Pre-COVID19, in March of 2020, I had the chance to visit the Philippines for the first time. I attended the 2nd International Meliponine Conference and Asian Apicultural Association (AAA) Philippines Symposium on Pollinator Conservation - a native bee conference held at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) which included speakers from around the world and Australian native bee expert Dr Tim Heard. My first impression of the country was the kindness and cheerfulness of its people. Everyone was so friendly and jolly. The food was delicious, consisting of rice in all its possible variants, fresh coconuts and juicy mangoes everywhere you looked.
During the conference, I learned that the Philippines is home to several species of stingless bee. The most popular and commonly kept species is Tetragonula biroi, locally known as lukot or kiyot. Their popularity is mainly due to their hardy nature and capacity to pollinate mango and coconut crops. Stingless bee-keeping or Meliponiculture is a relatively new practice in the Philippines where the bees are becoming trendier every year.
This is bringing very important benefits such as the improvement of the crop yields and conservation of the bees. However, some negative consequences can be the illegal movement of the hives around the islands, where non-native bees can be brought out of their range area outcompeting the native species of bees. This can easily be avoided through educational workshops and programs, as well as media coverage. This work is already being done by the UPLB Bee Program and their efforts are starting to make a big impact in the community especially in bee conservation in the country.
After the conference, I, along with other researchers visited a stingless bee farm in Bulusan, Sorsogon, in the Southern part of Luzon. The farm owner, Ms. Luz Gamba gave us a warm welcome and served us a variety of delicious Filipino local food. Ms. Gamba is an entrepreneur and a beekeeper. Her farm had beautiful accommodation that consisted of native houses locally known as bahay kubo made from bamboo and palm surrounded by a pristine rainforest full of flowering plants. I took a walk around the farm and I was immediately blown away when I saw the thousands of stingless bee colonies she kept. Everywhere you looked, there were bees.
The most interesting part of my whole trip was learning about the local stingless bee keeping techniques, locally known as the coco technology (cocotech). This sustainable practice makes use of a typical waste by-product in the coconut industry, the hard and thick coconut shells.
Photo 1. From left to right. Ms Gamba, me and her team Photo 2. A Colony of Tetragonula biroi inside of two coconut shells Photo 3. Coconut shells used for the stingless bee keeping in the Philippines. A typical by-product in the coconut industry. Photo 4. This is the final product. A colony of Tetragonula biroi inside made of 5 coconut shells tied up together.
This is how it works: a small piece of brood (Photo 2) containing the youngest bees (eggs, larvae and pupae) is carefully lodged inside the half of a coconut shell, then two shells, each containing pollen and honey are placed on each side of the first shell. Using nylon or wire, the shells are tied up together to support and allow the bees to recover and fill in the holes with resin. As the colony progresses, expanding and outgrowing their colony, the bee keepers put another coconut shell on top of it, ending with colonies made of up to 10 filled up coconut shells each (Photo 4). The social part of this practice is also really nice.
Ms. Gamba employs people from her town or nearby areas and teaches them the cocotech practices so they can keep their own bees and become beekeepers in the future. Moreover, Ms. Gamba keeps around 4,000 colonies of stingless bees, contributing strongly to the conservation and beekeeping industry in the Philippines. To me, Ms. Gamba is an example of perseverance, hard work, and a role model in her community.
The sustainable practices in beekeeping in the Philippines make up for a beautiful example in stingless bee-keeping in the world, from which we as beekeepers should learn.
*All images in this article courtesy of Francisco Garcia Bulle, a PhD student at the University of Sydney as well as PlantingSeeds’ Meliaponist Expert & Consultant