Practices and Constraints in Migratory Bee Keeping with European Honey Bee <i>Apis mellifera</i> L.

A survey was carried out to gather information on practices and constraints in migratory bee keeping of European honey bee, Apis mellifera L. in district Mansa (Punjab) during 2023-24. Majority (28.85%) of bee keepers owned 100-200 bee colonies, while 19.24% had more than 400 bee colonies. Less proportion of respondents knew about the method of collection of royal jelly (19.23%), propolis (15.38%), bee venom (13.46%) and queen rearing (13.46%). Majority (84.62%) of bee keepers had medium level knowledge of bee keeping practices. Major constraints reported were attack of pests and diseases (100%), death of bees due to non-judicious of pesticides on crops (100%), increased migration expenditure (38.46%), extreme winter (67.31%) & summer (76.92%), drowning of bee boxes during rainfall (28.85%), un-regulated market and low honey price (96.15%). About 71.2% bee keepers were not practicing self-packaging and self-marketing of honey due to constraints; slow cash flow in retail sale (57.69%), lack of honey processing machine (28.85%), lack of faith in direct buying of honey from bee keepers (19.23%) and time consuming and laborious (67.31%). The study highlighted the need to formulate strategies to address these constraints in order to encourage bee keeping in this region.