NAME: BARJANA BANU A

ID NO: 202051015
YEAR: 1ST YEAR B.SC(HONS) AGRICULTURE
INSTITUTION: MIT COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND
TECHONOLOGY,MUSIRI.TRICHY.

TOPIC

APICULTURE
GOAL
To develop the agriculture field and increase the
small farmers income.
ABSTRACT
Income generation is important aspects of
agriculture activity. Apiculture is an income generating business
under favourable condition.The colony of bees, Queen, Drones,
Workers, Laying Workers, Developmentt cycle of a Bee,
Equipment for the farm, Seletion of the apiary, Selection of the
bee, Feed for the bee, Apiary management, Colony management
during different seasons, Honey extraction. To know all these
definitions clearly.We can improve the income aspects.

INTRODUCTION
Apiculture or bee keeping is the practice of
honeybee management in the hives for pollination and the
production of honey and other products. It is important because
it provides bees with a safe place to work and live. It’s important
to keep the bee population healthy. It also improves the farmer’s
income. Some farmers pay beekeepers to temporarily recolate
their hives near their crops to pollinate them and help them
grow…….We can also make money by raising and selling
starter hives or replacement bees for other bee keepers.Now-a-
days youngters are moved towards agriculture and earns
1,00,000 and upto 2,00,000 annually through the sale of
honey.Earlier people would take up beekeeping as a hobbly,but
now it has become a key income generating activity house
holds in the area. Now- a-days many women’s are involved in
the practice and earn independently. The beekeeping business is
one of the most profitable business india,this business model
not only produce honey,but it also gives us lot of product to use
for our daily life.
Bees are generally farmed for their honey and
other products like Bee wax, propolis, flower pollen, royal jelly,
bee pollen, etc…… This practice also producers bees which are
sold by the beekeepers for income generation. Bee farming was
believed to have begun thousands of centuries ago in North
Africa.It is estimated that there are more than 20,000 species of
wild bee speices around the world. Bee farming is practiced with
the social species of honey bee variety,which live in colonies.
Two widely know varieties of bees from the Apis genus and
Apis mellifera and Apis cerena. The mellifera species are mostly
managed by the bee keepers of Europe and America and hence
this species is also known as a western honey bee. The cerena is
managed by the bee keepers of the tropics and is also known as
Asiatic honey bee. There are two major ways in which these
bees are farmed, they are;the traditional bee keeping way like
the fixed comb hives and the modern bee keeping techiques like
the top-bar-hives,horizontal frame hives and vertical stackable
frame hives.

MATERIAL REQUIRED
Hive stand
Bottom board
Hive bodies
Frame and combs
Queen excluder
Inner cover
Outer cover
Plastic hive equipment
Painting
Smoker
Protective wear
SELECTION OF THE FLORA
The place where the honey bees are kept is called as
Apiary. The local surrounding flora is very important for
selecting the location of the apiary. It is best practice to
choose more nectar-yielding plants like neem, jamun,
soapnut etc. in the surroundings. Plants like cherry,
sheesham, coconut and guava serve both for nectar and
pollen. Best choice of pollen yielding plants is maize, rose
and sorghum.
SELECTION OF HONEY BEE

Selection of a good variety of honey bees is an important

step before starting apiculture. In general the honey bees
for the apiculture must have,
1. High honey yielding capacity
2. Must be able to form the hive anywhere
3. Worker bees must be smart and energetic
4. Must be able to protect themselves from the enemies
5. Must possess colonial habit
The following is the description of are four common
species of honey bee found in India. Out of these four
Apis indica is best suited for Indian apiculture industry.
 Apis dorsata (The rock-bee or Giant honey-bee)
• This is the largest honeybee.
• Builds single large open comb on high branches of trees
and rocks.
• Produces large quantity of honey, but this bee is difficult
to domesticate.
• This bee is ferocious, stings severely causing fever and
sometimes even death.
Apis indica (The small Indian bee)
• Medium - sized
• Hive consists of several parallel combs in dark places
such as cavities of tree
• Trunks, mud walls, earthen posts, etc.
• This bee is not so ferocious and can be domesticated
Apis florea (The little bee)
• small - sized
• Builds single small combs in bushes, hedges, etc.
• Honey yield is poor.
Apis mellifera (The European bee)
• This species has been introduced in many parts of the
world including India.
• It is easily domesticated.
THE BEE COLONY AND ITS MEMBERS
The nest of the honey bee is known as the bee-hive. The
population of an average sized colony consists of 30 to 50
thousand individuals. A colony is termed ‘weak’ or
‘strong’ according to the number of worker bees it
possesses. 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. The following is the description of
each type of member of the bee colony,
THE QUEEN BEES
The following are the qualities of the Queen bee
1. It is a diploid, fertile female.
2. The presence of queen is a must in a colony
3. The size of the body of queen is much larger than other
castes of bees of the colony
4. Her legs are strong as she always has to walk about on the
comb
5. The queen has a sting, curved like a sword at the tip of the
abdomen, which is 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
6. The queen is responsible for laying eggs for a colony. She
lays about 1000 to 1500 eggs every day and lives for about
two to three years. She lays both fertilized eggs (from
which females develop) and unfertilized eggs (from which
males develop).
THE WORKER BEE
The following are the qualities of the worker bee

• It is a diploid, sterile female.

• The size of a worker is the smallest among all the other
castes but they constitute majority population of the bees
in a colony.
The functions of worker bees are as follows,
1. Collection of honey,
2. Producing royal jelly for feeding the community,
3. Raising larvae and young ones,
4. Cleaning the comb,
5. Making wax,
6. Constructing the beehive,
7. Defending and protecting the hive,
8. Clearing the debris and dead bees,
9. Maintaining the temperature of the hive
Worker bees are again of different types depending on the
type of work they do,
Laying worker: These worker bees lay unfertilized eggs
in the absence of the queen bee.
Nurse workers: They serve the queen with royal jelly,
larvae and drones with honey and beebread.
House workers: They perform house cleaning, comb
building, accepting nectar and pollen for foragers and
finally guard the hive.
Field workers: They travel to distant places to collect the
nectar, pollen grains and resin from the flowers.
THE DRONE BEE
The following are the qualities of the drone bee,
1. It is haploid, fertile male.
2. The drones are born out of unfertilized eggs in the brood
chamber.
3. The males are larger than workers and are quite noisy.
4. They have large wings, robust body and reduced
mouthparts.
5. They are unable to gather food, but they voraciously eat
the food fed to them by the worker bees.
6. They are stingless and their sole function is to fertilize the
queen during the nuptial flight after which they are
starved to death.
7. The number of drones in a colony varies from 200-300.
8. The drone develops parthenogenetically from unfertilized
eggs.
9. Drones live only for a short period of time.

DEVELOPMENT CYCLE OF A BEE

All the bees pass through
different stages of growth before becoming adult bees.These is a
term used to define all these stages.It is to be noted that
unfertilized eggs turn drones and fertilized eggs become either
queen and wworkers. Feed or nutrition is the most important for
female bees. Solid pattern of the healthy capped worker brood
frame can be easily recognized. The areas which are brown in
colour,convex and have no punctures are called cappings
The life cycle of honey bees is divided into four stages: the egg,
the larval, the pupal and the adult stage.
Stage 1 – The Egg Stage:
Queen bee is the only bee in the colony who is capable of laying
about 2,000 to 3,000 eggs in one day. The egg is positioned
upright and falls on the side by the third day. The queen bee lays
both fertilized egg and unfertilized egg. The fertilized egg
develops into female bees or queen bees. The unfertilized egg
hatches and male bees are born; also known as drone bees.
Stage 2 – The Larval Stage:
The difference between a worker and the queen bee is made
three days after the egg transforms into larvae and six days after
the egg is laid in the beehive. The “royal jelly” is fed to all the
larvae, i.e., the female bees, the workers and the drone bees
during their initial three days as larvae. The larva sheds skin
multiple times throughout this stage. Later, the royal jelly is fed
only to the female larvae, which eventually becomes a queen
bee. Finally, the worker bees cover the top of the cell with
beeswax to protect and facilitate the transformation of the larvae
into a pupa.
Stage 3 – The Pupal Stage:
Here the bee has developed parts like wings, eyes, legs and
small body hair that physically appears close to an adult bee.
Stage 4 – The Adult Stage:
Once the pupa is matured, the new adult bee chews its way out
of the closed-cell. The queen bee takes 16 days from the egg
stage to form into an adult. The worker bee takes 18 to 22 days
for complete development, and drone bees take 24 days to
develop into an adult bee

THEBEEDANCE

Just like any other animal, bees locate their food through
sensory input and an understanding of the features of their
environment. They can find their food both by scent and
sight. According to Prof. Karl Ernst Von Frisch, an
Australian scientist, the foraging bees return to the hive
and indicate there inmates about the sources of nectar and
pollen by performing certain rhythmic body movements
called as the bee dance or bee dance language. This bee
dance is readily understood by other bees of the colony.
The life of a solitary bee depends on her ability to find
food, gather it and return it to the nest. On the other hand
the life of a social bee depends on the same things, along
with her ability to tell her hive mates about the location of
food. Honeybees communicate and teach each other how
to find food, water, resin and new nest sites by dancing.
When a honeybee finds food, it uses two known tools to
understand the location.
Solar Compass: This tool helps her remember location of
the food or hive in relation to the sun The bee's ability to
see polarized light lets her determine where the sun is
even though when sun is covered by clouds.
Internal Bio-clock: This tool helps her keep track of how
far she has flown and how much the sun moved during her
journey. In other words, when she returns to the hive, she
can tell her sisters exactly where the food is in relation to
the current position of the sun. As a bee matures, she also
learns about sun's path across the sky during different
seasons of the year and at different latitudes if her hive is
moved.

The area on which she performs the dance is commonly

known as the dance floor, and the worker bees who
observe the dance are followers.
Round dance: When the food is nearby, the bee performs
a round dance by travelling in circles once to left and once
to right.
 Waggle dance: When the food is far away in other words
more than 100 meters away, the bee performs a waggle
dance. The waggle dance involves the shivering of the
abdomen in side-side motion. During this dance the bee
forms a figure eight.
The strength of the waggle, the number of times it is
repeated, the direction of the dance, and the sound of the
bee makes communication amazingly accurate. The
dancing bees pause between the dances to give taste of the
food.
The following are the few indications about the direction
of the food,
• Running vertically up to the hive means food is in the
same direction of the sun.
• Running vertically down the hive means the food is
present in opposite directions to the sun.
• When it is dark, the worker bees touch the runner with the
antennae to determine the direction of its run.

FEED FOR THE BEES

The honey bee feeds on pollen, nectar,
honey, and water, These are a source of energy to the
insects.Pollen provides the bees with proteins,vitamins,minerals
and fat content ,whereas honey provides them wuth
carbohydrate. Emergency feed should always be available at the
farm and consists of 15-20pounds honey from an established
colony of bees. This emergency feed is of utmost importance
during the winter and spring seasons. Excess sugar syrup is not
recommended as a substitute for feed because it may resuly in
dysentery due to too much moisture. Emergency feed may be
combs of honey,dry,sugar or sugar candy.

COLONY MANAGEMENT DURING DIFFERENT

SEASONS
The apiary has different rules for management during
different seasons and these are mentioned here in detail;

SUMMER MANAGEMENT

A.Micro climate of the colony should be regulated by

keeping wet gunny bags over the top cover and
sprinkling water on and around the colonies in the
apiary during noon hours.
B. Clean and fresh water should be available near
colonies. Clean water could also be fed inside the
hives. (For first 2-3 days of placing fresh water feeders
the may not take it, but once they start they will be
benefited).
C. Colonies should be kept under thick shade and along
avenue of trees or bushes to avoid high temperature and
westerly hot winds during summer.
D.Entrance of the colony should be wide enough to
maintain proper ventilation. Provide additional gate to
multi chambered colonies.
 E. During summers number of frames should be reduced
by 1
F. Place extra super with empty frames, without combs or
comb foundation for the bees to expand their cluster.
G.To sustain fresh air flow a thin stick piece should be
kept between two adjacent chambers.
MONSOON MANAGEMENT
A.Apiary and colonies should be placed/moved to under
shade with clear flow of air so that humidity does not
stagnate in the apiary.
B. Apiary and colonies should be kept clean. Ensure
frequent change of the bottom boards with clean and
dry ones.
C. Thick Sugar syrup and pollen substitute should be fed
as per requirements of the colony.
D.Weak, diseased and laying worker colonies should be
kept together in a separate yard.
E. Predator’s attacks should be kept under control by
using non toxic methods.
MONSOON SEASON AND AUTUMN MANAGEMENT
This is the period when colonies should be prepared for
future honey flow

A.There should be enough space in the colonies for

ventilation and movements of bees.
B. Colonies should be strengthened to stimulate brood
rearing by providing the colonies with simulative sugar
feeding at night only.
C. Old black combs and those infested with pests should
be cleared (collected and boiled with water to separate
the wax)and replaced by clean new combs.
D.Ectoparasitic mites, wax moth and predatory wasps
should be controlled carefully and effectively.
E. As soon as the presence of fresh wax / comb building is
observed the colonies should be provided with frames
with fresh comb foundation to fill up the space in the
brood chamber and feed the colonies with (50:50)
sugar syrup for 3-4 days. Even the darker combs can be
replaced with new comb foundation frames at this time.
This operation will stimulate the building of new
combs and increased brood rearing.
SEASONAL MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEE
COLONIES
WINTER MANAGEMENT
A.Plains and Foot Hills of India
1. This is the productive period in the plains and
foot-hills in India.
2. In late Autumn and early winter adding new
comb foundation and managing the bee colonies
for increased brood rearing be continue.
3. As the drone brood appears steps for queen
rearing and swarm control should be taken.
 4. In the selected colonies for queen rearing good
larger sized queen cells should be selected,
marked and utilized for rearing good quality
queens.
5. Supers, preferably half or shallow supers with
drawn combs or with new comb foundation
should be added to full 9 to 10 frame bee
colonies.
6. More supers should be ready for use as
additional ones or to more colonies that are
developing.
7. As the supers get filled and sealed arrangements
for honey extraction and handling in hygienic
and contamination free way should be taken.
A.Higher Hills with severe winters
1. Colonies should be examined regularly.
2. Colonies should be shifted to place with enough
sun light.
3. Winter cover should be provided to weak
colonies.
4. Sugar syrup or pollen substitute should be fed to
weak colonies as this Stimulative feeding
provides energy and helps initiating brood
rearing.
5. Wind breakers should be used to protect bees
from chilly and frosty winds.
6. Weak colonies should be united with stronger
ones.
SPRING MANAGEMENT
A.Sufficient space and cleanness should be maintained
and provided.
B. Stimulative sugar/pollen substitute should be provided
to increase brood rearing.
C. Colonies should be balanced and equalized.
D.Old, contaminated and worn out hive parts should be
replaced.
E. Extra frames should be raised by providing comb
foundation sheets.
F. Colonies should be supervised to prevent swarming.
G.Old queen should be replaced with new ones through
mass queen rearing or divide the colonies.
H.Colonies should be regularly monitored for
ectoparasitic mites and adopt control measures.
Honey should be extracted frequently during this season
and handled with hygiene .

HONEY BEE DISEASE AND PEST MANAGEMENT

The site selected for apiary should be

open, dry and shade.
Cleaning the place regularly and
maintaining proper hygiene.
The queen bee has to be caged for 15 days to create
broodlessness.
When disease symptoms are noticed, migration or
other activities should be avoided.
Reduce or eliminate the use of antibiotics
for disease control as this could cause problem in export of
honey due to contamination.
Biological methods can also be used
instead of chemicals.one such biotechnical method is creating a
strictly board that is sprayed with some oily substance and
covered with a screen so that when mites fall off the bees they
land at the bottom and stick to the board. The screen then
prevents them from crawling back to the bees.

HONEY EXTRACTION
The most suitable time fo removing
honey is during the summer when the honey is adequate for the
bees .some rules for honey extraction are;
Leave the super with full
honey at all times
Robbing behavior I
controlled by removing the capped supers before the honey
flow stops.
Removing the honey before
the goldenrod flow helps tob separate te honey by flavor.
After extraction, honey can be stored in many forms and the post
extract processing involves granulation, reliquefying granulated
honey, fermentation etc…….

HONEY BEES ARE IMPORTANT BECAUSE

The honey bees is an important species to human life. They
make up 8o percentage of the world’s pollinating insects.
There are 20,000 species of bees but not only the honey bee can
produce large enough amount of honey and wax for human use.
Protecting and preserving this creature is imperative to the well-
being of mankind.

EVERY DAY BEESWAX

Honey bee wax is used in the
production of;
Some cometics
candles

Adhesives
Varnishes
Gums……….and so much more
CONCLUSION
Honey bees are amazing insects for many
reasons.Their complex social life, along with their elaborate
forging mechanism allows them to stand out among other bees.
Honey bees are also crucial to agricultural success because they
pollinate so many of the flowers, fruits and vegetable we see
daily in grocery stores. Through they may be viewed as pests in
the eyes of many, honey bees should be appreciated for all that
they do to keep our ecosystem running. Next time you try to
swat a honey bee, remember where yourhoney is coming from.

RESULT
To know all this information about the
apiculture.We can easily gained more income under honey bee
management. We have to take this technique to the farmesand
speak about this in detailed manner and involved the farmers to
adopt this technique.waste of honeys is also used as a manners
in the agriculture field. even small farmers can get more income.