Here is an essay on ‘Apiculture’ for class 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Apiculture’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Apiculture
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Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Apiculture
- Essay on the Colonial Organisation and Division of Labour among Bees
- Essay on the Enemies of Bees
- Essay on Bee Hive and Its Economic Importance
- Essay on the Science of Bee-Keeping
- Essay on the Appliances for Modern Method
- Essay on the Advances of Modern Method
Essay # 1. Introduction to Apiculture:
Bees are a group of polymorphic colonial insects. They produce nutritive honey and wax; both the products are of commercial value. From very early times man knew that bees produce delicious honey that they sting, that they increase in number by swarming and that with smoke he can control honey bees. It was during the early part of the 19th century many scientific studies were conducted which revealed the biology, behaviour, life cycle and development of honey bees.
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Previously man extracted honey by destroying the whole bee colony and the honey extracted was also of low quality because of the crude and unscientific way of handling. Today with the treasure of knowledge he has acquired he is able to divide a colony to start and rear new colonies.
Now sophisticated tools and new methods are available to extract honey from hives without much disturbing the hive colony and the wax combs can be reused. Pathology of honey bees are extensively studied and drugs are now available to control diseases in bees. Another leap in bee-culture technique is the artificial insemination of queens for increased honey production in colonies.
Honey bees are most familiar insects. They are best known for their labour, small saving, colonial life and division of labour. They are characterized by the presence of a highly specialized type of legs, mouth parts, membranous wings and communal behaviour. The “waggle dance” and “language of bee” is a remarkable feature. Preparation of chambered nest its hygiene and maintenance are points to be noted.
They belong to genus Apis and a variety of species are found in it. Some of them are given below:
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I. Apis Dorsata-F. (Rock Bee):
This is the largest honey bee, about 2 cm. in length. These are the strongest and the most powerful amongst the bees. They make their combs in open areas like big branches, of trees, rocks, old forts and other such places where man cannot reach easily. These are almost similar in size and not much of difference is noted amongst the queen and worker but for the colour of the abdomen, which is much darker in queen. The comb cells are almost of uniform size and a comb can store about 20-25 kg of honey. These bees are much irritable and ferocious so their domestication is not very easy.
II. Apis Indica-F. (Indian Bee):
These are smaller in size and brighter in colour than the Apis dorsata. These bees can be well marked by their nests as the nests are always in dark and protected places, like old forts, caves and crevices, hollow trunk of trees etc. Several combs are made parallel to each other but honey is found in only one or two combs only. Total production per comb per year is not more than 2-6 kg., under favourable conditions. These are found in hills and plains and can easily be domesticated because of their mild nature.
III. Apis Floria-F. (Little Bee):
These are smallest and most gentle bees which make their nest in bushes, trees houses and other surrounding. They are docile and gentle in nature and can be domesticated easily but yield is much less and uneconomic. The comb can be removed easily and honey can be extracted without much efforts.
IV. A. Mellifera – F. (European Bee):
A variety of European bees are found in general but the Italian species proves to be the best. The nature of these bees resembles with that of A. indica. These too make several combs parallel to each other and brood is in the central comb. The amount of honey is higher and the nature of bee is gentle. These can be domesticated and their variety can be easily improved by breeding. The queens more prolific and honey gathered varies from 5-10 kg. per comb per year. They are common in European countries.
V. Melipona and Trigona-Spp. (Dammer Bee):
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These are different from the above said honey bees. Much smaller in size and are unable to secrete wax for making the comb. They make the comb by using earthen mixture, sand and resinous substances from plants. The comb thus is a very tiny comb with 100-150 gm. of honey. Such a comb can easily be seen in the shrub and gardens close to agricultural fields. They are best for pollination of the flower.
Essay # 2. Colonial Organisation and Division of Labour among Bees:
Honey Comb:
Various types of bees make various types of honey combs but their lay out pattern is almost same in all the cases. They have a common partition wall having serially arranged cells on either side. These cells are hexagonal, their walled and fragile. The bee may have a separate comb as a brood chamber or may use the same hive as a brood chamber.
In most of the cases the hive is divided into certain chambers the brood chamber having eggs larvae and pupae whereas storage is done in another chamber. The size of the cell for larvae and pupae of the brood would be male and workers differ in size. The cell of a drone is large as compared with that of the worker whereas that of queen is the largest. The storage cells are small and much more in number. These are built near the margin or on the top of the hive.
Life Cycle:
The fertilized female lays eggs. Numbers of eggs laid daily vary according to the environmental condition but it may range from 1500- 2000 eggs a day. The eggs are small, cylindrical, pale yellow or white. One egg per cell is laid by the female and eggs adhere with the cell wall. Generally three types of cells are found the Royal brood cell, Drone brood cell and Ordinary brood cell which give rise to queen, drone and the workers. The sex of the developing larva is decided by the quality and quantity of the food fed to the larvae. The eggs hatch in three days giving out of the grubs.
Grubs are yellowish or white and curved structure and develop in pupal form in 5-7 days their development depends on the food. Some of them are fed with Royal Jelly where others are fed with bee bread. Bee bread inhibits the growth of reproductive organs. So only workers come out of such larvae they pupate inside the cell and pupae come out as adult in 7-14 days. The queen, drone and workers have different life span.
Swarming:
The process of leaving off the colony by the queen termed as swarming. It happens towards the end of spring or early summer but the real cause of swarming is still not well known. In summers when plenty of food is available and hive is overcrowded by the bees, the queen leaves the hive on a fine fore-noon with some old drones and workers and establishes a new colony at some other place.
Now in the old hive a worker is given Royal Jelly and is converted into a new queen of the colony. This new empress of the colony never tolerates her successor, as a natural law in the hive. So she orders to kill the other sisters, if any, in the hive.
Supersedure:
When the egg laying capacity of the old queen is lost or it suddenly dies, a new young and vigorous queen takes the position of the old queen and is called as supersedure.
Absconding:
The migration of the complete colony from one place to another takes place due to some unfavourable conditions of life, such as destruction of the comb by termites or wax-moths and scarcity of nectar producing flowers around the hive. This phenomenon is quite different from that of swarming.
Nuptial or Marriage Fight:
The first swarm is led by the old queen but the second swarm is led by the 7 days old virgin queen which is followed by the drones and is called marriage flight. One of the drones starts copulating with the queen in the sky and fertilizes the queen and dies during the course of copulation. The queen receives spermatophores and stores in the spermatheca. Along with the queen, died drone falls on the ground and the queen reaches the hive.
Essay # 3. Enemies of Bees:
Enemies of the bees harm the colony in different ways so they have attracted considerable attention in the different regions of the country. The wax moths (Galleria mellonella and Achroia grisella). Wasp (Vespa spp. And Palarus sp,) black ants (Componotus compressus) and bees eaters (Merops orientalis) and Kingcrow (Dicrarus macrocercus) are common enemies of the honey bee’s comb and honey. Man is the last but worst enemy of honey bees.
Before 1958 bees were considered to be free from the diseases though suspected cases of Nosema from Punjab and Kashmir were known. But a parasitic mite-Acarapis woodi Rennie caused Acarine disease in the adult honeybee in Kulu valley in Punjab in 1956. It was later reported from Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
This disease was controlled by the scheme in co-operation with the United States of America at the college of Agriculture Ludhiana, Punjab. Now-a-days Indian honey bees are commonly the spread of any such disease. A strict quarantine measure is being taken to check the spread of any disease from foreign countries. But in European countries bees are commonly attacked by microsporadian, which is injurious to bees.
Honey being sweet, tasty it has a number of enemies also.
Wax Moth (Galleria mollonella Linn) lesser wax moth (Achroia grisella) are the worst enemies of honeybee. Their caterpillars creep inside the comb and feed upon the brood comb. They spoil the complete colony. Quite often the bees undergo absconding swarm and leave the hive.
Sphinged moth (Achorontia styx) is a strong and powerful moth, which enters the colony and feeds upon the honey, but the bees after sometime kill them.
Beside above mentioned insects black ants, termites, dragon flies are the powerful insects which destroy the bee hive.
Not only the invertebrates but some of the vertebrate pests like lizards, catoles, king crows, birds and bear cause serious damage to the bee hive and there is no escape for the bee.
The bees are subjected to bacterial diseases also like dysentery, fowl brood disease, caused by Bacillusplutan and B. alvei, Nosema and Bee paralysis. Certain mites like Acarapis woodii kill the bees and damage the hive.
Essay # 4.
Bee Hive and Its Economic Importance:
The house of honey bees is termed as hive or comb. It consists of hexagonal cells made up of wax secreted by the worker’s abdomen. These hives are hanging vertically from rock, building or branches of trees. Each hive has thousands of hexagonal thin walled fragile cells arranged in two opposite rows on a common base. The resins and gums secreted from the plants are used for the repairing of the hives.
The young stages are generally occupying the lower and central cells in the hive which are the ‘Brood cells’. In A. dorsata brood cells are similar in shape and size but in other species brood cells are of 3 types viz., Worker cell kit workers, Drone cell for drones and Queen Cell for the queen.
The queen cell cannot be used again while the rest are used a number of times. There are no special cells for lodging the adults, which generally keep clustering or moving about on the surface of the comb. The cells are mainly intended for the storage of honey and pollen especially in the upper portion of the comb while those in lower part are for brood rearing.
Honey:
Honey is produced by the bee and is of an important medicinal value. It contains a variety of minerals e.g., Ca, Fe, Silica, Mg, Mn, K, CI, S, AI, and phosphorus whereas amino acids, citric, formic, succinic, malic and acetic acids are also present in traces, pigments like Carotine, Xanthonine and Anthocynin and vitamin A, B complex and C are also reported in it. Besides all these enzymes like invertase, distage are also found.
The chemical composition of honey constitutes as follows:
Pure honey gets granulated after long storage. The granulation becomes faster due to presents of air bubble pollen, and other colloid substance. It has density 1.2.
Economic Value:
It is of great economic importance and is widely used in medicine and as antiseptic. It has its own food value and gives high calorific value and energy. It is used in candies, cakes, breads and cold drinks. Alcoholic drinks, livestock feeds and poison baits are also made from honey. It is the only substance which requires minimum energy for its digestion that is why it is given to new born infants.
Economic Importance of Honey:
Honey is used by human beings in different ways of which the most important is as food and medicine.
(a) Food Value:
It is estimated that 200 gm of honey provides as much nourishment as 11.5 litre of milk or 1.6 kg cream or 330 gm meat. 2.1 gm of honey provide as much as 67 K. cal of energy. Its sugars, minerals, vitamins and other vital elements are readily absorbed by the systems. Honey may be taken by healthy men as well as those who are ill. It can be taken at any time in any season and by persons of all ages even those just born. It is use in the preparation of candles, cakes and bread. In illness it is preferred over milk because more than half of the body energy is provided burning of dextrose.
(b) Medicinal Value:
Honey is mildly laxative, antiseptic and sedative, generally used in Ayurvedic and Unani systems of medicine. It is quite helpful in building up of the hemoglobin of the blood and also used as preventive against cough, cold and fever, as blood purifier and as a curative for ulcers on tongue and alimentary canal. Its regular use is recommended after severe cases of heart attack for malnutrition, indigestion and diabetes; it is also found that typhoid germs are killed by honey within 48 hours, those of branchio-pneumonia in 4 day and of dysentery in 50 hours.
(c) Other Uses:
Other than food and medicine, honey is used in numerous ways. It is used in the preparation of bread, cake and biscuits. It enhances their preserving quality. Much amount of honey goes in making alcoholic drinks. In poultry and fishing industries honey is widely used. In laboratory, honey is used to stimulate the growth of plants.
The bacterial culture, inoculation of seeds of cloves, in insect diet and in the preparation of poison baits for fruit flies.
Bees Wax:
It is the most useful bi-products of the honey bee. It is secreted by the dermal glands of the abdomen from 4th to 7th segment and is completely soluble in ether, chloroform and other organic solvents.
Brown or yellowish brown in colour it does not dissolve in water. It melts easily.
It is used in manufacture of cosmetics creams, paints, ointments, plastic works, polish and a variety of lubricants.
Economic Importance of Beeswax:
Beeswax is used in the manufacture of cosmetics, for Catholic churches, face cream, paints, ointments, insulators, plastic works, polishes, carbon paper and much other lubricant. It is also used in the laboratory for microtomy with the common wax for block preparation of tissues.
Essay # 5. Science of Bee-Keeping:
Bee keeping is the art of rearing honey bees, to obtain honey for human use. The honey man takes is actually excess left after the use by the bees. Other than a source of honey and bees wax, honey bees are good pollinators. (A thorough knowledge about the biology, behaviour, life history and development of honey bees must be obtained before venturing to ‘Apiculture’).
Wooden hives are made for keeping bees. Special tools are available these days like honey extruder, bee gloves smoker, and bee veil to protect the keeper. Artificial feeding method is also resorted to at time of food shortage.
Bee Hives:
Man provides shelter space for the bees to set up colonies. This is called bee-hive. The hive space must be large enough for passage of bees and smaller enough to discourage comb building. In earlier days straw skep was used for bee keeping. Different models of hives were designed during the past years: the most rewarding was that of Langsworth. He designed a hive that can be opened at the top.
The modern bee hive is the movable-frame hive. It is a wooden frame box made of single or double walls the former for warm place and the latter for cool climates. The hive consists of a bottom board, brood chamber, super chamber inner cover and top cover. They are placed one above the other and fixed on a stand. All these parts can be separated. The bottom board acts as the entrance for the bees.
The brood chamber is a wooden box inside which numerous frames called “comb foundations” are fixed. Comb foundation consists of sheets of pure bee wax on which are embossed the base of cells of the honey comb. The worker bees secrete wax to extend the walls of these cells. The comb foundations help in controlling the rise of the cells and reduce the number of drone cells. These frame of comb are movable and can be lifted, hence the name for the hive “movable frame hive.”
The chamber above the brood chamber is the super chamber inside which honey is secreted and stored. Queen is prevented from entering this chamber by using queen excluder. This equipment has narrow spaces of 4 mm which allows only the workers to enter the super chamber.
The top cover can be lifted to inspect the state of the colony or honey formation. The wooden hive is coloured yellow or white on the outside for keeping the chambers cool and to aid easy recognition by the bees.
Other Appliances:
Many tools are devised for proper care and maintenance of beehives. The bee veil is a device to protect the beekeeper from bee sting. The veil is made of fine nettings, with a string attached for tying. Gloves are sometimes used by keepers for protecting the hands. While inspecting the hives, smoker is an equipment to scare the bees. During hive maintenance and honey collection the worker bee may attack the keeper in groups. The smoker released will irritate the bees and keep them away.
Honey extractor is a metal drum inside which a rotor rotates in its axis. The foundation frame, on which the bees secrete their honey, is fixed on to the rotor and rotated. This creates a centrifugal force, which separates the honey without disturbing the comb frame.
Other minor tools are bee brush for cleaning the combs and scrapper for collecting excess honey.
Hive Maintenance and Management:
To obtain good yield of honey the keeper must provide ideal conditions to the bees. Maintenance and management of bees therefore is very significant for the perpetuation of the colony.
Following are the few important points of hive management:
1. The location of the hive should be such that the flora in the surrounding area and their flowering period should suit with the f active period of the colony. The area must have good humidity, preferably protected from direct sunlight.
2. The hive may be single walled or double walled in structure based on the climatic features of the locality.
3. The keeper must be familiar with biology and behaviour of the bees.
4. Close observation of the hives condition has to be maintained. The colony should be at its peak strength at the time of nectar flow.
5. If more than one queen is formed in the colony it must be removed, otherwise it will lead to disintegration of the whole colony. Swarming must be prevented by removing excess drones and additional female queens. In cases the queen dies, immediately either a new queen is introduced or the whole members of the hive are transferred to another stock.
6. When there is dearth of food, artificial feeding may be resorted to. Artificial food is prepared by dissolving 100 gm of sugar in 150- 200 ml. of hot water, boiled and cooled. This food is kept near the hive in an open container. Sometimes during hot season, the hive may get heated up. Water is required to keep the hive cool. So water availability near to the hive must be ensured.
7. For propagation, the number of colonies may be increased by dividing the existing stock.
8. Regular inspection of the hive for honey secretion and inspection of foundation frames to check the colony settlement may be made.
9. Predators and parasites found around the hive are eliminated.
10. The colony must be always maintained in a healthy state. If bees catch diseases they may be treated with available drugs.
Essay # 6. Appliances for Modern Method:
1. Typical movable hive.
2. Queen excluder.
3. Honey extractor.
4. Uncapping knife.
5. Other equipment.
1. Typical Movable Hive:
An artificial movable hive is constructed by wooden box based on bee space theory. The size and number of frames are variable form hive to hive according to the need. A small space is enough to permit the entrance and exit of workers and drones but queen once placed in hive never comes outside the hive. The perforation size on zinc sheet is only of 0.375 cm but the thorax of the queen is 0.43 cm to 0.45 cm, so the queen can never pass through this pore.
This typical hive consists of 6 parts as given below:
(a) Stand:
It is the basal part of the hive on which the whole hive is constructed. The stands are adjusted to make slope for the hive. Due to this slope rainwater comes down quickly.
(b) Bottom Board:
It is situated above the stand and forms the proper base for the hive having two gates in the front position. One gate functions as an entrance while the other as exit.
(c) Brood Chamber:
The bottom board carries the brood chamber, which is the most important part of the bee hive. It is large in size provided with 5 to 10 frames. In each frame a wax sheet bearing hexagonal frames is help up by a couple of wires in a vertical position. Along with the margin of every hexagonal mark, the bees start making will and ultimately the cells.
Here every sheet of the wax is known as comb foundation, which attracts the bees and provides the base for the comb preparation on both the sides. The frames are kept vertically in brood chamber, which is covered over by other frames having a wire meshing through which he workers can easily pass.
The comb foundation helps in obtaining a regular strong worker brood cell comb, which can be used repeatedly. The Central Bee research station at Pune arranged the manufacture of a comb foundation mill, which manufactures, different cell sizes required in several regions of the country. The brood chamber is covered by another chamber known as super.
(d) Super:
It is also without cover and the base. Super is provided with many frames containing comb foundation to provide additional space for expansion of the hive.
(e) Inner Cover:
It is a wooden piece used for the covering of the super. It has many holes for proper ventilation.
(f) Top Cover:
It is meant for protecting the colony from rains. It is fitted with zinc sheet, which is plain and sloping.
2. Queen Excluder:
It consists for wire gauze, extrans guards and drone traps with individual wires placed 0.375 cm apart. It readily permits the workers to pass through it but keeps back the queen in the brood chamber.
3. Honey Extractor:
It is used for the extraction of the honey from the comb and function on principle of centrifugal force. When combs are centrifuged by his device the pure honey is thrown out without any damage to the comb.
4. Uncapping Knife:
When all of the combs are filled with honey they are sealed by capping with the wax. So, before such capped combs are placed in the honey extractor, the wax sealing has to be removed with the help of an uncapping knife heated by steam before use.
5. Other Equipment:
Most of the useful, equipment for the successful management of the bee are locally manufactured which are very cheap. As they are made locally, they may not be exactly similar to those made at other place. Thus, Indian standard Institute has standardized some very common equipment. For the production of uniform and interchangeable articles. Some materials like protective garments, gum cages, gloves, net veil, bee net, brush etc. are required for easy and well planned handling of the bees.
Essay # 7. Advances of Modern Method:
In the modern method of bee keeping there are several advantage which encourage the well planned bee keeping.
1. A proper watch on the activities of the bees can be had.
2. A strong colony can be developed by providing sugar, syrup, and pollen substances to honey bees.
3. Swarming of bees is checked by modern hive.
4. The same hive is used again and again so the worker’s pay their attention more for the honey and not for the hive formation.
5. Under adverse climatic conditions the hive can be transferred from one place to the other for the protection of the bees.
6. Comb can be protected from the enemies.
7. Pure honey in large quantity can be obtained.
Precautions:
For the proper management of bee keeping programme following precautions should be taken:
1. The hive should not be kept more than half a mile away from the place from where the bees have to collect the nectar and the pollen.
2. People must know about the bee keeper for proper contact.
3. The boxes must be kept under shade at cool places.
4. Industry should be near the road for proper transport facilities.
5. Fresh water reservoir should be near the hive.
6. Good flora for the collection of pollen and nectar should be there.