Anyone raise Stingless Bees in USA?

[ehallspqr]

Was interested to know if anyone ever tried this north of the border? Back in the early 70's my uncle in Texas was a professional beekeeper. He took me to see an elderly Mexican gentleman near Brownsville that had a couple hives of stingless bees. Apparently he brought them with him from Mexico back in the 60's. As I recalled the hives seem to be thriving. I don't think they'd do well up north but perhaps in southern Texas or Florida. Just curious.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

What are stingless bees?

Kingfisher

[hipbee]

Fat bee man in Ga raises about as close as you can get to stingless bees, they still sting if queenless or in really bad weather, but even on overcast days they are really calm.

[Grid]

Apidae:meliponini: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingless_bee

[Omie]

That's fascinating- I had no idea of these bees' existence.

[concrete-bees]

i believe they are not to be imported into the US but i could be wrong - some might have them for study use in a University use or something

would be cool to have - but most times normal honeybees might as well be stingless

[HVH]

Making a stingless GMO bee is theoretically possible.

[Omie]

Fat bee man in Ga raises about as close as you can get to stingless bees, they still sting if queenless or in really bad weather, but even on overcast days they are really calm.

Indeed FatBeeman's bees are very gentle- I have two hives of his bees installed just a few days ago here in NY. During installation they were just so sweet. However, I did go in to check the queen cages and syrup without smoke yesterday and I guess i fussed around a bit too long and one of the girls zapped me one right on the knee! I deserved it though. I figure I'll never get arthritis in that knee now. I'll have to do the other knee to even it up.

i believe they are not to be imported into the US but i could be wrong...

I would certainly agree it would likely be against the law to import a new species of bee into the U.S....and rightly so!
But the whole concept of them is fascinating and wonderful, I love the traditional/folklore aspect of it.

[ehallspqr]

Sorry. I just assumed that everyone here would know about the family of Stingless bees collectively know as Melipona. They are commercially raised by Beekeepers in many parts of the world, from Asia, Africa, Australia and much of South and Central America. They occur naturally as far North as Central Mexico. Their lifecycle and habits are very similar to European Honeybees and they produce usable Honey, Wax and pollen. I assume they are also good pollinators and because they can occur in very large colonies like Honeybees, I wonder why you never hear mention of them as a possible alternative to replace honeybees in crop pollination? They are tropical species but I did see them doing well in south Texas all those years ago. Below are some YouTube videos and websites talking about these little bees. Fascinating, check them out on the web. Hadn't thought about trying to import them. I'm sure that would be a Red-Tape nightmare. I was wondering if any members on the Beesource forum had experience with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEh6n...os=KyhMfYL88Mo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eg8Z...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KNY1...os=az9T-UPaoZc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJMEj...eature=related

http://eco.ib.usp.br/beelab/pdfs/COR...oniculture.pdf

http://www.sugarbag.net/hives/

http://www.imkerei.com/articles/us/fert/nicaragua.htm

[ThaiRockShop]

Sorry. I just assumed that everyone here would know about the family of Stingless bees collectively know as Melipona. They are commercially raised by Beekeepers in many parts of the world, from Asia, Africa, Australia and much of South and Central America. They occur naturally as far North as Central Mexico. Their lifecycle and habits are very similar to European Honeybees and they produce usable Honey, Wax and pollen. I assume they are also good pollinators and because they can occur in very large colonies like Honeybees, I wonder why you never hear mention of them as a possible alternative to replace honeybees in crop pollination? They are tropical species but I did see them doing well in south Texas all those years ago. Below are some YouTube videos and websites talking about these little bees. Fascinating, check them out on the web. Hadn't thought about trying to import them. I'm sure that would be a Red-Tape nightmare. I was wondering if any members on the Beesource forum had experience with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEh6n...os=KyhMfYL88Mo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eg8Z...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KNY1...os=az9T-UPaoZc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJMEj...eature=related

http://eco.ib.usp.br/beelab/pdfs/COR...oniculture.pdf

http://www.sugarbag.net/hives/

http://www.imkerei.com/articles/us/fert/nicaragua.htm

I am also looking for the stingless bees in USA, I saw a website listed they are native in Virginia, but i think they mixed them up with Solitary bees.
I have five hives here in Thailand of the Trigona Pagdeni species and hope to spilt them into ten by next year. They are amazing and friendly, not for honey as much as pollination and a fun pet. They are in Mexico, so i think we must have some along the southern border states. Japan allows their import for pollination in Greenhouses and since it's also a cold climate maybe we could get the USA to let them come in for the same purpose. The pollinate less then the honey bee but like many more types of flowers and also many of the smaller types of flowers which the imported European bees dont like. I wonder how many bees species we have lost over they are in the USA and how the European bee importation changed the plant species in the States, from what was a native to now be considered non native. Hmm! Please more info on the subjects. I found a tiny amount of info about stingless bees in California and Kansas, Can anyone find more info. My bees live on my porch in Thailand and are more protected, when they swarm then its time to move in a new hive, they swarm when the hive is full so bigger hive and slower to grow. smaller hive and faster to move, I have seen all sizes of hives from tubes of Bamboo, which fill up fast to large 30cmx30cm x 25 of about 1 ft x 1ft by 10in, which takes a year or more. I collected one pint from one hive which was growing naturally in a speaker, and i left a lot of the honey as i dint want to disturb them too much, i moved half the eggs and some pollen and honey into a new hive and now i have two hives, that's how they are spilt. Send you questions and i am happy to help and please send me more info as i hope to locate some in the state to try and use inside a green house in the usa.
Because of their small size ad smaller range they are perfectly happy inside greenhouses as long as they have flowers to pollinate.

[KQ6AR]

You guys won't find them in the US & its illegal to import them. That's how disease & parasites get moved around.
The ones in south America are slowly being moved out by the african bees. I hear the ones in Asia produce very small honey crops.

[ThaiRockShop]

You guys won't find them in the US & its illegal to import them. That's how disease & parasites get moved around.
The ones in south America are slowly being moved out by the african bees. I hear the ones in Asia produce very small honey crops.

Hi Dan, Thanks for the response, I thought it might be illiegal, do they have any reasons you can import them, IE research... I have heard of them naturally livinig in Texas, the nest in the ground varieties, so wanted to find some one who dug one out and sucessfully box them and has been keeping them. Maybe this was years ago though. I want them for more research in a greenhouse environment, Keeping honey bees in a green house has many prblem with failure but these type do very well since they are only 5-8,000 bees per hive. Yes honey is only about 1 liter max a year so it is not honey i am wanting them for but the pollination indoors and their health and strength (most sicknesses dont effect them) and the bonus lack of stinging, they have bit me before and doesnt hurt so that's not a fear either.. They are imported under special permission into temperate climate of Japan, for indoor polination only. They do not collect any honey from them as they need it to survive the cold months and then they are only imported into greenhouses in Japan and dont survive outside, as to prevent any disease or contamination. so i wondered if we have any laws about indoor use only or something, Any clauses like for reasearch or lopeholes, like our tax laws. LOL!! I saw some college and universities had them for research. I guess the only one way to find some then is to locate someone who has them in the US already and go from there since its a problem to import them. Have you heard of anyone with them in the south western states?

So my goal is to find some of them which are native and already living in the USA, dont want solitary or mason bees but i may try some, also going with the Italian honey bees but not now, this will be a future endevour so i have time to try and find someone who has them. Sine i still live in Thailand with my stingless bees here. Just created another hive from a natural one and hope they take it tomorrow, Will see in the morning if its a success. It's like we have European and African bees already in the USA but we wont let the Asian and Mexicans in.. Punny! LOL

[KQ6AR]

I didn't know about the bees in Texas that's interesting. In the United States bumble bees are often used in greenhouses.