics for medical professionals and researchers.
The Apiculture – Beekeeping
Beekeeping or apiculture (L. apis = bee; culture = cultivate) is the rearing, care, and management of honey bees for obtaining honey, wax, and other substances. Honey is known to have medicinal value. It is found to be quite useful in the treatment of various disorders of humans related to digestion, dysentery, vomiting, and stomach or liver ailments.
Honey is considered a blood purifier, a cure for cough, cold sore throat, ulcers of the tongue, ulcers of the stomach and intestine, etc. Since honey is rich in iron and calcium, it helps in the growth of the human body. Honey is also used as a source of sugar in confectionery items such as pastries, cakes, etc. Visualizing these important uses of honey, beekeeping has been undertaken on a commercial basis as a business.
Beekeeping, a low-investment enterprise, has become a favourite source of extra income for Indian farmers. Beekeeping also helps in the cross-pollination of flowers of crop plants, since pollens are transferred from one flower to another by bees while they are collecting the nectar.
How is nectar changed into honey?
Nectar is a sweet viscous secretion secreted by flowers of plants; by attracting insects it helps in pollination. When the bee sucks the nectar from the flowers, it passes this nectar to its honey sac where it gets mixed with some acid secretion. In the honey sac, the sucrose (sugar) of the nectar is converted into dextrose and levulose by the action of an invertase enzyme. After regurgitation, the treated nectar finally changes into honey which is stored in special cells of the hive for future use.
What are the Products Obtained from Apiculture?
Apiculture or beekeeping provides us with the following useful products: honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom.
1. Honey:
Honey is a sweet, viscous edible fluid containing sugars, water or moisture, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, and pollen. Sugars present in honey include levulose, dextrose, sucrose, and dextrin. Minerals of honey are calcium, iron, phosphate, and manganese. Vitamins present in honey are Pantothenic acid, Biotin, Pyridoxin, Choline, Ascorbic acid, Thiamine, Riboflavin, and Niacin. The colour, flavour, and odour of honey usually depend on the flowers from which nectar is gathered. One kilogram of honey contains 3200 calories and is an energy-rich food.
2. Bee wax:
It is a wax with a high melting point (about 140°F). It is secreted by the wax glands of worker bees. Bee wax is utilized in the construction of a hive. This wax is used by human beings for several purposes such as manufacturing cosmetics, cold creams, shaving creams, polishes, candles, ointments, lipsticks, lubricants, modelling work, etc.
3. Propolis and balms are other collections of bees from plants. These substances are used in repairing and fastening combs.
4. Poison of bees is used in the manufacturing of certain Ayurvedic and Homeopathic medicines.
Types of Honey Bees for Apiculture
Both indigenous and exotic varieties of honey bees are used for the commercial production of honey in India.
Indigenous Varieties of Honey Bees
- Apis cerana indica F. (Indian bee)
- Apis dorsata F. (Rock bee)
- Apis florae F. (Little bee).
Exotic Varieties of Honey Bees
- Apis mellifera (European or Italian bee)
- Apis adamsoni (South African bee)
Italian bee (Apis mellifera) is commonly domesticated in India to increase the yield of honey.
Italian bee is preferred because
- It is gentle in nature
- It has a good honey collection capacity
- It has the ability to protect itself from enemies
- It has a prolific queen with less swarming
Colony and Castes of Honey Bee
The honey bee is a social insect. The nest of the honey bee is known as the bee hive. Honey bees provide a good example of teamwork and division of labour.
In nature, honey bees raise their nests, called hives, on tall trees in forests or cities and even on tall buildings in urban areas. Compartments made by workers with the wax of their wax glands are called combs. A comb is a vertical sheet of wax, composed of a double layer of hexagonal cells. The hexagonal shape of cells contains maximum space with minimum use of wax and labour. Storage cells of the comb contain honey and pollen. Brood cells contain young stages and are of three types: worker cells, drone cells, and queen cells. The queen cell is single and largest. Adults do not live in cells but move on the surface of the comb.
Honey bees live in a colony and different tasks are done by different groups of bees in the same colony. A colony of Italian bees normally has one queen, 40,000 to 100,000 workers, and a few hundred (up to 300) of drones. Due to the existence of several morphological forms, called castes, bees are said to be the polymorphic species. A caste can be defined as a collection of individuals within the colony that are morphologically distinct from individuals in other castes and perform specific tasks.
According to roles, there are following three types of castes in the colony of bees:
1. Queen:
The body size of the queen is much larger than other castes of bees in the colony. Her legs are strong for she is always walking about on the comb. The queen, as the mother of the colony, is responsible for laying eggs. She lays up to 2000 eggs every day of each season. Queen lays both fertilized (diploid, 2ri) and unfertilized (haploid, 2n) eggs. Queen and workers emerge from the fertilized eggs, whereas drones come out from unfertilized eggs. Thus, queens are larger, they mate, lay eggs, eat proteinaceous food, and often do not forage or defend the colony.
Eggs of queen hatch into white, legless larvae which spin delicate silken cocoons around themselves and turn into pupae. Each pupa develops into an adult. The adult comes out by cutting the wall of the cocoon first and secondly by breaking the wax cap of the cell.
During the first 2 to 3 days, all larvae of bees are fed on a special proteinaceous food, called “Royal jelly” or bee milk which is secreted by the hypopharyngeal glands of the young workers. After that coarser food, the “Bee Bread”, which is a mixture of honey and pollen grain is given. However, the queen-forming larvae are fed on royal jelly for full larval life and these larvae are also taken for further development into a special chamber called the queen’s chamber or cell.
2. Drone:
It is a haploid, fertile male. Drones are larger in size than workers and are quite noisy. They are unable to gather food, but eat voraciously. Drones are stingless and their main role is to mate with the queen and remain in the colony to sleep and eat honey. Since their role is only in the breeding season, therefore, they are made to leave the hive to save honey from them.
3. Worker:
The worker is a diploid, sterile female (i.e., it can not reproduce). The size of the worker is the smallest among the castes of bees. Workers are the most active members of the colony; they have almost all responsibilities on their shoulders. For various indoor and outdoor chores, the workers are provided with a variety of organs such as hypopharyngeal glands (for secretion of bee milk), wax glands (for building the cells of comb), pollen baskets on their hind legs (for the collection of pollen), sucking type mouth parts (for collecting the nectar), high level of secretion of invertase enzyme (in the honey sac for honey formation) and a sting at the tip of the abdomen (for the defense of the colony).
Workers live for 3 to 12 months. The function of workers changes with age. During the first half of their life, workers are engaged in indoor duties as scavengers, nurse bees, fanner bees, and guard bees.
During the second half, they perform outside duties as scout bees and forager bees, the worker of a hive fall under three major age groups. These are
- Scavenger bees: For the first three days, each worker bee acts as a scavenger. Cleaning the walls and floor of empty cells of the colony for reuse.
- Nurse bees: From the fourth day onwards, each worker bee feeds the entire brood, like a foster mother, with a mixture of honey and pollen. By the seventh day, it starts producing royal jelly, which is fed to the queen and future queen bees. Nurse bees also perform guard duties. They defend the colony from intruders. They kill the intruder by stinging but also get killed with the loss of sting.
- Foraging or field bees: They explore new sources of nectar (as scout bees). Forager bees collect nectar, pollen, and propolis. Nectar is changed into honey in their crops.
Worker bees tend to maintain a constant temperature of the bee hive by their behaviour, i.e., by flapping their wings for cooling and by huddling together for warming. Forager bees communicate about the location of the foraging grounds with their colony mates in the form of round-dance and waggle-dance. For decoding the meaning of these dances, an Austrian Zoologist Karl von Frisch (1886-1982) took 20 years of research and got Nobel Prize in 1973 for his discovery. Helping behaviour existing between members of a social group (workers) is called altruism (which means self-sacrifice).
Best Management Practices for Beekeepers and Growers
For the purpose of commercial production of honey, apiaries are established. An apiary is a place where bee hives (wooden boxes) are kept to get honey and other products of bees. To obtain good quality and higher yields of honey the following considerations are done:
1. Pasturage/Crop/Flora:
The quality and taste of honey depends upon the flora, pasturage or orchards available for the nectar and pollen collection. Pasturage/orchard flora of honey bees include a variety of flowering plants such as Mango (Aam), Coconut (Narial), Almond (Badam), Tamarind (Imli), Ber, Berseem, Litchi, Cotton, Shishame, Apple, Mahua, Coriander, Cashew, Coffee, Rubber plants, Guava, Sunflower, Neem, etc.
2. Bee-hive:
In India, generally, three types of artificial bee hives are used in apiaries:
- Langstroth
- Newton
- Jeolikote
Newton and Jeolikote-type hives are mostly used in plains and Langstroth hive is used in hill region. Bee-hive is a box raised over a stand. The box has a wire gauze-covered brood chamber for egg laying and a multi-frame honey chamber for honey collection as a honey reserve. Each bee hive is 46 × 23 cm in size.
3. Apiary location:
Apiary means setting up a number of bee hives in good and desirable locations in such a systematic way that allows maximum nectar and pollen collection. An apiary should be set in a locality rich in vegetation, especially the flowering plants; rich flora should be available in a 1 to 2 km radius for honey collection. Each hive should face East. It should receive sunlight during the morning and evening and some shade during mid-day. Water should be available nearby and an open space in the front of the hive entrance is also necessary.
4. Honey flow and seasons:
At a given location in a season yield of honey is dependent on the duration for which abundant flora is available. The total time during which honey bees collect nectar and pollens is called the honey flow period. Therefore, to obtain large quantities of honey, apiaries should be established, at a location, where there is an abundance of flowers for a longer duration.
5. Swarming (Reproduction):
It is a natural phenomenon whereby the mass movement of bees from one place to another takes place. In honey bees, swarming is done in the spring season for the purpose of reproduction. For swarming, a new (young) queen leaves the old hive along with some workers and drones and takes a new shelter. Frequent transfer results in low yield of honey and maintenance cost of hives is also increased.
6. Selection of a variety of honey bees and site selection for beekeeping:
Less swarming variety is selected such as Apis mellifera (Italian bee); this bee also has other desirable characteristics (as discussed earlier). A suitable site for an apiary should have good pasturage and have longer honey flow time.
Diseases and Enemies of Honey Bee
Honeybees are commonly infected by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. For example, the bacterium Bacillus apisceptious infects the blood of bees causing septicemia. Brood foul disease takes place by Schizomycetes (fungi). Nosema disease and amoeba disease are caused by protozoan pathogens Nosema apis and Vahlkampfia mellifica, respectively.
Common pests/enemies of bees are wasps, wax moths, and mites. Dysentery, paralysis, and acarine diseases are caused by a parasitic mite Acarapis woodi. Various birds such as king crows, blue tits, fly-catchers, chaffinch, green blue eaters, sparrows, etc., use bees as their meal. Wasps are controlled manually (i.e., by destroying the wasp nests from the locality of the apiary). The wax moth is controlled by exposing bees in the bee hive to the sun, by increasing temperature. Bee-eater birds are scared away by some devices.