Stingless Bees

Beekeepers, we have an active type of bees which pollinate flowers, collect nectar and produce honey like apis mellifera do.

Body Size and Nest

The entrance (look in the centre of this photo)

A normal size of apis melipona is just 1/4 of a normal apis mellifera.
Blackish in color with small white strips.

They live in termite hills or mounds and use only one opening for entry and exit. The entrance can take them more  than 1.5 metres deep to reach the first hive. Usually they build up to 3 nests in one termite hill with only one entrance. The entrance connects to the first hive and then they build another small pipe like passage which connects to the second hive and the third.

Digging a termite hill (with termites present)

Do they sting? 
The bees are stingless bees shy and get scared very fast.

Honey and pollen pots

Experience
when we opened the nest for stingless bees, we saw the following:
1. Honey in brownish pots. The size of one pot is equivalent to 4 cells of honey combs.

2. Pollen in brownish pots too. The size of one cell is equivalent to 4 cells of honey combs. The pots are made from soft propolis substance.

Brood combs

3. Brood chamber has comb cells which are small but packed like normal comb cells.

4. Found the helpless queen which couldn't fly at all since it had a big belly.

Queen (with a Gold stomach)

Inside Hive
The brood is in the centre of the nest surrounded by honey and pollen pots. The color of brood combs is different from the honey and pollen pots. (see the last photo at the bottom of this post)

Honey taste
We tasted the honey and it almost had the same properties of apis melifera honey.

Way forward
We are going to keep them since they are also getting less and less because to access their honey people must destroy the nests first! And pesticide is also killing them. Finding poison free termite hills is also a challenge since of the termite hills are poisoned to kill the termites.

Inside the nest

Honey

Honey scent in an apiary

I smell Honey!

Just imagine while moving around your apiary and smell honey fumes!

One time I was invited to inspect beehives in a private farm located in Mukono District with over 30 beehives. 

The owner of the farm told me that he has high hopes for harvesting a lot of honey from his bee hives because he smells honey whenever goes close to the bee yard.

Imagine honey was smelling so much that I also smelt it several metres away before reaching the entrance of the apiary.

I was amazed by the words from the farm owner though In the back of my mind i know that when bees are fanning to regulation the hive temperature (and moisture content) there are high hopes of uncapped honey scent to escape.

Also it is possible for uncapped honey to smell than capped honey.

Therefore the implication of the smell is; there is presence of uncapped honey or nectar than honey ready for harvesting.

Finally I opened the first hive and there was only two Combs with uncapped honey. The second hive also had honey on the brood combs and one bar with uncapped honey.

We went to the third and the four until the 30th hive and to surprise you, we never came back with a single comb of honey.

I never told him in the beginning that his bees just have uncapped honey and since they are many in one place, the honey scent becomes strong in the area.

When we got back to his office, I explained to him why he smelt honey in his apiary.

Honey hunters have a myth like when there is honey in the hive, you smell it, well they are right because they find there honey though not ripe honey (capped honey).

Enjoy a spoon of honey everyday.