APICULTURE

Management

Italian bee (Apis mellifera)

It is a native of Europe introduced to Himachal Pradesh and Punjab during 1962-64 and introduced to Kerala on a trial basis from Haryana in November 1992. It maintains a prolific queen, swarms less, has gentle temperament and is a good honey-gatherer. It is known to be resistant to TSBV. A healthy colony may contain 60,000 to 80,000 worker bees. The following modifications are to be followed in beekeeping with Italian bees.

Bee-box

Langstroth beehive with ten frames each in brood and super chambers and a division brood chamber is recommended. The brood and super chambers are of the same size.

Procuring bee colonies

Colonies can be obtained either by dividing existing colonies or by buying from other agencies.

Location of beehives

Follow the practices as in Indian bees, but use a strong four-legged stand well protected from ants and other crawling insects by providing ant wells.

Management of colonies

Apart from the management practices followed for Indian bee, the practices as mentioned below may be followed.

Sources of pure water should be available near the apiary. Stagnant water or water in a container is not appropriate because it can spread nosema disease. Flowing water near the apiary should serve as a good source. As an alternative, water trickling from a container set on a stand and falling on a slanting wooden plank can be provided.

During the brood rearing season (growth period) from October to January, replacement of old queens by young healthy ones, uniting the weak colonies and giving supplementary feeding as and when required should be done. Colonies should be provided with enough space for brood rearing and food storage, by giving comb foundation sheets one at a time.

In areas where queen mating is a problem, especially when only a few colonies are kept in isolated pockets, the colony with virgin queen is to be transferred to areas where more number of colonies are kept so as to ensure the availability of queen in sufficient numbers and afterwards returned to the former apiary.

During honey flow season (January-April), provide raised combs in the super and the number of combs to be added depends on the strength of the colony. Only ripe honey is harvested when two-third of the comb cells are capped so that honey contains less than 20 per cent moisture. Care should be taken to see that the bee colonies are not stripped of all the honey stores. Enough stores of honey should be ensured in the hive at the end of honey flow for use during the following lean period. For migratory bee keeping, follow the practices as adopted for Indian bees.