ABSTRACT

Apiculture can be defined as the art and science of bees and beekeeping. Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of food production. It is the breeding, management and study of honeybees, involving the pollination of field crops, the study of bee products and their utilization (Dedant, 1992). Beekeeping involves all the technique involving bee and subsequent harvesting and processing of bee product (Bidemi, 1999). Honeybee belongs to the family oT social insect. The Apis inellifera is a species of honeybee which comprises several sub species or race. "Melli/Lra" is a Latin word meaning "honey carrying" hence Apis niell/era is the honey — carrying — bees. The name was coined in 1758 by Carololus Linnaenus. In West cost of Africa we have Apis mellifera adonsonii. Honey bees live in colonies. In a complete colony, there are three castes of bees; one queen, hundreds of drones (male) and thousands of workers which may range from 30,000 to 80,000 in numbers. The worker is a sterile female. The queen is the most important of the three castes, although the other castes are also important. The queen lays the egg, the drone only mate with the queen. The daily activities of the worker in the colony include, the nectar collection, clearing and ventilating the hive, building combs and so on.