Question

Which of the following species of the honey bee is reared in artificial hives?
A. Apis indica
B. Apis dorsata
C. Apis florea
D. None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Apiculture is the practice of keeping and maintaining bees and their hives. The beekeeper is called an apiarist and the entire colony set up is called the Apiary. Beekeeping has grown in popularity in recent years and raw honey, beeswax, and royal jelly are much sought after products.

Complete answer: Apis cerana indica, the Indian honey bee, is a subspecies of the Asiatic honey bee. It is one of the predominant bees found and domesticated in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, etc. Relatively non-aggressive and rarely exhibiting swarming behavior. They are reared and managed in the artificial beehives for the production of honey, pollination of nearby crops, housing supply bees, it is ideal for beekeeping. These bees construct multiple parallel combs and produce 6-8 Kg honey per colony per year.
-Apis dorsata is a rock bee as it is found in the sub-mountainous region of India over an altitude of 2700m. These are the largest bees among the other bees which produce 36 Kg of honey per year per comb.
-Apis florea is called a little bee as its size is very small and it is the smallest among the species of Apis.
Hence, the correct answer is Option A.

Note: Honey harvesting has been considered as honey hunting in past centuries. the gathering of honey from wild bee colonies and is considered one of the most ancient human activities and it is still practiced by aboriginal societies in some of the parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America.