Italian Bees
The first domesticated honey bees to be transported to North America were Italian honey bees belonging to the species Apis mellifera ligustica.
They are not harmful and may be found all over the place, partly because they can survive in various environments. Their bodies are marked with bands of a yellow-brown color and a dark brown color.
These honeybees have a high reproduction rate and can maintain a sizable colony throughout the winter. The disadvantage is that they have to store a greater quantity of honey and pollen to make it through the winter.
Appearance
The Italian variety is the most often requested variety of bees to ship to North America. They are noted for their kindness and ability to produce high-quality honey. Africanized honey bees are raised in the South since they don’t cluster like other honey bees. These bees struggle to survive in areas with a colder climate because they need to consume more food to make up for the fact that they do not do so. The bees living in Italy are skilled collectors and do an excellent job keeping their colony tidy.
The worker bees of an Italian colony have a light coloration, whereas the queen bee has a deeper coloration, which makes her simple to see. Additionally, the abdomens of worker bees are marked with alternate stripes.
Life Cycle
Unlike bumble bee colonies and paper wasp colonies, an Italian bee colony lives for many years. Drones (males), workers (females who don’t lay eggs), and queens (females who lay eggs) are the three kinds of honey bees found in a hive (males whose primary duty is to find and mate with a queen). Drones don’t have stingers as the worker bees do. After three to four days, honey bee eggs will hatch into larvae. Workers continue to feed them through the cell’s developmental phases. After the larva has completed its metamorphosis into a pupa, the worker bees seal the enclosure. Due to their increased size, queens and drones need more space than workers need when developing. On average, a colony might have tens of thousands of members.
Why Italian Bees are Famous
Italian bees tend to demonstrate the best synergy of desirable qualities compared to other honey bee species.
More specifically, it is good knowledge that Italian honey bees accomplish the following:
- Collect and process a lot of honey.
- Establish robust colonies with exponential growth.
- Behave more gently than more aggressive species like Russian or Africanized bees.
- They are more able to weather the cold than more submissive species.