Thanks to Diva Bee Enterprise we learn a lot about two different Trigona bees which can be found in Malaysia. If you have never tasted this trigona honey, you have an excellent opportunity to do it.

1. Trigona bee honey in
Malaysia

2. About this templateTrigona Bee honey
When starting to write about this
peculiar, trigona bee honey, the
first thing that came to my mind
was that I had no idea about it.
Neither which were trigona bees
or in which countries was this
honey produced.
Trigona Itama Bee. Pictures by Diva Bee
Enterprise
.
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3. Learning about trigona bees
◉ After some readings, we know
these stingless bees can be
found in countries and continents
around the tropics, as they need a
high and constant temperature to
develop properly.
◉ Another characteristic of trigona
bees is that they are considered
eusocial insects, that means, they
reach the highest level of social
organization (permanent colonies,
labor division, cooperative
organization, cells with offspring
and castes).
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4. Learning about trigona bees
Trigona bees belong to meliponini tribu, around 500
insects, 40 of them are called trigona bees.
Its production of honey and wax do not reach the
quantity of Apis mellifera, one of the reasons that
the efforts to study Meliponini have bee very
humble compared with their Apis colleagues.
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5. ASKING TO EXPERTS IN TRIGONA BEE HONEY
Khamarul Azman Mustafa and Norfiq Zhafran
founded Diva Bee Enterprise in Malaysia about
five years ago.
Their aim, is to promote and educate people onto
the benefits of trigona´s honey.
Their main product for now is Royal Bee Honey
and Diva Beauty Cleanser.
.
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7. “◉ INTERVIEW ASKING FOR
INFORMATION TRIGONA BEES
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8. -How did you get to work with trigona bees?
It all started in 2013 when we in Malaysia are facing a lot of
counterfeit honey in our market.
Because of that my family decided to do the bee keeping by
ourselves, but we did not want to work with Apis mellifera
because their stings might hurt us.
So we gather some trigona bee log hive(from the tree) and
transfer it to a hive so the process of harvesting honey get a little
bit more easier and practical.
Thats why we came up with the technology of Smart Hive where
it has been patented and won many awards
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9. 9Trigona apiary. Photo: Diva Bee Enterprise

10. Which kind of trigona bees do you work with?
◉ For the time being we are focused on Trigona itama and Trigona
thorasica, species which they are super friendly and most
economical to keep.
◉ They are easy to maintain and provide us with good honey
every month.
◉ Commonly Trigona itama will provide us nearly 500g of honey
every month per hive, while Trigona thorasica up to 700-800g
per month per hive.
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Inside a trigona bee beehive. Photo: Diva Bee Enterprise

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Inside a trigona bee beehive. Photo: Diva Bee Enterprise

13. Main differences with managing Apis mellifera?
For instance, Apis can be fed with maple syrup or sugar when the
flower season is over, but with Trigona you don´t have to do
anything.
There are no maintenance, no feeding at all.
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14. Which flowers are the favourite of trigona bees?
In Malaysia most favorite
flower of trigona bee is what
we called «air mata pengantin»
or Antigonon leptopus. Not
only trigona but also for apis.
This flower bloom all the year
and provide good nectar for
the bees.
Picture by Diva Bee Enterprise.
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15. -How and when do you harvest trigona honey?
To harvest the honey we
have to use a honey pump
machine.
As the trigona honey are
kept in honey pot (round
shape), we opened up the
tip of the honey pot in order
to reduce the damage, and
then, we use the pump to
suck out the honey.
Picturw: Diva Bee
Enterprise
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16. -How and when do you harvest trigona honey?
It´s at the end of the year when it starts to rain for almost 2-3
months, when we did not collect their honey at all.
Because of their small size they can not go out from their hive to
collect honey as much honey as in the flower season.
Their honey only come from nectar from trees, flowers and many
more.
There are no way you can feed them with sugar or syrup.
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17. -Which are the characteristics of this honey? Taste?
Humidity? How long this honey is maintaining all its
properties?
The main criteria for this honey is that it´s never sweet! Yes, honey
that does not taste sweet.
It combines the taste of lovely sweet-sour with aroma of malt and
molasses.
In Malaysia, trigona’s bee honey contain almost 19-23% of water
percentage which makes the honey less concentrated.
As long as you keep the honey at room temperature and not
exposed to sun directly the honey should be good for a very long
time. As we all know honey never expired.
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18. -Who buys this honey? Since when do you have
records of people working with trigona bees?
People use trigona honey mainly for medication and daily
supplement, as for all muslims honey is a sunnah food.
We also export this honey to Australia and Saudi for the mean time.
Since 2015 trigona’s honey are a common thing in Malaysia and for
now a lots of researchers came to our farm to do research on the
trigona honey bee.
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19. -Apart from the honey, is there any other trigona
bee product?
People use trigona honey
mainly for medication and
daily supplement, as for all
muslims honey is a sunnah
food.
We also export this honey
to Australia and Saudi for
the mean time.
Since 2015 trigona’s honey
are a common thing in
Malaysia and for now a lots
of researchers came to our
farm to do research on the
trigona honey bee. 19

20. -How many people in Malasya work with these bees?
There are about 700-1000 people which are involved in
Trigona beekeeping right now.
-And to finish, for people interested in trigona honey, how can
they contact you to get some honey?
For now the website is under construction, they can use direct
message in our Instagram or email through the @royaltrigona
instagram
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Inside a trigona bee beehive. Photo: Diva Bee Enterprise

22. Thanks!
ANY QUESTIONS
REGARDING TRIGONA
HONEY BEE?
https://mieladictos.com
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