Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
hive and bees
This chapter addresses the question: 'Why keep bees?' I mentioned before that bees are
master chemists. They produce and adapt for their own use a range of substances that
will keep them and their colony fed, watered and disease free and that enables them
to rear and look after their young. They also provide humans with some of the most
important products on earth: honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, venom and (perhaps
for future investigation) silk. In some countries their brood is eaten, and so food can
be added to this list. But they also provide us with pollination services without which
some 75% of crops in some countries wouldn't exist. In the main, beekeepers start by
producing honey and then perhaps move on to other products when they have more
experience with bees.
This chapter outlines all that the honey-bee can produce and should give you some
ideas to think about once you become more experienced. However, as most people
associate honey-bees with honey, let's start with this 'liquid gold' and take a look at it in
some detail.
All beekeepers start beekeeping by wanting to produce honey, and this is probably the
best way to begin. If given a shelter to live in, a colony of bees will produce honey without
a beekeeper's intervention but, if you want them to produce it in abundance and in a
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