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Stingless Bees Culture. BY JOSEPH MACHARIA. Introduction. Social bees 6 genera comprising of 19 species have been identified in Africa. (Eardley, 2004). Nests; tree cavities, ground and open. Kenya. Kakamega. Mwingi. Arabuko Sokoke. Hypotrigona gribodoi. H.gribodoi Queen.
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Stingless Bees Culture BY JOSEPH MACHARIA
Introduction • Social bees • 6 genera comprising of 19 species have been identified in Africa.(Eardley, 2004). • Nests; tree cavities, ground and open
Kenya Kakamega Mwingi Arabuko Sokoke
Hypotrigona gribodoi H.gribodoi Queen
Why stingless bees? • Economic role as cash crop pollinators and honey producers • Impact of stingless bee presence on human health • The ecological role of stingless bees • Wide variety of biological and ecological features that the various species have, making them ideal for comparative studies
Threats to Stingless bees Keeping • Deforestation • Lack of knowledge • Destructive harvesting
Road to applied pollination with stingless bees (i) Meliponiculture: (a) Local knowledge Identify Potential pollinators for development of a stingless bee management strategy
(b) Development • development of rational hives • developing techniques for colony division
(c) Traininig Colony transfer Queen rearing techniques Honey harvesting techiniques
(ii) Legalization of bee trade and honey quality provide legal protection for the native bees and make sure that their natural populations are guaranteed for the future honey physiochemical composition and antibacterial effects
Physiochemical composition of honey samples obtained from stingless bees * Honey quality standards of the Codex Alimentarius for floral honeys. HMF = hydroxymethylfurfural
(iv) Research on bee biology. Detailed knowledge of the bee’s biology and behaviour needed to adapt the bees to the crop pollination setting
Bee biology cont Queen rearing Hypotrigona gribodoi joined queen cell. Hypotrigona gribodoi queen cell. Hypotrigona gribodoi colony A virgin queen
(v) Matching crops with bees • identify crop that may benefit from stingless bees for its pollination
Acknowledgemnets Mary Gikungu Connal Eardley Suresh Raina – icipe Koos Biesmeijer – University of Leeds thankYou