Author Bradbear, N.

Year of publication 2009

The product that most people first associate with bees is honey, although beekeeping generates much more than just honey: the maintenance of biodiversity and pollination of crops are perhaps the most valuable services provided by bees. Honey is just one of several different products that can be harvested: others are beeswax, pollen and propolis, royal jelly and venom, and the use of bees in apitherapy, which is medicine using bee products. This paper discusses traditional and temporary beekeeping with some of the bee products proposed as medicines. Bees and beekeeping contribute to peoples’ livelihoods in almost every country on earth. Honey and the other products obtained from bees have long been known by every society. The diversity in bee species, their uses and in beekeeping practices varies greatly between regions. Honey hunting of wild bee colonies still remains an important part of the livelihoods of forest dependent peoples in many developing countries. Today, apiculture plays a valuable part in rural livelihoods worldwide, and this book aims to provide an insight into the many ways in which bees and beekeeping contribute to these livelihoods, and how to strengthen this contribution. This book aims to help ensure that people gain the most from these activities.