The 20th of May is World Bee Day. This inspired me to tell you a little bit about my history with these little critters and about meliponiculture: breeding and management of melipon (stingless) bees.
I would never have guessed that there was such a thing as a non-stinging bee. Like most people, I was unaware of its presence in this world. The melipona becheii is considered essential for the pollination of a wide variety of species, especially in tropical or warm areas.
The issue is that commercially these native bees have been replaced by European honey bees, due to their lower productivity. Their disappearance has reached such a point that, in Cuba, for example, they are only remaining in places with a lot of vegetation, where they find the right conditions and the highest concentration of melliferous blooms.
Disks of piglets and the queen walking on top of them.
My first encounter with this little critter was a couple of years ago. In search of organic honey I came across a self-taught honeybee farmer who had, at that time, an average of 100 hives. Amazed and fascinated by the discovery I became a faithful visitor of this gentleman and for months, I not only consumed his bee products, but also all his knowledge on the subject. With a flurry of questions and many practice sessions I learned the basics of beekeeping in a very primitive, Creole way.
El Toti, as everyone affectionately calls him, taught me everything he knew without expecting anything in return and with a passion that made me fall in love with this practice forever. We became friends very soon and when he knew I was ready he gave me two of his pups.
My first two hives in Creole boxes hanging from the ceiling.
For a long time I remained immobile, just watching them and, very occasionally, extracting a little pollen for my own consumption. Although each one had already filled the rustic wooden box where they lived, I did not dare to divide them to create new hives. I was honestly afraid of damaging them, as it is a very aggressive procedure for them.
It was at that time, as fate would have it, that I met one of the promoters of meliponiculture in Cuba; a very enthusiastic and passionate guy who showed me other, nobler methods of dealing with them. The Inpa system of rearing melipon bees contains a design of boxes that facilitates the use of the bees. Knowing this method better, I decided to study and develop it, and today I have 12 very strong colonies with higher production and growth.
This is how the colonies in Inpa system boxes currently stand.🐝
Decorating the first boxes of the Inpa system.😍
For me it is a privilege to have these results through a completely natural, ecological extraction without physical cost. The time I dedicate to it does not exceed two hours a week (for now) and if I spend more than that, it is for pure recreation.
Brood cells above.
Pollen and honey reserves
My goal is to reach 100 hives and to help others get to know this wonderful world, where we not only promote sustainable practices, but also reconcile with our roots, with our essence.
Translated with: DeepL.com
How nice! I want to know all about these beautiful 🐝 bees! ❤🤗🙌
So you know, here I am.😍
Hey there! This is super interesting. I wasn't aware that there are stingless bees at all. It's great what you're doing as this is so good for the environment.
I trust this project will progress well, and I wish you the very best:)))
Thank you very much.🙏💚💚💚
It is very important for the environment, meliponas are the pollinators par excellence.
My pleasure 💚
💚💚💚
Yay! 🤗
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Beautiful !!! You love the meliponas and you too. They make you want to fill the world with bees. 😘😘😘🌼🐝🐝🐝
Exactly, restore the entire lost population.😍🐝
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How nice to read you dear @dayanart, I know closely your precious hives of Meliponas bees and your passion for them, many congratulations and blessings!!!!
🙏💚☀️👋👋👋
Thank you very much my dear. 🙏❤️
A kiss 🌼
Wow! This is a great been hive. Honey is my favorite. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you very much, it is also my favourite.🙏
🐝
que fino, ayer tuvimos una feria que hablaba de eso, estuvo genial
que fino, ayer tuvimos una feria que hablaba de eso, estuvo genial
!PIMP
You must be killin' it out here!
@ismaelrd04 just slapped you with 1.000 PIMP, @dayanart.
You earned 1.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 1/1 possible people today.
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wow! Cuanto me alegro. muchas gracias por comentar.🙏
Wow, what photos!!!! what a nice post ;) where was I, huh? where? I didn't know that May 20th is World Bee Day.
Gracias :)
Thank you Nani. I don't know where you were, but you can stay one day.
I understand you have a patio at home. Could you have one of these?
ay, me dan un poco de miedito. Es que soy alérgica.
No pican !!!...🐝😁❤️
😳 Sara, las abejas pican.
Estas son meliponas, no tienen aguijón. Dayi las manipula sin protección, a mano pelada y se nos posan encima. Son superlindas, verlas como entran y salen de su cajita y hasta conversan. Te encantaría ver eso !!!
Ok, no tienen aguijón, pero... ¿no existe la posibilidad de que otras con aguijones vengan a vivir ahí?
Ooooh, what a divine post dear @dayanart !! Thank you so much for giving us insight into your practise and into your natural relationship with these bees: this is very inspiring to me, and gives me hope for our returning bees to their right-full place at the core of our natural lives! Many blessings on your work!
Thanks to you for such good wishes. These native bees are strong, I feel they can re-establish themselves. We just have to give them the space and time to do so.🙏
I haven't heard of melipona bees before, thank you for sharing that information! I used to have one hive with honey bees but I never took it to the next level, like you did, congrats for that! Dealing with bees is a very nice activity, almost mediative :)
I have one question though. A big enemy of honey bees, here in Greece, are wasps. Bees protect their hive against them using their sting. What those stingless bees do in case of an attack? Or they don't have this kind of enemies there?
Lovely post!
Cheers
Hello!
Melipona bees have another type of defence, they usually build their colonies inside trees, even in the parts that are under the ground, that's why in Cuba they are popularly called "bee of the earth". It turns out that it only has one entrance where a guard is stationed all the time and in case of danger, as in bars, a bunch of doormen appear to get whoever is there out of there.😂😅
... as they don't have a sting to sting, they use their pincers to bite, they are usually much more lethal as they have a technique to climb on their enemy's back and bite until their heads are cut off without being reached by the opponent's sting.😏
I should make a post about this, don't you think. hahahaaha🤣
Thanks for commenting, very good question.🙏
That's fascinating :)
Thank you very much for your answer!
💛🖤💛🖤
I love this. Maybe one day we ll come and visit you to learn more. Pollinators are so import!
Yes, I would love to. thank you 🙏
Such a lovely post ans the photos too!! I first learned about melipona bees while traveling in central america and was so pleased to find that they are in Argentina too (where I now live). We found them living in a hollowed out tree trunk and are considering making a box for them to be more protected from intense rain -- your post has really inspired me!
Oh how cool. Where in Argentina are you, the temperature is really what I want to know. I don't know how they behave in a cold climate.😱
I live in the mountains of central Argentina. So we aren't far from the tropics, but as we are in the mountains it does get quite cold in winter, even some freezing nights. I was very surprised to find the bees so far south!
oki thanks, tell me about your experience, I don't want to miss your behaviour in the snow. 🙏
So you were on Hive before you were on Hive 😂. May the power of the bees be with you so that you continue creating such excellent posts for us.
Yes, I was already prepared. hahahahahaha
thanks for everything
Very well done. I didn’t know that the may 20th Were day’s bees 🐝
Absolutely wonderful thank you so much for this happy post
Our pollinators deserve more!! Safety and growth!!!!
Yes, it seems so.thank you🙏
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Wow! You are awesome!
Thank you very much.🙏💚
What a great hobby. Bees that don't sting, that's my kind of bee. There is nothing like gaining knowledge from someone that has worked out all of the bugs and has made mistakes along the way. The paintings you have done on the bee boxes are beautiful.
Thank you very much. We all have something to learn and something to show. ❤️🙏