Migratory Beekeeping - IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation
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Explore the full set of IELTS Reading answers for “Migratory Beekeeping” along with simplified explanations and location to strengthen your comprehension and boost your Reading score!
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The Academic passage “Migratory Beekeeping” is a real IELTS Reading text from a past question paper. Solving this reading passage will give you a clear idea of the difficulty level you can expect in the actual exam.
With this blog on the “Migratory Beekeeper” Reading test, you get the complete answer keys and detailed explanations with location, helping you boost your accuracy and confidence. If you are in need of additional practice, explore more of our IELTS Reading practice tests to strengthen your skills!
‘Migratory Beekeeping’ IELTS Reading Passage
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
A. Taking Wing
To eke out a permanent living from their honey bees, about fifty per cent of the nation’s 2,000 trade apiarists stop post each spring, wandering north to find more flowers for their bees. Apart from turning floral nectar into honey, these diligent insects also pollinate crops for farmers for a fee. As autumn approaches, the apiarists pack up their hives and go south to climb for pollination agreements in hot spots like California's fecund Central Valley.
B. Of the 2,000 business apiarists in the United States, about half relocate. This pays off in two processes: moving North in the summer and South in the winter lets bees toil lengthy blooming periods, making more honey and money for their custodian. Second, apiarists can transfer their hives to farmers who need bees to breed their crops. Every spring a migrant apiarist in California may transfer up to 160 million bees to flowering fields in Gopher State, and every winter, his family may drag the hives back to California, where farmers will hire and charge the bees to breed almond and cherry trees.
C. Migrant beekeeping is nothing new. The early Egyptians moved kaolin hives, doubtless on barges, down the Nile to follow the bloom and nectar flow as it transferred to Cairo. In the 1880s, North American apiarists tested the same plan, moving bees on rafts along the Mississippi and on waterways in Florida, but their lighter, wooden hives kept falling into the water. Other keepers tried the coerce and horse-drawn wagons, but that did not demonstrate practicality. Not up to the 1920s, when cars and trucks became affordable, and roads improved, did migrant beekeeping begin to take off.
D. For the Californian apiarist, the breeding period begins in February. At this time, the honeycombs are in specific demand by farmers who have almond crops; they need two hives an acreage. For the three-week-long bloom, apiarists can rent out their hives for $32 each. It’s a windfall for the bees, too. Most people contemplate almond honey being excessively bitter to eat, so the bees get to retain it for themselves.
E. By March, it is time to transfer the bees. It can take seven nights to pack the 4,000 or so hives that an apiarist may own. These are not transfers in midday because excessively of the bees would end up vagrant. But at night, the hives are piled onto wooden stretchers in sets of four and raised onto a truck. It is not compulsory to wear gloves or an apiarist's mask because the hives are not being opened, and the bees are almost silent. Just in case some are still lively, bees can be placated with a few gusts of smoke popped into each hive’s tapered entryway.
F. In their new place, the apiarist will pay the agronomist to allow his bees to feed in such places as an orange copse. The honey manufactured here is scented and sweet and can be sold by the apiarist. To motivate the bees to construct as much honey as possible during this time, the apiarist opens the hives and heaps of additional boxes called supers on top. These short-term hive add-ons hold frames of vacant comb for the bees to fill with honey. In the offspring hall below, the bees will store honey to eat later. To avert the queen from creeping up to the top and putting down eggs, a screen can be put in the middle of the offspring and the supers. After three weeks, the honey can be congregated.
G. Disgusting scent chemicals are frequently used to irritate bees and drive them down into the hive’s bottom boxes, leaving the honey-filled supers roughly bee-free. These can then be accomplished by the hive. They are massive with honey and might be considered to be 90 pounds each. The supers are taken to the storeroom. In the extracting room, the frames are lilted out and let down into an “unseal”, where a rotating cutlass shaves away the wax that covers all the cells. The unsealed frames are put in a whirligig filled to volume with 72 frames. A switch is overturned, and the frames begin to rotate at 300 revolutions per minute; diffusive power throws the honey out of the combs. At last, the honey is transferred into barrels for export.
H. After this, roughly one-fourth of the hives weakened by sickness, mites or a declining or dead queen will have to be returned. A healthy double hive full of bees can be split into two boxes to produce new colonies. One half will hold the queen, and a young, earlier breed queen can be put in the other half to make two hives from one. The new queen will put down eggs when the flowers bloom, filling each hive with young toiler bees. The apiarist's household will then wander with them to their summer place.
Questions
Questions 1 - 7
The flow chart below outlines the movements of the migratory beekeeper as described in the Reading Passage.
- Complete the flowchart.
- Choose your answers from the bottom of the questions and write your answers for questions 1-7.
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List of words/phrases |
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smoke barrels set off pollinate combs full |
chemicals protection light machines screen empty |
pay charge split supers prepare queens |
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Example: |
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In February, Californian farmers hire bees to help Answer: Pollinate almond trees. |
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In March, beekeepers 1 ______ for migration at night when the hives are 2 ______ and the bees are generally tranquil. A little 3______ can ensure that this is the case. |
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They transport their hives to orange groves where farmers 4________ beekeepers for placing them on their land. Here the bees make honey. |
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After three weeks, the supers can be taken to a warehouse where 5______ are used to remove the wax and extract the honey from the 6_____. |
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After the honey collection, the old hives are rejected. Good double hives are 7________ and re-queened and the beekeeper transports them to their summer base. |
Questions 8 - 11
- Label the diagram below.
- Choose ONE OR TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
- Write your answers for questions 8-11 on your answer sheet.
Questions 12 - 15
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? In boxes 12-15 on your answer sheet, write,
- YES if the statement agrees with the information given
- NO if the statement contradicts the information given
- NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this
12. The Egyptians keep bees on the banks of the Nile.
13. First attempts at migratory beekeeping in America were unsuccessful.
14. Bees keep honey for themselves in the bottom of the hive.
15. The honey is spun to make it liquid.
‘Migratory Beekeeping’ IELTS Reading Answers with Location and Explanation
Check out the answers with the answer location and explanation for the passage ‘Migratory Beekeeping.’ Make sure to note the areas of improvement so that you can work on them before practising more passages like this. This will help you get a higher IELTS Band Score!
| Question number | Answer | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | prepare | Paragraph E informs that by ‘early March’ it is time to ‘move the bees’ (for migration). It can take up to seven nights to pack the 4,000 or so hives that a beekeeper may own. ‘At night’, the ‘hives are stacked onto wooden pallets, back-to-back in sets of four, and lifted onto a truck’. So, beekeepers prepare the hives during the night. Hence, the answer is ‘prepare’. |
| 2 | full | Paragraph E mentions that it can take up to seven nights to ‘pack’ the 4,000 or so hives that a beekeeper may own. At night, the ‘hives are stacked’ (the hives are filled with bees and are arranged in piles before they are loaded on the truck to be taken to the orange groves) onto wooden pallets, back-to-back in sets of four, and lifted onto a truck. Hence, the answer is ‘full’. |
| 3 | smoke | Paragraph E states that although it is not necessary to wear gloves or a beekeeper’s veil as the hives are not being opened and the bees should remain relatively quiet, yet to get the bees ‘pacified’, (tranquilised) a ‘few puffs of smoke’ is blown into each hive’s narrow entrance. Hence, the answer is ‘smoke’. |
| 4 | charge | Paragraph F indicates that in their new location (the orange groves), the beekeeper will ‘pay’ the farmer (which means that the farmers charge the beekeepers) to allow his bees to feed in such places as orange groves. The ‘honey produced here’ (here the bees make honey.) is fragrant and sweet and can be sold by the beekeepers.
Hence, the answer is ‘charge’. |
| 5 | machines | The last sentence of paragraph F, it is said that ‘three weeks later’ (after three weeks) the honey can be gathered. The process of extracting honey is further explained in paragraph G. Foul smelling chemicals are often used to irritate the bees and drive them down into the hive’s bottom boxes, leaving the ‘honey- filled supers’ more or less bee free. The ‘supers are taken to a warehouse’. In the extracting room, the frames are lilted out and lowered into an “uncapper” in which the ‘rotating blades’ (machines) shave away the wax. Hence, the answer is ‘machines’. |
| 6 | combs | Paragraph G explains how in the extracting room the frames are lilted out and lowered into an “uncapper” where rotating blades ‘shave away the wax’ (remove the wax) that covers each cell. The uncapped frames are put in a carousel that sits on the bottom of a large stainless steel drum. The carousel is filled to capacity with 72 frames. A switch is flipped and the frames begin to whirl at 300 revolutions per minute; centrifugal force ‘throws the honey’ (extract the honey) out of the ‘combs’. Hence, the answer is ‘combs’. |
| 7 | split | Paragraph H relates that approximately a quarter of the ‘hives’ weakened by disease, mites, or an ageing or dead queen, will have to be replaced (old hives are rejected). To create new colonies, a ‘healthy double hive’ (good double hives), teeming with bees, can be ‘separated’ (split) into two boxes. By the time the flowers bloom, the new queens will be laying eggs, filling each hive with young worker bees. Once the new queens start to lay eggs, the ‘beekeeper’s family will then migrate with them to their summer location’ (beekeeper transports them to their summer base). Hence, the answer is ‘split’. |
| 8 | comb | Paragraph F let us know that to encourage the bees to produce as much honey as possible during this period, the beekeepers ‘open the hives’ and stack ‘extra boxes called supers on top’, as shown in the diagram. These temporary hive extensions contain ‘frames of empty comb’ (that can be identified from the picture given in the side) for the bees to fill with honey. Hence, the answer is ‘comb’. |
| 9 | Frames | Paragraph F points out that the beekeepers open the hives and stack extra boxes called supers on top. These temporary hive extensions contain ‘frames’ of empty comb for the bees to fill with honey. Therefore, as seen in the picture, the combs are contained in frames which are part of the supers kept on the top of the hive. Hence, the answer is ‘frames’. |
| 10 | screen | Paragraph F reveals that a ‘screen’ can be inserted between the brood chamber at the bottom and the supers, which are on top, to prevent the queen from crawling up to the top and laying eggs. Hence, the answer is ‘screen’. |
| 11 | Brood chamber | The picture in the question illustrates that in the brood chamber below on which the screen is placed, the bees will stash honey to eat later. The author has written about this in paragraph F Hence, the answer is ‘brood chamber’. |
| 12 | NOT GIVEN | In paragraph C, it is given that the ancient Egyptians moved clay hives, probably on rafts, down the Nile to follow the bloom and nectar flow as it moved toward Cairo. Other than this, there is no reference to Egyptians keeping bees on the banks of the Nile. Hence, the answer is ‘NOT GIVEN’. |
| 13 | YES | Paragraph C brings out the fact that in the 1880s North American beekeepers experimented with moving bees on barges along the Mississippi and on waterways in Florida, but their lighter, ‘wooden hives kept falling into the water.’ ‘Other keepers tried the railroad and horse-drawn wagons’, but that ‘didn’t prove practical’. So, all their efforts at migratory beekeeping failed or were unsuccessful. As the statement agrees with the information given, the answer is ‘YES’ |
| 14 | YES | In paragraph 7, the author introduces the fact that in the brood chamber positioned at the bottom of the hive, the bees ‘will stash honey to eat later’ (keep honey for themselves). As the statement agrees with the information given, the answer is ‘YES’. |
| 15 | NO | Paragraph G emphasises that a switch is flipped and the frames begin to whirl at 300 revolutions per minute; centrifugal force ‘throws the honey out of the combs’. So, the honey is spun to take it out of the combs of the frames and not to make them liquid. As the statement contradicts the information given, the answer is ‘NO’ |
Consistently practising passages like the “Migratory Beekeeping” helps you strengthen key reading skills, manage time effectively, and tackle different question types with confidence. Constant practice with answers and explanations will definitely improve your accuracy and boost your IELTS Reading band score!
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