Apiculture or Bee farming is a modern technique used in agriculture where the bees are allowed to grow and develop in artificial hives to produce honey and wax for human needs. Many bees are used for apiculture, but the most common type is the honey bee of the genus Apis. The location of bees is often regarded as an apiary or bee yard. Initially, beekeeping was done in pottery vessels around 9,000 years ago in North Africa. Then in the 19th century Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, an American, revolutionised beekeeping. He is also regarded as the father of American Apiculture. Many inventions and modifications are being made for the better output of apiculture products.

Apiculture Classification

Apiculture practice can be widely classified based on techniques into two categories.

Traditional Apiculture

Many different techniques were used in ancient times for beekeeping: 

• A fixed comb hive is a type of beekeeping where the hives cannot be removed from their original position or modified for harvesting
• The hive has to be destroyed to extract the products from it
• Commercial beekeeping: It was a technique where the company used to have more than 300 beehives, and an average beekeeper at a time could only manage around 25 beehives

Modern Apiculture

1. Horizontal beehive– Crap wood is used to make hives. Here multiple combs are made in a box, and only one comb can be manipulated at a time. But these hives cannot be expanded for more storage.
2. Vertically stackable hives– The hives can be arranged in 3 ways: hanging, which gives full access or sliding, which provides the side with admission or the top bar manner.
3. Protective clothing– Often, beekeepers wear protective clothing to prevent themselves from getting stung. Initially, the protective clothing used was made up of cotton and hence was pale in colour. Now the cloth used is colourful, and fabric conditioners are also used. Often the clothes are washed with vinegar to avoid bee stings.
4. Natural beekeeping- It is a technique where bees are allowed to breed in a natural environment as modern ways can weaken their hives. Here variations of a top bar hive are used by the beekeepers.

Apiculture can also be classified based on the species of the honey bee. There are different types of species of honey bee used for beekeeping.

Different Species of Honey Bees

1. Apis dorsata is also known as the Rock Bee. It is a giant bee that can produce approximately 40kg of honey from 1 colony.
2. Apis indica is also known as the Indian Bee. Using this species is beneficial because it can be easily trained and produces approximately 5kg of honey from each colony in 1 year. It is the most widely used type for the production of honey.
3. Apis florea is commonly known as the Tiny Bee. It rarely stings; hence it is widely used, and also isolating products from this species hive is easy. It produces approximately 1kg of honey per colony per year.
4. Apis mellifera, commonly known as the Italian Bee, follows a specific dance pattern to inform its mates about the food available. It is also a species of bee that stings less and produces a large amount of honey.

Importance

• Honey which holds excellent nutritional value, is obtained from apiculture. Honey is also widely used in the cosmetic industry due to its features
• Bee wax used in cosmetics, polishing, pharmaceuticals, etc., is produced or obtained from the technique of apiculture easily
• Apiculture plays a significant role in pollination as honey bees are one of the best pollinating agents and it can increase the yield of a particular crop by 100 fold
• Studies also show that the honey bees’ venom has a mixture of proteins that can potentially be used as a prophylactic drug to destroy HIV, which leads to AIDS in humans

Conclusion

Apiculture, also known as beekeeping, is a technique included in animal husbandry or agriculture of animals where bees are trained and maintained to produce substances like honey, wax, etc., which hold a significant commercial value. Apiculture can be classified based on the type of technique and the basis of the species used. Based on the method, apiculture is of 2 types: traditional and modern. In modern apiculture, different hives are built like horizontal hives, vertical hives, etc. Different species of bees are used in apiculture like Apis dorsata, Apis indica, Apis florea, Apis mellifera, etc.