Vol. 9, Issue 11, Part D (2025)

Meliponiculture, the rearing of stingless bees is important for pollination and hive products, but limited colony availability restricts large scale practices due to slow and seasonal natural swarming. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify a suitable method of colony division for Tetragonula iridipennis Smith to facilitate sustainable colony multiplication by six different methods. A total of 18 colonies were divided and the success of each method was assessed based on new queen development and survival of divided colonies. Among the six methods, separation of brood with gynes showed the highest success rate (100%), followed by separation of brood with queen cells and parallel divisions with gynes or queen cells (66.66%). Colony divisions without gynes or queen cells had lower success (33.33%), while the budding method failed to establish new colonies. The results indicate that the presence of gynes or queen cells is crucial for successful colony establishment and colony division is most effective during periods of natural gyne or queen cell development.