Honey Production

Honey, that is used as food by man since prehistoric times, for several centuries was taken from swarms of extractive and predatory, often causing damage to the environment, killing the bees. However, with time, the man was learning to protect their swarms, install them in rational hives and manage them so that there were higher honey production without causing harm to the bees. Thus was born beekeeping.

This activity across time, won the world and became an important source of income for many families. Today, in addition to honey, you can explore with the rational creation of bees, products such as bee pollen, royal jelly, queens, pollination, bee venom and wax. There are cases of producers marketing swarms and offspring.

Brazil is currently the 6th largest producer of honey (behind only China, the United States, Argentina, Mexico and Canada), however, there is still great potential beekeeping (flora and climate) and large untapped opportunity to maximizing production, increasing the beekeeping agribusiness. Therefore, it is necessary that the producer has knowledge of honeybee biology, management techniques and harvesting honey, swarms of pests and diseases, economic importance, and market commercialization.

Bees are descendants of wasps that failed to feed on small insects and spiders to consume pollen from flowers when these arose about 135 million years. During this rolling process, several species of bees emerged. Today are known more than 20 000 species, but it is believed that there are about 40 thousand species still undiscovered. Only 2% of species are social bees and produce honey. Among the species that produce honey, the genus Apis are the most known and widespread.

The oldest fossils of this genus known is the species extinct Apis ambruster and date of 12 million years. Probably this kind of bee has appeared in Africa after the separation of the American continent, and later migrated to Europe and Asia, resulting in the Apis mellifera, Apis cerana, Apis florea, Apis korchevniskov, andreniformis Apis, Apis dorsata, Apis species laborious, Apis nuluensis and Apis nigrocincta.

The bees that remained in Africa and Europe originated several subspecies of Apis mellifera adapted to different environmental conditions in which it developed. Although this species is now established in the Americas and Oceania, they were only introduced in these regions during the colonization period.