Bees for Development Journal 135 July 2020
A honey bee colony is a lovely sight to see Mrugank Divekar, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
The Asian honey bee, Apis florea is endemic to my locality – Mulund (now a suburb of Mumbai) where I have lived since childhood. My first encounter with Apis florea was as a witness to honey collection by my grandfather from a colony on a mango tree. I had seen many honey bees flying around the surrounding trees shevga drumstick, amba mango, bakul Spanish cherry and Naral coconut. I knew the local names for the bees: aagya (Apis dorsata), fulora (Apis florea), sateli (Apis cerana) and kotya (Trigona sp). I caught butterflies and dragonflies with my bare hands but for the honey bees a hand sock was preferred. While “playing” in this fashion I was stung many times however I never observed a honey swarm attacking humans or animals.
Mrugank Divekar enjoys bee watching. He says he is never frightened in the presence of honey bees or any other insect and that unless you interfere in their life, honey bees will never interfere in yours.
but I could see a colony of Apis florea on a branch of a flowering vine madhumalti creeping Chinese honeysuckle. It was the beginning of the rainy season and the colony had selected a place under a canopy – Smart!. This is one of the reasons I am fond of them and my wife knows it. By the time the nest was noticed it was fully developed – the top filled with honey and the brood section was sizeable. On the brood section the bees were holding on to each other and there was little movement. The honeycomb was busy with foraging bees landing, and nurse bees collecting the nectar being delivered to them. The pollen -bees were finding their way to the comb. Within a few days I observed a small black bee – a predator – entering the nest without attack by the soldier bees. I concluded she was stealing the larvae as a protein diet for her grubs. I am still not sure about her identity – maybe Apis andreniformis?
My wife is a classical Indian dancer and is aware that my first love is honey bees. She is not jealous, her only complaint is that I am always thinking about them and spend a lot of time with them. Whenever she notices any new colonies in the area, she teases me that: “your co-wives have arrived”. Her dance class is on the second floor of my building. On one occasion a student reported bees outside the window. It was dark
The bees would shield the nest a few minutes prior to the thundershowers. Magnificent positioning of the bees let the raindrops flow over their wings but prevented them touching the comb, and periodically
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Images © Mrugank Divekar
When the rains arrived, the colony selected a place to shelter under a canopy
