Vocational Competencies Required by Youths in Management of Beekeeping for Job creation in North East Zone of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

Bees (Indus apis) are among the many insects that are beneficial to man. They are commonly called Honeybee, they belong to the kingdom Animalia, phylum Arthropoda, order (Hymenoptera), class (Insecta,) super family Apoide, family Apoidae, genus Apis. Okeme, Ekele and Anam (2014) stated that there are five main species in the genus Apis. They are Apisdorsata (the giant honeybee), Apislaboriosa (the darker giant honeybee), Apis florae (the dwarf honeybee), Apiscerana and Apismellifera. Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies of 10,000 to 60,000 bees (Kangave, Butele, Onzoma and Kato, 2012). A colony consists of a queen (fertile female) a few hundred drones (males) and thousands of workers. They pollinate flowering plants and crops. They also produce honey, beewax, beebread, royal jelly, propolis and bee venom which are useful to man and this can be achieved through beekeeping.