Creating a colony from the natural living condition...

According to scientific study, it takes around six months for collecting a colony from its natural existance.The easiest way is to place a clay pot covering the natural entrance.A hole is drilled in the bottom of the pot for the passage of the bees.The pot is fixed using clay.Since there is only one passage available now for the bees to the outside world, the bees start to fly in and out through the hole we drilled on the pot.Now we can see the bees passing through the pot through the drilled hole.

This is the initial stage.I will post photos showing the developments till a new colony is built inside the pot.We can then remove the pot and place it in any convenient location or we can shift the bee colony from the pot to wooden cage.

The three type of bees in a colony...

Castes

The honey bee community consists of three structurally different forms – the Queen (reproductive female), the drone(male) and the worker(nonreproductive female). These castes are associated with different functions in the colony, each caste possesses its own special instincts geared to the needs of the colony.

                                                                       The Queen

The queen is the only sexually productive female in the colony and thus is the mother of all drones, workers, and future queens.Her capacity for laying eggs is outstanding, her daily output often exceeds 1500 eggs, the weight of which is equivalent to that of her own body.

Anatomically, the queen is strikingly different from the drones and workers.Her body is long, with much larger abdomen than a worker bee.Her mandbles contain sharp cutting teeth, whereas her offspring have toothless jaws.The queen has a curved, smooth stinger that she can use repeatedly without endangering her own life.

                                                                    The Worker Bee

Worker bees are the most numerous members of the colony.A healthy colony may contain 80,000 worker bees or more at its peak growth in early summer.

                                                                       The Drone Bee

Drones are male honey bees.They are stingless, defenceless and unable to feed themselves-they are fed by worker bees.Drones have no pollen baskers or wax glands and cannot secrete royal jelly.

Contents of Dwarf Honey...

Water    -  19 - 20%
Glucose -   34.8%
Fractose-  38.7%
Sucrose -  1.4%
Amino acids -  2%
Vitamins, Minerals etc

Minerals include Potasium, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Copper, Manganeze, Sulphur, Chromium, Nickel, Tin, Silver, Gold.

Vitamins include Vitamin B1, B2, Niacin, Nicotnic Acid, B6, Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin C.

Source of information.

I find a book "Cheruthenneecha Valarthal" by the Entomology department, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellayani, Trivandrum.This is an excellent book for beekeepers interested in dwarf honey bees.It includes illustrations about beekeeping, honey extraction, colony multiplication and other scientific facts about dwarf honey bee keeping.Here is an image of the cover page of the book.

Another good resouce is a video.It is available at the following link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c83ynKog1xQ&noredirect=1

The begining of bee keeping...

On a fine morning i decided to shift the old tiles keeped inside the sunshade of our house as part of the house painting.The work continued till i feel it difficult to lift the tiles since it get attached due to some binding force.I noticed the presence of honeybees and my interest shifted from tile shifting to honey collection.The disturbed bees started to resist me.But my desire to collect pure honey forced me to ignore the resistance of bees.At last i got about 600 gms of pure real honey.After taking the honey i kept the tiles with the eggs and pollen collection in a new location.But unfortunately the bees leave the spot.May be due to my inexperience in handling, or the relocation caused them to shift to a new place.

The sweetness of the honey i collected, reading about the medical value of the honey, the information about the pollination increases crop production, the purity of the honey i collected , and the cost of honey in market forced me thinking about becoming a bee keeper.

I found three natural honey colony in the basement of the boundary wall.I decided to collect and grow them.