APICULTURE: UMRANGSO

APICULTURE: Collection of honey from wild bee colonies is one of the most ancient human activities and is still practiced in almost all parts of the world. Some of the earliest evidence of gathering honey from wild colonies is found in the rock painting dated to around 13.000 B.C. In Dima Hasao district of Assam mainly in Umrangso, it is practiced in moderate level and the people are also able to generate their livelihood from it.

 

Honey bees are collected from the forest areas along with their bee hives. A small portion of the beehives is kept in the trees or in the rocks so that the Honey bees can build their beehives again.

In Umrangso , rearing and extraction of Honey is done in wooden boxes made from  tree trunks. The wooden box consists of two holes on either side for the extraction of honey. It remains covered by a piece of wood when honey is not extracted. A narrow small opening is kept in the wooden box made from the trunk for the easy movement of the bees from Inside to  outside and vice versa.

Externally wooden box is coated with a layer of cow dung so that the bee hives and bees can be protected from their enemies like-wax moth(Galleria mollonella),wasp,Black ant(Componotus compressces) ,Bee eater(Morops sp.), King crow ( Dicrurus macrocerus) .

Wooden boxes are kept undisturbed for time period of three months, so that the honey bees get sufficient time to rebuild their hives.

A single honey comb is divided into several compartments called cells which are separated by wax- plates. The wax is secreted by a pair of wax gland placed vertically in the abdomen of the bees. The nectar collected is temporarily stored in the stomach of the alimentary canal. Salivary gland converts the sucrose of the nectar into glucose and fructose. Glucose and fructose when come out, it get concentrated by the process of evaporation and leads to the formation of honey.

At the time of extraction of honey, a burning fire or smoke is brought near the hole of the wooden box so that the bees leave their hive.

       

The most common species of honey bee that is reared extensively is Apis indica. Other than Apis indica- Apis mellifera, Apis dorsata and Apis florea are also reared for honey. Honey has an excellent nutritive content. It contains high percentage of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, glucose, fructose, enzymes etc. It also acts as an antioxidants and also has an anti inflammatory and anti bacterial property.

Shri Lal Bahadur Chetri a leading beekeeper of this locality(Umrangso)stressed upon the need for the development of a market in Umrangso. He has been practising the rearing of bees and extracting of honey from last 40 years. It is the only source of livelihood for him. At present he has 100 boxes for rearing bees. One box in average yields him eight to ten big bottles of honey, which he then sells to the big companies in Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling and other near places. While sharing his experience he informed that five verities of bees are cultivated in Umrangso of which he is rearing four verities, he named them as Mouri, Putko, Kothauri.

Shri Chetri expressed that a cultivator need to have the knowledge of following things  to accelerate his productivity –

a)      Knowledge of nature and habits of bees.

b)      Selection of suitable location for keeping bee hives.

c)      Catching and hiving of swarms.

d)      Handling and collecting honey and

Special Thanks To : Shri Lal Bahadur Chetri, Lamu Singh Warkade

**                                     ***************