I have received several private posts regarding our local bees and would
like to share some information with BEE-L members.
 
Apparently, even as they are "Asian" bees, they have patterns of behavior
slightly different from their other Asian cousins. As far as we can tell:
 
1. I have found Apis florea in Palawan (which is southwest of Manila). This
"discovery" (it was hitherto "undiscovered" by our local "experts") was
reported to our local entomologists who are still scrounging around for
funding to make an "official" discovery. It establishes feral nests in or
around concentrated blooms in orchards during the flowering seasons. After
orchard blooms (e.g., cashew, mango,citrus) it subsists on sporadic forest
blooms through migration.
 
2.  The successful culture of Apis cerana here is confined to localities
with everblooming tree species such as the local "Pili" nut. They are prone
to absconding and exhaust their energy on reproduction rather than
production of honey. Dr. R.W.K. Punchihewa, a friend of mine who lives in
Sri Lanka but might be teaching in Cornell, discovered that a. cerana
foraged 400 meters from their nests. This being the case, it might be argued
that their absconding might be controlled by feeding an/or continuous bloom
within their foraging radius. In places where bloom is not continuous, they
are unmanageable. We are currently trying to apply technology generously
shared by Dr. Punchi, but have made little progress, we have not stopped
trying though. No one knows for sure if our local a. cerana is "like" other
a. cerana in Asia. Most cerana honey is hunted and is not a product of
"culture". Average harvest is 300 to 500 grams of honey per year.
 
3. Apis dorsata has been savagely hunted for it's honey. Burning or smoking
feral nests is the common practice. Introduction of more bee friendly
techniques has gained little success because honey hunters get what they can
when they can. We fear that, in some places, the local dorsata feral
colonies have been hunted way past their natural capacity to regenerate.
Average harvest is 12 to 17 kilograms of honey per year. A. dorsata also
migrates following the local bloom patterns: from mangroves to cultivated
orchards to deep in the rainforests.
 
4. We are starting to culture Trigona because it's nest is made of pure
propolis. It also collects more pollen, relative to it's weight and size,
than any other bee species we have studied or kept. We are also attempting
to develop a "standard" hive for Trigona.
 
5. Meanwhile, our culture of a. mellifera provides our bread and butter, or
should I say, rice and fish.
 
Joel F. Magsaysay