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
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