The Complete Book on Beekeeping and Honey Processing -2nd Revised Edition

Book excerpt: Beekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. Bees are accommodated in artificial lives where they live comfortably within easy reach of the bee keeper for examination and extraction of surplus lovely, after keeping of sufficient lovely in the combs for the bees. Honey is a part of bees, which gather sugar containing nectars from flowers. Honey should be processed as soon as possible after removal from the hive. Honey processing is a sticky operation, in which time and patience are required to achieve the best results. Careful protection against contamination by ants and flying insects is needed at all stages of processing. Bee honey is natural, unrefined food consumed as much in fresh or canned state. It is readily assimilated and is more acceptable to the stomach, particularly in the case of ailing persons, than cane sugar. It is an antiseptic and is applied to wounds and burns with beneficial results. Honey collection and its marketing in India are still not fully organised. The main uses of honey are in cooking, baking, as a spread on breads and as an addition to various beverages such as tea and as a sweetener in commercial beverages. Honey is the main ingredient in the alcoholic beverages mead, which is also known as honey wine or honey bear, honey is also used in medicines. A number of small scale industries depend upon bees and bee products. Honey and bees products finds use in several industries which are under; pharmaceuticals, meat packing, bees wax in industries, bee venom, royal jelly, bee nurseries, bee equipments and hives etc. There is considerable demand for the honey and other products. Outside the thousands of homemade recipes in each cultural tradition, honey is largely used on a small scale as well as at an industrial level. Some of the fundamentals of the book are history of beekeeping in India present, all India co ordinate research project on honey bee research and training, future plan for development, the pattern of beekeeping today, development of beekeeping equipments, beekeeping industry and honeybee species, bee hive products, medicinal properties of honey, bees and agriculture, pesticidal poisoning to honeybees, handling bees, queen rearing and artificial queen, beekeeping and ancillary industries, honey based industries, honey in pharmaceuticals, honey in meat packing, beeswax in industries, bee stings precautions and treatment. The book contains the steps of bee keeping in proper manner and details of honey processing. This book is an invaluable resource for new entrepreneurs, technocrats and also for established enterprises.