Beekeeping in India, Scope and opportunity

11 min readAug 2, 2023

The rearing of honey bees is called Apiculture. Apiculture is a process of maintaining bee colonies to obtain honey and honey-based ends products such as beeswax, propolis, royal jelly, and honeydew. Beekeeper aligns bees in an order through hives to collect honey and other by-products. Keeping bees at a large scale for commercial purposes as a business plan is increasing in this fast-growing world. Apiculture or beekeeping business needs less investment of money and laborers with great care of them and a strong relationship between the human being (beekeeper) and the bees. In India, Honey bee farming is commonly done by the people in the hilly region, but nowadays, this business is also started in the plains by the local people to earn more money by applying less effort. In India, it is operated in many states like the UTTAR PRADESH, JAMMU & KASHMIR, Southern RAJASTHAN, PUNJAB, MAHARASTRA, TAMIL NADU along with the GUJARAT.

Like other methods of farming, a lot depends on the weather. Bee farming season lasts for around six to seven months in north India, but just for a month in the South. A person can start a beekeeping business for as low as Rs 20,000,” adding that a box of Indian bees costs around Rs 2,000, while one of Italian bees costs Rs 7,500.

Apiculture Market — Forecast(2021–2026):

Global Apiculture Market is segmented By

Hive Type (Traditional, KTBH, Langstroth)
End-Product (Honey, Beeswax, Honey Dew, Bee Bread, Propolis, Royal Jelly, Others)
Application (Medical, Food & Beverages, Cosmetics, Others)
Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa)

— Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2020–2027

The various end users assessed includes Food & Beverages, Agriculture, Military, Medicine, and Cosmetic, Paints and Chemical and others. Propolis, which consists of a range of plant resins collected by the bees and used to seal holes in the hive, has been used for a variety of purposes. It is now known to have a diverse range of pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti tumour and some anti-viral properties. Royal Jelly is widely used as a food supplement, and whilst there is some evidence that Royal Jelly may have some cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, wound-healing, and antibiotic effects.

Global-Apiculture-Market-Forecast-Report/213

Market Trends:

The Indian apiculture market attained a value of almost INR 18,836.2 million in the year 2020. The industry is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.4% over the forecast period of 2021–2026 to reach a value of INR 37,235.9 million by 2026.
A FactMR study predicts honey market to grow at a positive CAGR of 5.1% during the forecast period (2019–2029). Honey continues to witness augmented demand for healthy food applications across the globe.
The consumption of apiculture products like honey is increasing in the Asia-pacific region due to the health benefits associated with honey and its by-product[MORDOR INTELLIGENCE]
The India honey market reached a value of about INR 17.29 billion in 2020. The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of about 10% between 2021 and 2026 to reach a value of nearly INR 30.6 billion by 2026[EMR].

Competitive Landscape

Major players like Dabur India Limited, Bartnik , Arnold Honeybee, Miller’s Honey Company, and Beehive Botanicals Inc are making strategic moves to make their business grow.

Advantages of honey

List of health benefits of honey and make use of this golden sweetener.

Honey cleans blood and arteries
Use of honey is also beneficial to the throat infection
Use of honey by children is the best technique to increase their memory power at the small age
Use of honey avoids a cough, colds, digestive problem, eye disorders, blood pressure, etc
Honey is also used in the cosmetic
A teaspoon of honey with fresh butter prevent you from fever
The use of honey provides lots of energy to the body & helps in increases athletic performance
Helps prevent cancer and heart disease
Reduces ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorders:
Anti-bacterial and anti-fungal

Possible Products from Beekeeping:

Bees wax: Bees collect nectar and pollen to make honey to feed the hive. As they eat honey, their bodies make wax. Chewing this wax with a little more honey, the bees build combs. When the time is just right, beekeepers open these “honey pantries” to collect the extra honey — and we collect combs to make pure beeswax candles.

12 Uses for Beeswax Around the Home:

Homemade Deodorant
Lotion Bars
DIY Lip Balms
Lotion Bar Sticks
Beeswax Candles
Homemade Soaps
Baby Products
Soothe Cracked Heels
On Cracked Hands
Natural Neosporin Alternative
Cold and Flu Relief
Reusable Food Wraps

https://joybileefarm.com/things-to-make-with-beeswax/

Gulkand:

Gulkand or rose petal jam is a sweet Indian delicacy. It is easy to prepare and is listed under the best Ayurvedic medicines for their enormous health benefits. Gulkand has cooling properties, thus it is beneficial in alleviating all heat-related problems like tiredness, lethargy, itching, aches, and pains.

The combination of Honey with Gulkand is the perfect marriage of health & flavor! It detoxifies your body from the inside and its cooling effect prevents internal heat especially during summers. Ingredients: Honey, Rose Petals, Watermelon seeds, Almonds, cashew, and Dates.

https://www.kapiva.in/blog/health-benefits-of-gulkand-kapiva/

Gulkand With Honey & Dalchini
Gulkand With Honey & Elaichi
Product made from Rose petals preserved in Basil/Tulsi Honey

Hair care:

Superbee propolis hair shampoo Purely Natural & Indigenous.
It help to strengthens & protect hair structure and promotes hair growth .
Removes dandruff *Prevent adverse enviromental impacts on the hair -roots & shaft. * prevent hair loss. * smoothen hair -loss. * stop graying hair
Direction of use: Apply on wet hairs with finger tips gently massage and reins throughly.Use thrice in a week.For best result use at least 3 months regularly.

Propolis Hair Oil

Propolis Shampoo

Honey:

Acacia honey: Acacia honey is derived from the nectar of the Robinia pseudoacacia flower, commonly known as the black locust or false acacia tree. It has a flower-like aroma and sweet, delicate flavor. Conveniently, acacia honey remains liquid longer and crystallizes much slower than traditional honey
Ajwain honey is produced by the bees which collect nectar from the Ajwain (or Bishop’s weed) flowers. This dark-colored honey is sourced from the interiors of Madhya Pradesh and has an intense flavor. Ajwain is known for its numerous medicinal properties and is also known for its antifungal, antioxidant, and antimicrobial benefits.
Royaljelly Enriched With Honey: It is a natural source of energy that allows people to work harder with less exhaustion and more concentration. It is a health booster for enhancing your physical and mental wellbeing. Using Royal Jelly enriched with Honey in your daily routine can help you improve your lifestyle.
Propolis & Ashwagandha Enriched Honey:
Neem Honey:
Apple Cider Honey Vinegar
Eucalyptus Honey
Jamun Honey: Jamun is good for diabetes patients. The black plum has anti-diabetic features. Jamun helps to convert starch into energy and keep your blood sugar levels in check. Jamun Honey is extracted from the bees that collect honey from the Jamun flowers. No additional flavor is added. It gets a distinct color, flavor, and aroma because of the flowers from which it is extracted. It is collected from the Jamun region and is harvested in August when the Jamun flowers blossoms.
Litchi Honey: Super bee Honey is considered to be the best natural sweetener which has tremendous health benefits, regulating blood sugar levels is one of them. Its regular use treats cough, cold and fever. super bee honey aids in proper functioning of digestive system and also helps in reducing weight. Provides energy and strengthens immunity. Stay fit, feel young and enhances athletic performance.
Multiflora Honey: Multiflora Honey nature’s delicious and nutritious gift to mankind.Nutrient-rich Honey gathered from unique Indian flora . Honey contains not only life supporting vitamins and minerals, but naturally occurring enzymes. These aid functions such as digestion, cell regeneration, tissue repair, bone maintenance, muscle activity and even thinking itself.

Note: Indic have small size, so benefit is that it can go inside small flower and reached to nector. While Maliflora bee have comparily big size so good for big flower.

Try to change Queen in 1 year although have 2 year queen life. Best month for queen division if feb month but can also start from sep-oct. Young queen can be identified by seeing glow on their body.

Optimize the queen division and migration of hive

Choose Queen according to product like Honey, Propolis, pollen, Venum

Keep bee keeper away by 2 km, there is chance of disease transfer

Bee Propolis Tincture:
Mustard Honey:
Saffron Honey
Forest honey
Organic honey

Murabba:

Oral Hygiene:

Pollen:

Royal Jelly:

Soap:

Vinegar and Juice:

Equipment and Tools:

Super bee box: Wax collected at bottom board plate which may result disease (insects) causing disease to bees. so in super box, its easy to remove top both box and clean it which is not possible in non-scientific method. Brood chamber used for larva, seed rearing by queen. Since queen take oxygen and release carbon monooxyde, its important to provide ventelater in brood box. So we use 4 ventilator (2 front and 2 back) on brood box.

nextwe use separator so workers can move up in honey box but queen remain in brood box because it large size.

Honey fill soon in a super box. Good in case of disease, after we extract honey from honey chamber, we can replace brood frame with empty honey frame(after extraction), and brood frame can be moved in honey chamber. So this will help filling honey in honey chamber at faster rate because bee seeds/larva mature in honey chamber very soon and convert to bees and empty cell can be filled with honey by chambers.

First create 10km, 20km, 50km, 100km, 200km, 500km cluster around area where planning bee keeping start. Keep following parameter in mind like pesticide, medicine spray etcs.

We can also use separator in single box dividing in ratio 50% chamber.

Solo super chamber

There are multipe way we can collect honey with wax listed below

Melafara size- 10mm

disease chance by bees- 15%

disease chance by bee seed- 55%

Types of Honey (most popular)

There are more than forty types of honey, each with unique properties & a distinctive taste. Each kind of honey has different types of flavonoid profiles which depend on the floral nectar source. Most of the popular honey are:

Alfalfa: Lucerne also known as “alfalfa” or “rijka” in northern India is a protein-rich fodder and is considered the “queen of fodder crop”. It is a perennial plant and can supply fodder for 3–4 years in the same growing. It is a winter season crop and is mainly cultivated in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. https://www.agrifarming.in/alfalfa-cultivation-for-dairy-goat-sheep-livestock ,!!! https://beeswiki.com/alfalfa-honey/
Manuka:
Blueberry
Clover
Wildflower
Buckwheat
Orange Blossom

However, the honey quality varies for each type. Darker & denser honey contains a higher amount of antioxidant content. Monofloral honey (honey from a single plant species) contains the lowest glycemic index (GI).

For detail, read following blog

https://agrifarmingtips.com/how-to-start-commercial-honey-bee-farming-business-in-india/

Effect of bee pollination on crop

It increases yield in terms of seed yield and fruit yield in many crops
It improves quality of fruits and seeds
Bee pollination increases oil content of seeds in sunflower
Bee pollination is a must in some self incompatible crops for seed set

Crops benefited by bee pollination
Fruits and nuts: Almond, apple, apricot, peach, strawberry, citrus and litchi
Vegetable and Vegetable seed crops: Cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, coriander, cucumber, melon, onion, pumpkin, radish and turnip.
Oil seed crops: Sunflower, niger, rape seed, mustard, safflower, gingelly.
Forage seed crops: Lucerne, clover.

https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/farm_enterprises/fe_api_beefloraapollin.html

Economics of Commercial Beekeeping in India:

Raising the Bees as business needs little investment in the beginning and then gives you a big profit after some time. So you have to first settle this business and then proper care will take you to become a successful businessman.

In the starting of this business, you have to invest some few lakh on it and the return is too big; since honey is rarely available in the market and you can easily sell organic honey at rate 400 to 700 Rs. Rate may vary from region to region according to its demand and the producers of honey.

Commercial Beekeeping Profits

The current price of honey in the market is more than 120 rupees. It depends on the various brands.
You will get a yield of 40 kg per box. In case, you sell the honey for 100 rupees, then you will get a total of 40 x 100 = 4000 rupees.
Since we are giving info on 40 colonies. The Total income from Beekeeping is 40 x 4000 = 1,60,000.
If you start some New boxes of 25, then each box will provide you with 700 rupees. Then the total profit of Beekeeping is 25 x 700 = 17,500

Because there are not much fewer maintenance expenses, from the second year the income will start to rise. In no less than 2 years, you will recover all your Commercial Beekeeping expenses.

Loans and Subsidies for Commercial Beekeeping in India:

For this Apiculture, there are some boards. Among such, National Honey Bee Board India is prominent. The Government is ready to provide a 35 percent Subsidy on the Beekeeping Business in India. The ones who will get this subsidy have to invest only 5 percent from their pockets. Apart from these, the National Bee Board is also coming up with various schemes. The government has provided loan facilities from nationalized banks for this industry. Loans up to 2 to 5 lakh Rs are easily available for this business since this industry falls under the SSI category. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission gives loans with 30 to 40-percent subsidies. The horticulture department also processes loans to beekeepers for bee pollination. Under various schemes, a beekeeper can procure a bank loan up to Rs 5 crore.

Among many banks, IDBI Bank is providing loans for Commercial Beekeeping in India. They call it Bee Keeping Madhu Makshika Palan. Apart from that, SHGs, and NGOs can also get this loan. You have to use this loan money only for setting up units for the production of Honey. You can get the subsidy for this loan from the government bodies like KVIC / KVIB / DRDA. One has to pay back this loan between 5–7 years. You can pay the loan in a quarterly or half-yearly installment. For this loan, the IDBI Bank is giving 11 months gestation period.