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Comment by k_sze | Hacker News Reader

Does anybody know whether and how well top bar hives work for Asiatic honey bee (Apia cerana)? Does it require modifications/adjustments versus a design for Apis mellifera? I live in Hong Kong and have long been pondering setting up a hive.

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Do people keep A. cerana in Hong Kong in a domesticated fashion? The impression I had was that they were much less attractive than A. mellifera because their hives are much smaller, they swarm more easily, and they produce less honey. Also, since you can purchase strains of A. mellifera that have been bred for good temperament, I wonder how A. cerana compares in that department.

In Japan, A. mellifera is not viable because susumebachi (sparrow wasps -- insanely huge) invade the hive and they can't protect against it. Local honey costs about $20 a lb here as a result.

Wouldn't it be relatively easy to put mesh around the hive with holes that the bees can fit through but the giant wasps can't?

They don't necessarily get in. They hang around the entrance. European honey bees try to attack them one by one and there isn't enough poison to take it down. The asiatic honey bee attacks all at once and actually smothers it. All the action happens outside the hive.

I think there are people who keep A. cerana here, as it seems to be the only native, domesticated honey bee species around here. I have seen lots of bee hive boxes on western side of the Kam Shan Country Park, though they are definitely not top-bar.

My understanding is that A. mellifera is not native to South-East Asia. In fact, there's no recorded observation of A. mellifera in Hong Kong on iNaturalist. So I wouldn't want to import them, lest it results in an ecological catastrophe.

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