Apiculture Beekeeping

Honey bees can be easily be raised to get useful products like honey wax, pollen, etc. You too can even rear bees in your back yard so that you can generate honey for your household use. Moreover, products like wax pollen etc. fetch very good market value and thus, you can earn some extra money as well. The following article will give you some idea about apiculture bee keeping.

For performing apiculture bee keeping you do not need to have a large open space. All you need is some space where you can keep artificial bee hives. The artificial bee hives which are usually small wooden boxes can be kept in the backyard as well. You can also place the hives on roof or balcony as well. You may think that keeping bee hives in your house may be dangerous as bees can sting. However, the bee species which are reared are quite calm by nature and they hardly ever sting. Therefore, there is no need to worry at all.

However, you will have to care for the bees with devotion. The most important thing that is required if you want to perform apiculture bee keeping is that there should be a rich source of nectar producing plants nearby. Plants like clover or other meadow flowers are ideal for bees. A place close to oilseed rape field can also be chosen in order to practice successful beekeeping.

Artificial hives play a very important role in apiculture bee keeping. The most popular type of artificial hive is the Langstroth which has got its name from its inventor. The feature that makes it so popular is its brood chamber. The brood chamber is actually a wooden box having frames made from wax foundation. These are arranged vertically similar to the honey comb pattern.

This brood chamber acts as a nursery where where the queen will lay her eggs and the bees will store their food. If the previous chamber is filled additional chambers called as 'supers' are to be added. This is added in such a manner that the worker bees are able to pass into this new chamber but the queen cannot. Therefore, only pure honey is stored in this new chamber by the worker bees and this honey remains free from the contamination by queen and her larvae.

After getting appropriate artificial hives you will need to bring a colony of bees in them. There are three methods through which you can do so, you can obtain a colony of from an existing hive, or you can get a nucleus or you can get a swarm:

* Colony: Amongst all steps for bee keeping, this one is the easiest. However it is the most costliest as you will have to buy a whole well established colony.
* Nucleus: Nucleus comprises of a some hundred workers and a queen along with them.
* Swarm: This is the cheapest however the most dangerous and difficult as in this method you will have to find a natural colony of bees and forcefully introduce them into your hive. For this collect them, from a natural hive, into a box and then keep this box near your hive. They will tend to go into the hive naturally.

Just rearing a colony in your hive is not enough, you will have to care for these bees. There are several diseases and pests which can affect your colony. During the rains or snow fall you will have to provide them food like sugar water as the bees cannot go to hunt for food at this time. Moreover, collecting honey also requires some skills. Therefore it is advisable that you first learn all the aspects related to apiculture bee keeping and only then try to get involved in it.