Stingless bees in Peru

Some fascinating stingless bees filmed in Peru. They were located both in the field and in hives. The larger types of stingless bees provide an excellent honey, much appraised in Peru for the medical properties (more here: http://www.melipona.org ). Most of the filming were made in Tarapoto and Oxapampa (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini: Melipona, Trigona, Tetragona, Ptilotrigona, Scaptotrigona, Plebeia, Partamona, Oxytrigona, and Scaura).

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Bees
• honey
• Peru
• Insects
• Entomology

[plyg]

Do these bees make honey also?

[alrunen]

Yes they do made a delicious honey. The honey is not stored in a comb like with regular honey bees, but rather in small pots made of wax. You can see an open honey pot at 4:28 of the video. The flavor is distinct, usually a little more fresh in the taste than most honeys.

[ggiinnoo]

great video and great psychedelic music of your another videos. I'm from Perú. Saludos!

[alrunen]

gracias!

[daveh1975]

They are quite beautiful.

I don't know much about them.. have these bees always been around? I have never heard of a stingless bee. That makes a bee almost cuddly.

[alrunen]

Yes! They have been around since the dinosaurs and most definately longer than the stinging honey bees! However, they are tropical so they can only been seen in all of the tropics (including Australia, Mexico, Brazil, etc). Cheers

[kurkolordofwar]

1.-you need a realy warm conditions

2.- the produce less honey

3.- the honey has diferent taste and diferent uses

4.- they biult in a diferent way their hive

here in mexico we call them meliponas

[FoxPMcCloud]

they may not sting, but they *do* bite.

[706michaelwilliam]

weird looking nests !

[coline123456789]

Nice video, lots of species, I also have bees, Tetragonisca angustula, and another, I've uploaded some videos from them, if you want to see them.

[userxo1]

so no CCD? no interbreeding with africian bees? are there any threat from the africian bees at all? can they be 'encoraged' to live i a european style hive, with a different cell size or something?

do what ya can cause soon the european bee torcure will elimante them and we will need honey could be a cash source for the poorer countries south . but i would avoid spraying them with neurotoxins and trucking them 1000s of mile ..

[antoniodigigov]

muito bonitas , lindas , lindas . qual é o nome dela aí ?

[canihaveanid]

This sound a little mean and cruel, but oh well. Last summer when I went to Ecuador for a volunteer program, the host family and I had a lot of fun blowing up these hives! hahhaha.... we figured because those little fukkerz couldn't sting us why not?!!? Sorry bee population, but some of your distant cousins are waiting for ya in heaven!

[hornetpalooza]

These look like they would be easier to farm than European honey bees, why aren't they more popular? Are they difficult to care for? Is it difficult to get the honey out?

[MyLifeHurts]

wonder how they defend them selves