Hi, welcome to this blog on the Meaning of Apiculture, methods and Importance.
Table Of Contents
- Meaning of apiculture
- Types of bees
- Importance of bee keeping
- Methods of bee keeping
- Composition of honey.
- Precautionary measure in bee keeping.
- Revision Questions.
The Meaning of Apiculture or Bee keeping
Meaning: Bee keeping ( or Apiculture, from Latin apis, bee) is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly found in hives, by humans for the purpose of producing Honey and wax. In order words, bee keeping is the art and science of domesticating bees (insects) for production of products such as honey and wax. Bee keeping is an important part of small scale integrated farming system and works particularly well near natural forest or on integrated farms with abundant water and flowers.
A bee-keeping or aparist keeps bees in order to collect honey, and other products of the Hive including bees, wax, propolis, pollen, and royal jelly, to pollinate Crops, or to produce bees for sale to other bee keepers. A location were bees are kept is called APIARY OR BEE YARD.
TYPES OF BEES
In the meaning of Apiculture, there are two major types of bees. These are indigenous bees and exotic bees.
1. Indigenous Bees: These types of bees are local bees commonly found in local environment. They are majorly of African origin. They have smaller body size, height, low productive ability, lower growth rate, lower honey and wax production. They are not very economical in terms of commercial production of honey and wax. Example is the African black bees.
2. Exotic Bees: These types of bees are imported from other countries to West Africa. This species are capable of interbreeding and hybridizing. Many bees breeding companies strive to selectively breed and hybridize varieties to produce desirable qualities such as disease and parasite resistance, good honey production, swarming behavior reduction, prolific breeding and mild disposition. Some of these hybrids are marketed under specific brand names, such as the buckfast Bee or midnight Bee.
Importance of Bee keeping
Bee-keeping by farmers is one of the great importance; so here we are going to be looking at the importance of bee keeping.
1. Income Generator: The sales of honey and other products do generate income for farmers when offer for sales or export.
2. Provision of Food: Provision of food is another importance of bee keeping, Honey which is the main product derived from bee-keeping is consumed locally as food.
3. Industrial purpose: Honey is used for many industrial purposes, example is the production of cosmetics etc.
4. Employment: Bee-keeping is a source of employment as it generates income to many people from production to marketing of the products.
5. Medicinal purposes: Honey and other associated products are also known to be used in preparation of medical items that are useful to humans.
6. Production of wax: Bee-keeping also help to produce a special substance called wax. Wax is very important for the production of candles.
7. Production of Crops: Honey bees cross pollinate flowers to produce fruits and seeds for growing crops. To farmers, the honey bees are worth billions of naira or dollars. In fact, farmers rent honey bee colonies from the apiculturist for these purpose.
METHODS OF BEE KEEPING IN APICULTURE
There are two major methods of bee keeping. These are the traditional methods and the modem methods
1. Traditional methods of bee keeping: In this methods, honey bees are allowed to remain in their natural habitats. The natural home for a honey bee colony is a hollow tree, log or cave. Honey bee build a nest only in locations which are dry and protected from the wind and sunlight. This bees are less selective and a nest in hollowed-out termite moulds, rock piles and locations which are less well protected. The management of this method is very low as the bees are left to fend for themselves.
Gathering or harvesting honey from the wild bee colonies is usually done by subduing the bee with smoke and breaking up the tree or rocks where the colony is located, often resulting in the physical destruction of the nest. Production of Honey under this system is very low.
2. Modern Bee-keeping: This is commonly used in today’s Apiculture. Exotic Bees which ensures high production of honey and other products are used or reared. Scientific beekeeping started in 1851 when an American L.L langstroth discovered Bee space and the movable frame hive.
Bee space is the Open space which is about 0.4 in (1cm) wide and the space is maintained around and between the combs in any hive or natural nest and in which the bees walk. If this space is smaller or larger than 0.4 in 1cm, the bee will join the combs. Under this condition, when the Combs are stuck together, the Hive is not movable, and it is not possible for bee-keepers to manipulate a colony or to examine a brood nest.
This was later corrected as the bees could be forced to build a straight comb in a wooden frame by giving them a piece of wax called foundation, on which the bases of the cells were already embossed, bee now use this bases to build honeycomb, the cells of which are use for both rearing brood and for storing honey. When a hive of bees is given a foundation, they are forced to build the comb where the bee keeper wants it and not where they might otherwise be inclined to build it.
In this method, the honey can be harvested or removed from the comb by placing a comp full of Honey in the centrifugal form machine called an extractor. If the beekeeper can return an intact comb to a hive after removing the Honey from it, the Bees are saved from the time and troubles of building a new comb and the honey harvest is increased under this methods of bee keeping.
COMPOSITION OF HONEY
The Honey which beekeepers harvest is made from Nectar, a sweet sap or sugar syrup produced by special glands in flowers collected from both wild and cultivated plants. Nectar, the Honey Bee source of sugar or carbohydrate, and pollen, their source of protein and fat, make up their entire diet. Nectar contains 50 to 90% water, 10 to 50% sugar (mainly sucrose) and 1 to 4% aromatic substance; colouring materials and minerals. To transform nectar into honey, bees reduce it moisture content, so that the final honey produce contains between 14-19% water and also add two enzymes which they produced in their body.
CASTES IN BEES COLONIES
A colony of bees consists of three castes of bees, these are:
1. A queen Bee: This is only breeding female in The colony. The Queen is the only sexual mature female in The Hive and all the female workers bees and male Chromes are her offspring. The Queen May live up to three years or more and maybe capable of laying half a million eggs or more in her lifetime. The Queen is raised from a normal worker egg, but is fed a larger amount of royal jelly than a normal worker Bee, resulting in a radically different growth and metamorphosis. The Queen influences the colony by the production and this dissemination of a variety of pheromones or queen substance. One of these chemical suppresses the development of ovaries in all the female worker bee in the Hive and prevent them from laying eggs.
2. Female worker bees: Almost all the bees in a hive numbering between 30,000 to 50,000 in number are female worker bee. They build the Hive, look for food, feed the younger ones as well as the Queen and their life span may just be 0 to 16 weeks.
3. The Drones: (male worker) drones are the largest bee in the Hive except the Queen, at least twice the size of the worker bee. They do not work, do not forage for pollen or nectar and have no other function than to mate with new Queens and fertilize them on their mating flights.
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES IN BEE-KEEPING
There are certain precautionary measures that must be taken to prevent hazard especially during the management and harvesting of honey bees. This precautionary measures includes:
1. Location of apiaries far from human dwelling: This is done to ensure that this do not sting people regularly. It is also ensure that honey production are not disturbed from time to time.
2. Putting warning symbols near apiaries: the apiarist must ensure that warning symbols are placed in strategic locations few distance to the apiaries. This is to ensure that people do not run into this that can sting them.
3. Wearing of protective clothing: Beekeepers often wear protective clothing to protect themselves from stings. Some of the items that are used as protective clothing includes a good quality big keeping suit, sturdy gloves and a hat with accompanying veil to cover the face.
4. Uses of smokers: Bee keepers always use smokers during the management of the colony including harvesting of honey. The smoker is a device designed to generate smoke from the incomplete combustion of various fuels. Smoke calm bees, it initiate a feeding response in anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire. The ensuring confusion create an opportunity for the bee keeper to open the hive and work without any disturbance from the honey bees.
Revision Questions
- What is apiculture?
- State five methods of bee keeping.
- Outline the importance of bee keeping.
- What are the precautionary measure in bee keeping?
- Briefly state and discuss the types of bees.