What is apiculture? How is it important in our lives?
Explanation Apiculture refers to the management and maintenance of honey bees to produce and commercialise honey and beeswax. All the bees occur in nature as wild insects. While most of them can be used for apiculture, due to their high economic value, A.mellifera is mostly domesticated and cultured. Bee keeping can be practiced in any open area containing sufficient bee pastures. Since it is not labour-intensive breeding, this practice is being followed in many places for commercialisation of honey. Importance of bees in our lives: It is an age- old cottage industry. Honey bees help in the process of pollination. Honey produced by bees is used as a food containing high nutritive value. Honey is also found to be used as a medicine. Beeswax is used in cosmetic industry. Beeswax is used in polishes of various kinds. Opinion : It is essential to be aware of nature and habits of bees, selection of suitable location for keeping beehives, catching and hiving of group of bees, management of beehives, handling and collection of honey and beeswax for successful apiculture. Keeping beehives in crop fields during flowering season not only increases pollination efficiency but also increases honey production. Final Answer Apiculture is the activity of bee keeping where sometimes wild species of honey bees are used while some businesses rear and bred honey bees in artificial hives. It is an important and very old cottage industry with multi-faceted benefits. Honeybees not only produce honey but also produce bees wax. Both of the items are used in various products of medicine, cosmetics and polishes.
