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Scientic Beekeeping
Technology for
Sustainable Agriculture
and Employment
Generation
Shaon Kumar Das1*, Ezekiel K. Bhujel1,
E. L. Devi1, Ramgopal Laha1 and
V. K. Mishra2
1ICAR-Research Complex for NEH Region, Sikkim Centre,
Gangtok (737 102), Sikkim, India
2ICAR-Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam,
Meghalaya (793 103), India
Shaon Kumar Das
e-mail: shaon.iari@gmail.com
Bee keeping, Employment generaon, Honey, Pollinaon
How to cite this article?
Das et al., 2022. Scientic Beekeeping Technology for
Sustainable Agriculture and Employment Generation.
Biotica Research Today 4(4): 244-247.
Corresponding Author
Keywords
Open Access
[
[
Arcle: RT934
Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies,
commonly in man-made hives, by humans. Beekeeping is an
agro-based occupaon that provides income and employment
generation for rural and tribal families. It plays a vital role in
the present context of the commercializaon of agriculture and
liberalizaon of the economy. It covers the enre scope of honeybee
resources, bee-products, beekeeping pracces, pollinaon services,
and their interface with business systems and ecological integrity.
Bees are a special gi to mankind due to their pollinaon services
and valued products like honey, beeswax, propolis, bee venom, etc.
Honey bee farming in India is also a good source of income for the
farmers especially during the period when the growth of crop is sll
under process. Aer Indian independence, beekeeping was promoted
through various rural developmental programs. Beekeeping has been
included as an acvity for promong cross pollinaon of Horcultural
Crops under Naonal Horculture Mission since May, 2005.
Popular Article
Introducon
The bees are classied into three castes queen, worker,
and drone. Queen is the mother of all other bees in the
colony which can be idened with its long abdomen
and short wings and its duty is to lay eggs. The queen maintains
the colony by its pheromones. Queen lives for up to three
years or more and may be capable of laying half a million eggs
or more in her lifeme. There are thousands of workers in a
colony, and they perform all the dues including foraging,
defending, and brood-rearing, and cleaning acvies. They
are smaller than the queen and drones. There are about
8,000-25,000 workers in the A. orea colony, 40,000-50,000
workers in A. mellifera colony, 20,000-40,000 workers in A.
cerana, and 50,000-80,000 in the A. dorsata colony. Drones
are sngless that are easily recognized by their dark colour
and eyes touching at the top of their head and their only
role is to ferlize the queen and enjoy the food in the hive.
Seven species of Apis are known among those four species
are in India, A. cerana, A. mellifera, A. dorsata and A. Florea.
A. mellifera is an introduced species resistant to the Thai
sacbrood virus (TSBV) and highly suitable for commercial
beekeeping. Honey exports from India have risen from 29.6 to
51.5 thousand tonnes. The major markets for exporng Indian
honey are Germany, USA, UK, Japan, France, Italy, and Spain.
Importance of Beekeeping as a
Viable Diversicaon Enterprise for
Sustainable Livelihood
Beekeeping is a very dierent profession as compared to
various agro-based subsidiary occupaons as it needs
more art and skill and less physical labour. As an agro-
Biotica
Research
Today
2022
Abstract
Article History
Received on: 16th March 2022
Revised on: 13th April 2022
Accepted on: 14th April 2022
Vol 4:4
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247
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Das et al., 2022
based enterprise, it does not require land ownership or rent,
it can be started with equipment and tools sourced locally. It
provides sustainable livelihood opons for poor people and
ts with small-scale farming systems. There is vast potenal
and scope from diversicaon in beekeeping i.e., besides
honey it oers scope for producon and markeng of other
bee products like pollen, propolis, royal jelly, bee wax, and bee
venom. Technologies for the producon of dierent products
like royal jelly, beeswax, pollen, propolis, bee venom, queen
bees, package bees, etc. are currently available in India.
Bee Venom
Bee venom is synthesized in the venom glands of
worker bees (150-300 mg) and queen bees (700 mg),
however, only the worker bees are exploited for venom
producon. It can be commercially obtained by smulang a
large number of bees by electric shock (8-12 volts). It has been
used to cure polyarthris, infecous-polyarthris, neuralgia,
rheumasm, certain eye diseases like iris and iridocyclis,
skin diseases (tuberculosis of skin), inammaon of sciac,
facial and other nerves, hypertension, etc. It is also known
to lower down the cholesterol level. Normal recovery of dry
venom per bee is 0.5-0.1 mg. One million sngs result in the
producon of 1 g dry venom (Abrol, 2007).
Queen Bees and Brood
Brood (larvae and pupae) of honey bees is very hygienic
food for human beings and livestock. The bee larvae/
pupae provide 15.4 percent proteins and 3.7 percent fat,
Vitamin A and B, etc. In many countries, bee brood is relished
for human consumpon and is also used as apitherapy. Mass
queen rearing is another area for employment generaon.
A beekeeper can produce about 200 queens per colony per
annum and sell them to the needy beekeepers for replacing
their unproducve queen bees. A good quality/ pedigree
queen bee can be sold for Rs. 150.00 to Rs. 200.00. Nucleus
colonies with brood frames and package bees (bees by weight
without brood and frames) can also be sold by the beekeepers
to supplement their apicultural income. About 25 percent of
the total colonies can be increased and sold.
Rent Out Bee Colonies for Pollinaon
Service
Honey bees are excellent agents of crop pollinaon
because they can be easily managed at any me and
in any number. The body of honey bees is extremely
hairy and thus they collect a higher amount of pollen which
results in beer pollinaon of crops. Moreover, pollen being
the food of larvae and adult bees, the foragers purposely
visit the owers for pollen collecon; and hence, prove to be
ecient pollinators. Bees also have the behavior to constantly
visit blossoms of a crop unl it is exhausted of pollen/ nectar
resources. In India, there is a demand for honey bee colonies
for pollinaon of apple, other temperate fruit plants, and
for hybrid seed producon of various vegetable, oilseed,
and other eld crops. Thus, beekeepers can earn addional
income by renng out their honey bee colonies to the farmers
for pollinaon service to their crops. A colony (excluding
beehive) with 4-frames bee strength, queen right, and with
the opmum amount of brood, pollen, and nectar/ honey is
generally sold @ Rs. 600.00 per colony (Aryal et al., 2015).
Fabricaon and Manufacturing
Acvies
With the development of beekeeping, several
subsidiary industries are developed which include
fabricaon of hives, nucleus hives, and other bee
equipment like honey extractors, comb foundaon mills,
bee veils, smokers, queen excluder sheets, hive tools, iron
stands, swarm catching nets, uncapping knives, queen cages
and gates, uncapping trays, hand gloves, ant proof bowls (ant
wells), pollen traps and other allied tools. All these equipment
and tools are manufactured by rural arsans thus creang
addional employment for them in carpentry, blacksmithy,
and tailoring, etc. It also includes the manufacture of honey
processing plants and containers for packing honey.
Indigenous Method of Beekeeping
The method of rearing honey bees for honey and wax
is a purely natural type in which the combs cannot be
removed or manipulated for management or harvesng
without permanently damaging the comb. Almost any hollow
structures are used for this purpose, such as a log gum, skep,
or clay pot. Beekeeping using xed comb hives is an essenal
part of the livelihoods of many communies in poor countries.
Modern Method of Beekeeping
Langstroth was the rst person to design the successful
top-opened with movable hive and frames. Other parts
of the hive include the stand, bottom board, brood
chamber, super, inner cover, and top cover. The size and
number of frames are variable according to the need. The hole
of the zinc sheet is only 0.375 cm but the thorax of a queen is
0.43 to 0.45 cm so the queen cannot pass through the pore.
The stand is a basal part of the hive which is adjusted with
the boom board to make a slope so that rainwater comes
down quickly. Boom Board is situated above the stand and
forms the proper base which has two gates one gate is for the
entrance and the other is for the exit. The brood chamber is
the most important part is provided with 5 to 10 frames in
a vercal posion where bees start making walls and cells.
Super are boxes are placed on top of the brood boxes with
a queen excluder during nectar or honey ow to provide
addional space for expansion of the hive. The inner cover is
245
© 2022
a wooden piece used for covering the super, has many holes
for proper venlaon. The top cover is a plain and sloping
zinc sheet that protects the colony from rain. Queen excluder
consists of wire gauze, extras guards, and drone traps where
workers can pass through it but a queen cannot. The honey
extractor is mechanical device funcons on the principle of
centrifugal force which extracts the pure honey without any
damage to the comb. Uncapping knife is used to uncap the
honey-lled sealed combs by heang. Other equipments like
protecve garments, gloves, net veil, bee net, brush, etc.
are required for easy and well-planned handling of bees.
Most beekeepers extract honey 2-3 mes per year. Honey is
normally harvested between mid-Junes unl mid-September.
Poor weather condions, disease, and pests inltrang will
aect the harvesng schedule (Das et al., 2021).
General Management and Rearing
Methods of Honeybees
The important basics to start beekeeping are knowledge
and training on beekeeping, local bee ora, sucient
local bee ora, and migratory beekeeping. The beehive is
the home for honey bees and site requirements should bedry
without dampness, nearby water source, shade structures,
and sucient bee forage cropsto collect pollen and nectar.
Hive inspecon for the presence of the queen, eggs, brood,
honey, pollen storage, and bee enemies must be done twice
a week. During the ow season of honey, a comb foundaon
sheet is placed in an empty frame of the super chamber for
more honey storage. While during the dearth period sugar
syrup with a sugar and water rao of 1:1 diluon must be
provided inside the hive. Supering or addion of frames must
be done in the super chamber when all brood chamber frames
are covered by comb. Swarming or natural method of colony
mulplicaon occurs when a colony built a large strength
or when the secreon of the queen’s substance falls below
a certain level. Swarm management is done by providing
brood frames from strong colonies to weak ones, pinching
o the queen cells, dividing strong colonies, and trapping
and hiving the primary swarm. During severe summer season
management of beehive are done by providing sucient
shade, wet gunny bag or rice straw pung on the hive to
increase RH and reduce heat, increase venlaon by pung
splinter between brood and super chamber, and providing
sugar syrup, pollen supplement, and water. In the winter
season management is done by maintaining strong and
disease-free colonies and provides new queens to the hives.
The management during the rainy season is done by keeping
beehive dry, providing sugar syrup, avoiding dampness in the
apiary site, and providing drainage. Honeybees are aacked by
many pests, diseases, and viruses and they are strong enough
to defend their colonies from various pests, but when they
are weak, the beekeeper should assist the bees in defending
the colony (Khan et al., 2018).
How to Harvest Honey
To harvest honey beekeeper should wear a protecve
cloth, take along a good knife, brush, and clean container
for honey. Remove the combs one by one giving a pu of
smoke before removing each one and look at them carefully.
Empty combs, brood combs, and combs containing both brood
and honey should leave it and only full combs of ripe honey
should be taken from the hive. Brush the bees on the comb
and uncap the comb witha knife upto 1 cm on the top bar to
guide the bees to work the next honey. Aer removing honey,
rearrange the frame in the same manner as before and close
the hive carefully. Honey harvesng in daylight is a simple and
eecve system for controlling the brood nest with lile or no
danger, even during the hoest hours of the day foraging bees
always return to the site, even if the hive is no longer there.
Economics of Honey Producon
The beekeeping can be started with ten boxes/ hives,
extractors, bee veils, gloves, decapping knife, hive tools,
etc. inially 5 farmers will keep only one honey extractor.
The bee farmer can start with 5-10 colonies which can sell
5-10 colonies each aer proper division with retenon of
5-10 colonies with them. Also, the farmers can produce 2-3
colonies each year from a single colony with modern scienc
management.
Conclusion
Honey beekeeping is a very valuable occupaon in rural
areas of the world. It generates employment and
provides income to people of rural areas that reduced
poverty in the long run. Beekeeping provides nutrional and
ecological security to the rural communies at the household
level in the rural area. Honey beekeeping plays a key role
in pollinaon that enhanced agriculture producon. They
provide a valued product like honey and their by-products
to the community that has antimicrobial and medicinal
properties. Beekeeping is a very easy occupation and
investment in this profession is very lile and everyone can
start easily. Honey producon was found more Apis mellifera
than the other species. India ranked in 8th posion in the
world in terms of honey producon 64.9 thousand tonnes in
2017-18 while china stood rst with the producon level of
551 thousand tonnes. The major constraints in beekeeping
are the expensive inputs, pest attacks, lack of scientific
producon and rearing techniques, and training. To overcome
this constraint a comprehensive program focusing on the
provision of low-cost inputs, pescides/ inseccides, scienc
techniques and training, and value chain market facilies at
the local and regional level. Construcon of a training center
for skill transformaon is required at the local level for the
soluon of honey bee problems. Transportaon and markeng
facilies networks should be developed for enhancing bee
Biotica Research Today 2022, 4(4):244-247
246
© 2022
producon. Credit facilies on low-interest rates should be
provided to honey beekeepers for the development of honey
bee producon. Bee foraging crop should be mulplied for
enhancement of honey business in the implemented area.
Hence, beekeeping can be adopted as an enterprise by anyone
aer geng training on the subject.
Acknowledgement
The author Shaon Kumar Das is thankful to Naonal
Mission on Himalayan Studies, Ministry of Environment,
Forestry and Climate Change, Govt. of India for providing
necessary facility.
References
Abrol, D.P., 2007. Foraging behaviour of Apis mellifera L. and
Apis cerana F. as determined by the energecs of nectar
producon in dierent culvars of Brassica campestris
var. toria. Journal of Agricultural Science 51, 1\9-1\124.
Aryal, S., Thapa, R., Jung, C., 2015. An overview of beekeeping
economy and its constraints in Nepal. Journal of
Apiculture 30(3), 135-142.
Das, S.K., Ghosh, G.K., 2021. Developing biochar-based slow-
release N-P-K ferlizer for controlled nutrient release and
its impact on soil health and yield. Biomass Conversion
and Biorenery. DOI: hps://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-
021-02069-6.
Khan, N., Khan, W., 2018. Review of past literature of honey
beekeeping and its producon in rural areas of the world.
Food Science and Quality Management 74, 6, 18-23.
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