The independent of Rajshahi produces 31 maunds of honey a year. From which his annual income is 7 lakhs. He produces about 31 maunds of honey a year from only 35 bee boxes. Mustard and litchi honey are available year-round at Swadhani.

Rezaul Karim of Kaikundi area of Darusha in Paba Upazila of Rajshahi has been selling honey and beekeeping for 22 years. His claim is pure honey so sales are high. He has sweet customers in different parts of the country. Honey is sold more through online.

It is known that by selling this honey at the rate of 600 taka per kg, the independent earns about 7.5 lakh taka per year. He placed 35 boxes of bees in the mustard bill. Here, from the end of November to February, he gets 5 kg of honey per week from each box.

It produces 175 kg of honey per month from the boxes. More than 22 maunds of honey and 9 maunds of litchi are produced every year from mustard alone. But litchi depends on the honey bud. He owns a mudh shop named Natiya Mou-Chash Project in Shatlai Bazar in Godari.
Swadhin said, in 1990, he was an SSC candidate. He lived in Rajshahi then. One day he saw agriculture and honey farming on television. Since then he thought to cultivate honey with bees. He got the idea from there. A few years later he started honey cultivation. There are three types of bees in the mustard bill of the caterpillar.

Bees live in wooden boxes. They have a queen bee or fertile bee throughout the box. One is a male or drone bee and the rest are worker bees or barren bees. The sterile bees come to the box collecting honey from the flowers. And the main work of honey production is done by the queen bee.

Swadhin said, honey is available from four types of bees in our country. Dordasha, Melee Fera, Serena and Fleuria bees. Most honey comes from Dordasha bees. This bee is very angry. They bite humans. Due to anger, no country in the world could bring this bee into farming system. Meli Fera is the bee of peaceful nature. It has been possible to bring it into cultivation. And the Apis serena bee burrows in the soil. There is less honey. Will continue for the family. But business cannot be done. Fluoria bees are native to us. It also has less honey.

At the first stage of independence, he started farming with indigenous species of Floria bees. However, there was not much honey production then. 15 years ago, he started breeding bees of the European ‘Meli Fera’ variety. This bee was collected from the neighboring country of India by a man named Sunil of Bidirpur in Godagari. Sunil’s relatives live in India. His relative gave Sunil some European ‘Meli Fera’ bees for honey cultivation. Sunil sold these bees with boxes to Swadhani. Since then there was no looking back for the independent.

He also said that bees other than the queen (sterile) live for only 45 days. But the queen bee that lays eggs lives for 3 and a half to 4 years. At this time, the queen bee lays eggs in one clutch for about two and a half years. Queen lays more eggs in February of the year. A queen bee lays 1000 to 1200 eggs per day. The queen bee lays three types of eggs. From that egg are born queen or fertile bees, drones or males and worker bees or barren bees.

When the queen comes of age, the queen herself lays the eggs. The queen bee lays the eggs of the male or drone bee to watch the same. A box contains 9 to 10 frames. Bees sit on both sides of the frame. Each of the 35 boxes contains one queen bee. Males mate with the queen bee once a year. The male bee dies after mating. The queen bee then lays eggs throughout the year.

About the death of bees and food, he said, bees collect food from different flowers for five months. And for seven months of the year they have to dissolve sugar in water indoors. However, bees are also dying due to the use of pesticides in the fields. Now is the time for mustard honey. Many growers use poisons for better yield and cultivation of their mustard. Bees go to collect honey and consume poison. Then he came flying like a drunkard and fell dead near the box. 5 box bees have died this year due to mustard poisoning.

In this regard, Paba Upazila Agriculture Officer Shamsun Nahar said, generally there is no need to use any pesticide (poison) in mustard. However, farmers still apply. We have repeatedly told them to apply poison later in the afternoon. Then the bees will not die of poison while taking honey.

About the cultivation of mustard and honey, he said, once upon a time people had an idea that if there is a bee honey production box next to the mustard field, the yield of mustard will be low. But now people’s idea has changed. They realized that the more bees that visit the mustard field, the more pollination will occur. By doing that, mustard flowers and fruits will be better. Now many people say to put honey box next to their land. Similarly, bee pollination of litchi, black cumin, coriander improves yield.

Deputy Director of Rajshahi Agricultural Extension Department. Mozdar Hossain said that 42 thousand 550 hectares of land has been cultivated in Rajshahi district this year. Last year it was 26 thousand 156 hectares. As such, farmers have cultivated mustard on 16 thousand 394 hectares of land this year in Rajshahi district.

However, mustard cultivation has increased this year due to increase in the price of edible oil. From that place the interest in mustard cultivation increased among the farmers. The incentives were the same as last year. But the farmers are more inclined towards mustard cultivation. The yield is increasing due to the development of new and improved varieties.