Bee Farming

Sweeping the bees from their natural environment and farming in cage by scientific methods and modern technological ways is called apiculture or bee farming. According to the weather of our country, Indian bee is most suitable for farming. These types of bees are small in size, golden colored with white stripe. They usually lives in the hole of trees in multiple parallel room. Accessing routes are arranged with parallel hole. In scientific bee farming system bee cages are made in this method. Farming bees in this system is called apiculture.

Necessity:
We can get honey from natural sources. So, why bee farming ? Be main benefits of bee farming are described below.

• Usually, the hive is destroyed while collecting honey from it. At this time many bees die, baby bees and eggs also damaged. As a result, the number of bees are reducing day by day. Nowadays, for using pesticides in the crop field, the number of bees is ominously reducing continuously. The crop production is also decreasing for using it. By farming bees in modern ways we can increase the number of bees.
• We use deprived bee hive honey as food for consuming. Honey is very nutritious as well as it also helps to prevent different types of harmful diseases. In general system honey is collected by griping the bee hive. In this system we can't collect all the honey from hive and the collected honey remains mixed with wax, bee eggs and different types of trashes. But in modern bee farming methods we can collect all honey from the bee hive and the collected honey is very fresh and pure.
• We get wax from natural system but in modern bee farming ways wax is not available. The hive is damaged if wax is collected. It takes huge time to make new hive. In modern method the hive is remain intact. After collected honey from hive the bees can collect honey again. As a result we can get more honey in short time.
• While surfing from one flower to another it carries pollen grains and it helps to increase crop production. If you set up the bee cage near a crop field it will increase the production of both crop and honey.
• Bee farming can be considered as a cottage industry. And it can be a great source of employment. For the rural poor people it can be an additional income source.

Appropriate environment:

The selected location of farming the bee box will be dry, shadow and proper food facilities available near the place. If needed you can plant some seasonal tree near the box. The selected location should free from horrible sound and all types of smoke. The bee box may made with wood or bamboo.

Food of Bee

When the bee go outside for searching of food they generally eat nectar and pollen. This types food of bee get mixed with enzymes inside the stomach which produce honey. It also get mixed with pollen and produce highly protein containing beebread.

Difficulties of Bee Farming

There are many difficulties of bee farming. Because all required equipments and environment are not available throughout the world for bee farming. For successful bee farming it needs proper care and management and all required facilities. The main difficulties of bee farming are shown below.

• Lack of sufficient facilities.
• Lack of required equipment.
• Adverse weather.
• Low quality bee cage.
• Suitable environment.
• Lack of bee feed.
• Lack of knowledge.
• Low interest in bee keeping.

Diseases:
The bee can be get affected by different types of enemies and diseases. About two major enemies and diseases are described here. In wet condition the bees are affected by wax-battle. These diseases can be determined by seeing the hive covered with a layer like spider net. By keeping the box neat and clean and changing them occasionally we can prevent this diseases. Potassium permanganate can use in the bee box to prevent this. The door of the box should closed at night and open again in the morning. The another harmful diseases of bee is acarine. The wing of the affected bee looks like 'A'. And they move by using their chest. The closet of the affected bee is yellow colored. The bees moves here and there separately. In many cages they become paralyzed. Affected quin bees stops laying eggs. The main solution of these diseases is spreading mithael solicide vapor in the cage.

Bee farming requires a very low investment. No needs separate place for them. You can keep the bee box in your house corner, roof or near the home garden. In proper care and management up to 10 kg honey can collected from each bee box.

Bee Cage

Bees are one type of insects which can fly like ant and wasp. They are very popular to the farmer for farming because they produce honey and beeswax highly. They has a great importance in plant or crop pollination. However, for keeping bee, bee cages are a must. It gives the bee safe shelter and place for gathering honey. Every worker bee collect honey and make wax inside the cage.

Honey Bee

Honey bee is the most common species of bee. They are highly honey productive bee species. The beekeepers can easily feed, transport and maintain this bee. So, honey bees are very popular to the farmer. There are two types of honey bee available, mellifera and cerana indica. Both species are easily transported from one field to another field. The farmer can keep the hives near to a crop field. This method will increase both crop pollination and honey production.
Like other bee species colony of honey bees generally contain a queen bee or a fertile female bee. They mate with fertile male bees and produce thousands of baby honeybees. They lay an egg in very cell of a wax. This cell and wax is produced and shaped by the worker bees. The worker and queen bee take cares of the larvae of a cell. The worker bee serve food known as royal jelly to the larvae. Later this jelly turned to honey and pollen.
The young worker bee works as a labor in the bee team. They clean the hive and feed the larvae. They used to communicate with each other by dancing. They cooperate with each other for finding feed.

The queen bees only lay eggs and produce baby bee. A virgin queen bee flights away from their home colony. They do so during their mating period. They go far and mate with numerous male bees. After that they come back to their home colony. The male bees die after mating with queen bees.

A bee colony generally established by a mated queen and a large number of worker bees. The worker bees build the cells and wax. And the queen bee lays eggs in every cell.
In winter season if the temperature becomes lower than 10 c then the honeybees stop flying and stay in the central area of the hive. The queen bee always stay at the middle of the worker bees. The worker bees try to keep worm the hive and queen. They try to maintain the temperature between 27-34 c. This temperature keeps the queen productive. The worker bee changes their place from outside to inside so that no bee gets too cold. They consume their stored honey to keep their body worm. The consumption of honey depends on the length of winter season.

The farmer generally collects the stored honey from the wax for consumption. After collecting honey from the wax the worker and queen bee start making new hive and collecting honey again. After collecting honey the bee wax can be used for various purposes.