Beekeeping Program Distributes Queen Bees in Chitwan

Chitwan. The Beekeeping Development Program Bhandara has started distributing queen bees. A total of 1,260 queen bees are to be distributed this year. The office has started distributing improved breed queen bees produced by the office to beekeepers at subsidized prices.

According to the chief of the office, Sujan Angai, 512 queen bees have been distributed to 95 farmers so far. Of these, 139 queen bees were produced by the office, while 373 queen bees were brought from various bee farms. The office has been producing and distributing improved breed queen bees to farmers every year. He said that distribution has been done accordingly this year.

He said, "The use of improved breed queen bees increases honey production." He said that using improved breed queen bees improves the breed and increases honey production. Due to various reasons, queen bees become old, die, become diseased, or have reduced working capacity and cannot sustain the hive. Although the lifespan of a queen bee is generally said to be three to five years, he said that farmers here replace queen bees every year.

Along with this, he informed that training on producing improved breed queen bees through the 'grafting' technique is also being provided. Currently, 16 farmers in the district are being trained on queen bee production. He said that after providing training on queen bee production to farmers, they will be able to produce improved breed queen bees using this technique in their own homes, which will increase honey production.

This year, 10 queen bees have been produced through artificial technology. He said that only four of the queen bees produced by this technique have survived. According to him, this year, production has been started to save 10 of the queen bees produced by this technique.