Written by Aaron J. Kharpuri, Fifth Semester, Media Technologies, 2023
Apiculture can be define as rearing, breeding and managing honey bee colony in artificial hives for economic gains through the production of honey and other bee products for man's use. Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept. Beekeepers (or apiarists) keep bees to collect honey and other products of the hive: beeswax, propolis, bee pollen, and royal jelly. Other sources of beekeeping income include pollination of crops, raising queens, and production of package bees for sale. Bee hives are kept in an apiary or "bee yard".
Wanbha Pde residing in a village name Khliehshnong Sohra (Cherrapunjee). He has been rearing
bees for almost 2 decades and had produced and supplied the honey almost all over Meghalaya. The type of bee being rare by wanbha is Apis cerena indica, it is an Indian honey bee, is a subspecies of Asiantic honey bee. It is one of the predominant bees found and domesticated in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and mainland Asia. In a year it could produce around 12 - 13 kg of honey, the month of October, November, February, March and April are the months for extracting the honey and is undergone through the process.
The first step for extracting the honey from the bee hive is to remove the lit on top which is
covering the hive, to open it first ,
a smoke is being use to overpowers the bee's pheromones, interfering with their sense of smell which they use to communicate. While the bees docile, the bee keeper can easily inspect, conduct maintenance, or collect honey frames, without the bees becoming aggressive. To produce the smoke, beekeepers use burlap, pine, needles, wood pellets, twigs, cardboard, and small pieces of wood. Smoke does not harm the bees in anyway.
Secondly is by smoothly taking out the honey frame out of the hive which is 80% sealed (If it
is harvested before it gets sealed, then the moisture content will be high. Honey may get spoiled soon).
The third step is to cut the top seal or the 'Bthing' out from the frames.
Fourth step is to put the frames into the honey extractor. This process of extractor is similar to a washing machine dryer. The honey comes out of the honey without causing any damage.
Lastly the honey then filtered and filled up in the bottle and the honey frames are being kept back into the bee hive.
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