Stingless Bee Keeping (meliponiculture)

ABOUT MELIPONICULTURE / STING LESS BEE KEEPING/ CHERUTHENICHA

These amazing insects  found most of the countries in Asia, Africa, South American continents , Even though they are known as sting less  bees they have the organ to sting but its not developed in to that much.   The Sting less Bees ,can be domesticated.
Besides true honey bees, two species of stingless or dammer bees, viz. Melipona and Trigona occur in our country in abundance. These bees are much smaller than the apis cerana and apis flora honey bees and build irregular combs of propolish  and resinous substances in crevices and hollow tree trunks. The stingless bees have the importance in the pollination of various food crops. They bite their enemies or intruders but it’s just a tickle for us. It can be domesticated. But the honey yield per hive per year is only 300 to 1200 gm , more than sufficient for a single household and highly medicinal value also.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF STING LESS BEE/ DAMMER BEE/ CHERUTHEANICHA  HIVES 

We developed different   designs suitable for satisfying each segment of customer like farmers, gardeners, naturalists etc …  mainly our designs can be of four categories

1. Wooden sting less bee hives.
2. PVC sting less bee hives
3. Clay sting less bee hives
4. Other materials ( with Fiber, coconut shell, bamboo,  Metals..)

Wooden sting less bee hives.

We developed many  fantastic models of bee hives in wood . We usually choose teak wood or jack fruit tree wood  for the construction of bee hives as they will  long last.

1. Side by side partition hives in teak wood 

This peculiar design meant for bees to store pollen ,honey and brood separately in different chambers  limiting  the total space of hives   to 2100 square centimeters  and ensuring fast growth of hives.

The main feature of these  hives is that  any one can easily observe the inside activities of bees and queen and understand the growth of hives in time to time.

The main objective of this  particular bee box is that we can

 

THE  PVC STING LESS BEES HIVES

The pvc double layer bee hives designed by Madhusree Honey and Bee Farm make it possible for every farmer/  gardener/ bee keeper  to have a bee hive in their garden. The 2 layered design makes it possible to harvest the honey without disturbing the bee colony , thereby making it safe for even a child can easy mange it.

The  Hive is made up of  PVC pipe so it is very sturdy and water proof.

The Hive has two parts :-

1.Bottom part (brood chamber)

It is  through the  entrance in this part  the worker bees come in and go out for foraging and  workers made cell where Queen ,Eggs , larvae ,Pupae develop . Some of the propolish pots in this part of the hive also hold pollen, nectar or honey and  it is used to feed the developing larvae is called brood chamber.

2.Upper part (honey chamber )

It is called as super chamber and is the top part where the worker bees store their honey.  No bees are harmed while harvesting honey from it as the hive is designed in such a brilliant way .

 

MAJOR FEATURES OF PVC DOUBLE LAYER HIVES

Easy  to handle

low weight, water resistant, heat resistant

Honey can bee harvested easily with out disturbing bees and their brood

The bee hive having fast growth rate because of proper   measurement   of inner space of the hive,

Honey can bee harvested without damaging honey pots.

honey harvesting can be possible more than two times a season.

Durability

It can be used as bee trap for catching wild bees

Easy for dividing/ spiting  the  hive,

Easily can hang in the trees

DIFFERENT TYPES OF STING LESS BEE PVC HIVES

The PVC hives designed by Mr. P.T Thampi  keeping the view in mind that each hive should uniform sizes then only it will be capable of division of hives and it also should differ only  according to the types of bees. He made hives mainly two types

1.  PVC Double layer with layer  wooden(teak wood) paneling
2.   PVC Double layer with inner layer heat resistant sheet and GI sheet

   

 

THING TO REMEMBER WHEN INSTALLING PVC STING LESS BEES HIVES

1 .Even though PVC hives are water proof and heat resistant, keep the hive in a half shaded area and avoid direct sunlight and rain.
2. Once if you fix the hives in place , don’t shift it to 200 meters radius because they will back to the original place only if it is within 200 meters radius.
3. Don’t open the brood part (down part )of the hive unnecessarily because it will cause damage to the younger eggs and leads to temperature variations
4. If there is shortage of flowering plants it will affect the growth of the hives. Try to plant more flowering plants in the farm.
5. The normal honey production of a single hive is200gm to 1kg based on the source of honey in that area.
6. There should be at least 1metre distance between hives.
7. collet honey only from the honey chamber and not from the brood chamber.(if you collect honey from the brood chamber, you may damage the brood or queen bee )
8. Keep the hive safely from ants, spiders , direct sunlight, rain etc…

please watch below video link