Differences in Races of Bees

Presentations online

Before you take copious notes, all these presentations are online here:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespresentations.htm

Bee Camp

http://www.bushfarms.com/beescamp.htm

Bees vary more from colony to

colony than from race to race.

Common races in North America• Africanized Honey Bees (AHB)

• Buckfast

• Carniolans

• Caucasians– Midnite

• German or English native bees

• Italian– Cordovan

– Starline• Minnesota Hygienic

– VSH (aka SMR aka Harbo)

• LUS

• Russian

Africanized Honey Bees (AHB)• Look just like Italians but typically smaller

• Sometimes extremely defensive

• Swarmy

• Abscond easily

• Hardy

• Healthy

• Vigorous

• Disease and mite resistant

• Reproductively advantaged

Buckfast• Marked like “leather colored” Italians

• More frugal than Italians

• Used to be gentle

• Good wintering ability

• Good spring buildup

• Productive

• Tracheal mite resistance

• Minimal propolis

Carniolans• Fly in slightly cooler weather

• Winter hardy

• Quick spring build up (could seem swarmy if not monitored for this or allowed space to brood)

• Productive

• Winter in small clusters

• Shut down brood rearing when there are dearths.

Caucasians• Black bees with silver grey hair

• Propolize excessively with a sticky propolis rather than a hard propolis.

• Longest tongues

• Slower spring buildup

• Gentle

• Less prone to robbing

• Less prone to drifting

Midnite• No longer available

• Was a hybrid cross of two lines of Caucasians

• Later became a hybrid cross of one line of Caucasians and one line of Carniolans

• Hyper expression of Caucasian traits

German or English native bees• These were the typical wild bees from the

time of colonization of North America to the 1970s or so.

• Do well in damp cold climates.

• Tend toward being runny (excitable on the combs)

• Swarmy

• Otherwise typical traits of the darker bees such as Carniolans

Italian• Reasonably gentle (perhaps not as gentle as

Caucasians)

• Vigorous

• Not frugal

• “Brood rearing fools”

• Prone to robbing

• Prone to drifting

• Productive

Cordovan• In theory Cordovan is a color

• In reality it is a strain of Italians

• Hyper Italian characteristics

• Usually very gentle

• Occasionally very aggressive

Starline• No longer available

• Was an F1 hybrid cross of two distinct lines of Italian bees

• Hyper Italian traits.

Minnesota Hygienic• As I understand bred from the remaining

lines of the Starlines

• Tested and selected for uncapping and removing brood

• Otherwise typical Italian traits

VSH (aka SMR aka Harbo)• Started with feral survivors collected and

bred by Dr. Harbo

• Chosen for suppressed mite reproduction (SMR)

• Trait was “fixed” by close inbreeding

• When SMR was linked to hygienic behavior, selected for Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH)

• Typical Italian traits for the most part.

LUS Bees (Lusby’s)• A strain of the wild bees that have been living in Arizona

for at least a century.

• Has shown ability of laying workers to produce a viable queen. (Thelytoky)

Russian• A bit defensive, but in odd ways. They tend to head butt a

lot while not stinging any more.

• They are watchful guards

• Don’t tend to be "runny" though sometimes they are.

• Swarminess and productivity are a bit more unpredictable. Traits are not well fixed.

• Frugality is similar to the Carniolans.

Contact Info

Michael Bush

bees at bushfarms dot com

www.bushfarms.comBook: The Practical Beekeeper