Honey Bee Species ⋆ Paseo Del Norte Beekeepers Association

Honey Bee Species

Courtesy of Eversweet Apiaries

Africanized Honey Bees (AHB)

Apis mellifera scutelata Scutelata are actually African bees from the Cape. They used to be called Adansonii, at least that’s what Dr. Kerr, who bred them, thought they were. AHB are a mixture of African (Scutelata) and Italian bees. They were created in an attempt to increase production of bees. The USDA bred these at Baton Rouge from July 1942 until 1961. They shipped queens to the continental US at about 1500 queens a year from July 1949 until July of 1961. They were raised in testing labs in Laramie WY, Ontario Canada and Madison, WI. The Brazilians also were experimenting with them and the migration of those bees has been followed in the news for some time. They are extremely productive bees that are extremely defensive. If you have a hive hot enough that you think they are AHB you need to requeen them.

Buckfast

Developed by Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey. They are gentle. They built up rapidly in the spring, produced awesome crops and dropped back in population in the fall. They are just like the Italians as far as robbing. They are resistant to the tracheal mites. They are more frugal than the Italians, but not as much as the Carniolans.

Carniolan

Apis mellifera carnica. These are darker brown to black. They fly in slightly cooler weather and in theory are better in northern climates. They are reputed by some to be less productive than Italians. They are very productive and very frugal in the winter. They winter in small clusters and shut down brood rearing when there are dearths.

Caucasian

Apis mellifera caucasica. They are a silver gray to dark brown color. They do propolis excessively. It is a sticky propolis rather than a hard propolis. They build up a little slower in the spring than the Italians. They are reputed to be more gentle than the Italians. Less prone to robbing. In theory they are less productive than Italians. They are about the same productivity as the Italians, but since they rob less you get less of the really booming hives that have robbed out all their neighbors. They are fond of propolis and often coat everything in a sticky kind of propolis, like fly paper.

Cordovan

These are a subset of the Italians. In theory you could have a Cordovan in any breed, since it’s technically just a color, but the ones for sale in North American that I’ve seen are all Italians. They are slightly more gentle, slightly more likely to rob and quite striking to look at. They have no black on them and look very yellow at first sight. Looking closely you see that where the Italians normally have black legs and head, they have a purplish brown legs and head.

Italian

Apis mellifera ligustica. This is the most popular bee in North American. These, as all of the commercial bees, are gentle and good producers. They use less propolis than some of the darker bees. They usually have bands on their abdomen of brown to yellow color. Their biggest weakness is that they are prone to rob and drift. Most of these (as all of the queens) are bred and raised in the south, but you can find some northern breeders.

Specially Developed Honey Bees Queens

Queen breeders continue to develop new queens that demonstrate mite resistance. One of the more successful is the Saskatraz, https://www.ohbees.com/products/ohb-saskatraz-queens developed by Meadow Ridge Enterprises in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Russian

Apis mellifera caucasica, Apis mellifera acervorum or Apis mellifera carpatica. Not sure of the exact variety here in the US. They came from the Primorksy region. They were used for breeding mite resistance because they were already surviving the mites. They are a bit defensive, but in odd ways. They tend to head butt a lot while not stinging any more. They are watchful guards, but not “runny” (tending to run around on the comb where you can’t find the queen or work with them well). Swarminess and productivity are a bit more unpredictable. Traits are not well fixed. Frugality is similar to the Carniolans. They were brought to the USA by the USDA in June of 1997, studied on an island in Louisiana and then field tested in other states in 1999. They went on sale to the general public in 2000.