Beekeeping
Honeybees are social insects, which mean that they stay together in the colony and rely on each other for survival. Beekeeping is the maintenance of colonies of honeybees in hives by humans. Predominantly beekeeping is an essential activity. It is a fascinating hobby and can turn into lucrative of bee business. Bee products also constitute to an essential ingredients of folk and traditional medicines.
A bee colony consists of a queen, workers and drones. Queen bee is the single breeding female in the colony, while the worker bees are sexually underdeveloped females and drones are the males in the colony whose function is to mate with a virgin queen.
History of Beekeeping: Beekeeping and honey have a long history in India. There are some oldest records in beekeeping in the form of paintings by the prehistoric man. There are numerous species of wild bees available. Most of the species are single while several others rear their young in small colonies like bumblebees and mason bees. The collection of honey from wild bee colonies is the most ancient human activities. It is yet been practiced in aboriginal societies of Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. The earliest rock paintings give us the evidences of the collection of honey from wild colonies. Aristotle in ancient Greece discusses aspects of the lives of the bees and beekeeping. Huber is regarded as "the father of modern bee science" and his "new observations on bees" revealed the basic scientific truths for ecology and biology of honeybees. In the 19th century, there was a perfect invention of movable comb hive and this fostered the development and growth in commercial honey production.
Traditional Beekeeping: This is a fixed comb hive, in which the combs cannot be manipulated for management or harvesting without damaging the comb permanently. Usually any hollow structure such as skep, log gum or clay pot is used for this purpose. These comb hives are no longer in use in many places and it is considered as illegal at some places.
Modern Beekeeping: Nowadays, moveable comb hives are commonly used. Langstroth was the first successful top opened hive with moveable frames. With the knowledge of bees, it is necessary to protect one against the bees, thus protective clothing are used by the beekeepers. The beekeepers usually wear gloves, a hooded suit and veil. Smoke is another defendable option for the beekeepers as smoke calms bees and it initiates a feeding response in anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire. Beekeepers also use liquid smoke, as it is safe and more convenient alternative.
Are you keen to know more about beekeeping, read further.