Are sour bees (stingless bees) bees?

Sour bee is a stingless bee (a stinger without a stinger on the abdomen), which feeds on nectar and pollen and can gather flowers to make honey, It is named “tart bee” because the honey produced tastes sweet and sour, and it is named “sticky bee” because it has a sticky gum substance on its forefoot. Let ’s take a look at the sour bees together!

1, sour bees are small bees

Honey bees are collectively referred to as bee family insects, and sour bees are small bees belonging to the apiaceous stingless bee family, so sour bees are also a kind of bees, In fact, in addition to being smaller than ordinary bees, sour bees are basically the same as bees. They are also social insects. It also secretes wax to build nests, and also collects flowers to make honey, but the drones in the sour bees will mate with the queen, and the drones will also go out to collect nectar and pollen.

2,  Sour bees are social insects

Sour bees are social insects like ordinary bees. There are three types of bee queen, drone and worker bee.  The queen bee is responsible for laying eggs to breed offspring. The drone is mainly responsible for mating with the new queen bee and will soon die after mating. Worker bees are the main workers in the swarm. In fact, most of the work in the swarm, such as building the hive, collecting flowers and honey, and guarding the hive, is done by the workers.

3, sour bees build nests with beeswax

Sour bees have the habit of secreting wax to build nests just like ordinary bees. In natural environments, they often nest in hidden places such as tree holes, wall cracks, and rock gaps. Different from ordinary bees, there is a horn tube made of beeswax and propolis at the door of acid beehive. In addition, acid bee and Chinese bee have a habit of “mutual benefit and symbiosis”. Among them, sour bees can help Chinese bees to fight against natural enemies such as wasps, while Chinese bees provide some food for sour bees.

4, Sour bee pollinates crops

Sour bees are only one-tenth the size of ordinary bees. They can go deep into the flower tube to collect nectar and pollinate crops. Therefore, sour bees are generally domesticated as professional pollinator species, and the honey produced by sour bees is also very rich Advanced tonic with nutritional value. In addition, sour bee is also excellent in propolis production.