A honey bee is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America, North America, and Australia.
Beekeeping is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept. Beekeepers keep bees to collect honey and other products of the hive: beeswax, propolis, bee pollen, and royal jelly. Other sources of beekeeping income include pollination of crops, raising queens, and production of package bees for sale. Bee hives are kept in an apiary or "bee yard".
The Buckfast bee is a breed of honey bee, a cross of many subspecies and their strains, developed by Brother Adam, who was in charge of beekeeping from 1919 at Buckfast Abbey in Devon in the United Kingdom. Breeding of the Buckfast bee is now done by breeders throughout Europe belonging to the Federation of European Buckfast Beekeepers (G.D.E.B.). This organization maintains a pedigree for Buckfast bees, originating from the time of Brother Adam.
The European dark bee is a subspecies of the western honey bee, evolving in central Asia, with a proposed origin of the Tien Shan Mountains and later migrating into eastern and then northern Europe after the last ice age from 9,000BC onwards. Its original range included the southern Urals in Russia and stretched through northern Europe and down to the Pyrenees. They are one of the two members of the 'M' lineage of Apis mellifera, the other being in western China. Traditionally they were called the Black German Bee, although they are now considered endangered in Germany. However today they are more likely to be called after the geographic / political region in which they live such as the British Black Bee, the Native Irish Honey Bee, the Cornish Black Bee and the Nordic Brown Bee, even though they are all the same subspecies, with the word "native" often inserted by local beekeepers, even in places where the bee is an introduced foreign species. It was domesticated in Europe and hives were brought to North America in the colonial era in 1622 where they were referred to as the English Fly by the Native Americans.
A drone is a male honey bee. Unlike the female worker bee, a drone has no stinger. He does not gather nectar or pollen and cannot feed without assistance from worker bees. His only role is to mate with a maiden queen in nuptial flight.
Apis mellifera ligustica is the Italian bee which is a subspecies of the western honey bee.
Varroa destructor, the Varroa mite is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on the honey bees, and is one of the most severe honeybee pests in the world. These mites can infest Apis mellifera and Apis cerana, and the disease caused by the mites in the genus Varroa is called varroosis.
Acarapis woodi is an internal parasite affecting honey bees, the symptoms of infestation was originally observed on the Isle of Wight in 1904, but was not described until 1921. Acarapis woodi mites live and reproduce in the tracheae of the bees. The symptoms of Acarapis woodi infestation were originally called by beekeepers as the Isle of Wight Disease, however it is now called Acarine, after the Subclass to which the mites belong. All mites are arachnids like spiders. The female mite attaches 5–7 eggs to the tracheal walls, where the larvae hatch and develop in 11–15 days to adult mites. The mites parasitize young bees up to two weeks old through the tracheal tube openings. There, they pierce the tracheal tube walls with their mouthparts and feed on the haemolymph of the bees. More than a hundred mites can populate the tracheae and weaken the bees. The mites are generally less than 175 micrometres (0.007 in) long, and can only be seen and identified under a microscope. Mercedes Delfinado identified Acarapsis woodi's presence in the USA.
Varroa is a genus of parasitic mesostigmatan mites associated with honey bees, placed in its own family, Varroidae. The genus was named for Marcus Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar and beekeeper. The condition of a honeybee colony being infested with Varroa mites is called varroosis.
Varroa jacobsoni is a species of mite that parasitises Apis cerana. The more damaging Varroa destructor was previously included under the name V. jacobsoni, but the two species can be separated on the basis of the DNA sequence of the cytochrome oxidase I gene in the mitochondrial DNA.
Commercial Beekeeping in the United States dates back to the 1860s.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and have been known by various names, the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in early 2007 in conjunction with a drastic rise in reports of disappearances of western honey bee colonies in North America. Beekeepers in most European countries had observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially in Southern and Western Europe; the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. The phenomenon became more global when it affected some Asian and African countries as well.
Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) is a behavioral trait of honey bees (Apis mellifera) in which bees detect and remove bee pupae that are infested by the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. V. destructor is considered to be the most dangerous pest problem for honey bees worldwide. VSH activity results in significant resistance to the mites.
Beekeeping is first recorded in Ireland in the seventh century. It has seen a surge in popularity in modern times, with the membership of beekeeping associations exceeding 4,500. The median average number of hives per beekeeper is three hives, while the average honey output per hive is 11.4 kg. The growth in the practice has occurred despite increased pressures on bees and beekeepers due to parasites, diseases and habitat loss.
Jeffery Stuart Pettis is an American-born biologist and entomologist known for his extensive research on honeybee behavior. He is currently head of Apimondia. He was the research leader at the United States Department of Agriculture's Beltsville Bee Laboratory (BBL). His research has led to significant breakthroughs in understanding and managing CCD, a primary cause of North American bee population decline. He is also known for discovering with Dennis vanEngelsdorp, then at Pennsylvania State University, the ability of bees to detect pesticides and harmful fungi in collected pollen and subsequently quarantine the harmful substances from the rest of the hive. His research has also studied the synergistic effects of Imidacloprid on bees, an insecticide derived from nicotine which has been shown to contribute to CCD.
Beekeeping in Australia is a commercial industry with around 25,000 registered beekeepers owning over 670,000 hives in 2018. Most are found in the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania as well as the south-west of Western Australia.
Mite Biting is claimed to be a natural defensive behavior of some honey bees to fight off the ectoparasitic mites Varroa destructor. This behavior has been studied since the late 1990s for honeybee breeding and improvement of honeybee stocks towards mite resistance. Krispn Given and Dr. Greg Hunt at Purdue University started a hierarchical selective breeding program in 1997–present for increased mite-biting/grooming behavior of European honey bee. A group of Midwest bee breeders visiting the Purdue bee lab were inspired to start the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Cooperative as a result of their work.
Apis mellifera adansonii(Western African bee) is a subspecies of the Western honey bee with probably the largest range of Apis mellifera in Africa, belonging to the A (Africa) Lineage of honey bees. Originally identified by Michael Adansonin in his Histoire naturelle du Seneegal in 1757. Initially the name adsansonii was misapplied to A. m. scutelleta and in particular to the Africanised bees of South America.
Apis mellifera syriaca is known by the common name of the Syrian honey bee, sometimes also called the Palestine honey bee.
