Beekeeping with stingless bees: a new type of hive

Abstract

Stingless bees, like the honey bees of the genus Apis, live with many individuals in a nest where honey and pollen are stored. Although the amounts of honey are generally smaller than in the nests of honey bees, people have used stingless bee honey for many centuries. Comparatively little attention has been given to these bees in beekeeping development programmes. It is now realized that stingless bees are important resources for the production of a special type of honey and other products. A limiting factor in the production of stingless bee honey is the way in which domesticated colonies are housed. Because of the specific biology and the fundamentally different nest architecture, the technology developed for apiculture with A mellifera and A cerana does not apply to stingless beekeeping.