After a month of running events around Malaysia to promote steemit I had to go visit my relatives in Sabah, Malaysia since I was already in the neighbourhood. My uncle the handsome man on the left has his quiet little place in the village ( we call it kampung ) called Kiambor in the district of Kuala Penyu ( known for a lot of fireflies and proboscis monkeys )
My uncle is known in the area to supply customized housing for raring kelulut its a type of insect which has characteristics like bees however instead of building a hive on the outside and high up in the trees, it uses the tree bark and makes its nest inside.
What my uncle does is to only cut the bark which the kelulut has begun making its nest and then customize the top so it maximize gathering of the honey.
this one is where the hive is well developed
another view of it
this is how a typical bark would look like after its cut and customised at the top
this is newly made and the kelulut has just started making its nest there
apparently my uncle loves to be creative and started designing it like a little home for these kelulut . I think it really looks cute and does encourage more of the people in the area to pickup this kelulut raring / honey harvesting.
Not knowing indepth of what kelulut was, i googled it and found that its honey has extremely good benefits as based on many research kelulut honey is rich in propolis which is an antioxidant that function as anti-fungal, anti-fungus, anti-inflammatory remedies and anti-fungus. Literally it can be your daily drink and great for people who are suffering from diabetes and also used as a prevention for cancer.
More information can be found in this link
http://tips4bodyhealth.blogspot.my/2012/07/benefits-of-honey-kelulut-bees-or.html
These stingless bees are mostly found in the tropics and of course Malaysia is super hot all year around and dense with jungle it make this a perfect breeding ground for kelulut.
Have you tried it ? It tastes pretty good and I wouldnt mind having it daily.
To my buddy - your blog inspired me to check out beekeeping .. hehe
Cheers