Benefits of Bee-Keeping

by Hardeep S. Writing is my Passion

Beekeeping also known by the name of apiculture is the work of maintaining bee colonies which are commonly done in man-made hivesby bee keepers. Most bees that they keep are honey bees but other honey-producing bees such as Meliponastingless bees are also being kept. The purpose of keeping bees for a bee keeper is to collect their honey and other products that the hive where bees live produce that includes beeswax, propolis, flower pollen, bee pollen and royal jellywhich helps in pollination of crops. Beekeepers also produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. Place where bees are kept is called an apiary or "bee yard"

The importance of keeping bees

As per an estimate, one-third of the food consumed by people on earth each day relies on pollination, mainly performed by bees.

Multiple type of domestic and imported fruits and vegetables that we consume in our day to day life require pollination for example: apples, pears, field beans, runner and dwarf beans, broad beans, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and oil seed rape, with approx 39 commercial crops reliant on bees in total. It is not compulsory that each crop should be directly pollinated by a honey bee but crop still gets benefited indirectly from being in an environment in which honey bees are working, due to the increased biodiversity in the area which stimulates the crop. They also play significant role the pollination of other important crops like cotton and flax.Apart from honey ,honey bee also provide a number of valuable non-food apiary products, like pollen, queen substance, propolis and beeswax; used in cleaning and beauty products.

Honeybees would leave an ecological hole unable to be filled by any other species in the world in case they are lostas they are important part of nature,.

Global statistics show that majority of beekeepers are hobbyists who do beekeepimgbecause they love doing it. Commercial operations contribute very less to the beekeeping community as it is hard to make good money doing it and need a considerable amount of investment.

It is assumed that we haveover a million beekeepers across the globeThe best way to explain beekeeping importance is to offer a few facts about bees and beekeeping:

1: Bees Make Honey

The most important reason for beekeeping is the fact that bees make honey thus motivating people to pursue beekeeping. Fresh honey poured over a batch of warm pancakes is amazing. Honey is great on toast, ice cream, and ham fresh out of the oven. apart from adding extra flavor to tea and coffee,

2: Beekeeping is Comparably Inexpensive

It cost really quite a bit too actually start beekeeping. You have to buy either established hives or bee kits or the materials to build your hives. You would also need to invest in a bee jacket and a couple of tools for cleaning and harvesting. But that’s about it. Once you make that initial outlay, you will spend very little to keep your hives going.

Beekeeping is very much affordable as compared to agrarian and non-agrarian.So for person looking for an inexpensive hobby beekeeping is a very attractive option.

3: Beekeeping is Relaxing

People having hobby of beekeeping find it both enjoyable and relaxing.It is really enjoyable for them to put on the bee suits and head off to clean the hives. Beekeepersfind it unique to go out to tend to hives the first thing in the morning or just as the sun is going down in the evening. The gentle buzz of the bees creates a soothing sound that helps a beekeeper completely unwind by calming the nerves and soothing the soul.

4: Beekeeping is Rewarding

More than a decade ago, worldwide populations of European honeybees began suffering catastrophic losses as a result of scolony collapse disorder in which a majority of a colony’s worker bees abandon the queen, leaving a hive full of immature larvae and no food to sustain the larvae to maturity.

No one knows for certain what causes CCD. Bee populations are slowly growing again due to the efforts of the hundreds of thousands of beekeepers scattered around the world. If one is a part of the ongoing success story then it’s extremely rewarding and reason enough to motivate many beekeepers to continue doing what they do.

5: Beekeeping Offers a Connection to Nature

In today’s time people have completely lost touch with nature and so beekeeping reconnects the keeper with nature changing individual’s view towards the world.

Successful beekeeper requires understanding how bees work, their environment, their life cycle, their ecosystem, and overall it relates to the world around them. There is no beekeeper who has not learned a ton about the inner workings of nature as a result of keeping bees.

It’s important for humanity to reconnect with nature if we expect to preserve the planet. Beekeeping is not only about sustaining bee populations but also teaching people how to preserve nature as keeping bees requires the beekeeper to actually interact with a species of insect that countless other people find unappealing.

6: Bees Are Great for Your Garden

Keeping bees is very good for plants and trees as bees are pollinators. Bees naturally do the benefit of every plant or flower since it’s all a part of the natural circle of life built into nature.Beekeepers say people walk by in their garden and say how beautiful their flowers are and how lush and green their bushes look and its all due to work of bees.

7: Beekeeping is Highly Educational

Beekeeping is a highly educational experience as learning starts with investigating the difference between starter hives and bee kits and continues with learning about queens, workers, and drones. There is also bee’s lifecycle, and how it affects the health and productivity of a hive. Bees are fascinating and fragile and successful beekeeping is an ongoing learning process.

8: Bees Are Pollinators

Honeybees, contribute as pollinators that carries pollen from one plant to the next helping to the existence of plant life.

For example Almond trees produce nuts when their flowers are pollinated within a two-week span at the start of the growing season. Every flower that is properly pollinated will go on to produce a nut. Honeybees are the best pollinators. They go out into an almond orchard searching for food they can bring back to the hive thus flying from flower to flower they grab pollen and packing it into highly compressed balls. Every time they land on a new flower, some of their accumulation falls into the flower’s reproductive tract.allowing the almond flower to germinate and grow. If no pollen reaches the reproductive tract they do not germinate and so no nut.

It is estimated that honeybees are responsible for pollinating more than 30% of the crops human beings grow Other pollinators including bats, butterflies, beetles, wind etc only account for two-thirds of what nature requires whereas honeybee accounts for the other third all by itself making bees the heavy hitters in the pollination world critically feeding humanity.

9: Farmers Want Your Bees

Extra money can be earned by farmers by renting beehives for a few weeks every year.

Farmers need beehives for pollination purposes and are willing to pay good money to rent productive hives if it means increasing crop yields. There are professional beekeepers who make a good living by just renting hives to farmers..

10: Agriculture Depends on It

As one-third of the agricultural products humans consume grow because crops are pollinated by bees. Agriculture include both raising crops and animal husbandry. The valuable service bees provide to local ecosystems make it possible for farms and cattle operations to succeed. Without the bees, farms would suffer.

The large-scale agricultural operations that feed most of the world are an army of bees doing what they do. To continue feeding the world maintaining healthy bee populations is must.

More than 1 trillion flowers responsible for producing billions of nuts annually are being pollinate by bees producing enough nuts to meet demand. Almond farmers are very fond of bees and beekeepers. Without them, the farmers’ livelihood would be adversely affected.

Beyond commercial agriculture, bees also pollinate the plants, flowers, and trees occurring in nature.

Thus bee Keeping is very important for survival of nature and humans.