Bee hive spotted
One morning while watering the garden I noticed a beehive
that was built by a colony of small varieties of honey bees which was on a
branch of the jasmine creeper growing in my garden.
Trip to Madikeri
I came across a Kannada article about bee keeping where it
said that a person named Thimmaiah is a professional bee keeper and is
successfully keeping bees on his farm in Madikeri. So I decided to leave the
next day itself to Madikeri to know more about honey bees .. I took a KSRTC bus
to Mysore and from Mysore I found a bus that was going to Madikeri. As I was
travelling in the bus I had no idea that it would take nearly half of my day to
travel all the way to Madikeri. It started raining heavily when I reached around
Kushalnagar.Felt like I am somewhere far
away from Bangalore. By the time I reached Madikeri it was already 6- 6:30 in
the evening and I still had some 30 kilometers of travelling to to reach Chettimani a small village very
close to Bhagamandala. From Madikeri I had to take a small minibus that would
go through the Ghats and it was a slow journey as it involved climbing up and
down through the Ghats so by the time I reached Chettimani it was around 7:30
and was dark.Conductor said he knows Thimmaiahand he will drop me at the right
palace .The bus conductor dropped me at the wrong Thimmaiah masters house as
his name was also Thimmaiah and he also lived in Chettimani. But thankfully
this Thimmaiah and his son were kind enough to show me the way to the other
Thimmaiah master who I was looking for.They called for a minivan that took me
to my destination. When I reached the farm Thimmaiah master was actually
surprised to see me. Thimmaiah lives with his wife and has a cofee plantation
and paddy field .He told me he wasn’t
expecting me at this point of time and he had assumed that I had stayed in my
cousin’s house which is in Madikeri. Night was so peaceful I spent the night at
his place had dinner and went to sleep. I got up early at 6 in the morning and
I started my classes with him. These were some of the facts and knowledge that
I got from him about honey bees, the facts given here are his own practical
experience with bees and does not include scientific knowledge as such.
Thimmaiah master lesson -1
Enemies of the bees :vairiee
(as he calls them):
·
Wasps (kaNaja, kadandu) àThese wasps come to hijack the
colony and invade the hive, they kill the bees for their food and take them to
their nests, they even take the eggs, larvae and the honey for their nest. The
bees do fight off these wasps if the number of wasps are less by forming a
clump/surrounding the wasp and kill it.
·
Ants (kenjiragu, chavali)à Most of the ants come in
large numbers and can easily destroy a hive.
·
Mammals (Maranaayi)àThis mammal looks like a small
bear that can climb trees and it destroys hives for getting honey.
·
Snail/slug (basavanahula) àThese are sticky and
slimy, so the bees cannot really attack them and kill them, the snails come to
feed on the waxy nest that is made by the bees.
·
Wax beetle (Maenachetty)àIts larvae feeds on the bees
wax of the hive and builds a cottony cocoon across the whole of the hive
thereby preventing the bees from doing their work and this makes the bees to
leave their nest.
·
Spiders(Jedra hula)à Builds web and traps bees,
also some spiders capture the bees waiting near the hive.
Thimmaiah master lesson -2
The Colony/The office
(he says)
·
The bee hive colony works like an
office/department. They have surveyers, army, doctors,
forest revenue and collectors. Army mostly consists of very old bees and they
just guard the hive/attack and do not go to collect nectar/pollen.
·
The average lifespan of a bee can be upto 2-6
months whereas the queen bee can live upto 1-3 years. The hive usually consists
of two sections the top part of the hive stores/contains jenu/honey and the
bottom portion has the larvae chambers known as yeri/combs which contains honey
for the growing larvae.
·
The queen bee can produce male drones as well as
female worker bees at random whenever it is required, the queen bee also lays
eggs that can develop into new queens to start a new colony.
Thimmaiah master lesson -3
Attack..!! Attack..!
When food does get scarce one colony of bees can invade
another colony for getting nectar and other resources for food. The major
varieties of bees that can attack other bee colonies are Hejjenu(large forest
varieties/wild bees) and Koljenu(smaller shrub dwelling varieties)
There is one more variety of honey bees known as
Umanijenu/Nusijenu/black honey bees that produce sticky hives and the honey
they produce is said to be the highest/good quality of honey.
Emergency….!!.emergency..!!
If due to any
circumstances the queen bee dies there arise many changes in the hive. The
female worker bees develop an egg laying structure called the ‘Mendiblor’
because the scent/pheromone of the queen bee will be missing from the hive. The
female workers during this period do not go to collect nectar or do any work.
They become idle and start to lay eggs. These eggs when they hatch can only
develop into male drones. and the hive results in forming many male drones .The
hive gets destroyed due to starvation as there are no more female workers or
queen bee.
Emerging Queen..!!
In other circumstances if by chance after the death of the
queen bee the other baby princes will hatch from the cells, and they fight
against each other to become a next
queen .The princes that is strongest becomes the new queen of the hive. The new
queen bee successfully cross/mate with other male drones within 3-8 days or
else if no crossing has occurred the new queen may become infertile and can only
lay eggs that result in forming male drones.
Many male drones try
to mate/cross with the queen by following her pheromones but only one is
successful. The male drone that the female has crossed with dies because its
internal organs get torn/are expelled after crossing. The new queen then
returns to its hive and within a period of 10 days starts laying eggs
male/female.
Queen from outside:
In some cases a stranger queen enters a hive that has no
queen and the hive members are not its own, the workers may except her as a new queen considering its scent/pheromone or they kill her
Old v/s new
The older queen has to leave her colony if her daughter (new
queen) is ready to become a queen.
The old, mother queen immediately leaves the hive to make a
new colony by gathering some members/workers of that colony.The workers of the
colony that decide to form a new colony along with their queen and leave the
hive with her.
In a nutshell mother queen bee has to leave the nest when
new queen emerge out of the combs.
The male drones
The male drones are black in color and are slightly dwarf,
they do not work and do not possess the sting. When male bees are seen in a
hive it is a sign that the hive is ready for swarming or there is death of a
queen and the hive could be destroyed. Sometimes when more food is present the
faster the hive will have male bees and it will be ready for swarming.
Thimmaiah master lesson -4
The major trees of the Western Ghats and flowering plants
that is suitable for good quality honey:
Bethumara(5 varieties), Kari mara,
Valeymara(Philiagenyphillonigay), Barkattey, Coffee flower, Yelaki flower,(Cardamom
)Shikakai flower,(soap nut)Nerleyhannu(Jamun).
Thimmaiah master lesson -5
The basic methods to produce a new queen for starting a new
colony (artificially): not perfect info
Take an empty box for the hive, and in that put 4 frames
that have empty combs to one side. Put one frame that has queen’s eggs and
introduce female workers and male drones, it should be 1 furlong distance away
from the four frames and should be put at night. No gate is needed for this
process.
The empty box should have yeri/combs; have male drones,
workers and queen. The empty box can also be cultivated to form a new colony by
pasting the bees wax onto the frames in the empty box and hope a new colony
comes inside the box.
There are 2 major varieties of bees that are used in
apiculture:
Apisindica-very small in numbers, but are very quick in
producing honey, small in size, do not require much of food,much preferred by
apiculturists.
Apismallipura-large in numbers, much bigger, very slow in
producing honey, produce large quantities,need a large number of food.
Few points about honeyàbees
wax/honey used for improving lustre of skin, hair, lovely physique is
developed, should be taken in small amounts like medicine.
The lessons over .Timmayya master was a good teacher. He wanted
me to learn 100 percent. As he spoke Coorg kannada which i dint understand properly .Whenever I said
I din’t get it…he was surprised after
completing B.Sc also i cant understand what he says ...He gave me a award of "pedda" which means dumb in Kannada.
