BY:-

PRIYA SHARMA CLASS 9TH B

OVERVIEW
 INTRODUCTION
 THE IMPORTANT PRODUCTS REFER
OBTAINED FROM BEE- KEEPING PAVITHRA’S
PRESENTATION.
 IMPORTANCE OF HONEY

 VARIETIES OF HONEY BEE USED FOR

HONEY PRODUCTION
 APIS DORSATA OR ROCK BEE
 APIS INDICA OR INDIAN BEE
 APIS FLORAE OR LITTLE BEE
 APIS MELLIFERA OR ITALIAN/WESTERN BEE
OVERVIEW CONTD……
 DIVISION OF LABOUR
 LIFE CYCLE OF BEE

 COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF HONEY

 PASTURAGE
 SELECTION OF BEE VARIETY

 IN TEXT QUESTIONS- REFER AMBIKA’S

PRESENTATION
 EXERCISES- REFER ANUSREE’S
PRESENTATION
VARIETIES OF HONEY BEE USED
FOR HONEY PRODUCTION
 In India, both local varieties as well as
exotic varieties are used for commercial
production of honey.
 The local varieties are:-
 Apis cerana indica (Indian bee)
 Apis dorsata (rock bee)
 Apis florae (little bee)
 The exotic varieties used for honey
production are :-
 Apis mellifera (Italian bee)
 Apis adamsoni
1. APIS DORSATA (ROCK BEE)
 It is an elongated and long bee that yields
maximum amount of honey i.e., up to 24
kgs. per comb. It is wild and not easily
domesticated for commercial purposes.
APIS DORSATA- COMB AND LIFE
CYCLE
APIS INDICA (INDIAN BEE)
 It
is a gentle kind of bee that can be
easily domesticated. It yields
approximately 2.4 kg to 2.8 kg honey
per comb.
APIS FLORAE (LITTLE BEE)
It is the smallest and
yields very little amount
of honey.
APIS MELLIFERA (WESTERN/ITALIAN
BEE)

 It
is an exotic variety
commonly called European bee.
The honey production is less but
this bee is best for domestication
because of its docile nature.
APIS MELLIFERA- HOME
 COMPARISON BETWEEN TYPES OF
BEES.
Category Indian bee Western bee Little bee Rock bee

Figure gentle Exotic and Smallest in Elongated

docile size and long

Honey 6 to 7 pounds Quite less least Approx. 60

produced pounds

Nature domestic able Best for average Wild, not fit

domestication for
domestication
DIVISION OF LABOUR
 The honey bees, the tiny insect, represent a
well organized system of division of
labour.
 Each honey bee colony consists of three
distinct castes:-
 One queen:- a functional female produced
from fertilized egg and can lay up to 15,000
egg per day and can live for three years.
 10,000 to 20,000 workers(sterile females):-
have underdeveloped reproductive organs.
 Few hundred drones (males) :- are heavily
built as compared to workers and queen. Their
only function is to mate with the queen. They
live for 57 days.
DIVISION OF LABOUR
LIFE CYCLE OF HONEY BEE.
LIFE CYCLE OF HONEY BEE.
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF
HONEY.
 How honey is made?
 The female worker bees or the foraging adults are
responsible for making honey.
 To make 500 grams of honey, bees require to move
thrice around the earth to collect nectar.
 They suck the nectar from their mouth and come
back to their hives. There the nectar is processed in
their honey stomach in the presence of an enzyme
called “invertase” which breaks it down into
glucose and fructose.
 Then they puke the partially digested honey in the
comb cells. Remember that concentration of water
here now is nearly 90%. Now the honey is
evaporated and water concentration is reduced to
17%.
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF
HONEY.
 How bee keepers extract honey, wax, etc.
from honeycomb?
 The bees may first be pacified by using smoke
from a bee smoker. The smoke triggers a
feeding instinct (an attempt to save the
resources of the hive from a possible fire),
making them less aggressive and the smoke
obscures the pheromones the bees use to
communicate.
 The honeycomb is removed from the hive and
the honey may be extracted from that, either
by crushing or by using a honey extractor.
The honey is then usually filtered to remove
beeswax and other debris.
PASTURAGE
 For production of honey on commercial basis,
bee farms or apiaries are established in good
and desirable locations where abundance of
flowering plants (flora) is available in 1 to 2
km radius for nectar and pollen collection.
 Availability of flowering plants for collection
of nectar and pollen is called pasturage.
 It plays a very important role in the quantity
and quality of honey.
 We know that the type of plants growing in
mountains are different than those growing in
plains. Thus, pasturage of mountains is
different than that of plains.
 In fact, the taste of honey depends upon the
type of flowers available for pasturage.
SELECTION OF BEE VARIETY
 Besides pasturage, the other important
factor which plays role in the commercial
production of honey is the selection of bee
variety.
 At present, the Italian bee variety, apis
mellifera is used in apiary for large scale
production of honey and wax.
 This variety yields an average of 50 to
200 kg of honey per hive per year.
 Moreover, the Italian variety of bees stay
for longer duration in a given bee hive,
breed very well and sting less.
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