Japanese-designed hive boxes suit local bees

Japanese-designed hive boxes have been found suited for Philippine bees.

Hiving the Trigona biroi Friese, a stingless bee abundant in Bicol, in the Japanese-designed boxes resulted in high survival and low absconding of 16 feral (wild) colonies transferred, according to a study done by Ma. Dulce Mostoles and Raul Ruiz,both researchers of the Camarines Sur State Agricultural College (CSSAC) in Pili, Camarines Sur; and Kazuhiro Amano of the Laboratory of Agriculture, National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan.

The study aimed to determine the potentials of T. biroi as effective crop pollinators in glasshouse during temperate conditions. In Japan, this bee is seen as a potential pollinator of crops grown in glasshouses during winter.

As reported by Ma. Rowena Baltazar of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), the bee, if found feasible, can open doors for potential market of packaged bee to Japan.

"This is a plus for the Bicolanos who could invest more in the export of not only honey but pollinators as well," the researchers stressed in a report presented not long ago at the Bicol Consortium for Agriculture and Resources Research and Development (BCARRD) Regional Symposium on R&D highlights in Guinobatan, Albay. – RAF