Stingless Bee Keeping: Introduction & Practice | The Habitat
Content
1) The nesting places of stingless bees.
2) The nest structures.
The nesting places of stingless bees.
Climate and habitat preferences vary from species to species. There are species of plants found in both forests and savannas, as well as in transition zones.
All stingless bees construct their nests inside of closed spaces. The majority of the Trigona species, including the stingless Melipona species, as well as certain other species sometimes construct their nests in the ground, abandoned mouse or parrot nests, or hollow tree trunks or branches. Other species can be found in termite or ant nests. Sometimes nests can be discovered in construction crevices. Varied species require different sized cavities, and the majority of species have distinctive nesting locations.
*Please watch the video below for further explanation of this section*
The nest structures.
The internal nest structure consists of five main sections The passage way section, the brood section, the Storage Section, open space section, and nest volume section.
The nests of stingless bees are very dissimilar in shape from those of honeybees. Honeybees always construct wax combs that hang vertically. In a normal stingless bee nest, workers, queens, and drones emerge from horizontal brood combs that frequently include just one type of cell with an upward opening. The queen cells are a bit larger and are sometimes located on the end of the brood nest and most often in the middle of the brood nest.
The involucrum, a protective wall formed of wax and propolis, encloses the brood chamber. The bees construct soft wax pots for pollen and honey outside the involucrum. These pots can range in height from five to forty millimetres. Some species have separate honeypots and pollen pots, whereas others combine the two together.
The batumen, a particular compound formed by combining resin, wax, and varying proportions of other materials including mud, oil, paint, and occasionally animal faeces, encloses the entire nest or the ends (if placed in a hollow tree). It resembles black, dense propolis. The colony is shielded from water and enemies by the batumen, which can be very thick and powerful. Because they require a lot of resin for construction, stingless bees are frequently observed visiting trees that are secreting resin from fresh wounds. In order to build their nest, the bees bring it home in pollen baskets. Some species preserve propolis and wax reserves that are available for use.
*Please watch the video below for further explanation of this section*
