Honey Bee Farming

Alabang we sight percolate the skyscrapers, big malls and busy viable centers. In a backyard of a beautiful house in a high village is a woodland of trees and flowering plants, this is where the bees are camping and in this place Luke Macababbad lives. He is an urban acquireer and a custodian of the colonies in a 50-square-meter backyard in Muntinlupa metropolis subdivision.Bees sip the nectar of the shrubs and bushes of the wild flowering plants, vines and trees. January to May is the honey season, flowers elevation and honey flows. A 50 hives or colonies can acquire 30 to 50 kilograms of honey in 3 weeks. The 80% is world made into wine and the remaining is honey.According to Macababbad, the production is d take in because of humor change. The flowering season is not distinctive because the bees are confused. At this time, kakawati trees should be blooming but they are not. Honey is not produced after soggy rains. When you are into bee farming, the cost of a queen bee is $300 to $500. A undivided colony, with four frames to house 3,000 bees, costs about P6,200. Continuous labor and bread and butter are the added operating costs. According to Virgilio Badajos, a staff beekeeper who was teach in Australia, bee mortality rate must be monitored. Migratory birds can eat up to 500 bees a day. He started the bee farming as a hobby at the University of the Philippines Los Banos. All we wanted was to have our own menage-made honey for home use, he said.He had 4 colonies in his farm which expanded in Batangas, Lipa, Tanauan and Cavite. He harvested 100 kilograms of honey produced at Dielles bee house and Meadery Enterprises. With the increase in demand Macababbad seek the engineering assistance from the incision of Science and Technology (DOST). And the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SET UP) provided him P300,000 to secure new stainless steel tank.This helped him increased from 1,000 bottles a year to 2,000 bottles per month. other pro ducts were added mango, bignay and duhat wines, the label designs and packaging were provided by DOST. Sales raised to 300 part and on-line orders also increased. According to Dr. Teresita C. Fortuna, DOSTs Regional Director for metro Manila, the bee colony is one of the more successful technology intervention of the DOST theme Capital Region (NCR). In 2009, P8.9 million support was provided by DOST-NCR for technology acquisition to 11 microenterprises. This includes consultancies, trainings and workshops conducted in 596 firms. In Twinville Subdivision in Marikina, homeowners affiliation uses hydroponicsor growing plants without soil. The DOST Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and development (PCARRD) provided the Hydroponic Technology.The Enriched Potting Preparation technology involves nutrient-rich compost soil extract and a specialized watering and aeration-efficient container made from used plastic bottles. Senior citizens of the T winville homeowners Association participated by planting the first crop of vegetables for home consumption. The harvested crop is sold in the city government and in close supermarkets. Marikina and Muntinlupa are the recipients of a bioreactor technology which converts the wastes from wet markets into organic fertilizer. While in Quezon City and Taguig, DOST NCR and PCARRD provided technical assistance and training to city agriculture technologies deal edible landscaping, hydroponics and enriched potting preparation and composting.