Keep a beehive at your home and contribute your might in preserving nature.
DAVIS KALLOOKARAN OFM
Have you watched a honeybee close up? They have two large compound eyes and three simple eyes, or ocelli, located on top of the head. Keen eyesight is complemented by two sensitive odour- detecting antennae. The honeybee is remarkable for the dancing movements it performs to communicate information to its fellow bees about the location, distance, size, and quality of a particular food source in the surrounding area.
A beehive; the way it is built, maintained and protected, the various types of bees - queen bee, female bees/workers and male bees/drones distribution of duties and responsibilities their care for the young and savings for the future, take us into a world of amazement and wonder. In a broad sense honeybees include all bees that make honey. In a stricter sense, honeybee applies to any one of seven members of the genus Apis—and usually only the single species, Apis mellifera, the domestic honeybee. This species is also called the European honeybee or the western honeybee. In India there are four types of honeybees found in common. Bees are social insect live together in colonies (beehives) manifesting group integration, distribution of labour and overlap of generations.
Honeybees have two sexes male and female. There are two castes among the female honeybees - known as workers, which are females that do not attain sexual maturity, and queens, females that are larger than the workers. The males, or drones, are larger than the workers and are present only in early summer. The workers and queens have stingers, whereas the drones are stingless.
Queen honeybee stores sperm in a structure known as the spermatheca, which allows them to control the fertilization of their eggs. Thus queens can lay eggs that are either unfertilized or fertilized. Unfertilized eggs develop into drones, whereas fertilized eggs develop into females, which may be either workers or virgin queens. Eggs destined to become queens are deposited in queen cells, which are vertical cells in the honeycomb that are larger than normal. After hatching, the virgin queens are fed on royal jelly, a substance produced by the salivary glands of the workers. When not fed a diet consisting solely of royal jelly, virgin queens will develop into workers.
For all types of honeybees, eggs hatch in three days and then develop into larvae that are known as grubs. All grubs are fed royal jelly at first, but only the future queens are continued on the diet. When fully grown, the grubs transform into pupae. Queens emerge in 16 days, workers in about 21 days (on average), and drones in 24 days. When a new queen is emerged in a beehive they form a new colony. The queen bee lays up to 2000 eggs a day. Though the lifespan of a honeybee is 30 to 60 days the queen lives for 3-5 years.
Honey is delicious and there will be hardly anyone who does not enjoy its sweetness. We have been consuming honey for thousands of years as a natural sweetener for its abundant nutritional and medicinal benefits. It is an excellent substitute for natural sugar and a great source of carbohydrates such as glucose. Honey is rich in carbohydrates of natural origin, these are composed mainly of fructose and glucose. In addition, it contains a significant amount of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B2, niacin, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, iron, potassium and magnesium. Honey is also composed of amino acids, antioxidants, minerals and enzymes that can influence the relief of the symptoms of a cold or flu. It also provides organic acids, such as acetic acid and citric acid. Using honey to replace refined sugar is the best option, not only does it give food a special flavor, it can also enhance the flavor and is the most natural and healthy option.
Honey is obtained and produced by honeybees. These collect the nectar of flowers and from the sap of some trees such as oak or holm oak. Once the nectar has been collected, the bees transport it to their hives and concentrate it in the cells. Today a large variety of honey is available with specific taste and flavor from mustard, leechi, jatangi, kharang, and neem.
The use of honey is very varied, from sweetener to medicinal remedy, and even as a beauty treatment. We can use honey as a powerful antibacterial given its important content of inhibins (hydrogen peroxide, flavonoids and phenolic acids). Honey has attributes of anti-inflammatory properties, it can be used to reduce muscle inflammation and thus reduce the discomfort they cause. Consuming honey with lemon juice facilitates the digestion of food, helps relieve acidity and promotes intestinal transit. Honey together with hot milk, helps us to calm coughs and sore throats, thus many medicines include honey in their composition.
Honey and wax the bees provide to humanity is actually nothing compared to the pollination they do visiting millions of flowers day in and day out. Almost 80% of pollination is done by bees. Bee keepers in different countries have taken up pollination duties using their beehives. Undoubtedly bees sustain the world and keep it going.
Though these tiny insects contribute so much to keep the eco system in balance, bees are being wiped out from the face of the earth at an alarming rate. A recent survey showed that 50 million bees – more than seven times the world’s population – were wiped out in a few months during winter 2018-19. This is more than one-third of commercial US bee colonies, the highest number since the annual survey started in the year 2000. This trend is going upward. Use of pesticide for crops is the major cause for this suicidal development.
We as Franciscan friars in India promote bee keeping among farmers, not only for additional income, but also for better crops by pollination and to make families healthier. We at grass root levels promote this plant-bee collaboration for the sustenance of the world. We promote stingless beehives. It is not labour intensive, it is easy to maintain and maintenance free -only harvesting honey once in a year. Stingless bees’ honey is very rare, medicinal and so expensive. Keep a beehive at your home and contribute your might in preserving nature. There is much to learn from bees; they are sacrificing their savings for us and for our well-being.
The major part of the food we consume is a result of the contribution made by these tiny insects. Bees need plants that bear flowers and the plants need the bees for their pollination and survival. If bees disappear from the face of the earth, thousands of different kinds of plants and trees would disappear and consequently no production of food and hunger will prevail. Bees dying away at an alarming rate are dangerously affecting food production causing huge loss for farmers.
Davis Kallookaran OFM works at grass root level in promoting ecologically sustainable organic gardens.
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