I was lucky to be able to see Trigona bees four times during my August 2023 visit to Kalimantan Selatan: three visits to beekeepers and one lucky find of a wild hive in the ULM teaching forest. Plus, I got to visit the honey lab on campus. They have a large number of producers they are working with, studying chemical (etc.) composition of Trigona honey. In addition, they work with small producers and forest-dwellers to promote production and sale of NTFPs to the urban market.
Knowing that I was eager to see bees, Dean Kissenger and a large group of faculty/administrators took me to see two ULM Forestry graduates who are keeping bees (mostly Heterotrigona itama). Both of them had interesting set ups. The first farmer was doing both bees and forest restoration and had a big nursery as well as a large number of hives. He had some really neat ideas about the reforestation and it seemed well-done. He was molding/making compost pots that he puts the saplings out in. They both hold water better to aid in dry season success and provide fertilizer for the new trees. Pretty cool.
He also raised durian and treated us all to an-all-you-can-eat durian extravaganza after seeing the bees. It was actually pretty good. I think there's a lot of variation in durian and some of it I really can't stand. But these ones were sweet and nice. It was Tim's first time trying it -- I thought they would make a big deal about serving durian to bule (haoles/gringos) but everyone just assumed that everyone present was going to be super-stoked to be eating it. When we were done they told us that we should drink water out of the durian shell to avoid getting durian-drunk.
He also raised durian and treated us all to an-all-you-can-eat durian extravaganza after seeing the bees. It was actually pretty good. I think there's a lot of variation in durian and some of it I really can't stand. But these ones were sweet and nice. It was Tim's first time trying it -- I thought they would make a big deal about serving durian to bule (haoles/gringos) but everyone just assumed that everyone present was going to be super-stoked to be eating it. When we were done they told us that we should drink water out of the durian shell to avoid getting durian-drunk.
The next graduate was less established/newer than the first but still had a pretty nice bee operation. He was raising the bees on family property, much of which was rubber plantation. The bees love rubber blossoms and he said he was able to sustainably harvest honey every 3 months. He also had some more wild habitat on one side of the property which included an endemic mango (Mangifera casturi) which he said the bees love.
My final visit to a beekeeper was with the group from the Meratus Geopark. When they heard that I was interested in Trigona bees, they arranged for me to meet the beekeeper at Tanah Laut in the Park. They are keeping the bees in the public area of the park and said they are trying to split them to make more bees so that they get more pollination.