What is beekeeping?

Beekeeping is the activity dedicated to the cultivation of bees in order to obtain and consume the products they are capable of producing and collecting.

The main product obtained from them is honey, which has been consumed since approximately 10000 years B.C. where the first cave paintings are recorded, with methods of hunting the hive, this is called ancient beekeeping, later on bees began to be used to produce honey, but with unspecialised methods, called traditional beekeeping, finally the knowledge of the behaviour of bees, and the invention of the mobile beehive gave rise to modern beekeeping.

What is beekeeping?

Beekeeping is the activity of raising bees and caring for them with the aim of obtaining and consuming the products they are capable of producing and collecting.

The apiary is the place where all the hives in which the bees live are concentrated. They are divided into three types of hierarchies: first, there is the queen bee, whose only function is to lay eggs; then, the workers, who are in charge of collecting nectar and the pollenFinally, there are the drones, which fertilise the queen bee, and once they have fulfilled their function, they are removed from the colony.

Workers produce honey, royal jelly and wax throughout the year, as well as food for the hive. Once the bees have finished the process, which takes about three weeks, beekeepers collect the honey and jelly in order to obtain other products.

History of beekeeping

Beekeeping developed in Mediterranean civilisations between 8000 and 4000 BC. Man went from being a gatherer to providing bees with a habitat, made by him from various materials, so that they could nest and build honeycombs inside.

The Sumerians, one of the oldest civilisations that arose between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers around 4000 BC, already knew about honey and bees, and with their pictographic writing on clay tablets they recorded some information about them that has survived to the present day.

The Egyptian civilisation has left us scenes of honey gathering in engravings and under reliefs in the tombs found under the pyramids from 3500 BC. In ancient Egypt it was believed that when the Sun God wept, his tears transformed into bees when they touched the ground. For this civilisation the bee was something more, as its products were used in medicine, funeral rites and as gifts to the gods.

The Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs also recorded the importance of bees to them.

Traditional beekeeping consists of hunting the wild swarms in the spring, which are placed in hives made of straw, mud or hollow tree trunks; in late summer the beekeeper kills the bees in most of his hives, trims the combs and strains the honey, separating it from the wax, keeping some hives for overwintering. Another formula for killing the hive is to use sulphur or by immersing them directly in boiling water to obtain honey and wax.

Modern beekeeping

Modern beekeeping began with the creation of honeycombs and movable frames, which do not destroy them when harvesting honey, stamped wax sheets and mechanical extractors, reaching its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries thanks to the work of scholars such as Jan Dzierżon and above all Lorenzo Langstroth, the inventor of the mobile beehive.

Inhabitants of the hive

Bees are sociable insects that always live in groups in the hive. There are three types of bees in a hive: queen bee, worker bee and drone, depending on the food the worker bees provide to the larvae after the egg hatches.

The steps from the time the queen lays the egg until the new bee hatches are as follows:

The caste of the different bees will depend on whether the eggs have been fertilised or not, to give drones or not, and on the feeding of the larva after it has hatched from the egg by the nurse bees, if these are fed with pollen or honey, that bee will be a worker, and if they have been fed with royal jelly, they will give rise to a queen.

THE QUEEN

They are reared in larger vertical cells, when the larval stage is over, they become pupae and move to a position where they can be placed in the larval stage. head down in the cell, where he eats it in order to get out.

She is fed only with royal jelly, which is responsible for her being the only fertile female, as it is thanks to this food that the queen develops her reproductive apparatus.

During the first 3-6 days of her life, she performs fertilisation flights at a height of about 30 metres with several drones, and accumulates the spermatozoa in the spermatheca. Once she has been fertilised, she begins her laying life, in which she lays about 2000 eggs per day, about 1 egg per minute.

THE WORKERS

Worker bees are non-fertile bees and are destined for a life of work, which they carry out according to the number of days old they are.

Age (days)	Task assigned according to age
0-4	Cleaner: Cleans the alveoli and the hive.
5-11	Mother: They feed the larvae in the alveoli.
11-13	Warehouse: Stores pollen, nectar, propolis and water; and ventilates the hive.
14-17	Cerera: He produces the panels, based on his gland abdominal gland that produces wax.
18-21	Sentinel: On guard at the entrance and make the first flights out of the hive.
22-45	Sinful: Brings pollen, nectar, propolis and water to the hive.

THE DRONES

They are the male bee of the hives, born by parthenogenesis from unfertilised eggs. They are fat, hairy and round, and their only function is to fertilise the new queen, copulate in flight and then die.

They do not collect nectar or pollen, do not tend the hive, are fed by the workers and have no stinger.

Beekeeping products

HONEY

Honey is the main substance produced by the honeybee. Apis mellifera from plant nectar or secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of sucking insects on living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining them with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the hive to mature.

The colour of honey can range from almost colourless to dark brown. It can have a fluid, thick or crystallised consistency (in part or in whole). The taste and aroma may vary, but derive from its vegetable origin. As its definition states, honey comes from the nectar of flowers, but also from honeydew, sugary secretions deposited on plants by certain insects, and from the sweet exudates of certain living parts of plants.

The bees release these products, which they pass into the so-called honeydew gullet, a small elastic pouch in their digestive tract, where they mix with enzymes that initiate the process of transforming substances, including the splitting of honeydew. sucrosethe main component, into glucose and fructose.

The forager bee regurgitates the contents of its crop and other bees complete the process by passing the nectar from one bee to another, enriching it with more enzymes, until it is deposited in cells.

POLLEN

It comes in the form of very fine dust, which the bees collect and transform into granules and then transport back to the hive.

Its colouring varies in relation to the species It is generally yellow or light brown, although it can also be white, purplish and black. The shape is very varied, polyhedral, globular, etc.

ROYAL JELLY

It is a natural product of the secretion from glands in the nurse bees which are responsible for bringing food to the queens and larvae in the first days of life. It is the direct cause of this growth and longevity of the queen.

Royal jelly is the most concentrated food in nature, because of its balanced combination of vitamins, minerals and vital imponderable elements, it plays a decisive role in the processes of cellular restitution. It does not require digestion, is completely assimilable and passes directly into the blood to enrich replacement and growth tissues.

COMPOSITION OF ROYAL JELLY

Contains vitamins (B, C, D and E); lipoproteins, enzymes, hormones, ethereal substances. Bactericidal and bacteriostatic properties, mineral salts, manganese, calciumchloride, sodium, potassiumsulphur, phosphorus, aluminium, magnesium, silicon, iron, copperzinc, cobalt, strontiumetc. And there is an as yet undetermined 3 % of the materials that make up royal jelly.

PROPERTIES OF ROYAL JELLY

There is a long list of properties of this food such as:

• It exerts a tonifying action on certain centres of the hypothalamus, as a result of which it increases the secretion of hormone adrenocorticotropic hormone in the pituitary gland.
• It has marked effects on adrenal gland activity.
• Contains sex hormones: oestradiol, testosterone and progesterone. It has antiseptic action.
• Normalises metabolic processes, improves basal metabolism. It stimulates cell metabolism and is an excellent epithelialising and tissue regenerating agent.
• Slows down the ageing process of the skin. skin and improves its hydration and elasticity.
• Produces immunospecific tolerance.
• It has antiviral, antimicrobial and antitoxic action.
• It has hypotensive action due to acetylcholinergic substances: its high acetylcholine content lowers blood pressure and the rhythm of cardiac contractions.
• It increases blood pressure in those with high hypotension, with no noticeable effect in hypertensive patients.
• It has a favourable effect on gastrointestinal tract. strengthening stomach and intestinal peristalsis.
• Contains gamma globulin, a component capable of slowing down senility and increasing resistance.
• Increases vitality and longevity.
• Increases resistance to cold and fatigue.
• Gives a feeling of euphoria with recovery of strength and appetite.
• Decreases emotionality.
• It raises the haemoglobin content of the blood, as well as leucocytes, glucose and red blood cells.
• Stimulates blood circulation.
• Increases body weight and rate of development; improves growth in the case of undernutrition in young children.
• Has anti-tumour action.
• It is used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, rehabilitation after myocardial infarction, asthenic conditions and sexual impotence.
• It is particularly active in incontinence of urine, convalescence from influenza (which it significantly reduces) and in certain skin diseases. It is also used in the treatment of asthenia, diabetes mellitus (eliminates insulin resistance), duodenal ulcers, inflammation of the duodenum, neuroses, blood pressure disturbances (especially hypotonia), anorexia in infants and young children, maternal lactation disorders, facial seborrhoea, ageing of the skin and the skin. organismneuritis of the auditory nerve and in many other conditions.

WAX

The material that bees use to build their nests. It is produced by young honeybees which secrete it as a liquid through their wax glands. On contact with air, the wax hardens and forms tiny wax flakes on the underside of the bee. A million or so of these flakes means one kilogram of wax. The bees use it to build the hexagonal honeycombs of their honeycombs, which are already rigidly and efficiently structured.

They use these alveoli to store honey and pollen; the queen deposits her eggs in them and new bees are reared inside. Wax is produced by all species of honey bees, although waxes produced by different bee species have slightly different chemical and physical properties.

PROPOLIS

Honeybees collect the resin and gum from decayed parts of plants. This sticky substance, usually brown in colour, is called propolis. Like honey, it changes its composition according to the plants the bees visit. Bees use propolis to keep their nests dry, protected from drafts, safe and clean. Propolis is used to plug all crevices where micro-organisms could develop, and its volatile oil is a kind of antiseptic deodorant. Propolis is used by bees:

• As a building material to regulate the size of nest entrances and to make the surface smoother, facilitating transit;
• To varnish the inside of the alveoli before the queen lays her eggs, ensuring a hygienic, strong and impermeable location for larval development;
• To embalm the bodies of mice and other oversized predators, which the bees cannot move away from their nests and which, when decomposing, are a source of infection.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BEEKEEPING – KNOWLEDGE OF THE BEE. HIVE MANAGEMENT. 4TH EDITION. JEAN-PROST

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