Honey Bee Farming: How to Care for Bees in the Hive?

Honey, I raised the bees!

Well, it’s appealing to keep bees. You can have pure homemade honey. Beekeeping (called apiculture) can be an enjoyable hobby and a lucrative profession.

You can start beekeeping in your backyard or garden, but please inform your neighbors! Beekeeping is best done in a huge garden or backyard.

Check with the National Bee Board of India for advice and guidance in starting beekeeping. They also conduct classes to teach how to raise bees.

However, simply keeping bees is not enough. You must know how to care for bees. You can’t just bring them and place them in the beekeeping equipment. Remember, they are live creatures. They need your attention and care.

Give them appropriate food

Bees feed on a variety of flowering plants that blossom in spring to autumn. Examples are:

• Bluebells and rosemary

• Cornflower and sunflower

• Michaelmas daisy and alyssum

• Sweet William

• Honeysuckle and geranium

• Shrub willows and ivy

Build shelters

If you are rearing bumble bees, you must build shelters for them. The bees need spots to nest and hibernate.

• Create bare earth patches in warm sheltered spots for nesting

• Create a pile of fallen leaves, dead stems of plants, stones, and logs or twigs for hibernating during winter

• You can also buy a bumble bee box available in the market

Using pesticides very carefully

You don’t want to poison your bees!

• Use natural alternatives like planting marigolds, garlic, and onion

• Store pesticides in a place away from the hive

• If you must use pesticides, spray them only in the early morning or early evening when bees are less active

While caring for bees, you must also care for their hives.

Here are a few tips to care for beehives:

• Create enough ventilation

• Fix a windbreak

• Fix a shade or rain cover

• Fix entrance blocks

• Repair and, if needed, replace any broken part of the bee equipment

• Control termites and woodlice

• Replace lost beeswax

• Protect the beehive from bears, mice, and other rodents

Love and care for your bees. They will give you sweet honey!