Stingless Bee - Stingless Bees of Brazil - Bees As "pets"

Bees As "pets"

Due to the lack of a functional stinger and characteristic non aggressive behavior of many Brazilian species of stingless bees, they can be kept without problems in densely populated environments such as cities, provided there are enough flowers at their disposal nearby. Some breeders (called meliponicultors) can produce honey even in apartments, up to the 12th floor.

Despite been in general fairly peaceful, with exception of a few species like the tubuna (Scaptotrigona bipuntacta), most Brazilian meliponini bees will usually react if their hives are molested, nipping with their jaws, entangling themselves in the hair and releasing propolis or even acid over their aggressors. But some species as the mandaçaia are extremely tame, not attacking humans even when their hives are opened for honey extraction or colony division. This, plus the fact it only form small colonies with 500 or 600 individuals, makes them particularly suitable for keeping at home as pets. And one single rational beehive of mandaçaia can produce up to 4 liters of honey a year, making the species very attractive for home keepers. However, it is somewhat selective about which flowers to visit, preferring the flora that occurs in their natural environment, and thus is difficult to be kept outside its region of origin, which is along the east coast of Brazil, from the state of Bahia to the south. Other species like the Tiúba (Melipona compressipes) and the True-uruçu (Melipona scutellaris) are also very tame and productive, but can only survive in regions with warm climate.

Another species suitable for keeping at home is the guaraipo (Melipona bicolor). It is also quite tame, their colonies don´t grow too big and they can produce two to three liters of honey a year. One interesting thing about this species is that their colonies usually have more than one single queen at a time (usually two or three, but there can be up to five), a phenomenon called poliginy. But once very common, the guaraipo is now rather rare in nature, mainly due to the destruction of the forests where they could be found, in the south-southeast of Brazil.

Other groups of Brazilian stingless bees, belonging to the tribe trigonini, genus plebeia, frieseomelitta and leurotrigona are also very tame and much smaller, one of them (Plebeia minima) reaching no more than 2,5mm in length, and the lambe-olhos (licks-eyes, Leurotrigona muelleri) been even smaller, with 1,5 mm in length. Many of these species are generally known as "mirim" (kid), and they can be kept in very small artificial hives thus been interesting for keepers who wants them just for the pleasure of having a "toy" bee colony at home. Been so tiny these species produce only a very small amount of honey, typically less than 500 ml a year, and are thus unsuitable for commercial honey production.