ECONOMICS OF

BEE KEEPING
PRESENTED BY-
ENROLLMENT NO. – ZOO1632064
ROLL NO.- U16-1687
4TH SEMESTER
 HONEY BEES
 Honey bees are highly social insects and are
found almost across the world.
 They exhibit polymorphism and a good

division of labour.
 They communicate information for the

location of food sources through WAGGLE

DANCE. This phenomenon was called
“Language of the bees” by Karl von Frish. He
also stated that the rate of dance is directly
proportional to the distance of the food
source.
 Systemic position of honey bees

Phylum ----------------------- Arthropoda

Class ------------------ Insecta
Order --------------- Hymenoptera
Family ----------- Apidae
Genus ------ Apis

There are several species like indica, mellifera, dorsata,

florea etc.
 SPECIES OF HONEY BEE
1.Apis dorsata F : (Rock Bee)
 Also known as Giant Bee, about 20
mm in length.
 SARANG and BOMBARA are the
other names.
 Yields maximum amount of honey
as compared to the other species
(60 pounds in a single comb).
 Very difficult rather practically
Fig: Apis dorsata
impossible to domesticate due to its
gregarious nature.
2. Apis indica F : (Indian Bee)

 Smaller than Apis dorsata, prefer to

live in dark places.
 Commonly found in forests and plain
regions of india.
 Produces 6-7 pounds of honey (per
comb), very gentle in nature, hence
easily domesticated.

Fig: Apis indica

3. Apis mellifera F: (European Bee)
 Yields less amount of honey still
the commercially best species of
honey bee.
 Due to their docile nature they can
be easily domesticated and can be
improved by breeding for several
hundred years.
 Out of its several variety, the Italian
variety is reared everywhere in
Fig: Apis mellifera Europe and America in artificial
hives for honey.
4. Apis florea F: (Little Bee)

 Smaller than the other species.

 Yields very little amount of honey.
 Not very gregarious in nature and
builds a single comb.
 Due to its docile nature and rare
stinging behavior the combs can be
easily removed for honey extraction.

Fig: Apis florea

 SOCIAL LIFE OF HONEY BEES

A highly organized and developed colony of honey bees contain

40-50 thousand individuals.
Colony consist of three castes i.e. QUEEN, WORKER and

DRONE.
 1.QUEEN
 The only fertile female in the entire colony who
feeds upon ROYAL JELLY.
 Can be distinguished by long and tapering
abdomen, short wings and legs.
 The only function of the queen is to lay egg
throughout her active life span.
 The queen is mated once in her lifetime and the
drone release millions of sperm in the single chance
of mating which is enough to fertilize the queen for
her entire life span.
 In a recent research, it has been found that only 55
queens out of 110 have mated twice in their life
Fig: Queen Bee at the centre of time.
the comb  When a queen loses her capacity of laying eggs, she
is replace by a new queen.
 WORKER
 Produced by the fertilized eggs laid
by the queen.
 Perform all the indoor and outdoor
works of the colony.
 They have wax glands, powerful
sting glands, strong wings and long
proboscis.
 They can be nursery bee, builders,
fanners or cleaners depending on the
task they perform.
DRONE
 Produced by the unfertilized eggs laid
the queen.
 Only function is to fertilize the queen.
 Sting and wax glands absent but
reproductive organs well developed.
 Totally dependent on the workers and
are often seen begging for honey
from the workers.
 LIFE CYCLE OF HONEY BEE:
EGG
The queen lays one egg in one brood cell. Eggs are generally pinkish in color, elongated
and bean shaped, attached to the bottom of the cell

LARVA
Egg develops into larva after 3 days. Both fertilized and unfertilized eggs hatch into small
larvae. The larva of fertilized egg develops into worker or queen and the unfertilized egg
develops into drone. A larva which feeds on royal jelly becomes the queen.

PUPA
After 5 days of feeding, the larva undergoes pupation and the cell is sealed. The pupa
develops into Queen, Adult Worker and Drone after 13, 18 and 21 days respectively.
Fig: life cycle of honey bee
 METHODS OF BEE KEEPING

1. INDIGENOUS METHOD: Two types of hives are

used – wall or fixed hives and movable hive. Wall
hives are fixed hives built by the bees themselves
whereas movable hives are artificial hives consisting
of hollow wood logs, empty boxes and earthen pots.
Extraction of honey is done by bringing a burning fire
near the comb or sometimes smoking is also done so
that the bees escape off. The combs are removed, cut
into pieces and the honey is extracted by squeezing.
Fig: wall or fixed hive
2. MODERN METHOD:
 PRODUCTS OF BEE KEEPING
HONEY: BEESWAX:
SOURCES:
Books
 Economic Zoology by Shukla and Upadhyay
 Vertebrate Zoology by Kotpal

Websites
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beekeeping
 http://google.co.in
THANK YOU