Individual characters of 4 types of bees

1. Apis florea: It is the smallest one. It builds a

single comb in an exposed area, not in a hollow tree or cave.
A. florea stores honey but due to exposed nest the broad and
stored honey are subjected to predation. Therefore, this bee
must use 60 – 80 % of its population for protection with the
result that the bees cannot spend much time gathering food.
2. Apis dorsata: It is of the largest size among the 4 species
of honey bee. A colony may as many as 80,000 individuals. In spite
of large size the amount of honey stored never exceeds more than a
few Kg per hive.
3. Apis cerana indica: It is the Asian species of Honey bee
and is used in Indo-Pakistan subcontinent for production of honey
commercially. Due to small size colonies do not store more than 5 – 8
Kg honey.
4. Apis mellifera: It is the European species and is the
best honey producer. Apis mellifera is not naturally found in
Pakistan but has been recently introduced.
 Population of honey bees
The societies or colonies of honey bees are perennial. At the highest of
its strength in summer, a good colony of European honey bee (Apis
mellifera) may consist of 50000 to 80000 individuals. The colonies
of other honey bees consists of smaller number, those of little honey
bee (Apis florea) containing only 4000 to 5000 individuals.
 Honey production in Pakistan

Honey is obtained from Hill Bees (Apis cerana) 55000 to 65000 Kg

per annum and from the Rock Bees(Apis dorsata) 78000 Kg per
annum.
 Flora on which honey bees feed
There are about 500 species of plants on which honey bees feed in
Pakistan.
Honey bees feed on the flowers of these plants. Most of these plants
have minor source of Nectar and pollens, but some plants produce
large quantity of Pollens and Nectars.
Among them the important are:-
(1) Alphalpha ( Medicago saliva) (2) Citrus (3) Acaccia modesta
(4) Cotton (5) Dalbergia (6) Zea maize (7) Guava (8) Oates (9)
Brasica (10) Zizyphus jujuba (11) Clover (12) Apples (13)
Orchids (14) Apricot (15) Turnip (16) Rosa indica etc.
 Occupants of hive

The occupants of hive are Queen, a given number of workers and

when food is abundant, the colony is growing a certain number of
males or drones.
A normal colony in the North may contain a Queen, about 60000
workers and more than 3000 drones, while minimum size for a
colony is One queen, 150 – 200 workers and few Drones.
The females are in largest number in the honey bee colony and are
divided into two casts. The Queen (only fertile female in hive) and
the workers (usually sterile females). The fertile male or drones does
not constitute a cast.