Myanmar has three local species of bees bearing honey. They are apis dorsata, apis cerana and apis flora. Suitable for modernized bee keeping are the local apis cerana and apis mellifera, the Euoperan species.
Agriculture has been undertaken as a state enterprise since 1979. Bee Keeping Department has been engaging in bee keeping in the states and Regions. Bees are helpful in pollination of crops, as they are kept amidst fields and plantations so as to enhance pollination.

Beehives are productive amidst fields where sunflower, plum, lychees, cotton, corn and varieties of beans and pulses are grown, as nectar and pollen are more abundant there.Within the beehives, there are three kinds of bees: the queen bee, the worker bee and the drone. Every beehive has only one queen but hundreds or thousands of drones and ten thousand to eighty thousand worker bees.
The worker bees accumulate nectar and form honeycombs. The queen bee lays eggs for reproduction and also commands the worker bees to labour. The drones are just for mating with the queen bee.

A bee keeping station can run three to 50 beehives. Honey can be extracted in seasons when flowers bloom in abundance. A good beehive can produce from 50 to 100 pounds of honey annually. In extracting honey, a heated blade is used to cut off the edge surrounding honey-laden comb. Honey-laden comb is inserted into the honey extracting device vertically and then spinned releasing honey per force of medium.
Modern bee keeping can be undertaken by any enthusiast. It is not big and risky. In fact, it is an interesting and happy undertaking generating handsome income. Apiculture and agriculture are inter-related beneficially. Honey, wax and other apicultural by-products have ready foreign market. So, it is a good and beneficial work that should be taken up in commercial scale.

U Mg Mg Sein, Deputy Director, Bee Keeping Department said, “Bee Keeping Department is trying to use local and European bees for keeping. Presently, the department is keeping ten thousand beehives while private beekeepers are rising twenty thousand. Annual honey production is 500 tons. The department is rendering technical assistance, varieties of bees for keeping, necessary accessories and medicines”.