List of honeybee races
Races of honeybees (Apis mellifera)
This is not an exhaustive list. Additions and information on each race are welcomed. "Pure" representatives of any race are becoming rarer, however the best chance to do so is in the native area. In the Americas, there has been a great deal of mixing; more than an approximation of the predominant race would require DNA analysis. Color of the bees, when referred to, is more pronounced in queens and drones; workers are much less differentiated.
- Apis mellifera mellifera: German Honeybee Northern Europe - domesticated in modern times, and taken to North America in colonial times. These small, dark-colored bees, sometimes called the German black bee, have the reputation of stinging people (and other creatures) for no good reason at all. (Most bees will sting if you kick their hive or otherwise challenge them.) Some colonies are very "runny" on the comb and so excitable that they are difficult to work.
- Apis mellifera anatolica: This race is typified by colonies in the central region of Anatolia in Turkey. It has many good characteristics but is rather unpleasant to deal with in and around the hive.
- Apis mellifera carnica: (Carniolan honeybee) Southeastern Europe - popular with beekeepers due to its extreme gentleness. The Carniolan tends to be quite dark in color, and the colonies are known to shrink to small populations over winter, and build very quickly in spring. It is a mountain bee in its native range, and is a good bee for cold climates. It does not do well in areas with long, hot summers.
- Apis mellifera caucasica: (Caucasian honeybee) Caucasus Mountains - This sub-species is regarded as being very gentle and fairly industrious. Some strains are excessive propolizers. It is a large honeybee of medium, sometimes grayish color.
- Apis mellifera cypria: (Cyprian honeybee) The island of Cyprus - This sub-species has the reputation of being very fierce compared to the neighboring Italian sub-species, from which it is isolated by the Mediterranean Sea.
- Apis mellifera fasciata: These bees have very few positive characteristics (from the point of view of human beings) and many negative characteristics.
- Apis mellifera intermissa: These bees are totally black and are native to the northern part of Africa in the general area of Morocco. They are extremely fierce but do not attack without provocation. They are industrious and hardy, but have many negative qualities that argue against their being favored in the honey or pollination industry.
- Apis mellifera lamarckii: (Lamarkian honeybee) Egypt
- Apis mellifera litorca: Low elevations of east Africa
- Apis mellifera ligustica: (Italian honeybee) Italy - the most commonly kept race in North America, South America and southern Europe. They are kept commercially all over the world. They are very gentle, not terribly inclined to swarm, and produce a large surplus of honey. They have few negative characteristics. Colonies tend to maintain larger populations through winter, so they require more winter stores (or feeding) than other temperate zone races. Italians are light colored, most leather colored, but some strains are golden.
- Apis mellifera meda: Iraq
- Apis mellifera monticola: High altitudes of east Africa
- Apis mellifera sahariensis: Northwest Africa - A. I. Root's The ABC and XYZ of Beekeeping, indicates that this sub-species faces few predators other than humans and is therefore very gentle. Moreover, because of the low density of nectar-producing vegetation around the oases it colonizes, it forages up to five miles, much farther than sub-species from less arid regions. Other authorities say that while colonies of this species are not much inclined to sting when their hives are opened for inspection, they are, nevertheless, highly nervous.
- Apis mellifera scutellata: (African honeybee) Central and west Africa - hybrids of this species in the Americas are called Africanized bees. The intense struggle for survival of honeybees in sub-Saharan Africa is given as the reason that this sub-species is proactive in defending the hive, and also more likely to abandon an existing hive and swarm to a more secure location. They direct more of their energies to defensive behaviors and less of their energies to honey storage. African honeybees are leather colored, difficult to distinguish by eye from darker strains of Italian bees.
- Apis mellifera syriaca: (Syrian honeybee) Near East
See also Buckfast bee (a racial hybrid)
