KARICKOM BABU OOMMAN’S HONEY BEE FARM

KARICKOM BABU OOMMAN’S

HONEY BEE FARM

Ruby Babu & Prof. Molly Kurakar

Babu Oomman

Training Programme

Honey bee colony

 Karickom Babu Oommen’s Honey bee farm is an agro based enterprise attracted many farmers and agriculture students from different parts of Kerala. The farmers can take up for additional income generation. Honey bees convert nectar of flowers into honey and store them in the combs of the hive. Collection of honey from the forests has been in existence for a long time. The growing market potential for honey and its products has resulted in bee keeping emerging as a viable enterprise. Honey and wax are the two economically important products of bee keeping. Mr. Babu Oomman is a resource person and trainer of Apiculture and Horticulture.

Bee keeping requires less time, money and infrastructure investments,Honey and beeswax can be produced from an area of little agricultural value, The Honey bee does not compete for resources with any other agricultural enterprise. Beekeeping has positive ecological consequences. Bees play an important role in the pollination of many flowering plants, thus increasing the yield of certain crops such as sunflower and various fruits. Honey is a delicious and highly nutritious food. By the traditional method of honey hunting many wild colonies of bees are destroyed, This can be prevented by raising bees in boxes and producing honey at home, Beekeeping can be initiated by individuals or groups, The market potential for honey and wax is high In Kerala Bee-keeping is done by farmers as a source of additional income. Rubber planters place beehives in rubber plantations and gain a good return from it without any risk. To promote bee keepers and to bring pure trustable honey in the market, Kerala Kerala Khadi and Villages Industries Board introduced a honey with brand name” Naruten” in the market.Ayurveda Industry is the major consumer of pure honey.

Honey Bees live in a well organized colony that does not need to hibernate. From the nectar of flowers they produce honey and store it in wax comb and use the same hive from one year to the next. Actually they store honey in the honeycomb as a food source for the colony. There are four species of honeybees in India. They are Rock bee (Apis dorsata),Little bee (Apis florea),Indian bee (Apis cerana indica),European bee (Apis mellifera) and Stingless bee (Trigona iridipennis) .Apis Cerana is the most preferred species in Kerala by bee farmers as it produces 7kg to 10kg of honey on an average. Honeybees help pollinating process in flowers and plants, a vital process that sustains vegetation. Apple, cardamom, cashew, mango, litchi, guava, rubber, mustard,vegetables and coconut are the major crops pollinated by honeybees .In a colony of an average size,there would be about 20,000 to 31,000 bees comprising a queen and a few hundred drones. But 90 per cent of the population is made up of the workers. Indian bee yields 8-10 kg of honey per colony per year. In Kerala beecombs fill up in January-April season and honey is extracted and sent for processing.

Honey is extracted only from super combs using honey extractor. The sealing of cells on combs is removed with sharp knife before placing in the extractor. Extracted honey is filtered through muslin cloth. Then Honey is heated to remove wax particles, debris, dust and pollen. Then it is filtered and cooled and stored in glass or earthenware container. Kerala had immense potential for beekeeping, with eight lakh colonies.1 to 1.25 lakh people are engaged in apiculture, mostly as an allied activity. A single hive can yield four to five kg of honey. During 1998-99 honey worth Rs 2.65 crore produced in Kerala.

                                                   Prof. John Kurakar