On march 18, 2024, I got the opportunity to see the apiculture unit of the institute. Mr. Irutabegoyena was the incharge and he was very passionate about his work. He told me various interesting facts about apiculutre and significance of bees for the enivronment. The apiculture unit of the institue is mainly concerned for the production of honey and bee pollen, keeping in view the sustainability of the environment.
The beehives are also stocked along the banks of streams of Nivelle at different areas to ensure good quality honey production and pollination of flowers. It takes about 3 months for honey production.

The honey is sold to local people of the area in winter season. The students told me that we smoke the hive entrance to signal bees that we are here and also to make the guard bees retreat inside the hive and reduces natural defensiveness for 10 minutes. There is a regular visit at specific intervals to the beehives to check everything is fine or not. The students wear beekeeping suit to protect themselves from bee stings while they work. The beehives are made manually by Mr. Irutabegoyena with the assistance of the students. At last Mr. Irutabegoyena encouraged me to start apiculture in the mountains of Uttarakhand to get good quality honey production along with boosting the biodiversity of the nature.