Honey Bee Products

Background

The science and art of managing honey bees called apiculture or beekeeping is a centuries-old tradition. The first beekeepers were hunters, seek-ing out wild nests of honey bees, which often were destroyed to obtain the sweet reward, called honey,for which these insects are named. As interest in honey bees grew, so too did the entomological and biological knowledge needed to better manage colonies of  Apis mellifera. The innovations that allowed modern beekeeping to arise were primar-ily developed in the 19th century. The most impor-tant include the moveable-frame hive, smoker and centrifugal extractor. It is remarkable that these continue to be the hallmark of the beekeeper a century and a half later (Capinera, 2008). Beekeeping can also generate associated industries such as the manufacture of beekeeping equipment, including bee hives, smokers and protective clothing. Bees and/or pollination services are also traded and may be very valuable. It is mainly bees of the genus Apis that produce significant quantities of honey and beeswax. Some stingless bees, from the subfamily Meliponini, are also exploited for honey.  This honey is highly valued for its medicinal properties.

Objective

To know about the status of bee keeping and bee products.

To know the importance of bee products and its economic benefit.

Methodology

This term paper was prepared by consulting different books, journals, article and papers. I used to go to library to get reference about the topic of bee products. The downloaded version of encyclopedias also greatly helped in compiling this paper. Other PDF files downloaded from internet also helped me much.

Introduction

Apiculture provides some of the world's poorest people with the opportunity to enhance their income from the practical and often indigenous skills of beekeeping. The best known products harvested from bees are honey and beeswax  and selling honey and beeswax offers the best business opportunities for small scale beekeepers in developing countries. However, other bee products such as propolis, pollen, bee venom and royal jelly are also harvested in some countries.  With an increasing interest in natural ingredients and a growing understanding of the medicinal value and uses of bee products, the demand for these products is expanding. There is new interest worldwide in the therapeutic values of honey and propolis.

There are many ways to add greater value to bee products, such as producing candles or cosmetics, so it is possible to develop opportunities for small business enterprises. Adding value to bee products also leads to diversified incomes and more sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable people in developing countries, while increasing the availability of natural, healthy and medicinal products for local and international consumers. Value added items can be made by people who are not beekeepers, and may create a special opportunity for women to profit from their traditional skills.

 (Marieke Mutsaers, 2005) Honey bees live in colonies. The worker bees in the colony collect various substances in nature, which their colony uses, for example to feed the adult bees and make the colony grow, as nesting material or to protect the colony. By collecting from the vegetation the bees also have an impact on the vegetation: cross-polination leads to better fructification and to seed formation by flowers that produce fruits or seeds. 

Raw materials and the bee colony

 Bees gather substances from the vegetation, add substances to them, process them and allow them to ripen. These then serve as raw mate-rials for other bee products. With the help of specialised organs and glands, the raw materials are trans-formed into new, very different products. Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of the location of products in the beehive. When we speak of a beehive, we are referring to both the bees and the whole nest.  Bees collect substances from the vegetation and process these in the hive.

Since bees do everything together and pass the collected substances on to each other, called trophallaxis, substances from the bees’ own saliva, stomach fluids and gland secretions are continually added. All bee products also contain small amounts of other bee products. As a result, bee products can be made up of hundreds of different substances.

Figure 1: Location of products in a beehive

 

 

Honey

 

(Wenning, 1999) Honey is liquid sugar made from the nectar of flowers that is used by both honey bees and man as food. Honey has antibacterial qualities; it is often claimed that eating local honey can help fend off allergies. More than 200 million pounds of honey are produced in the United States annually, with an equal amount being imported for human consumption. Honey is consumed in many forms:

• extracted honey -- liquid honey; honey that has been extracted from the combs

• comb honey -- honey that is in the comb

• chunk honey -- honey that consists of a piece of comb honey immersed in extracted honey

• creamed honey -- finely crystallized honey

 

(Marieke Mutsaers, 2005)Honey originating from a single flower species is called monofloral honey, such as kapok honey, banana honey or coffee honey. If the nectar of more than one species is collected, then it is called multifloral or polyfloral honey.  Nectar contains a minimal amount of pollen, which can also be detected in the honey. Pollen is present on the anthers of all plants from which bees collect nectar.  Only small traces of pollen are found in ‘modern’ honey.  By observing pollen under a microscope, it is possible to identify its plant family, genus and species. 

Honey is a valuable product often used as a foodstuff by humans. It is an energy rich, easily digestible foodstuff that people understand and enjoy. Because of this, it is especially valuable for children and the elderly or people who are sick and may have lost their appetite. A nourishing recipe is honey mixed into a porridge made of maize meal and ground peanuts. Honey has also significant medicinal properties and use. In many countries it is essential for use with traditional and herbal medicines, and there is now increasing interest in the use of honey in conventional medicine. Honey is valuable for burns and wounds and will help healing, especially leg ulcers, bed sores and other festering sores, and reducing the smell from advanced fungating cancers because of its antibiotic and debriding effect. It can be used to alleviate conjunctivitis - two drops will dissolve in the fluid of the eye and act as an antibiotic. It will also relieve sore throats, constipation, coughs and colds and gastritis.

Beeswax

 

Beeswax is one of nature's amazing materials. Pure beeswax from Apis mellifera contains at least 300 different compounds being a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, a variety of esters and free acids. Human societies have long valued beeswax. Despite the use of cheaper petroleum based waxes, beeswax remains the most versatile bee product. It is used for a range of industrial processes, for instance as an ingredient in many cosmetics, ointments and pharmaceutical preparations. It is important in batik and other textile work and central in certain metal casting and modeling processes, as well as wax foundation for beehives and in candle making.  No candle is more beautiful nor has a more delicious aroma than a lustrous candle made from pure, golden beeswax. (Wenning, 1999). A substance made from six wax glands on the underside of the abdomen of a worker bee used to make comb; man most commonly uses wax in candle making and art. It also is used by humans in drugs, cosmetics, and furniture polish

COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES OF BEESWAX

(Vincent H. Resh, 2003)The major components of A. mellifera beeswax include monoesters, diesters, hydrocarbons, and free acids, which together make up more than half the total weight. Over 200 minor components have also been identified. Of the physical properties of beeswax, its thermal properties are of special practical importance, particularly the wide temperature range between its becoming plastic (32°C) and melting (61–66°C). Its relative density at 15 to 25°C is 0.96 and its refractive index at 75°C is 1.44. Many pesticides used to control mites in the hive can contaminate beeswax.

Wax in beekeeping and honey production 

(Marieke Mutsaers, 2005)The most important use of beeswax is in beekeeping itself, namely for the production of artificial combs. Artificial comb foundation is made of moulded or pressed wax sheets with cells imprinted on them that the bees very quickly and economically (using very little honey) build into comb. A surplus of beeswax can be found mainly in countries where artificial comb foundation is not used. New wax is much cleaner than old, melted combs. Beeswax, both from new and old comb, is edible but not digestible. If you eat comb honey you ingest a very small amount of wax, less than 2 to 3% of the honey's weight. Comb honey is therefore produced only in new comb. Honey from older combs or from built-up artificial combs does not taste as good.  In countries where traditional beekeeping is practised, people often eat honey in and from all types of comb. This gives the honey a strong membrane taste.

Propolis

(Vincent H. Resh, 2003)Propolis is the material that honey bees and some other bees can collect from living plants, which they use alone or with beeswax in the construction and adaptation of their nests. Most of the plant sources are trees and bushes. The material collected may be a wound exudate (resin and latex) or a secretion (lipophilic substances, mucilage, and gum). Propolis thus has a much more varied origin than any other material collected by honey bees. Analyses of various samples (mostly of unknown plant origin) have shown the presence of over 100 compounds, including especially flavonoids. A bee that collects propolis carries it back to the nest on her hind legs. She goes to a place in the hive where propolis is being used and remains there until her load is taken from her by bees using it. The propolis is mainly collected in the morning and used in the hive in the afternoon. Where propolis is available,  A. mellifera uses it for stopping up cracks, restricting the dimensions of its flight entrance, and other minor building works. Observations on both tropical and temperate-zone A. cerana indicate that this species does not collect or use propolis, even in a region where A. mellifera does, but uses beeswax instead. Propolis is sometimes used by A. dorsata to strengthen the attachment of the comb to its supporting branch. It is probably essential to A. florea for protecting its nest from ants. These bees build Bee Products 83two rings of sticky propolis round the branch that supports the nest, one at each end of the comb attachment, and may “freshen” the propolis surface so that it remains sticky and ants cannot cross it. To collect propolis from a hive, the beekeeper inserts a contrivance, such as a flat horizontal grid having slits 2–3 mm wide that will stimulate the bees to close up the gaps with propolis. On removal from the hive, the contrivance is cooled in a freezer. The propolis then becomes brittle, and a sharp blow fractures it off in pieces, which can be stored for up to a year in a plastic bag. The total commercial world production of propolis may be between 100 and 200 tons a year. China produces more propolis (from hives of introduced  A. mellifera) than any other country; some South American countries are next in importance. Most importing countries are in Europe. Propolis has various pharmacological properties, partly from its flavonoid content. It is used in cosmetic and healing creams, throat pastilles, and chewing gum. A few people (in the United Kingdom about one beekeeper in 2000), are allergic (hypersensitive) to propolis, and contact with it leads to dermatitis. Stingless bees mix much propolis with the wax they secrete before they use it in nest construction; the mixture is called cerumen.

The bees collect propolis by biting off scraps of the plant resin and packing them into the pollen baskets on their hind legs. Because it is so sticky propolis gathering is a slow business. It is only collected when the temperature is above 18°C and each bee can only carry about 20mg in one journey. Sometimes bees collect man-made materials of similar consistency such as road tar or varnish.

Propolis is a very stable substance, variable in color and composed of resins, waxes, volatile oils, pollen, vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals especially concentrated flavonoids, which are active plant-derived essential oils that are thought to be mainly responsible for the therapeutic properties of propolis. Over 180 distinct compounds have been identified in propolis with researchers expecting to find more.

Honeybees use propolis to keep their homes dry, cosy and hygienic. The propolis coating makes the walls of their nesting place waterproof and draught­-proof. Propolis is used to seal up any cracks or gaps where micro-organisms could flourish and to decrease the size of nest entrances, which makes them smooth for passing bee traffic and easier to defend from intruders. A thin layer is used to varnish inside brood cells before the queen lays eggs into them. This provides a strong, hygienic unit for developing larvae while the volatile oils in propolis serve as a kind of antiseptic air-freshener.

Venom

To defend their nests and honey stores against many potential enemies honeybees have developed elaborate defense mechanisms involving pheromones. The most notable of these is the honeybee's sting. The sting apparatus (and to a lesser extent the mandibular glands) produce alarm pheromone that stimulate the stinging response and arouse other worker bees to sting the intruder.

The main component of the alarm pheromone is iso-pentyl acetate which has a sweet smell rather like banana oil and is stored in a specially evolved 'venom sac' located close to the sting shaft. Honeybees store a maximum of 0.5mg of venom during their lifetime.

Commercially-produced venom is used medicinally for desensitization of allergic individuals, treating a range of chronic diseases notably the rheumatic diseases and multiple sclerosis and for other forms of apitherapy.

(Marieke Mutsaers, 2005)In traditional medicine in Africa finely ground bees were used as a salve or tea to combat various diseases including rheumatism. People also had themselves stung on specific places on their body.   Bee venom is used in various ways: it is inhaled, eaten in the form of bee venom honey, injected in the form of injection fluid or applied on the skin as a salve.  It is also applied by being stung, either on its own or in combination with electrotherapy, acupuncture or acupressure. This is very painful and it can be dangerous. In China and Japan only the removed stinger is used as a needle on acupuncture points.  This is felt by the patient, but it is not painful. A minimal amount of bee venom is naturally present in honey. It is of course also present in the mother tincture Apis, which is used in ho-meopathy and natural medicine.

Venom is collected from honeybees using an electrically charged grid with a thin synthetic material (such as taffeta or clear plastic food wrap) stretched over it. The grid sits on an integral glass plate. This apparatus is placed at the bottom of the beehive. When bees alight on it they receive a slight electric shock causing them to sting through the material leaving a deposit of venom smeared on the glass plate. The dried venom is scraped off the plate and the underside of the fabric with a razor blade and then rapidly freeze-dried for storage.

 

Royal Jelly

 

The quantity and quality of the food given to a larva while it is developing will determine its caste. Consequently, a fertilized egg can be made into either a queen or a worker depending on the type of cell it inhabits and the type of food it is fed. The food of the queen is called 'royal jelly'. It is produced from the hypo pharyngeal glands in the heads of the worker bees that are nursing the queen larva, and differs from worker brood food in containing more mandibular gland secretions and a higher sugar content (34%) with a different spectrum of sugars.

Royal jelly is a whitish, homogenous substance with a paste-like consistency; its principal components are water, protein, lipids and mineral salts. All the amino acids required for human nutrition are present along with a number of enzymes, vitamins and numerous minor compounds.

The idea that, while the worker bees live for only a few weeks, the queen lives for several years, is likely to have generated the myth that royal jelly has similar effects on people. The fact that workers are sterile while the queen is fertile may similarly have contributed to people's belief in its aphrodisiac qualities. There is little scientific data either supporting or disproving claims made for royal jelly but commercial sales interest will quickly exploit consumer imagination. In its unprocessed state the taste is not particularly pleasant, being often quite bitter or sour. However, this may even enhance its medicinal reputation.

Royal jelly is always fed directly to queen larvae and is never stored, so it has never become a traditional beekeeping product. Commercial royal jelly production relates to the food intended for queen bee larvae that are 4-5 days old. Only about 250 mgs of royal jelly will be present in a single queen cell so harvesting significant quantities for human consumption requires large scale queen rearing which can really only be done using frame hives. It is easiest to sell royal jelly in its fresh state. However, it does not keep well in this form so for non-local sales it needs to be frozen or freeze-dried to allow long term storage and processing into consumer products. For the majority of commercial usage and sales, royal jelly needs to be in the freeze-dried form which requires significant investment in equipment. China accounts for the bulk of world production, estimated at 450 tons, while the health food and cosmetics markets in Japan, USA and Europe provide the main consumers.

Because of the very specialist skills demanded, the scale of the enterprise required for large scale queen rearing, the precise timing and the need for constant attendance on the queen cells, the difficulties in processing for both storage and sale, together with the levels of financial investment in industrial equipment required for commercial royal jelly production,  Bees for Development considers that royal jelly production is not a particularly suitable income-generating activity for alleviating poverty in most development circumstances. (Krell R., 1996)

Pollen

Pollen supplies protein to honeybees which is required for growth and reproduction. It also contains lipids, sterols, enzymes, vitamins and minerals, sugar, starch and cellulose. The chemical constitution of each type of pollen is widely variable and it is likely that honeybees require pollen from a range of floral sources to satisfy their nutritional needs.

Pollen is carried back to the hive on the third pair of legs of the honeybee, which is specially modified for this purpose. Pollen is moistened with saliva and nectar to make a small pellet, or pollen load, which is carried back to the hive to be stored. Only a tiny amount can be carried back to the colony at each trip (around 10 mgs per load) and bees need 20 kilograms for their annual development. It is clear that this constitutes a remarkable feat of social co-ordination by the bees - in fact this takes 1.3 million pollen collecting trips for the colony every year. Pollen is mixed with enzymes and nectar in a way that allows it to be stored by the bees for a considerable time.

Each plant has distinctively shaped pollen grain. Many plants have a characteristic color and this, combined with the time of year it is collected, can be used to give an initial indication about the source of the pollen. 

Measurement of grain size and examination of other features can be used to identify pollen grains under the microscope. This technique, known as melissopalynology, is most usually used to check the source of the honey to ensure consumers are not being misled about where the honey comes from.

People sometimes use pollen as a health food because of its rich source of protein, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. The pollen is collected from the bee by using a specially designed pollen trap placed at the entrance of the hive. This removes the pollen loads from the bees' legs as they enter the hive causing it to fall into a collecting box. Pollen trapping cannot be done for prolonged periods as loss of their protein source has serious consequences for the health of the honeybee colony.

However, dust and spores may be collected as well as pollen, so collecting pollen for human consumption needs to be done with care. Poorly handled pollen has great potential for becoming mouldy and possibly toxic. Good sorting and freeze-drying facilities need to be available for pollen collection to be a viable business possibility.

Bees need pollen for:

• Protein synthesis
• Brood food for larval and queen growth
• Bee bread for larval growth
• Fat bodies for surviving dearth periods
• Wax secretion
• Venom production

Conclusion

The products of the honey bee have great value in economic return as well as health matters. The honey bee keeping can give us the diversified products. The most important part of the honey bee work is the pollination which is ignored by Nepalese farmers with layman thinking. The 80% pollination the crop is done by honey bee. The pollination by honey bee has increase the crop production. The other products of the honey bee are helping in earning a good return. The most precious, more costly and highly medicinal value product is Royal jelly produced by honey bees. Wax, pollen, propolis are other products of honey bee. The treatment through Apitherapy is being popular nowadays which help in the curing in problem of respiration, blood pressure and rheumatism.