Pick more honey from stingless bees

Agricultural scientists under their umbrella organisation the National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) have embarked on showcasing the technologies they have applied to carry out research and developed products which have been up for grabs by farmers for onward product distribution.

One such group of scientists are those from the National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLRRI) where the institute management is engaging various stakeholders to come on ground to see what the scientists are doing in animal breeding improvement.

This time the stakeholders toured the insect breeding section where scientists are breeding insects such as black soldier fly, crickets and stingless bees to process honey and propolis.

Background
Experts say stingless bees are important source for pollination of crops, production of medicinal honey and other products.

However throughout the developing countries in Africa, meliponiculture has received less attention in beekeeping in development programmes.

Previous analysis carried out by scientists indicate that stingless bee keeping is in its early stages of development.

There are about four species of stingless bee species that are of good economic benefit and these include Meliponula bocandei, Meliponula nebulata, Melipunula ferruginea and Plebeina hildebranditi.

Research 
Dr Patrice Kasangaki, the head of the project explained that in 2018 his team jointly with scientists at Makerere University embarked on collecting stingless bee species around the Lake Victoria crescent in the districts of Luwero, Wakiso and in the western highlands in the districts of Kyenjonjo and Bunyangobo.

The main objective of the research was to increase the population of stingless bee species by domesticating it because they are at the verge of extinction.

Domestication of stingless bees
At the institute, the scientists established environmentally friendly bee keeping arena where the bee hives are having different shapes.

Some have pot-like shapes because from the wild they are able to produce propolis and honey when in such pot shaped hives, while some are made of boxes.

The team has also planted Calliandra trees around the area and avocado trees for the flowers to provide nectar. However the bees can fly as far as five kilometres looking for nectar.

The purpose of producing propolis is to seal the box for protection against enemies, therefore apart from collecting nectar, they also find soil which contributes to developing of propolis.

They produce their honey in pot-like round seals built within the bee hive and scientists harvest the honey by breaking the seals and sucking the honey using a syringe like gadget. 

Honeybees
Scientists believe that the original habitats of the honeybee are forested areas and tropical climates.

They probably originated in Africa and from there spread to China, the Americas, India and Europe.

However, since honeybees have been domesticated to produce honey for human consumption, they can be found all over the world.

Honeybees prefer to live in orchards, meadows, gardens and other areas with flowering plants. 

They have stings in their abdomen which is like a needle which they use for stinging. Once one stings a human being, there is a smell which is produced and that smell attracts other bees to come and defend their colleague.

The part where the first bee stings a human being say in the head is where others will concentrate in stinging. Honey bees colony contains one queen bee, a few thousand male drone bees and tens of thousands of female worker bees.  

A queen bee lays eggs in cells made of beeswax, which are made by worker bees. While laying eggs, the queen uses her spermatheca to fertilise some eggs which eggs will get fertilised usually depends on which cell she is putting it into. 

Female honeybees (queen bees and worker bees) develop from fertilised eggs while male honeybees develop from unfertilised eggs.

After a few days, the egg hatches into a worm-like form called a larva and in the beginning each larva is fed royal jelly produced by worker bees.

Later worker bee larvae switch to honey and pollen, while queen bees continue to be fed with royal jelly. 

Worker bees who takes care of the larvae and clean the hive are also known as nurse bees. This duty continues until their glands, which produce royal jelly, begin to waste.

Their next task is building comb cells, which are mainly used for eggs but also to store water and honey.

As worker honeybees become older, their duties change. Younger bees take care of the young and build comb cells while older bees forage for pollen and water or guard the hive. 

Queen bees that have not mated yet go to a drone congregation area and mate with multiple drones before returning to their home colony.

Unlike many bee species, honeybee colonies are not established by solitary queen bees. Honeybee colonies are established by a group of bees known as a swarm. The swarm moves to a location where a new nest will be built and constructs a new wax comb to raise new worker brood. This way of nest founding is unique for honeybees and isn’t seen in any other living bee genus.

Stingless bees
Stingless bees also start a new nest with a large number of worker bees, but they cannot be considered a swarm. Their queen bee is escorted to a new nest after the nest has already been constructed. Their defence system involves guard bees, which can be separated into two groups: hovering guards and soldier guards.

Hovering guards are stationed in the air near the entrance, while soldiers stand inside and around the entrance.

Guards are usually bigger than regular workers and display different structural features. Foragers have larger heads, while guards have larger hind legs. Research has shown that bees with bigger bodies can fight longer and thus be more effective in defence, which shows that nature always finds a way. Due to nonaggressive behavior and the lack of a functional stinger stingless bees can be reared in densely populated areas such as cities.

The only condition is that bees have enough flowers nearby. However, if they perceive the hive is in danger then they start to show aggressive behaviours such as biting, entangling in the hair, trying to enter in the nose or ears.

Benefits
Dr Kasangaki explains that honey produced by stingless bees has good health benefits the reason it is expensive with one liter sold at Shs400,000 meaning it is viable for commercialisation.

Meliponiculture
Meliponiculture refers to the breeding and management of native stingless bees (NSBs) (family Apidae, tribe Meliponini).