![]() ![]() For example, they tend to have queen cells present in their colonies almost all the time, whereas most other stocks rear queens only during times of swarming or queen replacement. They also exhibit good housecleaning behavior, resulting in resistance not only to varroa but also to the tracheal mite.īees of this stock exhibit some unusual behaviors compared to other strains. Russian bees tend to rear brood only during times of nectar and pollen flows, so brood rearing and colony populations tend to fluctuate with the environment. The quarantine phase of this project has been complete since 2000, and bees of this strain are available commercially. Numerous studies have shown that bees of this strain have fewer than half the number of mites that are found in standard commercial stocks. The USDA tested whether this stock had evolved resistance to varroa and found that it had. The researchers’ logic was that these bees from the Primorski region on the Sea of Japan, have coexisted for the last 150 years with the devastating ectoparasite Varroa destructor, a mite that is responsible for severe colony losses around the globe, and they might thrive in the United States. One of the newer bee stocks in the United States was imported from far-eastern Russia by the US Department of Agriculture’s Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Although the feral bee population in the United States was once dominated by this strain, newly introduced diseases have nearly wiped out most wild honey bee colonies, making the German bee a rare stock at this time However, because of their defensive nature and their susceptibility to many brood diseases (such as American and European foulbrood), this stock lost favor with beekeepers well over a century ago. One of the German bees’ more favorable characteristics is that they are a hardy strain, able to survive long, cold winters in northern climates. This stock is very dark in color and tends to be very defensive, making bee management more difficult. mellifera, otherwise known as the German or “black” bee. These bees were most likely of the subspecies A. ![]() Honey bees were brought to America in the 17 th century by the early European settlers. Honey bees are not native to the New World, although North America has about 4,000 native species of bees. This behavior may pose problems for Italian beekeepers who work their colonies during times of nectar dearth, and it may cause the rapid spread of transmittable diseases among hives. Second, they are notorious kleptoparasites and frequently rob the honey stores of weaker or dead neighboring colonies. First, because of their prolonged brood rearing, they may consume surplus honey in the hive if supers (removable upper sections where honey is stored) are not removed immediately after the honey flow stops. They also are very lightly colored, ranging from a light leather hue to an almost lemon yellow, a trait that is highly coveted by many beekeepers for its aesthetic appeal.ĭespite their popularity, Italian bees have some drawbacks. They are less defensive and less prone to disease than their German counterparts, and they are excellent honey producers. Known for their extended periods of brood rearing, Italian bees can build colony populations in the spring and maintain them for the entire summer. They quickly became the favored bee stock in this country and remain so to this day. Italian honey bees, of the subspecies Apis mellifera ligustica, were brought to the United States in 1859. Supersedure queens produce defensive coloniesīrood rearing affected by flow, queen cells always present The following is a brief overview of some of the more common commercially available honey bee stocks in the United States. Nonetheless, the long and vast experience of beekeepers allows some oversimplifications to be made in order to better understand the different types of bees available. Any generalities about a particular stock should be treated with caution, since there are always exceptions to the rule. ![]() Wide variation exists within stocks as well as among them. Many of the current “stocks” in the United States can be grouped at one or more of these levels, so the term will be used interchangeably, depending on the particular strain of bees in question. Such groups can be divided by species, race, region, population, or breeding line in a commercial operation. The term “stock” is defined as a loose combination of traits that characterize a particular group of bees. What Is a Bee Stock? Skip to What Is a Bee Stock? ![]()
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