Beekeeping with stingless bees: a new type of hive

MlnrruusJ Sommet;en

Stinglessbees, like the honey bees of the genusApis, live with many individualsin 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 stinglessbee honey for many centuries. Comparatively little attention has been given to these bees in beekeepingdevelopment programmes. lt is now realized that stinglessbees are important resourcesfor the production of a specialtype of honey and other prcducts. A limiting factor in the production of stingless bee honey is the way in which domesticated coloniesare housed.Becauseof the specificbiology and the fu ndamentally different nest architectu re, the tech nology devefopedfor apiculture with A. melliferaand A. ceronodoes not beekeeping. apply to stingless
There is a largesizevariationwithin the For instance,Melipono Meliponinae. fuligiMellponinae) occur noso, largest Stingless bees(Apidae, stingless bee,is more than the in all tropicalregions the world where 13 mm long,whereas dwarf species of a like they are abundant species numbers; Trigonisco in and only duckelmeasures about2 mm. havebeendescribed. The sizeof the coloniesvariesfrom a few hundreds species of queensare much largerthan the hundred individualsin some Melipona Egg-laying populated nests with tens species densely to workers and distinctforms of divisionof beesin species the genus of labourandtask specialization occur among of thousands Because their biodiversity of and bee colonies. Trigono. the membersof stingless in provi- their great abundance tropicalforests, Whereashoneybeesare progressive in thesebeesare importantfor pollination sioners,stingless bees havea systemof ecosystems4. mass-provisioning broodcells. their During taopical short periods,a restrictednumberof bees depositthe food in the cell,after whichthe Nest architecture of queenlaysan eggon top of the food. In all stingless bees is the stingless species, system charbee this acterized a well-defined by cycle:periodsof The nestsof stingless beesare more elabobehaviour alternatewith shoru rate and complexthan those of Apismellfcell-building behav- ero.Nests of most species built within boutsof intensive cell-provisioning are iour.Variations this process discussed protectivecavities in are suchas hollow trees or Fewspecies buildtheir nests in the ground. elsewhere'.
8eeWorld 80(2): 70-79(1999) @IBRA

What are stingless beest

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in exposed positions. The main building material is cerumen, a mixture of beeswax and plant resins.Extensiveuse is also made of batumen,a mixture of mud, plant resins, animal faeces etc. Pure plant resin is also commonly used and is collected in considerable quantities. The narrow nest entrance of Meliponoand other genera allows the nest to be defended by one or only a few guards positioned in the mouth of the entrance tube which is often rather elaborate. Within the nest the brood chamber is always clearly separated from the area of food storage.In principle,there are two cell types: brood cells and storage pots (fig. 1). Storage pots are in most species several times larger than the brood cells,and Pots containing honey are generally intermixed with those that contain pollen. However, pots with honey are sometimes grouped at the periphery of the storage compartment, whereas pollen pots may be found near the brood chamber.

their brood cellsin arrange Most species The pileof combs. horizontal single-layered by combsis surrounded a series horizontal sepThisinvolucrum of of sheets cerumen. from the storage the arates brood chamber Brood cells in a cluster compartment. are not surroundedby an arrangement This allowsthem to fit into involucrum. with irregularlyshapedcavities.Species of arrangements brood cells, intermediate are combs, alsofound. e.g.irregular

Meliponiculture
Before early settlers introduced the European honey bee to the Americas, stinSless bees were the only colony-forming and honey-storingbees in the neotropics. Stinglessbeesare particularlydiverseand abundant in tropical America, where their status as insect pollinators is dominanto. Because stingless bees are so abundant, honey and other products of these bees by havebeen used intensively Indiangroups

FlG. l. Detaif of honey pot into which bees discharge nectari Melipona beecheii. Note the size ofthe Pot.

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from South and Central America. Anthropological information is availableabout traditions relating to the domestication of stingless bees by meso-American Indians (partlcularly the Maya).Meliponiculturewas very important in this part of the world and interesting management procedures are described. South American Indians, e.g. in the Amazonianforest, also made important use of stingless bees. Ti^aditionally, stingless bees are kept in hollow logs transferred direcdy.from the forest. In some regions, particularlyin the Yucatanpeninsula, Mexico, logs are neatly cut and widened before a colony is transferred (fig. 2). Recently,meliponiculturehas againstarted to receive attention in Central America after a period of decline.One of the reasons for this renewed interest is the spread of Africanized honey bees'. As an interesting complementary form of small-scalebeekeeping,local traditional meliponicultureis currently being studied and improved.
FlG. 2, Mexico: Maya Indians with stack of traditional hives ofMefi:pono beecheii in Yucatan, Mexico.

FfG.3' Costa Rica: pots filled with honey and pollen are removed frcm a hive of Melipona beecheii.The honey is squeezed frcm the Pots, after which the building material and the pollen are thrown away.

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Honey harvest
Honey is frequently collected from natural colonies in the forest (honey hunting).This often leads to the destruction of the nests, and often to that of the tree as well. During the harvest,the honey is squeezedout of the storage pots. Since pots with pollen are often also found in the honey storage area' a considerableamount of pollen generally gets lost during harvest and the emPtied nest material is thrown away (fig. 3). The nest cavity in a log-hive is sometimes difficult to reach as the log has only narrow openings at each end (fig. 4). Part of the brood may be destroyed when the honey is taken out, and coloniescan suffer badlyas a result of the harvest. Suction devices have been developed that are used to extract honey from pots in the log hives,without damagingthe pots, and leavingthe brood and pollen stores untouched.

Natural enemies of stingless bees

bees A majorpestfor stingless isthe phorid sp.) fly (Pseudohypocero which can feed on that have storedpollenandon brood.Flies the beenableto invade nest preferto lay eggs the pollenin on their very numerous can rapidly pots. The maggots damaged beedestroythe completenest.Stinsless needto sealpartsofthe hive,other keepers with mudto keep thanthe mainentrance, out thesefiles.

FlG,4, Guatemala: log with nest of Mefipono beecheii suspended from a roof. After the stoPPer is removed from the hive the honey Pots are clearly visible.

defensive behaviour of Africanized honey bees may be persuadedto take up meliponiculture, particularly if floral resources are abundant. lmproved and rationalizedmanagementof domesticatedcolonies,basedon the biology of the bees, is necessary to increase honey production, althoughthe amount of honey produced by stinglessbeeswill always be much lessthan the amount produced by to honey bees.lt shouldbe possible improve manyaspectsof traditional meliponiculture, e.g. the housing of colonies, multiplication and harvest procedures.Furthermore, the antibiotic activity of stinglessbee honeys' may leadto the use of these honeysin medicinal products. Certainly stinSless bee honey, with its delicate taste, does fit very well in the present developmentof niche (export) markets for speciality honeys.

Prospects for development

The developmentof traditional meliponiculture providesnew opportunitiesfor people in rural areas,women in particular,and it can improve the economics of many households.Many people who have opted out of beekeeping because of the highly

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In Costa Rica, local people are keenly interested in participating in meliponiculture training programmes which have been set up by the Universidad Nacionaland the Ministry/of Agriculture in co-operation with the Bee Research Department of Utrecht University. lt is important that the local people who want to take up meliponiculture are given reliable information about the development of individualbees,the production of queensand drones,colony reproduction cycles, nest construction and foraging behaviour. In addition to these perspectivesfor rural development,two other applicationsof stingless bees should be mentioned. The fact that this diversegroup of colonyJivingbees can be used for pollination in agro-ecosystems is very likely to encourage meliponiculture.Modern agriculturerequiresthe use of various specificpollinators,e.g. in greenhouse crops.At presentexperimentsin this field are being carried out in severalcountries. Becausestinglessbees rank as very important indigenous pollinators of neotropical and other tropical forests, they should be included more often in programmesfor the conservationand management of natural resources. ensures that the bees construct only one layer of pots in this chamber. More space can be provided by stacking additional trays neatly on top of each other. The hive allows for the unobstructed vertical development of the brood chamber. Upward space for the growth ofthe brood nest is created by the fact that each of the stacked trays, except the bottom one, lacks part of the drawer-floor. The principle of shallow drawers for pot construction has been adapted by other designers of stinglessbee hives. Van Veen and coworkers recommended the use of a box with a tight-sealinglid for housing Melipona beecheii. Up to now the publishedtypes of sringless bee hives that adapt the Nogueira-Neto shallow-tray principle havethe disadvantage that they are composed of many loose parts (shallow trays stacked verrically) thar have to be removed when the hive is opened for harvesting honey and for inspection. When these hives are opened (i.e. the trays are removed) for honey extraction the brood nest is exposed and the involucrumis often damagedin the process. The removal of the trays,whose walls surround the whole hive as in the Nogueira-Neto hive, generally damagesthe protective sealingof a relatively large part of the hive. lt is difficult for the beesto sealso many cracksquickly, and this allows phorid flies to invade the hive. In some Nogueira-Neto-type hives, which have a deep section containing the brood with honey supers placed above it, the brood nest is not involvedat all during harvesting, and a suction device can be used to harvest honey from the pots very rapidly causingminimal trouble to the colony.

Hives in current use and their limitations

Sincethe architectureof stingless bee nests is fundamentally different from that of Apis 'rational' nests,a hive for housingthese bees hasto be very different from the esablished honey bee hives. Severaltypes of hives for stingless bees have been described. The 'Nogueiro-Neto' hive is well known. Prof. Paulo Nogueira-Neto started his long series of publicationsabout stinglessbee biology and about-his type of stinglessbeehive 50 years ago.". The essential feature of the Nogueira-Neto hive is that the food pots are constructed in a shallow tray that

The UTOB hive

The 'Utrecht University TobagoHive' (UTOB hive), developedin Tobago by Utrecht University, was designed satisfy to the followingmajor criteria:

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2.5 2.5

brood cnamDer

FlG. 5. Diagm of UTOB hive. A. UTOB hive, assembled with two compartments (brcod chamber and honey chamber) resting on a wooden bottom tray that is surrounded by a rim (2 cm high). The two chambers fit tightly into the rim of the bottom tny. The hive entrance for the bees is on the side away frcm the brood nest. B. UTOB hive with brcod chamber and honey chamber in position on the basal tray and with lids from the chambere removed. The connecting walls sepanting brood chmber and honey chamber have an opening that allows the bees to pass unhindered between the chambere. Only this small opening to the brood chamber is exposed when the honey chamber is removed. C. Exploded diagram of the UTOB hive.

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and cracks in order to prevent invasion by phorid flies. The UTOB hive meets the above criteria and consists of two main parts (fig. 5 a,b,c): a brood chamber and a singlehoney chamber. These are resting on a wooden bottom tray that is surrounded by a rim. The two chambers fit tightly into the rim of the bottom tray. The brood chamber is high enoughand broad enoughfor the complete development of a good-sized brood nest. the brood chamber The wall that separates from the honey chamber when both are placed on the tray has an opening that allows the bees to pass unhindered from brood chamber to honey chamber. The opening is relativelysmall,so that when the

TABLE 1. Measurements of UTOB hive for /Vlelipona fovosoon Tobago. (All internal measurements in centimetres.)

Length Width Brood chamber 11.00 Honey chamber 40.00 13.00 13.00

Height 13.00 7.00

O The hive should allow honey to be harvested effectively without damage to or destruction of pollen pots which are generally constructed intermixed with the honey pots. This criterion leadsto a hive with the Nogueira-Neto hive tray principle for the honey chamber. O lt should be possibleto remove and subsequentlyopen the honey chamberwithout exposing the brood nest and with minimal removal of hive parts. Honey should therefore be extracted by opening only a part of the hive.The hive construction should facilitatethe quick and easy removal and replacement of the honey chamber. O The brood chambershould be a separate unit, which can be opened for inspection, but should not need much manipulation well. when the colony is developing O The brood chamber should be just big enough to satisrya good-sized brood nest and only a few storage pots. The size of the brood chamber should force the bees to construct all other pots in the adjoining honey chamber. O The connection between the honey chamber and the brood chamber should be such that the honey chamber can be disconnectedeasily.Removaland replacement should causea minimum of damage

FlG. 6. Tobago: Honey chmber of UTOB hive can easily be taken off. Honey is dained frcm pots in honey chamber after the honey pots have been punctured at the top. Pollen pots can remain in position.

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honey chamber is taken away from the tray, to be opened for honey extraction, only a small opening is made in the brood chamber. The honey chamber is shallow but high enough to allow for the construction of a layer of pots one-and-a-half pots high. This will generallyresult in a monolayer of pots. Sometimes, when more pots are packed into the honey chamber, pots can be built at different levels, but not completely on toP of each other. This means that all pots can without the need of be opened individually cutting Pots away. Honey can be harvestedquickly by opening the top of the pots with a pointed knife. Draining honey from the honey pots is now very easy and a fast procedure because of the low viscosity of this honey (fig. 6). Poa that contain pollen are opened only to check their contentsand can remain in position.

The flat honey chamber has a long rectangular shapeand when in position on the tray, is tightly pressed againstthe brood chamber. The hive entrance is on the side away from the brood nest (fig. 7). From our studies on divisionof labour:we know that foraging bees rarely perform any other nest duties, so it is economic for foragers and nest bees in the hive to havetheir own compartments. In this way, foragers do not have to traverse large parts of the nest when depositing collected food in storage pots or when transferring food to nest mates. The UTOB hive has been tested for more than three years on the islandof Tobago(fig. 8). The size of the UTOB hives used were adapted to house Melipona favoso, a relabee with smallcolonies. tively smallstingless The size of a hive for this speciesliving in these local conditions is indicatedin the illustrations. lt should be stressed that because the different species of stingless beesvary in body size,they need hivesthat

FlG. 7. Tobago: Both compartments ofthe UTOB hive are open. Brood nest is well developed in the brcod chamber and pots full of honey and pollen are arnnged in the honey chamben

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position. The removal the honeychamof ber is easy andleads onlyto minimal openingof the brood chamber. leads minThis to imum disturbance the brood nestand in greatlyreduces the risk of an invasion by phoridflies. Acknowledgements
This new hive is the result of a long period of collabomtion between members of a team working with stinglessbees. In particular Luc de Bruijn, Utrechg hx made an important and nluable contribution to the dselooment of this hire. Johannn Veenand HenryArce, PRAM/CINAT Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, have co-operated for many years in applied research on stinglessbees and in the management of hives.The results of PMM/CINAT have been essential for our underetandingofthe biologr of stingless bees,their domestication and relationships with pests. Fundamental research of importance for this work is currently being undertaken by Koos Biesmeijer and Judith Slm. Frans Meeuwsen has suoervisedvarious Dutch and international studentsstudyingstingless bees in the tropics and at Utrecht University. Gladstone Solomon, president of the Tobago Apicultuml Society and many other beekeepers on the island of Tobago have contributed to this work and have made the field studies posslble.In particular I should like to thank Jerry Keens Dumas, Chief Technical Officer of Agriculture, THA, and EdsonGeorge of Bon Accod, both working on Tobago.On the islandof Trinidad we received wluable supportfrcm HarrypereadRamsamooj, Rico Clarc, and many other friendly and experienced beekeepers.

FlG. 8. Tobago: installation of UTOB hive.

are adapted to their specific needs. Evenfor the same species,it may be necessaryto vary the size of brood chamber or honey chamber slightly so that it corresponds to the usual size of e.g. the brood nest, in a specificarea.This meansthat developingthe right size of UTOB hive for a certain species of stingless bee in a certain area has to be based on local experience with the bees. More information on stinglessbeekeepingis to be found regularly in the Pegone newsletter which is publishedby the bee research department of Utrecht Universitys.

References
L B R U U NL L M D E ; O M M E U EM J ( 1 9 9 7 ) T h e , S R compositionand propertiesof honeysof stingless bees(Melipona). Sommeijeri J et ln M produa)on the oL (eds) Perspectrves honey in for tropics. NECTAR;Utrecht"The Netherlands; pp 14G168. 2. NOUGUEIRA-NETO, P (1970) A criosdo de obelhos rndigenos ferrdo.Editora Ch6caras sem e Quintais;Brazil;365 pp (2a edition). 3. NOUGUEIM-NETO, P (1997)Vidae aiogoode obelhas indlgenos sem ferdo. Edigio Nogueirapis; Brazil;446 pp. 4. ROUBf D W (1989)kology ond noturolhistory K, oftropicolbees. CambridgeUniversityPress; Cambridge, 514 pp. UK; yl 5. SOMMEUER, ) (1994) Recommendations for the manipulation stingless colonies. of bee Pegone Autumn 1994:9-10. 6. SOMMEUER, J; VEEN,J W vnru;ARCE, H M (1990) Beekeepingwith stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponinae) in the Central

Conclusions
The designof the UTOB hive allowsfor quick and efficientharvesting. is very lt importantthat the honeystoragecompartmentcanbe removed, openedandreplaced without disturbing brood nestandthat the honeycan be collectedwithout destroying or removingthe honey pots. The pollen pots remain undamaged their original in

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American Region,an alternatire for the killer bee?Al-Sarrce18: 23-24. M SOMMEUER, J; BRUIN, L L M DE (1994) Intranidalfeeding,trophallaxis and sociality in stinglessbees. ln Hunt, J; Nalepa,C (eds) Nourishmentand omlution in insect societies. pp WesMew Press; 39t+18. VEEN,J W vrN; ARCE ARCE,H G SOMMEUER, M J (1993) Maneio racional de la abeiasin Melipono beecheii (Apidae: aguii6n Meliponinae).I Como transfeiir la colonia de un tronco hueco a una caia"ln Veen,J W van; poto uno Arce Arce, H G (eds) PersPectvds Memorias del ll Congr. obiculturdsostenible, Nac. de Apicultura, lmprenta UNA SanJos6, Costa Rica;pp 4l-45.