It is story on a loop: a beehive is spotted on a balcony or bees are seen swarming near the play area and residents hit the panic button. In some cases, the hive is relocated or removed by calling a pest control agency.
Aware of the environmental importance of bees, a number of institutions and individuals create an environment for bees to thrive. Some invite apiarists to schools and communities to teach residents on ways to coexist with this tiny, fluffy insect. Following sensitisation, some residents have resisted the idea of removing bee hives from their community.
Help is at hand
Last year, Rajendran Tamilarasan, an IT professional and local bee keeper who does rescues, received a call to remove a bee comb from the branch of a tree that had extended from one apartment community to the neighbouring apartment.
“Whenever I get calls from people, the first thing I do is persuade them to keep the hive as long as the bees are not aggressive,” says Rajendran. But that is the most challenging part. “An apartment community in Kundrathur, Shantiniketan Westwoods agreed to this suggestion. They also invited me to conduct a session for the young residents,” says Rajendran whose wife and two sons are part of his team trained to remove bee hives.
Rajendran Tamilarasan and his family are adept at relocating bee hives
The Medavakkam resident also receives invitation from educational institutions. “A school in Guindy has invited me to take a session on bee keeping for Class XI students who have agriculture as their main subject,” he says.
Last year, NMV University, an agriculture and technology institute located in Poonamallee, invested in four bee boxes at a farm in Aruppukottai, which is maintained periodically by the faculty and students. Under this initiative, the institute also conducts sessions for local villages on the importance of bee keeping.
Marimuthu K., a software professional turned natural farmer, has been invited to Anna Centenary Library and Maharishi Vidya Mandir in Tambaram, the latter had a green club and wanted children to understand the importance of having bees in the backyard.
Some years ago, Satyananda Yoga Centre initiated ‘We Need Bees’ campaign to increase the bee population by installing bee hives at campuses with a considerable green cover and a good number of parks and farms.
Bee-human conflict
Apiculture experts note bees do not sting unless they are disturbed by external agents, human beings or birds. They say the only way for people to conquer the fear of bees is by understanding the behaviour of bees and knowing their pattern.
“We need to understand that humans have taken over their habitat and that is why we see rock bee or apis dorsata constructing homes at high-rise buildings,” says M.R. Srinivasan, professor of entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore.
He says bees are important in the ecosystem not only for cross pollination but also promoting biodiversity. “But if you find a comb constructed near a window to be disturbing, make sure it is removed in a scientific way by a trained person without the use of harmful chemicals,” says the professor.
Smoking chases away the bees for a while and the tendency to sting is also less but this exercise should be carried out using the right mix of ingredients, he says.
As bees are migratory, the professor says, when a hive is removed, they will nest in some other area.
Marimuthu says when a comb is disturbed, the bees are most aggressive for 20-30 minutes. “Stay indoors until they calm down,” he suggest.
TNAU conducts a training programme in bee keeping on the sixth of every month. “One aspect that is covered is how to handle bees without disturbing them,” says the professor.
Spring is the busiest season for beekeepers. “It is the time when bees multiply and swarm out to increase their colonies. Make sure to allow the bees to recolonise,” the professor adds.
Catch the buzz about urban beekeeping
If your terrace garden is managing a high yield, it is likely honeybees are in the picture somewhere in the neighbourhood. They might be helping in pollination. Honeybees help increase yield even if one is not rearing them in one’s backyard, say urban farmers.
Thirty-six-year-old S. Venkatesan, who has a farm at Menambedu in Ambattur, points out that as per his calculation the effect of a bee box is felt within a radius of two kilometres.
Venkatesan attended a workshop conducted by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University before venturing into this field commercially. He has five beehive boxes at his garden and will vouch that the yield of his mango and sapotta trees has increased.
S. Venkatesan flaunts his bee hive box
“The size and yield of fruits has multiplied ever since the bee boxes were set up in my garden,” says Venkatesan, who runs VIK Organic Farm.
After he gained a diploma in agriculture, 26-year-old A. Ajith Kumar does bee farming as a profession. He has a small setup with 15 bee boxes at his garden in Mangadu and close to one hundred at his farm in his village.
Both of them say bee keeping is profitable and one need not have a big space to rear them. One can start with one to three boxes and have the joy of harvesting fresh honey from one’s backyard.
“Once in 10 days, these boxes need maintenance and one can do it on their own provided they are trained. We connect families to people who will help extract the honey and for other work,” says Ajith, who runs Anbu Honey Bee.
With regard to maintenance, Venkatesan says direct sunlight should not enter the box. The wooden boxes also need to be protected from rain and sun. “One important condition to set up a bee box is there should be sufficient plants/ trees within a 2.5 km radius,” says Venkatesan. He sells more than 25 boxes a month and earns a monthly income of ₹32,000.
The fear of a sting is one reason people shy away from setting up a bee box, which bee keepers say will not be an issue if one does not disturb the hive.
Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Horticulture Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University are some institutions that regularly conduct training programmes in bee keeping.
