Name: Ajmal Shahzad

Bee farming
Introduction: Rearing of honey is called apiculture or bee farming. Keeping bees in large scale
for commercial purpose as a business plan is increasing in this fast growing world. These bees
are kept in a special farm which is called a bee farm and collect honey from it. Apiculture is also
related to agriculture. Apiculture or bee farming need less investment. It is hard to keep bees as
business, when we don’t have any knowledge about the apiculture. We can visit a nearby bee
farm for gaining some sort of experience and we can learn it then we can start the business.
And we can make good profit with less effort. Bees are not only used for making or producing
honey, there are some more opportunities in using bees as business. For instance it is possible
to collect bees was from old combs and sell the wax in the market. This wax is great for making
great quality candles, lotions and other cosmetics. Bees also use some kind of glue which is
called Propolis, to keep honey comb tight. So this glue can be used for making great healing
creams and healthy cosmetics.
History: humans started collecting honey from bees about 10000 years ago. Beekeeping in
pottery vessels began 9000 years ago in North Africa. Domestication of bee is shown in Egyptian
art from around 4500 years ago. The first artificial beehives were used 2000 years ago, which its
name was skeps. Nowadays it is more developed, because in those times they have to destroy
the whole hive or colony for collecting the honey, and there were no other usages of the bees,
but now there is more improved machinery and beehives which is not needed to destroy the
whole colony.
Health benefits of honey: honey is the oldest sweeteners on the earth. It has a lot of benefits
for human health. It can prevent heart attacks and cancer, honey can decrease blood pressure,
it cleans our blood and arteries. It is also beneficial for throat infection. Giving honey to children
can improve their memory in early ages. It avoids cough, digestive diseases. Using honey can
give energy to our body and it helps in athletic performances. Honey is also used in cosmetics.
The special thing about honey is that it doesn’t affect our weight. It also has no effects on
diabetes.
Methods of bee farming: there is two methods for bee farming or beekeeping. One is
traditional and the other is modern beekeeping.
The traditional beekeeping is different in countries or areas. It can be done by different ways by
people, like some people use the trees for making the hives for the bees and some people use
self-made boxes and keep the bees. The traditional method is mostly used in Africa. There is
large hives in the trees and they collect honey from it. The disadvantages of this method is that
the hives cannot survive when collecting the honey from it. And also a lot of possibilities of
diseases.
The other method is modern method of beekeeping. In this method the techniques are
developed and. The hives are different from traditional method, the hives are like boxes and in
this kind hives which is called top bar hives, bee experience low stress, in modern beekeeping
the safety of bees and their eggs are much more than traditional. There are more modern and
developed bee hives like horizontal frame hives. This hive has the benefit of large size and bees
are more comfortable in it. But the disadvantage of this hive is that it takes a lot of space.
Bee colonies: bees live in the colonies. Each of the colony consist of bees eggs which increases
the number of bees. The number of bees in the colony depends upon the seasonal changes. A
colony could reach to 80000 bees during the active season. The active season of bees are spring
and summer. Because in these seasons the weather is warm and flowering plants are available.
They remain active throughout theses seasons then their number decreases during the winter
season. In a bee colony there are three types of bees, a queen, female workers and male
drones. The number of female workers are about 80000 and hundreds of male drones. Each of
them has specific task. The queen is only member of colony who is able to lay eggs, the queen is
very important, a queen can live up to 2 or 3 years. The queen lays about 2000 eggs in a single
day. Female workers are the largest population within a colony. The workers are entirely
female, but unable to produce eggs. If there is no queen they sometimes lay eggs which
become male drones. Female workers use their barbed stingers to defend the colony, but after
the attacking their sting attack the victim and the also loses its abdomen and resulting death of
the bee, their job is to defend the nest, feed larva’s. The life of worker female is six weeks.
Male drones: the job of male drone is fertilizing queen.
Starting bee farming business: bee farming business or beekeeping business needs low
investment. For starting bee farming business we have to have some knowledge about it. We
have to know about the human-bee relationship, construction of bee farm, the equipment
needed, choosing of site or location etc…
First we need to understand the relationship between the bees and humans by visiting the
nearest farm of bees.
For constructing a good bee farm we need to prepare a bettered system for them. For
constructing a better bee farm, we need to choose a proper location for it. The location has to
be warm, have lots of shades and no wind. The location has to have a dry atmosphere. A source
of clean water should be provided. There has to be trees which apply shades and cool the
environment. There should be flowers around the farm, because when the bees go for polling
so they don’t have to travel too far, and this can increase the production of honey. The
equipment needed for bee farming is very important and has direct effect on the business,
because when there is a standard equipment and tools so the production can be increased and
also we will get more profit. The equipment needed is honey extractor, smoker which calm the
bees, special protective kit, knives, bee hives etc…
The size of the bees which we will be keeping has to be small. Because keeping bees with a
large number will be hard for the first time. We can increase the number by the passage of time
and we will have experience that how it can be controlled, at the first stages we may commit
some mistakes but after the passage of time we will know better about it.
For marketing part of our business, we need to try our customers from the beginning onwards,
usually the baker sand chocolate makers are the bigger customers because they use honey
during the whole year. Other strategies may include setting up a website, option for public
demonstration, using social media, attending farmers market, displaying the product in festivals
etc…
Pests and diseases: the common pests or insects that attack the bees are Wax moths, Wax
beetles, Ants, Birds, Wasps. For controlling these insects from damaging the hives we should
strong the bee hives and keep them in a cool place.
Diseases that attack the bees are Nosema disease, Thai Sac Brood virus disease etc…
For preventing these diseases we should inform the local horticulture which they control these
diseases and also the insects. In traditional kind of bee farming these diseases occurs much and
also these insects and pests attack the bees a lot, because they don’t have proper security and
safety for the bees.
Bee farming business in Afghanistan: the bee especially the European bees was first
introduced in Afghanistan in 1965. By FAO. They were small, weak and easy to handle. There
were colonies which were brought by the organization. Afghanistan has the capacity for one
million bee hives, but now it is only about 214000. Afghanistan biggest bee farming business
are located in Nangrahar, Herat, and Baghlan. Other beekeeping Groups are Paktia beekeeping
association, Takhar beekeeping cooperatives. The beekeeping business also created big job
opportunities for afghan people. In Afghanistan most of the women struggled a lot in being in
homes and also financially, but beekeeping business made a great opportunities for them. And
most of the farms are controlled by women. The beekeeping business changed the situation of
lots of provinces of Afghanistan, like helmand province which is now changing from a poppy
producer to a honey producer province. The afghan honey is mostly exported to India.
Conclusion: