Celebrating World Bee Day with U Báalamo’ob

Every year World Bee Day is marked on May 20th, serving as a reminder of the vital and increasingly precarious roles bees play in our ecosystems.  This annual opportunity to reflect on how we view and interact with bees is of particular importance in the Yucatán Peninsula, where a combination of factors have conspired to threaten the centuries-old traditions of sustainable Maya beekeeping and the very survival of the region’s endemic subspecies.

To mark this year’s event, Na’atik partnered with local bee sanctuary and research center, U Báalamo’ob, to give some of our local students the opportunity to learn more about their culture’s rich history of meliponiculture, or stingless beekeeping, and an insight into efforts to revive interest in the practice.

Manuel talked to our students out the importance of local bee species.

While there are over 20,000 distinct species of bees known to science, most people are familiar with just a few species of honeybee. While honeybees are known for their defensive stings, it is their stingless cousins, the Melipona bees, which are the focus of U Báalamo’ob and resident veterinarian and bee expert, Manuel Vázquez. Various species of stingless bees are found in most tropical and subtropical regions of the planet, with Mexico being home to over 70 different species, many of which are endemic. 

Students used the microscope to look at thdifferent shapes of honeybees and melipona bees.

The most well-known of these species, Melipona Beecheii, has been cultivated in the Yucatán Peninsula for centuries, with the Madrid Codex, one of the few surviving examples of translated Maya hieroglyphic writing, containing detailed descriptions of the way in which the bees were kept and the uses of their products. U Báalamo’ob maintains some hives in that traditional Maya style; partially hollowed tree logs, capped at the end to allow access for the cultivators. These hives usually only have one small entrance for the bees, which is constantly guarded. While many species of bees rely on their stings for protection from predators and other bee species who may attempt to steal their produce, the preferred hive locations of species such as Melipona Beechii has provided an alternative method of defence. Most ‘stingless’ species still have non-functional vestigial stings, which suggests that they evolved away from their usage over time.

The melipona bees cannot sting you, but they still defend the entrances to their hives from predators and would-be honey thieves.

In addition to the traditional hives, Manuel demonstrated their modern equivalents, which gave our students the opportunity to see the unique internal structure created by the Melipona bees. U Báalamo’ob is home to several other species of stingless bee, with each having their own unique way of constructing a hive. While the bees cannot sting, they can bite with their mandibles, but are generally safe to interact with as long as they are not threatened. 

Manuel opens the modern hives to show how the bees live.

Students get up close to the bees.

Despite the long history of meliponiculture on the peninsula, the tradition is increasingly under threat for a number of reasons. One of those being competition from the Africanised Honey Bee, which appeals to beekeepers due to its high rate of honey production. Melipona bee hives produce between one and four liters of honey per year depending on species, as opposed to around 30 liters for their Africanized cousins. Such displacement can have lasting consequences for local ecosystems, as Melipona bees play a key role in the pollination of many plants, some of which are not visited by other species. Sugarcane also provides competition, as it represents another cheaper alternative sweetener to Melipona honey. The number of keepers of Melipona bees on the Yucatán Peninsula has fallen from the thousands in the 1980s to only a few hundred today.

Each of the species of Melipona has a different hive architecture.

This threat of replacement is further exacerbated by development in the peninsula, with logging and deforestation as well as climate trends and reduced protection from the impact of hurricanes impacting their natural habitats. However, in spite of these challenges, meliponarios like U Báalamo’ob are part of an effort to educate people about the role Melipona bees play and to reverse the decline in traditional beekeeping across the region.

U Báalamo’ob also has a habitat for solitary bee species, providing a safe place for them lay eggs.

Manuel demonstrates the different kinds of hives and also points out how the presence of bees effects the fruit trees in the Meliponario (the fruit is extra large and flavorful).

 One of the ways they do this is by showcasing the unique properties of Melipona honey.  Traditional Maya medicine places a high value on the honey, using it to treat a variety of conditions from cataracts to asthma. While there is limited empirical evidence of its medicinal value, scientists have proved it has antibacterial properties, and many people in the region swear by its usage. Melipona honey is also valued by some for its flavor, with each subspecies producing its own variety. In general, these honeys tend to be more floral and acidic, providing a more complex flavor profile. For these reasons, Melipona honey products can be quite expensive.

Students (and photographers) had the opportunity to try different kinds of Melipona honey. Some of the varieties were very fruity and all were delicious. Melipona honey is available to purchase in season at U Báalamo’ob.

For the Na’atik students who visited U Báalamo’ob, Manuel’s work represents both a window in the traditions of their past and into how those traditions can be harnessed to create an environmentally and economically sustainable future for communities like theirs. There is a long way to go in the campaign to secure the future of meliponiculture in the Yucatán Peninsula, but projects like Manuel’s, and the light shone on them by World Bee Day, provide hope that Maya beekeeping can have a bright future.

Both of our groups learned a lot and were grateful to Manuel for his time and effort. Thank you U Báalamo’ob!

Na’atik is a sustainable nonprofit language and culture institute based in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mexico. To read more about our local education programs visit our Impact page.