Report by Arif Maulana [unpad.ac.id, 26/7/2020]
[unpad.ac.id, 26/7/2020] Cultivation of stingless bees (Trigona sp.) is now widely practiced by the community considering it has promising business potential. However, this popularity threatens the survival of the trigona bee colony habitat in the wild. Massive extraction of colonies from the forest for seed will speed up the process of stingless bee extinction.
Aware of this threat, a lecturer at the Faculty of Agricultural Industrial Technology, Universitas Padjadjaran, Dr. Mahani, M.Sc., produced an innovation to quickly and easily reproduce trigona bee seeds in captivity. This innovation, which has been developed since 2017, is called the Rapid Split Technique.
Mahani explained, the rapid split technique departs from the process of doubling the bee colony (breeding) that has been carried out so far. However, the common duplication process takes a long time. To get a new colony from one colony can take up to 6 months.
Through this technique, the colony multiplication process can be carried out in a very short time. In less than a minute, this technique can produce a new colony.
“The rapid split technique only takes 20 seconds. If 1 working day is 8 hours, then how many thousand colonies can we split, “said Mahani.
The multiplication process is an effort to ensure the continuity of the trigona bee ecosystem in the wild. Breeders do not need to take colonies in the forest for cultivation. Therefore, the Rapid Split Technique is very prospective to overcome the problem of availability of seeds in cultivation and beekeeping activities.
This academic who is also a bee cultivator continued, taking colonies in the forest directly does not mean without risk. The shift of bee colonies from nature to be cultivated will encourage a shift in the ecological balance. Massive collection of colonies in the forest also invites predators and competitors.
This causes the bee colony that has been cultivated does not guarantee to survive. Mahani said the death rate of trigona bee colonies could be up to 30% per year due to not being able to survive in the cultivation area. In fact, stingless bees are animals that are resistant to disease.
“It is true that when in the wild there are no reports of disease. But after being cultivated, there are many reports of disease. Meanwhile, the community is not ready,” he said.
If left unchecked, it is not impossible that the trigona bee population will quickly become extinct due to large-scale extraction and death due to not being able to survive during the cultivation process. Therefore, colony doubling is an alternative to maintain the balance of the Trigona bee colony ecosystem in nature.
Short Process
The rapid split technique innovation is quite simple. According to Mahani, there are a number of important aspects in doing this technique. The first thing is to prepare the tiller box.
The tiller box is first greased with a material containing bee pheromones. Mahani termed this pheromone material as “bee perfume”. The perfume is smeared on the walls of the box to ensure the bees feel at home when moving to a new box. If it’s not perfumed, it will take the bees months to adapt to the new box.
“This pheromone makes the bees feel that (the new tiller box) is where they live,” explains Mahani.
The multiplication process is also quite easy, that is, it is enough to exchange the parent box to the tiller box. In this process, Mahani developed a bee box in the form of three boxes arranged vertically. The multiplication process simply exchanges the squares in the middle and top of the parent to the offspring.
Exchanging boxes does not take long. In less than 1 minute, the box exchange process can produce a new colony.
Furthermore, the recipient of the propolis innovator award from the Business Innovation Center Indonesia explained that the period of forming new colonies in the tiller box is a critical phase. the new colony is still vulnerable to leaving or moving from the box. As a result, this adaptation process will invite predators to come.
If not anticipated, bees can become a delicious meal for predators. Therefore, the next step is to cover the new tiller box with propolis. This propolis aims to protect the colony from various possibilities that occur.
The tiller box is also given a small hole for mobility. The hole is adjusted to the body size of the trigona bee. Bees can get in and out of the box safely while predators and competitors cannot enter the colony box.
“In terms of the level of security, this has become a safety for the new colony from its critical phase,” said Mahani.
For 2 weeks, the new bee colony through the rapid technique has started to stabilize. In fact, Mahani said, in just 3 days, the funnel was able to grow in a new box. “The Rapid Split technique is an extraordinary discovery in the split technique in the world of stingless beekeeping,” he added.
The initial idea for developing the rapid technique was the result of Mahani’s own thoughts. Continuously, Mahani continues to find effective techniques so that the process of doubling the trigona bee colony does not require a long time.
While the design of the bee box is the result of its development with beekeepers. Currently, the three-tiered bee box developed by Mahani has received a patent.
Develop Feed Innovation
This beekeeping researcher in the Unpad Food Industry Technology study program explained that the rapid technique could be used as long as there were broodstock that were ready to be duplicated. The easiest way to see if the brood is ready to split is to see if there is an egg arrangement in the center square.
“If the arrangement of box number 2 already has an egg arrangement of at least 1/3 of the height of the box, then the broodstock is ready to be split,” he said.
Another problem then arose. The speed of rapid technology turns out to be inversely proportional to the number of broodstock boxes that are ready to be duplicated. This fast technology should be supported by many parent boxes that are ready to be duplicated.
Parent bees must be stimulated to diligently lay eggs. Therefore, Mahani began to expand his research into the field of bee supplementation. He began to develop feed or supplements that can stimulate bees to lay eggs diligently.
Based on observations, bees will be diligent in reproducing during the dry season. The availability of pollen (pollen) on flowers is quite a lot in the dry season. This pollen is a delicious meal for bees as well as being able to stimulate bees to lay eggs.
“Pollen that can stimulate eggs is pollen with a high amino acid score,” said Mahani.
This analysis prompted Mahani to develop bee feed with a high content of amino acid pollen. It is hoped that the results of this study can contribute to increasing the number of brooders so that an intensive rapid split process can be carried out.
“Unpad has made an extraordinary contribution in developing stingless beekeeping,” said Mahani.*