Bee Zaagar - Apiary and Beekeeping News

Mayan stingless bee keeping: Going, going, gone?

13-Jun-2005 - Long before Europeans brought honey bees (Apis mellifera) to the Americas, Mayan bee keepers harvested honey from the log nests of stingless bees native to tropical forests. Now, colleagues from the Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Quintana Roo, Mexico and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) warn of the imminent demise of stingless bee keeping on the Yucatan — a result of ongoing cultural change and habitat loss.

"In our initial surveys of bee keepers working with native bees in the eighties, we estimated that they maintained more than a thousand active hives. In 1990, we only found around 400 hives, and in 2004, only 90. At this rate, we would expect the art of stingless bee keeping to disappear from the Yucatan by 2008." David Roubik, once dubbed "The Bee Man" in a National Geographic special about his work on Africanized bees, and recently featured on the PBS "Deep Jungle" series, would like people to take note:

"For thousands of years, Mayans were expert practitioners of bee husbandry, and honey was an essential forest resource…as a sweetener, as an antibiotic and as an ingredient in the Mayan version of mead. The Mayans, like other tropical forest cultures, worked with large-bodied meliponine bees that produce a variety of honeys. Their favorite, and one of the most productive species, has been Melipona beecheii, 'Xunan kab', which means, literally, 'royal lady'."

Of the 500 or so species of stingless bees in the tropical world Melipona beecheii is unique in that it was routinely propagated. Mayan bee keepers divided existing hives in order to increase the number of hives and honey production. "That technology is all but lost, but we'd like to see it turned around, not only to ensure the survival of meliponiculture as a way of life, but also to build up breeding stock to be re-introduced into the wild where bees play an important role as pollinators," Roubik explains.

But beekeeping is fast becoming a global monoculture. Africanized honey bees produce more honey, and therefore are an economically attractive option for bee keepers. In the Mayan tradition, a priest harvested stingless bee honey as part of a religious ceremony twice a year. Over harvesting kills the colony. Native bees may simply starve as deforestation, forest fragmentation and hurricanes reduce the availability of the floral resources they need.

Finally, most of the bee keepers on the Yucatan are old men living in rural areas where no one inherits their knowledge of the fine points of meliponiculture, specifically, how to propagate bees by dividing nests. Earlier this year, Rogel Villanueva-Gutierrez, first author of the paper, with Stephen Buchmann, Arthur James Donovan and Roubik published an amply illustrated handbook, in Spanish and Mayan, with step by step instructions for basic stingless beekeeping.

The authors of this paper originally submitted their manuscript to a number of conservation journals who, in Roubik's words: "told us that there are so many extinctions, that they are not even reporting them anymore." The article, presenting a very cogent conservation strategy for saving the Mayan 'royal lady', will appear in the June, 2005, "Bee World," published by the International Bee Research Association.

Contact: David Roubik
roubikr@si.edu
301-947-5315
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), with headquarters in Panama City, Panama, is one of the world's leading centers for basic research on the ecology, behavior and evolution of tropical organisms. http://www.stri.org

'Yellow haze' of bees in Warren lured to new hive

July 14, 2005 - Bangor Daily News - WARREN - Nothing compares with free bees - especially when they're honeybees. After a Rockport beekeeper learned Wednesday that a swarm of bees had moved into a tree on Sam and Paula Hugh's South Pond property, he headed to Warren to gather them for his own hive.

After all, a 3-pound package of honeybees by mail costs $76. And, the Hughs' tree was packing as many as 5 pounds of bees, which the couple didn't want.

On Tuesday, Paula Hugh was standing at her kitchen window washing dishes when she heard a loud buzz. The estimated 10,000 to 15,000 bees were gathered in a tall evergreen that marks the boundary line between her property and her sister Tracy Smith's yard. "It was like a tornado," Hugh said. "It was like a yellow haze. [The bees] peppered the whole front yard."

Their nephew Zach Robinson was tinkering with his truck, which was parked nearby, when he saw the cloud of insects. "I heard the noise," he said, but the honeybees let him be. That's natural, said Jean Vose, bee school director for Knox-Lincoln County Beekeepers. When a hive grows too big, it divides, which is called swarming, and some of the bees go looking for a new home, she said. "It's been a long time since I've seen a swarm," Vose said - and this one was larger than most she has witnessed. "This is a nice swarm."

For Alex Arau, it was a lucky find as well as his first swarm. Arau, 43, is not only a newly elected Rockport selectman, but also a regional salesman of commercial fishing and farming products and a beekeeper.

About a year and a half ago, a friend gave him a book on keeping bees. After reading it, he decided to buy a hive. When he heard that one hive alone often dies, he bought two. Then he figured he wouldn't learn enough about bees without having four hives. "They all survived," he said. "[Now,] I'm up to 18."

Arau has an agreement to keep 10 hives at Beech Hill Preserve in Rockport to help pollinate blueberries and at other nearby farms. He has only one at his own home. "I keep one there so I can get my fix," he said.

On Wednesday, Arau climbed the Hughs' evergreen tree three times, luring thousands of bees into a cardboard box then depositing them in a wooden hive. The bees that were left behind should die in a few days, he said, because they have no queen or home.

Each queen has her own scent, Vose said, so the stranded bees most likely won't be accepted by another hive. If the displaced bees have honey, they might be welcomed in for the sweets, Vose said, and then get kicked out. "They have the most organized, civilized society," Arau said. "It's all for the hive."

In short order, Arau has become certified by the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association, which allows him to fetch more money for his honey. An average 40 pounds of honey is produced per hive. A pound of native honey costs about $4, but honey that is certified organic fetches more.

His wife, Lana, also keeps busy with bees, making lotions and soaps from beeswax, which is a natural byproduct of honey. For every 50 pounds of honey, there is 1 pound of wax. By next year, Arau hopes to take his bee hobby to a higher level. Arau has his sights set on placing several hives on a high-rise Camden building to pollinate area gardens and trees.

For information about bees, visit the Knox-Lincoln County Beekeepers Web site at www.klcbee.com