Stingless Bees are tropical and therefore active all year. They are important pollinators and research has shown that they might work very well in greenhouses. Few species can produce enough honey to be commercially viable, but their honey does have a distinctive taste which comes from plant resins the bees use to build their honey pots. It is also thought to have medicinal properties. In Australia stingless bees are often kept in backyards just to help to conserve native species, and Central America has a very long history of "meliponiculture" (keeping stingless bees).
The Royal Mayan Bee (Melipona beecheii) was kept by the Maya for thousands of years, but is now endangered due to deforestation, misuse of pesticides and the arrival of the Africanized honeybee. The Maya kept their bees as pets as well as for their useful products. Most families would have one or more log-hives hanging in and around their houses. These hives could last for many years and were often passed from generation to generation. The honey was eaten and the wax was used for casting in the ‘lost wax’ process. The wax is particularly soft and easy to work, allowing the Maya to create intricate jewellery. Unfortunately the future for stingless bees looks grim. In addition to the environmental problems there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of people keeping these bees in the traditional way.
Although they have no sting some species of stingless bee can bite. Apparently this is rather like the ‘bite’ of the mosquito. One or two bites might be OK, but being bitten by a whole hive must be decidedly nasty!
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