Stingless Bees?

[moposcar]

Has anyone here ever heard of these? Apparantly the Mayan Indians were working them before the Europeans came over.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050615062105.htm

[TX Ashurst]

Yeah, I've heard of them.
Note that the article mentions that AHB (and also EHB) produce more honey, so that's why people don't keep them very commonly anymore. The article makes it sound like if we don't get in there and help the stingless bees will go extinct. They might, but not because people stop keeping them. They are like the European bee in that they are just as happy living wild as liivng in our hives.

[MichaelW]

Researchers are also saying that habitat loss could finish them off. I think it would be great for beekeeprs to help preserve them at least until habitat restoration. If that ever happens. If I lived anywhere close I would be up for it. I'm sure they won't survive here, plus introducing new species to ecosystems is generally a bad idea. Then there is logistics. I read another article where they where using them as pollinators in greenhouses, they worked really well.

[Tomas]

I actually have one in my backyard. I keep bees down here in Honduras. A couple years back I had an empty nuc box sitting under a tree that I didn't pay any attention to for quite a while. Then one day I had to cut the weeds in that part of the back yard and I noticed something flying in and out of the entrance hole. It was a hive of stingless bees.

The ones that went into my hive are some little black ones--look more like a fly than a bee. The real valuable ones (as far as honey goes) also look more like a little fly but are more golden in color. There is also a species of stingless bee (which is popular to have down here but hard to find) that looks like a regular european honey bee. Instead of stinging they bite (sort of like an ant bite, but in general they're real calm).

If I look around town I can usually find someone who has a hive of the "blanco estrellas" or "white stars" hanging under the eaves of their house or in the back patio. They usually keep them in a hollow log. about three feet long or so. They call them "white stars" because they make a star-like design with propolis around the entrance hole.

They are getting scarce though. It's not too easy to find them (the blanco estrellas) out in the country anymore. If people find them they'll take them out of the tree. Usually the people say you have to go up into the mountains, where there are a lot less people. The little fly-like guys are a bit easier to find (or at least more common). It´s seems that early morning is the best time to find them because the morning sunlight glances off them is such a way that it's easier to find the hole they are coming in and out of. At least thats the way I found one hive. The bad part was that I was way inside a tree and I didn't want to chop the tree down.

That's one of the problems with getting them. Lots of times you find them in these big old trees that take two people to reach around it. It's just too big of a job to get them out. I keep looking though.

Their comb system is completly different. All the honey is stored in little round "honey pots." The brood area has move normal-looking comb but its turned on its side and stacked on top of each other (sort of like a layered cake.)

When people have these in a log hive they will open up onside of it one day to harvest it. They reach in, pull out all the honey pots, squeeze out the honey, tilt the hive down a bit to let what ever remaining honey drain out and then put the wax back inside. The bees can reuse the wax to make more pots. Then they'll come back the next day to harvest the other side. They throw a little bit of water up into the hive to drive the bees to the other side before they take the honey out.

The honey is usually really runny (more nectar than anything??). The people down here prize it for medicinal uses and to wash the tongues of new-born babies. It usually goes for three time the price of regular honey (if you can find it).

As far as my hive, I've never harvested it. I just keep it in my back yard as a curiosity. (Some people say this little black stingless bee likes to visit garbage. It makes me thing two times about eating the honey.) I've had it for about four years now. The funny thing is that about two years ago I noticed bees coming out of the other side of the box. A swarm of africanized bees moved into the box with the sitngless ones. The stingless bees take up about a quarter of the space (they don't make big nests) and the africanized bees use the rest (they end up swarming a couple times each year because they don't have enough space.)

Another curiosity is that they make an entrance tube out of wax. At night they will close it up to keep ants out. In the morning they open it up.

As far as pollinators, that's true. I usually see more of the little stingless bees on my squash flowers than the africanized honey bee. (just wish I knew where they were coming from).

--Tom

[MichaelW]

Thats fascinating Tomas, I find natures curiosities interesting too. I'm suprised they live with the Africanized bees. Are they in the same chamber, or seperated? The nectar/honey sounds interesting too. Does it keep like regular honey?

I had some bees one year close to a recycling center and they ended up raiding the soda dumpster. It ruined the honey from my few hives for the year. The previous year they didn't raid the garbage, but I think once they start they probably won't stop. The smell emanating from my hives was foul but it still took me a while to figure out what was going on. I was doing my recylcing one day when I saw tons of bees and figured out the familiar smell. Luckily I moved. A friend of mine liked the dumpster honey and ate a good amount of it, yuk!

The stingless bee entrance tube sounds really neat too.

[Tomas]

Most of the times the tiny stingless bees make a type of propolis wall around their nest, especially if there is more space than what they need. This is the only thing that separates them from the africanized bees. It seems to be enough to keep them from mixing.

In fact, during the honey flow when the africanized side was stong they were sharing the same entrance. The stingless bees had their tube and the africanized bees where using the other side of the entrance that was linked directly to their nest.(Now, since the honey season is over, the africanized ones are back to using just the entrance on the other side of the box.)

Don't take my word on this, but people down here say the stingless bees can actually drive the africanized bees out of their nest if they want to rob it. (I myself haven't seen this happen).

I actually don't know how long the honey will last. I tend to think it would end up fermenting because it seems so runny, like nectar. (Or are there some types of honey that are naturally runny even when they are "ripe"? I don't know.) Usually honey doesn't last that long down here anyways. People have a terrible sweet tooth.

The truth is that I don't really know if my stingless bees are actually visiting garbage. (It actually might be good honey for all I know). The thing is that I don't really want to go in and destroy the honey pot part of their nest. Having the africanized bees right next door wouldn't make that job any easier. Just having them in the backyard is fine with me.

Now, if I could get a hold of a colony of the "good" stingless bees (the ones people usually have for honey) it might be a different story. I'm going to keep looking. One day.

[MichaelW]

Here is the download of a Bee World magazine issue with an article on Melipona honey. Its on the IBRA website. The download is the whole issue not just the Melipona article so its big.

http://www.ibra.org.uk/Resources/PDF/bw85-1.pdf

[Sundance]

I have read about stingless bees. There are many species and quite a few deliver an very nasty bite!!

[MichaelW]

Since its getting late, someone might find this interesting. I dosen't have anything to do with the stigless bees, I found it in the same Bee World Issue.

"From the Hellenistic Period (323 – 31 BC),
the concept of bugonia (birth from an ox) was
prevalent; it was probably of Egyptian origin.14
To produce a swarm of bees, an ox was to be
beaten to death without breaking the skin,
and the body enclosed with herbs in a special
building for nine days, after which a swarm of
bees would appear."

Thats quite an elaborate swarm lure!

[Robert Hawkins]

Michael, how do you beat an Ox to death without breaking the skin? Even mad, I don't think I could.

Hawk

[Michael Bush]

>Thats quite an elaborate swarm lure!

And EXPENSIVE! I can't think of a time in history when it wouldn't be cheaper to buy some bees from a beekeeper.

[Robert Hawkins]

MB. if you're sifting for feral traits on a gov't grant, money is no object. And having a swarm lure that gets their attention just might help you get the grant.

Mebbe brass knucks??

Hawk

[iddee]

Maybe like the old adage: If you pour salt on a bird's tail, you can catch the bird. The first step can't be accomplished, so the second is irrelevant.