Beekeeper to do cham keeping

[Nature]

Greetings to everyone, I am from the Philippines and have been doing research on chameleons before I actually buy a pair for my son. As a start I will go for veiled then move on to having other kinds. Also, as a beekeeper, I sure hope that I could help other members of this forum for whatever questions they might have with regards to using beehive products with “chameleon keeping”. Lastly, I am very glad that there are other Filipinos here, hope we can communicate more often. Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Ricardo]

Welcome to the forums!

 

[Syn]

You finally posted outside of the chat, yay!

Looking forward to your future posts like I had said, and good luck again!

 

[ChaoticNightsReptile]

Welcome to the forum. I always thought Bee Keeping was a fascinating thing to do

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forums!

You'll be able to collect your own bee pollen! Also, if you're hives get infested with waxworms (sad for your bees...but) you will be able to use them for the chameleon instead of burning the hive!

 

[JaxyGirl]

Hi Nature, welcome to the forum. If you have any questions we're here to help.

Do you do beekeeping for a living??? Beekeeping is very cool! When I was a kid we had 4 hives and also a glass display hive in our kitchen where you could view the honey bees in action. We sold honey to local stores and farm stands. Eating the Honeycomb was my favorite!

 

[PedroANDAshley]

Im half filipino amoung about a million other things
I can't speak tagalog sadly I know only a handful of words and most are bad ones
mabuhay!

 

[Nature]

Beekeeper on cham keeping

Hello guys, thanks so much for the warm welcome. Beekeeping is one of my livelihood (aside from doing Virtual Assistant job), we also manufacture herbal soaps using products from the beehive. I consider having chams (very soon) as a new addition to my family, I believe I'll be in SOS mode from time to time - LOL.

With regards to this post "Been thinking ( VERY dangerous!! lol )", looks like there are lots of concerns with honeybees, which is good since people are showing more interest on how bees play an important role with ecology. With this I hope as a beekeeper and as a member of this forum, I could somehow help in giving infos on how to utilize beehive products (including bees themselves) with keeping chams without contributing to the decline of the beekeeping industry.

Lets start with bees as feeder (wow! imagine a beekeeper feeding chams with bees). Drones or male bees doesn't have stingers, the main purpose of drones in the colony is to mate with a queen bee, if the queen is healthy and egg laying there is no need for drones. Its natural for a colony to have drones especially during honeybee breeding season or if willfully induced by a beekeeper. Worker bees (female bees) after a week would literally throw them out of their hives, a colony with a young egg laying queen virtually doesn't need to have drones, drones eat honey and pollen, they are already packed with honey and pollen, hence, a ready feeder for chams, however if a cham owner decides on having them as feeder I suggest they get them from reputable beekeepers. Take note of the honey source, honey bees can fly 5 KM (circumference, from colony as point of reference) to gather honey and pollen. Most commercial beekeepers have established honey analysis, feel free to ask for it, broken down for each honey season. Its better to buy honey from beekeepers with hives located in "mono farms" (e.g apple orchard, orange orchard) you'll be sure that your honey are not tainted with pesticides. Varoa infestation is usually manifested with young bees having deformed wings, beekeepers will be very happy to have their varoa infested drones out of their hives, if you intend to have them be sure to ask for them before beekeepers do their miticide treatment. Hope this will serve to open up discussion. Thanks

 

[Syn]

Great information! If you ever consider doing an information sheet, I'm sure everyone would love reading it.

 

[Ace]

I Agree!!! very awsome info to know, and what to look for, hope to learn about honeybees from you in the future

 

[Nature]

Information Sheet

Hi Syn that will be nice. I will be retrieving some files, I remember having a formula on using propolis as a natural antibiotic, I believe it will come in handy as a remedy for sores.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Thanks Nature, Ive always wanted to offer bees to my chams as an enrichment feeder since I have nowhere to keep a colony. I nver knew drones had no stingers very good info. Keep the tips coming... And Welcome Aboard!

 

[jackscham]

Welcome aboard! Hope you are doing well with your bee keeping. From my understanding, the bee population as been in a drastic decline for a few years now. Blame pesticides!??
I'm not sure if chams eat bees (with or without stingers). They may instinctively avoid them.

 

[Nature]

Filipino beekeeper

Hi Texas Panther Man and Jackscham, thank you very much, my colonies are doing good (good thing we don't have any CCD case here in the Philippines), I got some info that chams do eat honeybees (l believe lots of them in cameroon). I also have two colonies of Trigona honeybees (stingless bees), you might want to consider having them Texas Panther Man, they are very easy to breed, all you need to do is to put their hive in a somewhat shaded area of your property or house (outside) where there is no direct sunlight and not in contact with rain, no need to feed them, they are excellent pollinators especially for vegetables and almost all fruit bearing trees. They are excellent source also of propolis (their natural hive is entirely made of propolis), a natural antibiotic which you can readily fuse with water (just use the fresh/soft bitumen which you can find when they are building or repairing their hives). Please try to ask for cham keepers from Hawaii and Southern Mexico if they have access to Trigona bees. As soon as I get my chams (or my sons' cham - LOL) I will definetely do a study on how propolis tincture would benefit chams. Will be doing regular posting on the results.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the Chameleon Forums a great place to learn about chameleons. I have two veileds Luie & Camille and their tiny baby. I would recommend you start with one male veiled. Keep him for 8 months or so and make sure everything goes well before adding your second chameleon.

I'm attaching a link to give you some info on everything you will need to get started. Anytime you have any questions, just ask.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

 

[Nature]

Veiled as a starter

Hi jannb Yes this forum is very helpful and I really appreciate your kindness in sharing the link you've posted. I am thinking of having both at the same time, but I'll be introducing them with each other after 8 months (as you've recommended and if the condition is okey) Again thanks so much guys for the warm welcome.