PRACTICAL HAND BOOK OF APICULTURE

Book excerpt: Aim: To understand economic importance of honey bees and developments taking place in modern beekeeping. 1. Introduction to Apiculture: Importance and History Insects are dominant animals on this earth. Usually insects are considered harmful to man but hardly 1 per cent of insect species fall in the pest category. Benefits of insects in maintaining economy outweigh the injury inflicted. Honey bees are one of the few insects directly beneficial to man.  In the animal kingdom honey bees belong to: Phylum-Arthropoda, Class- Insecta, Order - Hymenoptera, Superfamily - Apoidea and Family- Apidae.  Honey is highly valued food produced by honey bees and it is also used as medicine. In addition to honey, other products like bees wax, pollen, royal jelly and bee venom are also produced by honey bees.