Italian bee


The Italian bee or Italian honey bee is a subspecies of the western honey bee.

Origin

The Italian honey bee is endemic to the continental part of Italy, south of the Alps, and north of Sicily, where it survived the last ice age. On Sicily the subspecies is Apis mellifera siciliana.
It is likely the most commercially distributed of all honey bees, and has proven adaptable to most climates from subtropical to cool temperate, but it is less successful in humid tropical regions. Italian bees that originate from the Ligurian alps in northern Italy are often referred to as the Ligurian bee, which is claimed only survives on Kangaroo Island.
Italian bees, having been conditioned to the warmer climate of the central Mediterranean, are less able to cope with the "hard" winters and cool, wet springs of more northern latitudes. They do not form such tight winter clusters. More food has to be consumed to compensate for the greater heat loss from the loose cluster. The tendency to raise broods late in autumn also increases food consumption. Noted beekeeper Thomas White Woodbury first introduced the Italian bee to Britain in 1859, and regarded it as vastly superior to the Old British Black bee.

Anatomy

  • Color: Abdomen has brown and yellow bands. Among different strains of Italian bees, there are three different colors: Leather; bright yellow ; and very pale yellow.
  • Size: Their bodies are smaller and their overhairs are shorter than those of the darker honeybee races.
  • Tongue length: 6.3 to 6.6 mm
  • Mean cubital index: 2.2 to 2.5

    Characteristics

, a bee breeder and developer of the Buckfast bee, characterized the Italian bee in his book Breeding the Honeybee:
While the Italian bee has many strong points, among the A.m. ligustica it has a large number of weak points:

Strengths

  • shows strong disposition to breeding and very prolific
  • cleanliness/excellent housekeeper
  • uses little propolis
  • excellent foragers
  • superb comb builder
  • covers the honey with brilliant white cappings
  • shows lower swarming tendency than other Western honey bee races
  • for areas with continuous nectar flow and favorable weather throughout the summer
  • industry
  • gentleness
  • a willingness to enter supers
  • tendency to collect flower honey rather than honey dew

    Weaknesses

  • lacks vitality
  • inclined to excessive brood rearing
  • susceptibility to disease
  • high consumption of stores
  • more prone to drifting and robbing than the other principal races of Europe.
  • the strong brood rearing disposition often results in large food consumption in late winter or early spring that causes spring dwindling and hence slow or tardy spring development
  • brood rearing starts late and lasts long into late summer or autumn, irrespective of nectar flow
  • tends to forage over shorter distances than either carnica or mellifera, and may therefore be less effective in poorer nectar flows
  • for cool maritime regions
  • for areas with strong spring flow
  • for areas with periods of dearth of nectar in the summer

    Foraging behavior

Apis mellifera ligustica are more concerned with nectar processing behaviors, honey storage, and adult maintenance over brood expansion when compared to the African honey bee, A. m. scutellata.

Selective breeding

Breeders of Italian bees, as well as other honey bee subspecies, look for certain beneficial characteristics. Depending on the breeding goal, one or more of the following characteristics may be emphasized:
  1. Gentleness or excitability
  2. Resistance to various diseases including tracheal mite and Varroa mite
  3. Early spring buildup in population
  4. Wintering ability
  5. Tendency to limited swarming
  6. Ability to ripen honey rapidly
  7. Honeycomb cappings are white
  8. Minimal use of propolis
  9. Availability and queen cost
  10. Color
Source: George Imrie's pink pages

Worldwide distribution

  • 1853 introduced to Germany
  • 1854 introduced into Poland by Dr. Jan Dzierżon
  • 1859 introduced into the United Kingdom
  • 1859 introduced to the United States
  • 1862 introduced to Australia, on 9 December into Victoria aboard the steam ship Alhambra There is strong evidence that the subsequent Italian virgin queens hybridised with the English 'black' bee previously imported. Wilhelm Abram brought several queens from Italy to Sydney in December 1880 but it's probable they reached New South Wales through other hands earlier on.
  • 1866 introduced to Russian Empire
  • 1877 introduced to Japan
  • 1880 introduced to New Zealand
  • 1884 introduced to Kangaroo Island in South Australia, sourced from Brisbane where they were previously imported in 1880 from Italy by Chas. Fullwood. Jas. Carroll received a hive of Italian bees in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1877 when Angus Mackay accompanied a hive aboard the City of New York, packaged by Harbison in California. After a week's stopover in Sydney, the bees arrived in Brisbane. The government of the colony of South Australia passed legislation in 1885 intended to "encourage the culture of Ligurian Bees on Kangaroo Island." Honey from Kangaroo Island is marketed as being from the only pure Ligurian bees in the world.