Keeping Honey Bees for Survival
The Stingless Honey Bee
The social stingless bee! Safe for kids and fascinating to watch, these bees produce a delicious tangy honey and are fabulous for Green house gardens. Due to the fact they are only found in the tropics or very hot climates they will only do will in the native areas or in warm greenhouses. There are around 14 species are stingless bees. They have a queen, drones and many sterile worker bees, just like colonies of commercial honey bees do. However, unlike commercial honey bees, these bees do not sting. The number of bees in a stingless bee colony can range from a few dozen to over 100,000. Many species of stingless bees are small, black bees only 4-6 mm long, whilst commercial honey bees are about 12mm long and are yellow brown, or dark brown to black in color. However, the largest stingless bee species, Melipona falvipennis, has workers slightly larger than a commercial honey bee worker.
The bees store pollen and honey in large egg-shaped pots made of beeswax, typically mixed with various types of plant resin (sometimes called “propolis”). These pots are often arranged around a central set of horizontal brood combs, where the larval bees are housed. When the young worker bees emerge from their cells, they tend to remain inside the hive, performing different jobs. As workers age, they become guards or foragers. Unlike the larvae of honey bees, meliponine larvae are not fed directly. The pollen and nectar are placed in a cell, an egg is laid, and the cell is sealed until the adult bee emerges after pupation
Stingless bees make small quantities of a delicious aromatic honey that is harvested by beekeepers in many parts of the world. Unlike a hive of commercial honey bees, which can produce 75 kilograms of honey a year, a hive of Australian stingless bees produces less than one kilogram. The stingless bee is mostly kept as a backyard pet or pollinator for greenhouse crops. The earliest records of keeping stingless bees come from the Maya people on the Yacatan Peninsula in Mexico. Their methods used to keep stingless bees today are essentially the same as those used over 2,000 years ago. “Australian Stingless Bees” by John Klumpp is a valuable handbook for anyone interested in keeping the little bees. I highly recommend reading it for any one that would like to have the little girls.
These bees perform the important role of pollinating native plants, crops and garden flowers during their search for nectar and pollen. Methods have been developed for keeping these species in small wooden boxes, the size of a shoe box, and they can be used to pollinate crops of macadamias, strawberries, lychees, watermelons, mangoes and may greenhouse crops.
Now you have your beehive, read your book, got bees and maybe have gotten stingless bees for your greenhouse. Bees do so many things and keep surprising us as humans.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at ABEEFriendlyCompany@gmail.com
Or message me on Face Book at http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Bee-Friendly-Company-Inc/147801815239144?ref=hl#!/pages/A-Bee-Friendly-Company-Inc/147801815239144.
I would enjoy reading about your experiences and looking at photos of your work. Like I said I am a survivalist and love the outdoors and keeping bees will get you outdoors more. Like gardening, the work you put in makes great rewords.
*Michael Jordan is the founder of A BEE Friendly Company (ABFC), based in Cheyenne, Wyo. Jordan often organizes courses at local clubs, fairs and schools with the hopes of renewing interest in the lost art. His goal is to teach the youth of the world the ease of beekeeping and help others see the how bees can save the world.*