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Meliponiculture for Sustainable Economy

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 MELIPONICULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY.
O. H. Chidi1* and P. E. Odo2
1
Department of Zoology, Natural Resources Conservation unit, University of Lagos.
2
Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City.

Article Info ABSTRACT

*Corresponding Author: Apiculture is widely practiced on the African continent and the honeybee is
Chidi, O. H. essentially the only species that is managed for pollination of crops. With the
Email: growing pressure on the environment and the associated loss of honeybees, the
hensco2020@gmail.com need exists for additional pollinator species to be used in agriculture to
maintain resilience in food production and improvement of yield.
Tel: 08066474202 Meliponiculture, an alternative is the art and science of keeping stingless bees
for honey, pollen, resin, ecological services. Stingless bees are true generalists
and exhibit a behavioural trait commonly referred to as flower constancy
Keywords: which make it more efficient pollinator. Stingless bee colonies are naturally
Apiculture long-lived and lacks functional sting making them suitable pollinators for
Meliponiculture crops cultivated in inhabited areas. The antibiotic activity of stingless bee
Stingless bees honeys may lead to the use of these honeys in medicinal products. Many
Pollination people who have opted out of beekeeping because of the highly defensive
behavior of honey bees may be persuaded to take up meliponiculture,
Flower constancy
particularly if flora resources are abundant. The stingless bees honey is sold in
market places at a higher price than honey from Apis bees. However, stingless
bee honey has a greater water content compared with Apis mellifera honey and
as such meliponine honey can ferment much more rapidly. This problem could
be handled by “maturation process”, pasteurization, refrigeration and
dehydration. Other bottle necks for Meliponiculture include availability of
colonies to start with, better techniques for colony capture, colony
multiplication, honey extraction, processing and marketing.

INTRODUCTION practised on the African continent and the honeybee is

Stingless bees are social bees which lack a
functional sting and belong to the tribe Meliponini
(Michener, 2013). They are able to produce honey
similar to honey bees. Meliponiculture is an activity of
beekeeping with stingless bees by which bee keepers
maintain, propagate and utilize stingless bee colonies
of various species for profit (Halcroft et al., 2013). It is
the art and science of keeping stingless bees for honey,
pollen, resin, and ecological services. The stingless
bees colonies managed in artificial hives enables bee
keepers to propagate colonies and also to produce
products such as honey, pollen, cerumen and propolis
(Vijayakumar et al., 2013). Stingless bees can supply
beekeepers with their honey and act as pollinators of
commercial crops (Venturieri et al., 2012). They are
known to be the best pollinators as they are able to
penetrate deeper into the flower. The bees store their
honey in small pots which can be harvested daily with
a clean syringe.
In Africa meliponiculture is not too common, and
harvesting of meliponine honey is mostly destructive.
Apiculture (Bee-keeping), on the other hand, is widely
essentially the only species that is managed for
pollination of crops. With the growing pressure on the
environment and the associated loss of honeybees, the
need exists for additional pollinator species to be used
in agriculture to maintain resilience in food production
and improvement of yield. This review therefore is
aimed at identifying and recommending stingless bees
as a complimentary source of income for rural
dwellers, aged-people and as an emerging commercial
pollinators.
Classification of Stingless Bee
All stingless bees are in the order Hymenoptera
and family Apidae. They are classified into the
subfamily Meliponinae which is comprised of two
tribes: Meliponini and Trigonini (Wille 1979). These
tribes are characterised by morphological differences,
and reinforced by some biological and nesting
characteristics. Meliponini are more robust in body
shape and size than Trigonini and have shorter wings
and more densed pubescence (Michener 1990). Most
stingless bees are smaller than honey bees and their

131
 O. H. Chidi and P. E. Odo
wings are reduced in size and venation (Winston and
Michener 1977). Stingless bees have a vestigial,
functionless sting (Michener 2000); however, they
have substantial mandibles, connected to
comparatively larger muscles than in Apis (Sakagami,
1982), that are effectively used for defence. There is a
penicillum (long, stiff bristle) on the outer apical
margin of their hind tibiae (Wille 1983) and wax
glands are located on the dorsal side of the abdomen in
stingless bees (Sakagami, 1982), whereas they are
ventrally located in Apis. The most extensive
description of South American Meliponinae species is
contained within Moure’s Catalog of Neotropical Bees
(Camargo and Pedro 2012). Identification of stingless
bees to the genus and subgenus levels is usually
facilitated by the keys of Moure (1961) and (Michener,
2000, 2007) then, identification of stingless bees to the
species level is made possible by revisional work of
(Sakagami, 1975, 1978) for Asian region (Michener,
2013) and (Eardley, 2010) for Africa.
Distribution and Diversity of Stingless Bees
Stingless bees are found throughout most of the
tropical and subtropical regions of the world such as
Australia, Africa, Southeast Asia, and in some parts of
South America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela,
Paraguay, Bolivia and Costa Rica) (Camargo and
Pedro, 2012). Approximate numbers of species so far
identified were 50 species in Africa, 300 species in the
Americas, 60 species in Asia, 10 species in Australia
and 4 species in Madagascar (Bradbear, 2009). In Asia
there were 43 recognized species belonging to two
genera which were Lisotrigona and Trigona (Michener,
2007). The genus Trigona comprising about 120
species and were placed into ten subgenera namely
Homotrigona, Lepidotrigona and Heterotrigona (Chinh
et al., 2005). Malaysia hosts wide variety of stingless
bees. There were about 32 species of stingless bees
identified (Norowi et al., 2010). The studies on
distributions of stingless bees in Malaysia were located
according to study locations. These locations were
Sabah, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak and
Terengganu (Hannah et al., 2012).
According to Roubik (1989), local and regional
diversities are high in the Neotropics, where up to 60
meliponine species can be found locally in a single
forest. Cortopassi-Laurino et al. (2006) reported less
than 45 species of stingless bees in Asia community. In
Australia, Klumpp (2007) reported approximately 12
species of stingless bees. In Africa, 50 species of
Meliponini have been listed and divided into six
genera: Cleptotrigona, Dactylurina, Hypotrigona,
Liotrigona, Meliponula, and Plebeina (Eardley, 2004;
132
Eardley et al., 2010). The actual number of species
requires revision because the taxonomy of the
Meliponini in Africa is unclear, and some cryptic
species remain to be identified on the African continent
(Eardley et al., 2013). In Nigeria, 20 species of
stingless bees have been identified (Onyenso &
Akachukwu, 2014). It includes Trigona carbonaria and
Melipona beecheii (locally called Okotobo and Ifufu
respectively in South East Nigeria and Delta North)
which is among the commonest ones found in South-
Eastern Nigeria.
Behaviour of Stingless Bees
Foraging is a part of colony behaviour of stingless
bees (Kwapong, et al., 2010). During foraging,
stingless bees collect pollen, nectar, oils, water, resins,
muds and sand particles. Most stingless bees species
communicate with each other on locations of forage
sources by secreting pheromones (Michener, 2013).
The pheromones used by several species of stingless
bees for scent trail communication are generally
assumed to be produced by mandibular glands. A study
showed that in Trigona recursa these pheromones
originate from the labial glands, which are well
developed in the heads of foragers (Jarau, et al., 2010).
When the foraging workers encounter any resources,
they will collect and return to their nest to recruit other
workers to the forage source. During the trip, workers
stop and mark specific spots with pheromones in order
to direct the other workers to the forage source
(Sánchez and Vandame, 2013). Workers bees begin
foraging activities as early as dawn and end by dusk
depending on weather conditions and availability of
forage. Peak foraging times happen simultaneously on
dry season when the forage sources is abundant
(Kwapong, et al., 2010). Meanwhile, research on T.
irridipennis showed the foraging activity is higher
during winter and the forager that return to nest with
pollen load higher during summer (Danaraddi, 2007).
Guarding behaviour is also part of colony
behaviour of stingless bees (Kwapong, et al., 2010).
Generally, guards occur in small numbers within the
entrance of the nest but they withdraw into the entrance
tube if too closely observed. Guards are not normally
aggressive towards human observers. However, if the
nest is opened workers can become moderately to
strongly aggressive. They buzz around the heads of
human “predators” and spot their hair with globules of
resin until the nest is sealed (Halcroft et al., 2013).
Research showed the number of standing guards are
more than hovering guards. This might simply be
because standing on the entrance tube is energetically
more affordable for colonies than hovering. In the
 Proceedings of the 4th Delta State University Faculty of Science International Conference
night, workers on guard retreat into the nest and use
propolis to close their nest entrances. This behaviour
prevents ants, beetles and other animals from entering
the nest. The propolis seal at the entrance is removed in
the morning and new ones replaced every evening
(Kwapong et al., 2010). Some species of stingless bees
use sticky plant materials such as resins to prevent
intruders from entering their nests. Where intruders or
predators manage to enter nests, large volumes of
resins and propolis are used to entomb them alive till
they die (van Zweden et al., 2011). Where humans are
concerned, however, many species are docile, or at
least harmless.
Honey processing
The stingless bee honey has different physical-
chemical properties compared with the honey of the
honeybee (A. mellifera) (Vit et al., 2004; Fonseca et
al., 2006; Souza, et al., 2006; Venturieri et al., 2007),
which is the most common honey that is
commercialized. Stingless bee honey has a higher
water content compared with A. mellifera honey. Thus,
meliponine honey can ferment much more rapidly and
with greater likelihood than A. mellifera honey
(Nogueira-Neto, 1997; Venturieri et al., 2007). This
higher fermentation rate is a problem for
meliponiculture, because the sale of honey is an
important source for income for farmers (Venturieri et
al., 2003). Furthermore, unprocessed meliponine honey
does not have a long shelf life, as compared with A.
mellifera honey (Venturieri et al., 2007; Sodré et al.,
2008). There are four different methods to deal with
fermentation. In some regions of Brazil stingless
beekeepers developed a method called “maturation
process”. After harvesting, the honey is maintained in
closed recipients at room temperature where the honey
is naturally fermented. The containers are opened
every week to release the gases produced during
fermentation. After about three months the
fermentation stops and the honey can be stored in room
temperature for a long period without deteriorating.
Although this method changes the natural
characteristics of the honey to a more acid flavor, many
people appreciate it (Drummond, 2010).
A solution to this problem, adopted by Embrapa
Amazônia Oriental, as well as in other institutions, is
pasteurization. The pasteurization process involves
heating the honey up to 60-70 oC, followed by its
natural cooling at ambient temperature. The honey is
pasteurized in the container in which it will be sold and
stored on the shelf. This avoids contamination that
could occur if the honey were to be transferred to a
new jar. This process makes the honey sterile. It then
133
has a shelf life up to 2 years after the date of
pasteurization. The entire pasteurization process is
described in Venturieri et al. (2007). There may have
slight changes in the honey flavor and it affects some
enzymes of the honey, but represents a good method
for commercializing it.
Another procedure adopted is to keep the honey
under refrigeration after the harvesting. Some kinds of
honey can crystallize with this method, although the
liquid appearance of the natural honey is lost, the
process provides special texture to the honey. In this
process the natural properties of the honey are
maintained for few years without fermentation,
however it makes more difficult to commercialize
because it need to be refrigerated from harvesting to
consumption.
These solutions make the commercial
consumption, storage, and sale of stingless bee honey
far more viable. In Brazil, some groups have tried to
dehydrate meliponine honey (Sodré et al., 2008), thus
allowing it to conform to the physical-chemical
standards of the “official” honey. It is viable solution,
and can be stored at room temperature without
fermentation, but affects the natural flavor and texture
of the stingless bee honey and makes it very similar to
Apis mellifera’s honey.
Stingless Bees and Commercial Pollination Services.
Stingless bees are true generalists, collecting
nectar and pollen from a vast array of plants
(Biesmeijer et al., 2005). A single species can collect
floral rewards from up to 100 plant species on a yearly
basis (Cortopassi-Laurino, 1982). Nevertheless,
individuals tend to specialize on a single floral species
for a certain amount of time, a behavioural trait
commonly referred to as flower constancy (Slaa,
2003a; Slaa et al., 2003b). Flower constancy leads to
assortative mating of the visited plants and therefore to
more efficient pollination (Campbell and Motten,
1985). Less pollen is wasted due to selective transfer
within a species, and less non-specific pollen reaches
the stigma, preventing pollen competition and stigma
clogging (Waser, 1983). The fact that stingless bees are
generalists at the colony level but specialists at the
individual level makes them theoretically good
pollinators.
Indeed, stingless bees are considered important
pollinators of the native flora in tropical and
subtropical parts of the world, and they have been
found to contribute to the pollination of many crops
and wild plants (Heard, 1999). Besides the fact that
many species of stingless bees can be managed in
hives, several other features make this group very
 O. H. Chidi and P. E. Odo
adequate for pollination services. First, unlike Bombus,
colonies don’t die after reproducing, and colonies are
naturally long-lived (Slaa, 2006). This makes it
relatively easy to keep individual hives for long periods
of time (up to 60 years: Murillo, 1984). Second, they
lack a functional sting, which makes them especially
suitable for pollination of crops that are cultivated in
inhabited areas and in enclosures such as cages and
greenhouses. In Costa Rica, for example, many seed
producing companies grow ornamental plants in large
netted, insect proof, cages. They have a high demand
for pollinators, but because all honeybees are
Africanised, and hence more defensive, honeybees are
hardly used for pollination in such enclosures. In such
cases, stingless bees might provide a solution (Slaa et
al., 2000; Sánchez et al., 2002). Thirdly, many
stingless bee species have proven to forage well in
enclosed areas, and under adequate climatological
conditions they forage year-round. This makes them
especially suitable for off-season production of crops in
green houses.
Most species of stingless bees have a foraging
range smaller than that of the honeybee, which may
enhance foraging efficiency in confined spaces
(Kakutani et al., 1993). Fourth, because most stingless
bees cannot survive cold winters, there is little risk of
invasion when importing stingless bees to temperate
climates. Furthermore, they suffer from fewer diseases,
pests and parasites than the honeybee (Nogueira-Neto,
1997), which simplifies colony management. While
not all species can be used for commercial pollination,
several species are good candidates as commercial
pollinators because they can easily be kept in hives,
have sufficient numbers of workers per hive and are
non-aggressive (Heard, 1999). The diversity of the
group indicates that they may be of use to pollinate a
wide range of crops and ornamental plants.
The main limitation to their commercial use as
pollinators is lack of mass breeding techniques, which
is hampered by low natural colony reproduction rates.
Pesticides may be a severe problem for stingless bees,
as they are generally smaller bodied than the
commonly used honeybees and bumble bees, but
biological control could provide a good solution. Other
bottleneck for melliponiculture include availability of
colonies to start with, better techniques for colony
capture, honey extraction, processing and marketing.
Economic potential of stingless bees
The development of traditional meliponiculture
provides new opportunities for people in the rural
areas, especially women and it can improve the
economics of many households. Many people who
134
have opted out of beekeeping because of the highly
defensive behavior of honey bees may be persuaded to
take up meliponiculture, particularly if flora resources
are abundant. Stingless beekeeping provides incomes
to the rural poor through honey, cerumen (mixture of
wax and plant resin) and resins production. Stingless
honeybees produce beeswax and this form an important
honeybee product apart from the honey, pollen and
royal jelly (Onyenso and Akachukwu, 2014). The
beeswax is used as emulsifying agent for nearly all our
modern cold creams, shoes polish production, wood
polish, ointment, lipstick, pomade and rouges. Other
industries using beeswax include textile, ink, candle,
crayon and pharmaceutical. It is also used in food
industries. It is used in cooling food such as cheese.
Despite the high market for stingless bee honey,
beeswax and pollen in both local and international
markets, their production and processing are not
common in Nigeria and so these honeybees products
are not much and readily available in the market. The
stingless bees honey is sold in market places at a higher
price than honey from Apis bees (Sanford, 1997).
More information could therefore be made available on
the production, processing and utilization of stingless
honeybee honey, beeswax and pollen. Also high
quality honey, beeswax and pollen could be provided
for our teeming food and pharmaceutical industries and
generate employment for the youths.
Another attractive feature of meliponiculture is
that the meliponine bees are ‘stingless’. Unlike the
situation in keeping the honeybee, beekeepers need not
purchase expensive, protective clothing in order to
manage and handle hives or to harvest and collect
products (honey, propolis, beebread) with melipona.
Thus meliponiculture can be viewed as both a
compliment and advancement of the honey bee
industry (Apiculture).
Furthermore, the antibiotic activity of stingless bee
honeys may lead to the use of these honeys in
medicinal products. Certainly, stingless bee honey,
with its delicate taste, does fit very well in the present
development of export market for speciality honey.
In addition, the role of stingless bees as providers of
ecosystem services vital to the survival of several
forest plants and crop species through pollination has
also become a source of income generation activity.
Some of the shrubs are important in erosion control and
are source of food to animals and wildlife. In Australia,
stingless beekeepers offer stingless bee services for
crop pollination, usually as their secondary financial
activity (Cortopassi-Laurino et al., 2006).
 Proceedings of the 4th Delta State University Faculty of Science International Conference
Threats of stingless bees
These bees, just like the others, are threatened by
factors such as habitat degradation, agricultural
intensification, the overuse of pesticides. These
species are also threatened by unsustainable
exploitation of their honey. The most significant
enemies of stingless bees reported in the literature are
ants, phorid flies, termites,parasitic stingless bees
(Lestrimelitta and Cleptotrigona) toads, lizards and
birds (Roubik, 1995). The phorid fly (Pseudohypocera
sp) can feed on stored pollen and brood. Flies that have
been able to invade the nest prefer to lay their very
numerous eggs on the pollen in damaged pots. The
maggot can rapidly destroy the nest. Stingless bee
keepers need to seal part of the hive other than the
main entrance with mud to keep out these flies. In
Africa, primates such as chimpanzees try to obtain food
from stingless bee nests by inserting flexible sticks in
nest entrances (Kajobe, 2007).
CONCLUSION
The potential benefit from Meliponiculture can be
tapped if a concerted effort is moved toward
developing a sustainable approach to beekeeping in
Africa and Nigeria in particular. Several ways in which
this could be accomplished is through attainment of a
proper understanding of the meliponine life cycle,
discovery of new ways to increase honey yield and
through better bee management, including sanitary
practices, the housing of colonies, multiplication and
harvest procedures. In all places where meliponiculture
develops, bottlenecks for their improvement include
how to keep and conserve their honey, how to rear
them in large quantities, how to prevent colonies from
being contaminated by agricultural pesticides and
maintain the bees, how to use their services and
conserve their populations, and how to provide
qualified information and training in all levels. A non-
destructive approach in breeding, propagating and
relocating of bees using pheromone technology will
ensure environmental sustainability.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. In order to conserve the Meliponine bees in the
wild, there is need to preserve the natural
indigenous forest. The degraded forest zone
should be rehabilitated by planting mostly the
indigenous tree species which are used by the
stingless bee species as nesting sites.
135
2. The use of the splitting hive methods on
compartmented hive are recommended to the
small-scale farmers.
3. There is need to educate the rural communities on
the importance of stingless bees in pollination of
forest ecosystems, agricultural and horticultural
plant species. These will ultimately result in the
conservation of the stingless bees biodiversity
and reduce deforestation which is occasioned by
cutting down of trees when hunting the bees in
their natural habitats.
4. Further studies are also required to identify the
plant resources which provide stingless bees with
pollen and nectar throughout the different seasons
of the year. This will contribute to the
understanding of the foraging behaviours of
Meliponine bee species in the forest environment.
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