A.m mellifera L. is the older brown or black bee that was a global standout until the early part of this century. Relatively large, the brown bee is short – tongued, nervous on the comb, and a creature of the ocean – moderated climates, thus a slow spring starter. It was well suited to collecting the thick, wild heather honey, the production of which is greatly diminished in agricultural areas of Europe, but proved highly susceptible to disease. The brown bee is not as productive, manageable, or hard as other strains.

Some brown bee strains continue to be kept, and they exist in the wild through the world. They are also used in hybridizing.

Posted in Types of Bees

Carniolan honeybees are dark with brownish to dark gray stripes. Queens and drones have nearly black abdomens.)

Carniolan honeybees developed in northern part of south- Eastern Europe in the area of the Carniolan Alps, including parts of Austria, Slovenia, and areas north and east of that region. The mountainous terrain and somewhat unpredictable environment prepared these bees to survive cold winters and to react to quickly changing weather and seasons. As result, they react quickly when favorable weather arrives in the spring, increasing their population rapidly and swarming early to take advantage of a short season. During the summer, they take advantage of the abundant food, but if drought or other unfavorable conditions arise they can slow their activity just as rapidly. When fall approaches, they slow their activity even more, and during the winter they survive with a small population and consume significantly less food than they do during the growing season.

Carniolans, unlike Italians, are dark in color. The workers are dark gray to black, with gray stripes on the abdomen. The queens are all black, and compared side by side, not as large as Italians queens. Drones are large and have all – black abdomens.

These are the gentlest of all the honey bees. They are quiet on the comb when the beekeeper examines frames, and they tolerate typical beekeeper management duties. They also use propolis sparingly and tend to be a bit more forgiving in situations where burr comb normally can be used.

Posted in Types of Bees

(Caucasian honeybees are dark gray to black with lighter gray stripes on the abdomen. Queens and drones have dark gray to black abdomens.)

Caucasians honeybees (Apis mellifera caucasica)

Less commonly used are Caucasian honey bees, developed in the Caucasus Mountains of Eastern Europe. They reproduce very slow in the spring and react well to available resources during the summer. Like Carniolans, they respond to winter by reducing their population and using honey stores sparingly. But because they build slowly, they swarm later in the spring than either their Italian honeybees or Carniolan honeybees cousins.

Caucasians honeybees are extremely gentle to work and are quiet on the comb when being examined. However, they tend to be susceptible to diseases, especially nosema. They also use propolis in every place you can imagine, which makes working your hive extremely difficult.

Caucasian honeybee workers are dark gray, with light gray stripes on their abdomens and sometimes brown spot. Queens and drones are dark, like Carniolans.

Posted in Types of Bees

Other types of honeybees are available. A commonly available hybrid, Buckfast, is a cross of several breeds. Other varieties reflect selections that have been made within a breed. These selections are made primarily so the resulting bees are easier to manage, produce more honey, or adapt to specific locations.

Before you purchase any type of bee, do some research. Check with local beekeepers to see what kinds of bees they buy and how successful those types have been in your area. Look for bees that carry some pest and disease resistance, are hardy enough to winter where you live, and come from a reputable producer.

There will certainly be some trial and error before you decide what type of bee you are most comfortable with and which performs best in your location.

The descriptions given are for the most part, the ideal. Carniolans are supposed to be black, but more often than not you will get a Carniolan queen that produces workers with some yellow on them. This is because the producer let some crossbreeding occur. However, the predominant traits of the variety will almost always stand out.

Posted in Types of Bees

All honey bees have a common ancestor. But their natural or man- assisted migration has allowed for the development of species, or breeds, with adaptive traits. Honey bees now exist in all parts of the world except the two Polar Regions. Breeds have adapted to survive in deserts; during long, frigid winters; through rainy and dry seasons; and in weather conditions between these extremes. The natural selection process has resulted in honey bees that are very skilled at living in cavities similar to traditional manmade hives, gathering and storing provisions to last during winter when pollen and flower nectar is scarce, and choosing to swarm early in the food – rich spring, increasing their probability of establishing a new nest, storing food, and surviving futures winters.

More then 20 breeds of bees have been identified, and many of these have been tested by beekeepers for their ability to live in manmade hives, as well as adaptability to the moderate climates of the world.

Posted in Types of Bees

The ancient Egyptians used honey to embalm the mummies?

The origin of the bees retraces to 20 million years before Christ?

The man learned to eat honey observing that the animals were fed from it?

To provide 1kg of honey, bees from a hive travel a distance that corresponds to 6 laps around the Earth?

Besides honey, the bees produce wax and royal jelly.

The royal jelly is a liquid substance, white and a flavorful acid, which serves as food for the larvae that will become the queen-bee.

It was formerly believed that royal jelly had the propertys to sustain a long life

Crystallization… Contrary to what many people believe, most honeys will (crystallize) with time.

One of the guarantees of purity of honey is crystallization, and this is due to the change in temperature.

Posted in Articles

(Italian Honeybees are generally yellow with brown or black stripes. Drones and queens have large, golden abdomens.)

Italian bees (Apis mellifera ligustica)

Italian bees are by far the most common honey bee raised in the world. Having evolved on the moderate to semitropical Italian peninsula, Italian bees adapted to long summers and relatively mild winters. They begin their season’s brood rearing in late winter and continue producing brood until the beginning of winter or later.

Italian bees never really stop producing young, but they do slow during the shortest days of the year.

Beekeepers living in southern climates are faced with few management problems. There are nectar and pollen plants available during almost all of the bee’s active months. But Italian honey bees kept in moderate and cool regions are challenged by a shorter growing season to make and store enough food to last through the long winters.

Package producers prefer Italian honeybees because they can star the rearing process early and raise lots of bees to sell.

Beekeepers who pollinate crops for a living also like this trait because they can produce populous colonies in time to pollinate early season crops. And Italian honeybees produce and store lots of honey when there is ample forage and good flying weather.

Italian honeybees are also attractive to beekeepers because they are not markedly protective of their hive. Italians are quiet on the comb when you remove and examine frames, they do not swarm excessively, and they do not produce great amounts of propolis. Italians are yellow and dark brown or black in color and have distinct yellow and dark brown or black stripes on their abdomens. The drones are mostly gold, with large golden abdomens that lack stripes. The queens are easily identified because they have a very large, orange – gold abdomen that is strikingly different from all the other bees in the colony.

Posted in Articles

When you think of bees, you probably think of honey bees. This is because these are the bees we usually see.

Bees are amazing insects. They live everywhere in the world except Antarctica.

There are more than 20,000 different kinds, or species, of bees, in the world. But honey bees are the most common – and they are the ones that make honey.

Honey bees have fascinated us for thousands of years. Cave paintings from 15,000 years ago show people gathering honey from wild nests, and the bees’ carefully constructed honeycombs must have amazed these Stone Age hunters. Today, we are intrigued by the way they seem to be constantly busy, so that the phrase “busy bee” has become a byword for hard work.

Yet the most extraordinary thing about honeybees is the way they organize their lives. Each hive (nest) of bees is really a hugely extended family made up of a single mother, called the queen, and her many offspring. All the bees have their own jobs to do, and they rely on teamwork for survival.

A queen bee, for example, is a champion egg producer, but she can not gather her own food or build her own nest. She depends on the help of her worker bees _ and she makes sure she gets it.

Exactly how she does this and what happens if she fails, are just two of the astonishing things about honeybee society. There are plenty more. How do honeybees know where to find nectar – rich flowers, and how do they use that nectar to make delicious honey? How they keep their nests cool in summer and warm in the winter, and how do they unite to defend their queen and colony (nest) from enemies?

We are going to take a closer look at how honeybee society works. We will find out what makes them some of the most successful insects on Earth.

Posted in Articles