This PSEB 8th Class Agriculture Notes Chapter 6 BeeKeeping will help you in revision during exams.
PSEB 8th Class Agriculture Notes Chapter 6 BeeKeeping
→ Earlier, beekeeping was practiced mainly in hilly and southern states of India and the reared bee species was the Indian honey bee Apis cerana.
→ PAU, Ludhiana successfully introduced the Italian honey bee in 1965.
→ We may get 20 kg of honey per colony per year from stationary beekeeping and 60 kg of honey per colony per year from migratory beekeeping.
→ Products that are obtained from beekeeping are bee wax, propolis, bee venom, pollen, royal jelly, etc.
→ The body of honey can be considered divided into three parts – head, thorax, and abdomen.
→ There are mainly four species of honey bee Apis dorsata (rock bee), Apis florea (little bee), Apis cerana (Indian bee), and Apis mellifera (European/Italian bee)
→ A honeybee can lay nearly 2000 eggs in a day.
→ Rock bees and little bees are wild species.
→ Indian bee and Italian bee are hive bees.
→ Rock bee is very aggressive.
→ Italian and Indian bees are reared in boxes.
→ There are three castes of honey bees-queen, drones, and worker bees.
→ The life cycle of honey bees has four stages – egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
→ The life cycle of the queen bee completes in 16 days that of a worker in 21 and of drone in 24 days.
→ A colony has nearly 8000 to 80,000 worker bees.
→ Good sources of nectar and pollen for bees are berseem, toria, Sarson, arhar, eucalyptus, Sheesham, pear, etc.
→ The suitable season for starting beekeeping is February-March and November.
→ Honey bees seal the ripe honey with a layer of beeswax.
→ We should not extract unripe honey.