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Apiculture
Lecture 1
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Bee ancestors
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• Insects seem to have first appeared about 300 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period.
The probable ancestors of the order Hymenoptera, to which honey bees belong, evolved some 200
million years ago as predatory wasps.
• Fossil insects preserved in Permian rock, dating from the close of the Paleozoic era, display
hymenopteran-like structures, including the membranous wings and the antlike waists.
• Approximately 50 million years later, in the middle of the Mesozoic era, the hymenopterans were
firmly established in the fossil record, primarily in amber, and included primitive and subsocial
ants that were mostly predatory.
• Bees appear to have evolved from predatory sphecid wasp ancestors, about 100 million years ago
(mid-Cretaceous).
• The switch in diet from animal to vegetable protein and the presence of branched hairs separate
bees from wasps.
• During the vast periods of time that followed, the flowering plants became more specialized and
more dependent on mobile pollinators.
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Bee ancestors
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• Insect visitors such as bees were very important, and they, and the plants they pollinated,
coevolved structures to their mutual benefit as a result of this interdependence.
• It wasn’t until 65 million years ago (Tertiary period) that the stinging hymenopterans became
common; the land by this time was dominated by the flowering plants, or angiosperms, which
provided plenty of pollen (protein source) and nectar (carbohydrate source).
• The plants that attracted bees because of their shape, color, odor, and food were pollinated and
therefore set seed for the next generation.
• In their turn, bees developed branched hairs on their bodies to trap the pollen of flowers, inflatable
sacs to carry away sugary nectars, and a highly structured social order with elaborate defense and
communication systems to exploit the most rewarding of floral resources.
• In the order Hymenoptera, there are over 200,000 species in 10 or 11 families and about 700
genera.
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Classification
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 Kingdom: Animalia.
 Phylum: Arthropoda (many-jointed, segmented, chitinous invertebrates including
lobsters and crabs).
 Class: Hexapoda or Insecta (six-footed).
 Order: Hymenoptera (Hymen is the Greek god of marriage; hence the union of front
and hind wings [pteron]).
 Suborder: Apocrita (ants, bees, wasps).
 Superfamily: Apoidea (between 8 and 10 families).
 Family: Apidae (characterized by food exchange, pollen baskets, storage of honey and
pollen); three subfamilies )
 Tribe: Apinae (long tongues, nonparasitic, highly eusocial).
 Genus: Apis (bee, Linnaeus, 1758; native of the Old World, probably evolved in India
and Southeast Asia).
 Species: mellifera (honey bearing); also called mellifica (honey maker), Western honey
bee
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Races of Honey bees

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There are seven to ten species of honey bees in the genus Apis (depending on which
scientist you agree with).
“ A species is a group of organisms that can interbreed, producing offspring that can do the
same”
Currently the species include
 Western or European honey bee, A. mellifera Linnaeus 1758;
 Dwarf honey bees, A. florea Fabricius 1787 and
 A. andreniformis Smith 1858;
 Giant honey bees, A. dorsata Fabricius 1793.
 The East Asian bees are Apis cerana F 1793,
 A. koschevnikovi Enderlein,
 A. nigrocincta Smith 1861.
 Some bee researchers have identified new species as well as new races (subspecies) in
mellifera (24 total), a single one in cerana (A. nuluensis), and three in A. dorsata (A.
binghami, laboriosa, and breviligula).
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Races of Honey bees

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• Races
• “populations of the same species (e.g., mellifera) that originally occupied particular
geographic regions with different climates, topography, and floral resources. In these
different regions, bees evolved characteristics that made them unique from other
species”
• F. Ruttner, ( Biogeography and Taxonomy of Honeybees (1988)) divided bees into four
groups: (1) African, (2) Near East, (3) Central Mediterranean and southeastern European,
and (4) Western Mediterranean and northwestern European.
• From the European groups came the Italian, Carniolan, and German black bees;
• the Near East group includes the Caucasian bees.
• These four races provide the raw materials from which modern hybrid bees used mostly
in the United States are derived.
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Races of Honey bees

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• The Italian honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica Spinola 1806) originated in the Apennine
Peninsula (the boot) of Italy.
• This race has several color types. In general, they are yellow with dark brown bands on
their abdomen; the “goldens” have five bands, while the “leathers” have three.
1. They are known for laying a solid brood pattern, producing lots of bees late into the
fall, and making a good surplus of honey.
2. On the other hand, they forage for shorter distances and therefore tend to rob nearby
colonies.
3. They also drift frequently because they orient by color rather than by object placement.
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Races of Honey bees

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Italian Honey bees

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Advantages
1. Good, compact brood pattern, making a strong workforce for collecting lots of nectar
and pollen.
2. Excellent foragers.
3. Light color, making the queen easy to locate.
4. Moderate tendency to swarm.
5. Moderate propolizers, so hive furniture is not glued together too much.
6. Resistant to European foulbrood disease.
7. Relatively gentle and calm, making them easy to work.
8. Moderate to high cleaning (hygienic) behavior.
9. Readily build comb cells; white cappings common.
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Races of Honey bees

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Disadvantages
1. Can build lots of brace and burr comb; Italians have a slightly smaller cell size.
2. Poor orientation to home hive; drift to other hives, spreading diseases/pests and
causing uneven colony populations.
3. Can be bothersome by persistently flying at beekeeper when worked.
4. Short-distance foragers, thus have a tendency to rob weaker hives, creating a robbing
frenzy in the apiary.
5. Can be susceptible to many diseases and pests.
6. Slow to build populations in spring, not good for early honeyflow.
7. Brood rearing continues after main honeyflow has ceased, sometimes late into fall;
bees may enter the winter period with too much brood and too little honey, resulting in
starvation.
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Races of Honey bees

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• The Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica Pollmann 1879) was originally brought
from Yugoslavia and Austria, where the winters are cold and the honeyflows variable.
• They are popular in northern areas of the United States. Although they are a variety of
Italian bees, Carniolans have a grayish black-brown body with light hairs; the drones and
queens are dark in color.
• In general, they were bred for fast buildup when the spring flow starts and to shut down
brood production early in the fall.
• They are known for their gentle disposition and low propolis and brace comb
production, but they can swarm if they are not given ample expansion room
• . Currently the New World Carniolans are found in the United States, developed and
improved by Sue Cobey (University of California, Davis, and Washington State
University).
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Races of Honey bees

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Races of Honey bees

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