Honeybees huge Lobby, Stingless Bees "destructive" Lobby

Hi all,

destructive Lobby might be taken a little bit too serious, but I live in Thailand.

Since the people here and also in many other tropical countries realized the value of stingless bee products, I see cut out trees, dug out tree roots and many destroyed bee nests from stingless bees.

This "trend" came as online sales were offering bottles of stingless bee honey and more valued propolis (easy fetching 400 USD and more a Kilo)

Over the past years some people offered bee hives, basically a small box and a lid but to get the value the result is the same.
The entire nest gets ransacked and the bees have a big job to repair it every year.

I am testing already what could be done and anyone who wants to be part of the game should check for the Australian OATH Hive.

They are easy to split,
the honey super is separated
and they have some more features.

Based on this I go more ahead and build a 35 millimeter hardwood wall hive for my tropical area, which will help balancing the temperatures better.
Beside there are a few more features which adds costs to go fully into a commercial standard.

My wife and family is meanwhile chasing wild flowers the easy way. Watching the flower for hours and count what and how many Pollinators land on it.
Then the seeds get taken and spread on the land.
I planted this year Trees on my Land (see my post "a long way to our dream in Thailand Part 1 and 2)
The count is by now 380 worldwide fruit trees suitable for all pollinators.


Watching my stingless bees, it seems I nailed it,
but further tests will be made until I will publish why my new hives have in total 29 parts before assembling.

For those who want to sneak into a market which worldwide demand cannot be covered,
due to the fact that all stingless bees on the world would never be able to supply so much propolis
here a little picture how these little fellows are set up.

Everyone in the tropics who is interested.
Stop damaging more trees and tree roots and more do not dig nests out for one lousy pound honey and propolis.
The better way is to start splitting your hives after you bought the first swarms from a recommended breeder.
It is way more simple than splitting a common honeybee hive.

Cheers in the name of these tiny critters which can only bite and don't sting...
They are more than suitable for schools or as pets for kids...

I am saddened by the greed of people destroying hives for a short term gain.
Its systematic of humns though,
\BUT, I hope you have success and will watch keenly.
I am in Australia, how can I help?

Not "beeing" in the tropics the only nests we see like this are our large bumble bees. They use cardboard file boxes with a removable lid to propagate their nests.  With winter bees here have to live of of the sored honey seasonally or hibernate which is what the bumble bees do.
Looking at the picture of your box I was wondering if they coul be constructed so the ends could be removed so the honey pots could be sliced off.
I work with solitary pollinating bees and predatory wasps on my farm.

The box in my picture is a classic 10$ Thai bee Box and as above described gifted by a friend incl. the bees.
Basically not more that a box with a lid.

Since decades the Australians have designed the OATH hive which is way more sophisticated.
The main features are that the bee hives can be split and a honey super allows to take the honey (and propolis) without touching the brood at all.

But this hive comes with a price that Thais are not able or willing to pay.

As Grandson of a beekeeper I have gathered a bit of knowledge which comes handy now.

I fear to successfully protect the "wild" native bees, the only way is to crash the prices to make digging deep holes to a zero income.
Unfortunately we are facing an endless demand for these products that seems never be possible to be covered.

I worked the OATH hive a little over to my own convenience and as the bees confirmed I am on the right way,
I want to take this a step further.

Having a 27000 sqm Permaculture Farm where soon 10000 sqm getting extended I planted, whatever plant we could find the stingless bees have visited. (Certainly not ignoring other pollinators) and we realized that 8 acres easy can fit 150 beehives when the balance of flowers are present throughout the year.

Bit of a high density production, which allows a higher density of other livestock as well.

My idea was based on my home aquaponics system where high density plays an important role.

Good is that stingless bees are not foraging far distances which gives advantages like they stay more or less on the farm.
Hence small scale farms can have take a huge amount of hives.

Instead destroying the entire nest we take our share as sensible possible...

But it's still a long way to be sure all works as expected...
I continue and hope people in hot climates will follow to give the "poachers" a hard life or change their mind for the better.

@ John C Daley  
Thanks for your offer which I appreciate much but I am ok here.  Just good to see that some people are willing to help.

Here in Brazil stingless bee honey has also become a big thing in recent years. But people are being encouraged to make their own boxes and attract their own bees. Maybe because we have a lot of animals and insects that can hurt you real bad people aren't super invested in hunting down the bees and their honey- also the nests are small and generally located in impossible places (amid tree roots, often in urban areas too). It's a great way to get hurt and to get a steep environmental fine in the process!
Generally people use simple boxes like the one pictured above, but I've seen complex ones and even old clay vessels, depending on whether the purpose is pollination or honey.

Tereza,

criminal deforestation aside, I must say that Brasil is going the past few years really tough on environmental destructors of any kind.
Our Construction site for a Wind Farm looked like licked clean, because of regular visits from the "Authorities"
If we had no visa and work permit problem, they sure found an environmental problem...
What I mean is, that the "corruption" still was ongoing, but this lovely word "environmental" was now implemented in the game which I really loved to hear.
Whatever way the nature gets protected doesn't matter right?
The Nature doesn't mind corruption or politically correctness as long its beneficial for the nature. Something gets done is the score that counts.

Too many countries need to follow this example.
Mostly the excuse is: These poor people have no other choice than doing that.

Why Brazil has also lots of poor people who care?
The answer is: they will be skinned for life, when they try to do and getting caught.

The response from poor people in other countries: We can bribe the cops to avoid fines
Coming back to Brasil: When the fines are sky high the bribes will also be increasing.

Hence, it works...

My way is to motivate people not to cut a hole into a living tree or uproot the mount just for 500 grams honey worth 15-20 USD one time payment.
There is a much easier way by having stingless bees like others honeybees,
plant on a smaller foot print the food for them
and make a big buck by "bee-ing" self sustaining with less labor needed.
Make another buck by selling hives already stocked after split.
But also having the bees in a protected environment (a good hive) never touching the brood,
(other than split the brood pots carefully in two pieces)
getting clean honey and propolis for even a better buck...

I start and on my little Farm it happens now.
Good thing is that Thais usually copy businesses, when they realize there is money to make the easy way.
I am 60 years now and not depending on selling bee hives for my pension.
So I will not patent it, but will hope this idea gets "stolen" and copied again and again...

fingers crossed..