APICULTURE

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Introduction

There are some insects which are essential for the human beings as they
secrete some substances which are useful. Therefore, all insects are not
harmful acting as pest or vector but many are beneficial in different ways. Of
all these beneficial insects’ bees, lac insects, silk moth, gall insects are majorly
included.
Honey bees are most famous in all of the beneficial insects as its
byproducts such as honey, bee wax, propolis are world fame for their use in
medicine, treating diseases, production of chewing gums, candies, antibiotic,
act as a pollinator etc. The practice of rearing of the honey bees for the
procurement of their by-products is called bee keeping or apiculture. From the
prehistoric times the use of honey is known to mankind but at that time they
collect honey and wax from the forest by creating smoke and fire besides the
located hive. After the invention of the artificial bee hive it is now possible to
produce honey and other by products of the honey bee in a single place and
commercialize. The success of apiculture industry is based on the right
knowledge of honey bee rearing, fulfill their requirements, early detection of
diseases, maintaining of the apiaries and plant species grown.

Systematic position of honey bee

A. cerana indica (Fabricius, 1798): Indian bee

It is medium-sized, widely distributed in various altitudes of hills and

plains found below 2500’. Their habitat varies from tree trunks, hollow log
wood to walls, wooden boxes, packing cases and other hidden sites. They
make parallel combs in these habitats. Their plain variety yields 2-2.5 kg and

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hill variety produces 3.5-4.5 kg of honey per colony. They are known for their
swarming, absconding, and robbing behaviour.

A. mellifera (mellifera is a Latin word means honey bearing) (Linnaeus, 1758):

Western honey bee or European honey bee

They are the commonest domesticated bee species, docile in nature,

eusocial, found everywhere except Antarctica. They are widespread in the area
of Europe, Mediterranean areas, middle and East Africa, and USA. They
resemble the Indian bee except queen is more prolific and swarm less. They
yield 15-20 kg of honey per colony. Due to their high yielding, docile nature,
less migratory behaviour as compared to Indian bee they are most
recommended species for apiculture.

A. dorsata (Fabricius, 1793): Giant honey bee/ rock bee

They are found mainly all over the plains, Sub Mountain, hill region and in
forest regions of South and Southeast Asia, Terai of Nepal above 4000’sea
level. They hive on trees branches, undercliffs overhangs, buildings etc. It is
large sized varies from 17-20 nm long and 5 mm through its thorax. This
species is well known for its greater production of honey approximately 25-
100 kg of honey colony and considered as good honey gatherer. The workers
of the colony are hardworking as forage even in heavy rains. It is also known
for its aggressive behaviour or ferocious temperament when disturbed, as
builds single big comb which is not suitable for rearing in the modern hives and
do not prefer enclosed conditions; hence, apiculture of these bees is not
recommended. Forest dwelling local people hunt these bees for the
assortment of honey and bee wax termed as honey hunting.

A. florea (Fabricius, 1787): dwarf honey bee/red dwarf honey bee/little bee

They are distributed in Asia, Africa, Thailand, India, China at the altitude
of 1500’ up to 4000’. They build small hives on bushy plants, corners of roof,
twigs, bushes etc. They are differentiated by its foraging behaviour and
defensive behaviour (piping noise), forms small colonies, open nest, most
susceptible for predation. They are poor honey gatherer and yields honey in
grams only. Due to their small colony formation, migratory habitat, less yield
they are not domesticated in apiculture business.

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 Fig 1: Worker of honey bee showing different body parts

Colony of honey bee

The colony is trimorphic and consists of a queen, many workers and few
drones. The drones and queen are the fertile members of the colony and
worker is the sterile member.

Queen: There is a single queen per colony but the recent researches
indicate that two queens per colony can be found in case of few A. mellifera
colonies. Queen is the largest of all the members measuring about five times
larger and three times heavier than that of the worker. The function of the
queen is to mate with drones and laying eggs in her whole life span. She lays
about 15-20 lacs of eggs in her whole life span with an average of about 350-
2500 eggs per day. Eggs are not laid whole of the year but are seasonal with
laying maximum in spring season and average laying in early autumn and late
winters.
Queen is characterized by having larger abdomen due to their highly
developed reproductive system (ovary and ovarioles), small wings, poorly
developed legs, and mouth parts. They are devoid of salivary, wax glands and
feeds on royal jelly which are made by workers. Queen secretes pheromone
named trans-9-keto-2-decenoic acid by their mandibular gland which keeps a
check for the development of another queen in a hive referred to as Queen
Mandibular Pheromone (QMP). QMP consists of mainly seventeen
components of which five important are 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid, cis and Tran’s
9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid, methyl p-hydroxybenzoate and 4-hydroxy-3-
methoxyphenylethanol. The QMP, 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid function as sex
pheromone to attract drone and queen retinue pheromone for the workers to
elicit retinue behaviour and physiological changes.

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 The queen lays two types of eggs: haploid eggs through arrhenotokous
parthenogenesis (for drones) whereas diploid eggs through fertilization of
male and female gamete (for workers).

Drones: Sterile males are uniparental having only and only function to fertilize
the queen. They are medium sized, stouter, large wings, appendages, broad
abdomen with lack of salivary and wax gland. They are the most unwanted
members of the colony having no defence mechanism and no help in collecting
food. Drones are dependent upon workers for their food and well feed in
breeding season but neglected in non-breeding season. Life span of
drone is 60 days. Few drones take nuptial flight with queen in the air to mate.
In nuptial flight the queen is virgin returns back to the hive while the drone
dies after mating due to ripping of endophallus (male reproductive part) which
is inserted still in the newly fertilized queen.

Workers: Smallest size of all the members but perform multiple function
with their well-developed wings, sting apparatus, body organization, salivary
and wax glands. Their life span is short varies form 30-45 days. They perform
multiple duties according to their age such as wax secretion, foraging, building
of hive, cleaning, fanning, defence etc. The duties assigned to the workers can
be flexible according to their need such as after predation, damage of the
colony.

Table: 1 Differences between queen, drones, workers at a glance

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a) Sanitary bee/cleaners

The worker soon after emerging from pupal case into newly adult start
performing duty of cleaning the hive, empty cells, for the purpose of reuse.
This duty is performed from 1 to 3 days old newly emerged worker.

b) Nurse bees/feeder bee

After 3rd day to up to 10th day the worker bee performs the function of
milking. They develop pharyngeal gland which is the modification of paired
cephalic glands in the form of long and coiled chain of follicle opening in the
buccal cavity. It secretes highly nutritious royal jelly or bee milk to feed queen,
drones and young larvae. The foragers provide nectar to the nurse bee for the
production of honey in the hive by chewing and regurgitation.

c) Builders bee

After 10th day of ageing the pharyngeal gland gets atrophied and four
pairs of wax glands develops on sterna of the abdominal segments from 4 to 7.
They secrete wax which on contact with the air gets harden and seen as oval
polished areas called wax plates/ wax mirror. The wax is then scrapped by the
legs and chewed with the mandibles to construct the hive or repair.

d) Off-loader bee

From 16th to 20th day of maturity now the workers are ready to receive
pollen grains which are carried by the foragers and keep them in proper pollen
cells of the hive.

e) Sentinel/guard bee

Now the workers are enough to leave the hive and perform the outside
duties. The guard bee as the name indicates guards the hive from intruders.
They show altruistic behaviour/ altruism which means that they sacrifice
themselves for the survival of other members. The term altruism was given by
Auguste Comte means other people in French. It is an intraspecific interaction
acts by stinging the enemies leading to death of their own. The barbs of the
sting are backwardly directed therefore, when they insert sting into the skin of
the enemy and pull out from the victim, their abdomen ruptures leaving the
sting and poison gland in them resulting into the death of the bee. It means

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that the worker can sting only once.

f) foragers/field bee/scout bee

After 20th day the workers bee start collecting nectar, pollen, and water
from the field. These bees take hundreds of flights for the water, few for pollen
and 7-15 flight for the nectar. In these bees the hind leg is modified into the
pollen carrying legs. Here, hind tibia is broadened bearing pollen brush or long
hairs called scopa and the space lied in this is called corbicula or pollen basket.
Firstly, it is referred to as basket and then William Kirby in 1802 coined the
term corbicula.

There are several rows of spines on basitarsus for the

collection of the pollen grains from the pollen basket, head, or mouthparts.
The mid leg consists of pollen brush located on the tarsus and tibial end having
spur from removing pollen from the pollen basket and wax from the abdomen.
At the tip of the notch a small lobe called auricle is present and rows of spines
called pecten or rastellum. The antenna cleaners are also present on the
foreleg consists of notch and a spur like fibula at the distal end of the tibia in
which the antenna fits and drawn upwards for the cleaning.

fig 2: Hind limb of worker bee showing pollen basket

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 Fig 3: Foreleg of honey bee showing antenna cleaner

The reproductive system and external genitalia/ ovipositor of the workers

are modified into stinging apparatus and poison glands. In these modifications
the anterior paired valvulae modified into lancelet for ejecting venom,
proximal part of posterior paired valvulae forms bulb like swollen base of the
shaft and distal part forms slender stylet. The accessory reproductive glands
forms poison gland/ sting gland/ acid gland having a poison sac to store
poison. The sting is enclosed in seventh tergum at rest. The bee venom
consists of 63 components including histamine, aggregation pheromone,
enzymes (phospoholipase A, hyaluronidase, lecithinase), peptides (mellitin,
apamin), acids (formic acids, hydrochloric acids, orthophosphoric acids), amino
acids (cysteine, methionine). The venom is cytotoxic, stimulate heartbeat,
stimulate adrenal gland, lowers blood pressure, itching and pain at the site of
sting. Most importantly the mellitin made up of 26 amino acids and causes
rupturing the blood cell. Although it is used in treating allergies, as anticancer
agent helpful in treating cancer and considered as magic bullet as destroy only
cancer cells.
Bee venom is recently considered as effective medicine in the
treatment of rheumatic disorders like multiple sclerosis, gout, rheumatoid
arthritis, in the form of complementary therapy.

Sting-consisting 3 pairs of gonapophysis

• First pair at segment 8-forms 2 stylets enclosing poison canal

• Second pair at segment 9-fuses to form stylet sheath
• Third pair at segment 9-forms 2 stylet palps
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 Fig 4: Sting apparatus of worker honey bee

g) Retinue bee

The queen is attended by few workers and function to take care of all the
eggs.

h) Fanner bees

Some bees function for the ventilation of the hive by continue to hover
around the hive for its aeration, evaporates excess water and lowers the
temperature of the hive whenever necessary.

Beehive

The house of the honey bee is like our home having different rooms for
respective members. Hive is divided into small, hexagonal, symmetrical
compartments parallelly arranged called cell which are hanging from the trees,
walls or other habitats. The size of the hive varies from 30 cm to 90 cm and
built by the wax secreted by the builder bees called honeycomb. Well, the
upper cells are meant for the storage of the honey, lower cells for pollen
storage, larvae of workers and drones. The largest and lowermost cell is the
queen residence called queen cell. The cells in which the larva of the drone
lives is called drone cell and whereas the worker larva lives in worker cell.
Queen cell is the cell on the hive which is used only once while the drone cell
and the worker cells can be used up again and again. It’s strange about the
workers that the most hardworking, dedicated and important member of the
colony that performs each and every duty has no specific cell.

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Life history

Queen of the colony with few drones fly in the air for mating and is known
to call as the nuptial flight. It takes about 2 to 5 successive flights and mates
with 5 to 25 different drones to receive sperms in her spermatheca which is
sufficient for its lifetime need. Then, the queen returns to the hive and the
mated drones dies due to removal of their aedeagus. After returning to the
hive the queen starts laying eggs which are pink coloured, cylindrical lies at the
bottom of the cell. After two to three days the egg hatches into the legless,
white, wormlike grub which are fed by the nurse bees for two days. The length
of the larvae varies according to the caste as it is shorter for queen, medium
for worker and longest for drone. The feeding material is different for different
caste that is the worker grubs are fed upon honey while the drone grubs are
fed on royal jelly from third to seventh day. After that the cells are locked up
by the wax for the development of the pupae. The grub secretes the cocoon
around themselves and pupates for three weeks. The total number of days
varies according to the caste as worker takes 21 days and drones takes 24 days
for their complete metamorphosis. After some days the pupa develops wings,
compound eyes, mouth parts, body divisions and emerges as an adult.

Fig 5: Life cycle of honey bee

The adult body is differentiated into head, thorax and abdomen. The head
exhibits a pair of compound eyes, three ocelli, paired antenna and chewing &
lapping type of mouth parts. This type of mouth part consists of smooth
mandibles (used for moulding wax and making honey combs), labium (for
collecting honey), maxillae and labial palp (forms tube like which is enclosed
by glossa which forces nectar in upward direction).

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 Fig 6: Mouth parts of honey bee

Thorax consists of a pair of forewings, a pair of hind wings and three pairs
of legs.

• Midleg/mesothoracic leg: Contains pollen brush on tarsus for

removing wax
• Foreleg/prothoracic leg: Contains antenna cleaner on tibia which
clean up the antenna and pollen
• Hindleg/metathoracic leg: Contains pollen basket on tibia for
collecting pollen

The abdomen of the bee is 10 segmented where first segment is fused with
the thorax called propodeum and last three segments (8-10) are modified and
hidden.

Behaviour

There are some phenomena associated with these social insects.

a) swarming

After receiving appropriate stimulus the queen of the colony with some
drones and workers fly and establishes a new hive on some other places. This
swarming behaviour may be due to certain factors such as overcrowding of
the colony in the peak season, failure of the queen to lay eggs, or death of the
queen. For these reasons a worker is now fed on royal jelly and takes the place
of old queen and function as a new queen in the hive and the phenomenon is
called the supersedure. If the situation of the overpopulation lies same after
the first swarm then the second swarm may also take place to maintain the

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number of members in a hive called after swarm/caste swarm.

b) Absconding

This situation is different from swarming and occurs when the hive is
destructed by enemy or predation or limited food sources then, the whole
population of the hive shifts to a new place.

c) Communication behaviour

This is the most interesting behaviour of the bees where the workers
communicate each other through their dances. They give information about
the distance and direction of the food source. Firstly, Ernest Spytzner (1788)
named this communication behaviour as bee dance and then, Karl Von Frisch
received noble prize for his remarkable contribution in this field and explained
it as language of bee dance. The bees perform two kinds of the dances: round
dance and waggle dance. When the distance of the food source is within 25
metres from the hive the returning bees performs the round dance in circular
motion, which is monitored closely by the follower bee. The frequency of the
round dance depends upon the quality of the food source as high caloric value
of the food is indicated by greater frequency. Round dance does not depict the
direction of the food source as it is nearer to the hive and senses by the
antenna.

When the distance is more than the 25 metres, they perform waggle
dance which is in the path like figure of eight. As the distance is more than 25
m up to 100 m the straight run between the two semicircles provides the
information about it. The duration of the straight run indicated by the waggle
movement of the abdomen and direction in indicated by the angle formed by
the sun and the food source. High frequency of the dance shows good quality
of the food.

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Socialism

According to E.O. Wilson social insects forms 75% of world’s insect

biomass. It includes ants, bees, wasp, termites which forms colony may vary
from hundreds to thousands in number living together in a specific area. This
large and cooperative colonies represent various advantage than solitary
living. These advantages are working attitude for each other, altruistic
behaviour, labour of division, defence of colony, communication among
members, locating food, and quick building of the home.

Eusocial

Eusocial insects are those who are having overlapping generations,

cooperative brood care and sterile worker caste (ex. termite). As far as bees
are concerned, they have cooperative brood care, and sterile worker caste but
a single generation sharing a common hive. So, this kind of slightly more
advanced type of socialism is called quasi-social insects.

Caste system

Bee colony is highly organised, quasi-social, self-replenishing and unique

insects having three different caste.

• Queen bee-for egg production

• Worker bee-sterile female perform all duties
• Drone bee-fertile male & mates with queen

Role of honey bees in Pollination

Pollination is the method in which the pollen (male reproductive part in

plants) is transferred to the pistil (female reproductive part of plants) for the
purpose of cross fertilization via abiotic factors (wind, water, rain, etc.) and
biotic agents (bees, other insects). The living agents which are involved in
pollination are called pollinators. Approximately, 80% of the plant species are
dependent upon biotic pollinators. The importance of the honey bee is not
only to produce honey, bee propolis, wax, royal jelly but also, they are
important to pollinate various plant species. When honey bee visits many
flowers in one round to gathers nectar and pollen, the pollens are
interchanged among flowers and thus, enhances reproduction by cross
fertilization. Some plants like apples, cherries, broccoli, cranberries,

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blueberries are dependent upon honey bees for their pollination. Interestingly,
almond crop is totally dependant upon honey bees for their reproduction at
bloom time. Honey bees are credited for the basis of success stories in modern
agriculture. The bees are attracted towards brightly coloured flowers, odour,
nectar and pollen. Pollution and use of pesticide reduce the production of crop
plants as well as visits of the bees.

Fig 8: Honey bees visiting flower for pollen collection

Bee flora

The culture of bees in a specified area leads to the apicultural industry.

But for commercial bee keeping or apiculture, type of bee flora is the most
important factor to be considered. Bee flora decides the quality of the honey
and there are approximately 500 species which are the main sources of nectar,
pollen, and resin. The workers bees that bring pollen, nectar, resin and water
are called foragers. Some common plant sources are Eucalyptus, Toona,
Tamarindus, Syzygium, Schefflera, Litchi, Prunus, Pyris, Rubus etc. Common
names of trees and plants are like ber, barberry, honey suckle, clover, jamun,
bottle brush, gulmohar, sunflower, shisham, rose, cherry, rubber, soapnuts etc.
Apple, plum and cherry (fruit trees) are most favourite called as bee attracting
trees in apiculture. Well, nectar is the source of honey and pollen is the source
of protein for the bee community.

In season when flowers are innumerable due to good number of

plantations, nectar and pollen are available in a large amount and this period is
called as the honey flow period. In opposite to that when the flowers are less
for providing the source of nectar and pollen this period is known as the dearth

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period. Bees are mostly attracted towards the yellow, white and purple colour
of flowers therefore, in bee keeping this should be kept in mind.

Commercial bee keeping

Artificial culture of the bees by man-made hives for the production of

honey is termed as Commercial bee keeping. The appliance for the commercial
bee keeping includes bee boxes, queen excluder, comb foundation, honey
extractor, super cleaner and drop trap.

1. Traditional bee keeping: This is the old type of technique where

hives are fixed and cannot be moved or manipulated. These hives
may be built in any hollow structures such as wooden logs, pots,
boxes etc. These types of traditional methods are not suitable as
compared to movable hives due to infestation of microbes (bacteria,
fungi, virus) but in many developing countries, poor countries they
are still in use due to easily available materials.

2. Modern keeping hives: There are some kinds of modern techniques

for commercial bee keeping.

a) Top bar hives: The top bar hives is horizontal bar hive made up of single
story, frameless, with hanging combs, and removable bars. Basically, it is used
in Africa as it easy to handle, cheaper, light weight, harvest easily but have
some lacuna such as fragile, do not have additional storage for honey and
cannot be reused.

b) Vertical stackable hives: The vertical hanging artificial hives includes

Newton type (A & B type) and Langstroth type (C type) which are modified and
standardized from Bureau of Indian Standards recommended by Apiary
Industry Sectional Committee. Well, A & B types are used for the culture of
Apis cerana indica while type C for Apis meillfera.

i) Langstroth Type

They are having vertically hanging frames in hives given by L.L.

Langstroth in 1852 and then modified later. It consists of outer cover, inner
cover, hive body, and bottom board. The outer cover is in the form of
telescope or migratory cover. The outer cover is made up of polystyrene or
wood placed at the top of the hive. Inner cover is found between the top cover

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and hive body to separate these two. In temperate region plastic foil is used as
inner cover but should not to be used in winter to avoid moisture. Both of the
outer and inner cover provides the protection from the unfavourable weather
conditions. The hive body is made up of wooden frames about 8 to 10 having
fixed dimensions. The lowest frame is for the queen for laying the eggs.

The height of the boxes is available having deep (480x230x243mm),

medium (480x160x170mm) or shallow (480x140x150mm). Deep and medium
boxes are meant for brood chamber and shallow box for honey storage. Next
to the hive body, bottom board is present which is made of plywood resting on
wooden rails. This protects the hive from damage, water, termites, mites and
sometimes, white plastic sheet covered by sticky substance is placed. The
bottom board is having a hole for the entrance of the worker.

ii) Newton Hive

It is made up of wood consisting of roof, super chamber, brood chamber,

floor board, and stand discovered by William Newton. Roof is the uppermost
part having an opening of 90mm having wire gauge placed at the top of the
super chamber. Between the roof and the super chamber, the inner cover is
present like that of Langstroth type of hive. The super chamber consisting of
the seven frames of the size 210x146x51 mm hanging inside made up of wood.
Lower to the super chamber a brood chamber is present also having seven
wooden frames with the specific dimensions of 21x146x152 hanging inside
and this chamber is having a longitudinal slit opening of 89x10mm at its base.

A queen excluder is built at the top of the brood chamber guarded by wire
to allow free movement of the worker but do not allow the queen to move
outside. Next to the brood chamber a floor board of the size 356x241mm is
placed above the stand which is termite proof at a height of 1m above the
ground.

The hive is placed in the shade under trees painted with catchy colour
such as blue, yellow or green. Sometimes, in the honey flow period additional
comb foundation sheets are made available formed of wax attaching to the
super frames for providing extra space to the hive.

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Equipment’s for bee keeping

1. Honey extractor: When sufficient honey is made by the honey bees

in these artificial hives the honey is separated from the frames by a machine
called honey extractor. This honey extractor is based on the principle of
centrifugation. It consists of a cylindrical drum containing a space (rack) to
place frames in it. The rotation of the rack to a certain speed sends honey
below in a collecting area without having any kind of impurities or larval, pupal
exudates. If the hive collected from the field is simply squeezed then it
contains various impurities such as dead larvae, pupae, excreta, granules,
stains etc.

2. Uncapping knife: The comb of honey bee is packed by the wax when filled
by the honey therefore, uncapping knife is used to remove this capping. The
knife should be heated to avoid any contamination and may be a simple steel
knife or double jacketed knife

3. Smoker: The tin consisting of semi-combustible material can be smoked in

the direction of the hive which is useful for the collection of honey

4. Hive tool: For the separation of the frames and collection of the bee glue it
is necessary to apply hive tool made up of flattened iron piece with hammered
down edges

5. Brush: The brushes are used to clean the frames from the honey bee

6. Bee veil: The covering of face of the handler to avoid stinging of the honey
bee

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7. Swarm catching equipment: If the swarm settles down on the tree branches
it is gently cut, collected into swarm basket or swarm bags and then placed in
the hive

8. Feeders: In the dearth period when the supply of nectar and pollen
reduces a sugary syrup is provided to the bees contained in wooden
troughs

Precautions for bee keeping

1. The bee flora with a wide variety of trees, shrubs, flowering plants as
described earlier should be grown in the premises with the radius of 1500m

2. The apiary should not be overcrowded with hives and maintain a distance of
3-7m between each other

3. The availability of the fresh and clean water is essential to maintain an

apiary

4. The location of the hive should be termite free, ant free, mite free and
sanitized to avoid contamination from the microbes

5. The apiculture industry should not be in populated area or near the highway

6. The area of the apiculture business should contain bushes, trees or fences to
avoid high wind

Precautions for bee keepers

1. Wear full sleeve suit with gloves and boots having a face cover while
handling the hive

2. Bee keeper should stay calm and make slow movement to approach the
hives

3. Avoid the handling during rain, storms, high winds, and muggy weather

4. Use of little smokes on hand before handling is useful to avoid crowding of

bees around you so it masks the alarm pheromone

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5. If attacked by the honey bee do not pull out the sting as it will damage the
poison gland and releases more poison into the body

Natural enemies

The important natural enemies are listed in a Table 2. Other animals like
lizard, leaf cutter bee, mites, dragon flies etc. feeds on bees and hence, lower
the strength of the hive.

Diseases

The honey bee hive is infested by many viruses, bacteria, fungus and other
organism and hence, damages the hive and causes great economic losses in
the production of honey every year worldwide. The Table 3 is showing some
of the important infestation caused by microbes.

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By-products

1. Honey: Honey is of different types such as raw honey (obtained by the

extraction from hive directly), stained honey (having pieces of wax, propolis,
others), crystallized honey (glucose becomes granulated), pasteurized honey
(heated at temperature 72 ºC), dried honey (moisture extracted), comb honey
(left overs in combs). China is largest producer of honey and then Turkey and
Argentina.

Chemical properties: composed of 80% sugar and 20% water

Carbohydrates (present in nectar, honey dew)

Monosaccharides-fructose (38.2%), glucose (31%) Disaccharides (9%)-

sucrose, maltose, isomaltose, turanose, Oligosaccharides (4.2%)-Erlose, panose

Proteins: 18 amino acids and proline is most abundant

Enzymes: Invertase (convert sucrose to glucose and fructose), amylase

(breakdown of starch), glucose oxidase (convert glucose to gluconolactone),
catalase (breakdown of peroxide), acid phosphorylase

Vitamins: Vitamin B complex having riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, pantothenic

acid, vitamin B6, vitamin C.

Minerals: Calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, phosphorous, magnesium, selenium,

manganese.

Antioxidants: Ascorbic acid, flavonoids (pinocembrin), catalase, selenium

Acids: Acetic acid, succinic acid, malic acid, gluconic acid, citric acid, formic
acid, butanoic acid.

Hydroxy methyl furfural

Physical properties: Supercooled liquid at room temperature, pH-3.1- 5.7,

Temperature-20 ºC, density-1.38-1.45kg/l, viscosity depends upon water
content and temperature.

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Value

• Used as an antiseptic and applied on wounds, cuts and burns

• Honey is having antibiotic, antibacterial and antifungal properties
• It is used to treat common cough and cold
• Honey is also used to recover the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation
therapy

• Sometimes, honey is used to treat allergic conjunctivitis, seasonal allergies

• Energy source: 15ml=46 calories

• Used as a natural sweetener to make candies, bakeries, food products, tea

Toxic effects

• Botulism: A newly born baby should not be given honey to prevent from
botulism as honey is contaminated with Clostridium botulinum endospores
• Sometimes, adverse effects of honey are seen in the form of allergy, anxiety,
insomnia, hypersensitivity
• Honey could be fatal for the patients having high blood sugar
• Honey also shows adverse effects in immunocompromised patients
• Honey containing grayanotoxins may result in mad honey
intoxication

2. Bee wax: Newly secreted wax is clear, colourless, after masticated and
adulteration becomes opaque and yellow or brown coloured. The comb of the
honey bee is made by bee wax and one kilogram of wax is made when 8-15 kg
of honey is consumed. Also, 1 kg of bee wax can hold upto 22 kg of honey.

Chemical constituents: The abdominal wax glands of the builder bees produce
wax which is a natural wax consists of the ester of fatty acids and long chains
of alcohol. The most important constituent of wax is triacontanyl palmitate,
oleate esters, aliphatic alcohol, cerotic acid. Hydrocarbons-14%

Esters: Monoeasters-35%, Dieasters-14%, Triesters-3%, hydroxy mono and

polyesters 12% etc.

Physical properties: It has low melting point; density is 970 kg/m³ and specific
gravity is 0.95-0.97 at 15 ºC.

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Value: It is the waterproof and lubricating material used in various
products such as wood polish, shoe polish, furniture polish, cosmetics, Easter
candle, art painting material encaustic paint, oil paint. Other uses are in
manufacture of barrier creams, shaving creams, floor wax, dental wax, wax
museum statues, electric and lithographic products and sealing wax.

3. Propolis/ bee glue: The honey bee secretes a resinous, sticky, brown
coloured mixture made of saliva and bee wax with pollen, nectar, resin, water.
The colour of the propolis may vary from red, yellow, brown, white depending
upon the resin collected from which type of tree. Freshly secreted propolis is
soft but later gets hard and brittle.

Composition: It is made up of 50 constituents consisting of resin, balsam, wax,

essential oils, polyphenols (flavanoids) and pollen. It consists of all the vitamins
except vitamin K, minerals except sulphur.

Value: It is used to repair the hive, in manufacture of chewing gums,

automobile wax, varnish ingredients, to embalm mummies in Egypt and
traditional medicine. It has special flavonoid called pinocembrin which is
helpful for the wound healing as it has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial,
antiviral, antioxidant, and antifungal properties. Ointments that treats cold
sore and genital herpes consists of 3% propolis. It is also used as immune
system booster. Other uses are treatment of flu, cough, respiratory infection,
nasal congestion and allergies.

4. Royal jelly: It is made by the honey bees as a most crown secretion of the
hive which is used to fed queen and larvae.

Composition: It is cream coloured, white liquid, nutrients, minerals, vitamin B

complex, fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), amino acids, fatty acids, collagen and
saccharides. Its major constituents are water (67%), protein (12%), fatty acids
(6%), simple sugar (11%) and others in traces. In five to six
months of the hive formation 500 grams of royal jelly can be produced.

Value: It is used to treat asthma, anaphylaxis, allergic reactions. It is used to

manufacture soft gel, soothing creams, and capsule. It is also used as a dietary
supplement.

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Interesting facts about honey bee

• There are many facts which are interesting about honey bees and one of
them is that a single forager honey bee visits about two million flowers to meet
the demand of one pound of honey. And after such a hard work she is able to
produce only 1/12th of the table spoon of honey in its whole of the life span

• They can fly about 5-16 miles per hour to achieve the target of one pound of
honey and all the hive bees collectively travels around earth for three times of
its circumference to produce 1 kg of honey

• It creates a buzzing sound by their wing beating at the fast rate of 1100-1200
beats per minute or 200 times per second

• They have inbuild capacity of unbelievable learning, communicating and

remembering the complex things such as distance and direction of the food
which means that they are very calculative

• They have 170 olfactory receptors to smell, to locate and recognize different
variety of flowers or food sources

• The temperature of the hive is constant that, is 93ºF because in summer

fanner bees hover around the hive to lower the temperature and prevent
overheating while in winter the honey bees place around the queen to insulate
her

• In Africa, the fields are protected from the elephants by developing hives
around them called bee fence

• Worker bee can lift nectar and pollen load approximately 80% of their own
body weight

• Once a scientist named Albert Einstein said that “If honey bees disappear
from the earth, man would no more than four years to live?”

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Recent researches

The Varroa mite was considered to be the most serious pest of Apis
mellifera, but now Tropilaelaps clareae is proved be its most serious pest as
compared to the Varroa mite (Kavinseksan et al., 2003). Tropilaelaps clareae
originally predator of the Apis dorsata. Fumagillin is an antifungal compound
isolated from Aspergillus fumigatus and used in apiculture industry and human
medicine for the protection from microsporidian fungal infections (Johan et
al., 2014). The selected parasites of the honey bee such as Nosema, Varroa
mite, virus is analysed for the pesticidal exposure and screened for adverse
effects on honey bee colony (Robin et al., 2010). Bacterial infection of
Melissoccus plutonius that causes European foulbrood is controlled by some
nucleic acid detection technologies, molecular technology, phenotypic assay
(Eva et al., 2012). The gut parasites of the honey bee shows competition
between them (eg. Nosema ceranae inhibits the growth of Nosema apis) and
favours the spread of infectious diseases (Myrsini et al., 2015).

References

1. Eva F, Giles EB, Jean DC, Michael AZH. Standard methods for European
foulbread research. Journal of Apiculture research. 2012; 52(1):1-4.

2. Johan PH, Thomas ST, Jonathan MC, Abdullah I, Stephen FP. Fumagillin: An
Overview of Recent Scientific Advances and Their Significance for Apiculture,
Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry. 2014; 62(13):2728-2737.

3. Kavinseksan B, Wongsiri SDE, Guzman L, Rinderer T. Absence of Tropilaelaps

infestation from recent swarms of Apis dorsata in Thialand. Journal of
Apiculture research. 2003; 42(3):49-50.

4. Myrsini EN, Dino P, Mcmohan Vincent D, John B, Robert JP. Interspecific

competition in hiney bee intracellular gut parasite is asymmetrical and favours
the spread of emerging infectitious diseases, Proceeding of Biological Science,
Jan. 2015; 7:282-1798.

5. Nigam PM, Kumar A. Textbook of Agricultural Entomology. Emkay

Publication, New Delhi, 1990.

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6. Robin FA, Moritz1 JM, Ingemar F, Yves LC, Peter N, Robert J P. Research
strategies to improve honeybee health in Europe. Apidologie. 2010; 41(3):227-
242.

7. Singh R. Elements of Entomology. Rastogi Publication, New Delhi, 2016.

*****

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