Much is known about the benefits of honey, making honey a household essential for many. However, how much do we actually know about the bees that produce them?

Residing in most tropical and subtropical regions of the world, we have the lesser known species of bees, the stingless bees. Accounting for only a minority of 500 out of 20,000 known species of bees, not much attention is paid to these stingless bees which are smaller in size compared to their counterparts.

 

 

A comparison between a stingless bee and a honey bee

 

Despite their lack of a sting, the stingless bees are capable of biting as a form of defence mechanism. However, they are less aggressive henceforth mostly harmless to humans.

Due to its smaller size, the stingless bees are able to pollinate flowers more intensively as they are able to reach deeper within. Also, they have a smaller pollination radius of 500m as compared to 5km by their counterparts. These 2 factors result in a higher quality honey that is produced.  Stingless bee honey generally has lower sugar content and higher antioxidant levels compared to the generic honey bee honey.

Sadly, stingless bees produce less honey than their counterparts, where they only produce 500g of honey per hive annually in comparison to 30kg per hive produced by honey bees per year. This makes their honey rarer and definitely less known to us.

With its higher nutritious value yet lower availability, stingless bee honey deserves the spotlight. In Singapore, a company named Little Green Bee has paid special attention to the lesser known stingless bees and has been producing various products with their honey.  In particular, Little Green Bee rears the specific breed of stingless bee, the Heterotrigona Itama. Honey produced by this bee is hence known as Trigona honey.

 

Little Green Bee’s bee showroom

 

Stingless Bees in action

 

Boasting Singapore’s first ever bee showroom, Little Green Bee is also responsible for the world’s first ever probiotic Trigona honey. With their unique technology, they have succeeded in combining both probiotics and Trigona bee honey, creating a product that combines the best of both worlds and challenging existing food sources for probiotics.

 

Lactopro 4: World’s First Probiotic Trigona Honey.

 

Lactopro 4 contains 4 strains of Lactobacilli, a common species of probiotics used in many known probiotic food sources. What makes Lactopro 4 distinctively different from other probiotic foods would be its portability. Coming in sachets, Lactopro 4 is a convenient food source of probiotics that does not require specific storage conditions.

Little Green Bee aims to increase the awareness of the stingless bees, and to share the vast benefits of Trigona honey. For more information, do visit their website at https://www.littlegreenbee.com.sg/