Races of bees February 1, 2017

“It is only in the past twenty years that American bee-keepers have known of the existence of any other than our native, or dark- colored, bees. Classical scholars familiar with Aristotle and Virgil have doubtless read of the different varieties described by them, but would scarcely imagine that the beautiful golden bees An ad in the October, 1917 American Bee Journal offered of Virgil’s song have perpetuated their race in pure Caucasian queens, Apis mellifera caucasica. such purity that their descendants are to-day known as the Black Bee or the German Bee. bred as a distinct variety in our .” Contemporary reports say that these were -- L.C. Root,”Chapter II: Italian Bees”, Quinby’s somewhat nasty creatures, quick to sting, New Bee-Keeping: The Mysteries of Bee-Keeping swarmy and not particularly resistant to Explained (1911) disease. Inclination toward was desirable in those days because beekeepers In the common lexicon, honey bees are made increase by catching natural swarms sorted into “races”, just like humans. For some rather than by making splits as we do today. reason, we use “breeds” for the same type of The Black Bee loved America and thrived. It divisions in dogs and cats but not honey bees. spread across the continent in step with the “Races” and “breeds” are called “subspecies” by spread of European settlers. In fact the honey scientists, a term that somehow isn’t nearly as bee was called “the white man’s fly” by Native exciting. Regardless of the word choice, these Americans; they learned that when honey bees describe the same level of biological division. In would begin to show up, settlers weren’t far scientific nomenclature, we express the genus behind. (Apis for honey bees), followed by the species (mellifera for Western honey bees), then the Italiani che amiamo! subspecies/race (carnica, ligustica, etc.) Shift to Europe and the Napoleonic Wars. Beginner bee books all discuss different Swiss Captain Baldenstein, stationed in Italy, races of honey bees, their traits and which ones became enthralled with the Italian honey bees would be best for you and me. Unfortunately, (Apis mellifera ligustica). After the wars ended, hardly any books except the most recent, most he returned to Switzerland and in the 1840s informative ones contain information that is sent men to Italy to acquire colonies for him. He truly useful. For example, Caucasian bees are wrote glowing reports about their always included in the classic bee-race list, but characteristics in the European they are no longer commercially available for journals. Johann Dzierzon read about them and sale anywhere in the United States. There are imported some for himself. He also wrote in the other little tidbits that often go unmentioned as journals about how wonderful the Italians bees well. However there are certain things that new were. His reports caught the attention of beekeepers, in fact any beekeeper who is in the Samuel Wagner (first editor of The American market for queens or bees, should know about Bee Journal), L.L. Langstroth and others, who races. began attempts to import them into the US. The earliest efforts either mostly or completely The history of honey bee races in the US failed, but eventually a transport protocol was Honey bees first came to what is now the discovered by Charles Dadant and others that US in 1622, having been imported to proved sufficiently successful. Jamestown, Virginia by English colonists. Those The arrival of Italian bees roughly coincided bees were Apis mellifera mellifera, the native with the introduction of Langstroth’s movable bee of England and much of Western Europe, frame hive. Soon all “enlightened” beekeepers

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Races of honey bees February 1, 2017 were keeping Italians in Langstroth-inspired of fashion and into obscurity, leaving us mostly equipment. In fact L.C. Root devoted an entire with Italians and Carniolans. But since honey chapter to Italians, and only Italians, in the bee queens mate with one to two dozen drones edition of Quinby’s New Bee-Keeping that my and we don’t have many isolated enclaves to introductory quote came from. ensure racial purity, our bees, like ourselves, are Italians were much gentler and more by this time undoubtedly Italian-American and productive than the Black Bees, plus they were Carniolan-American, homegrown blends rather golden yellow. This last point should not be than something that can be rigorously matched understated: the fact that the New Bee was a up with their European namesakes. In addition, different color let beekeepers know for a fact genetic research at NCSU shows that in the US, that their bees were Italians and not Blacks or we have ended up with distinct “western” stock hybrids, and that they were getting their and “eastern” stock within the higher-level bee money’s worth. races. Having perfected the art of importation, In the Southeast, Italians overwhelm lots of honey bee races were brought to the US Carniolans in terms of number of colonies; in in the late 1800s. These included the so-called fact Carniolans are a rarity in our area. In many Punic bee from Tunisia (Apis mellifera other parts of the US, particularly the Northeast intermissa), the Cypriot bee (Apis mellifera and north central states, Carniolans are the cypria) and the Syrian bee (Apis mellifera preferred darlings. syriaca), the latter being the one that Samson encountered in Judges 14. These three turned Johnnie come lately out to have nasty dispositions and/or didn’t We can add Russian bees to our modern thrive here. However the Carniolan bee from mix thanks to the US Department of Agriculture. what is now Slovenia (Apis mellifera carnica) In an effort to introduce enhanced mite and Caucasian bee from Georgia/Armenia/ resistance into our bee genetics, the USDA southeast Russia/northwest Turkey (Apis brought Russian bees to their Louisiana mellifera caucasica) proved to be extremely research station in 1997. After several years of gentle, well suited for our environment and tight quarantine and breeding research, highly productive. qualified commercial queen breeders were provided Russian queens to continue the No bees allowed! breeding program and make Russians available In 1904, “Isle of Wight disease” began to anyone who wants to buy them. wiping out apiaries in Europe. The cause was There is argument about whether Russians attributed to tracheal mites and the affliction are just a strain of Carniolans or are a different was renamed “acarine disease”. In 1922, race entirely. I’ve kept both and to me they do rightfully fearing what would happen if tracheal seem to have subtly different characteristics. So mites were to cross the Atlantic, the US passed for now we’ll side with the ”separate race” the Honey Bee Act and banned importation of camp. But it’s true that Russians are largely live honey bees from nearly all foreign similar to Carniolans in their habits and countries. (The ban worked well, keeping appearance. For example, they are extremely tracheal mites out for the next 62 years.) This thrifty, shutting down brood rearing during effectively put a bubble around the US, dearths. They overwinter with smaller clusters restricting us to the four honey bee races that than Italians. They don’t crank up brood were already well established here: the production into full gear until spring actually traditional Black Bee, which thrived in feral starts, but then they build up explosively. populations; Italians; Carniolans and Russians have certain traits that affect Caucasians. Varroa mites have wiped out the management, for example the time spent for feral Black Bee and Caucasians have passed out queen introduction must be delayed much

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Races of honey bees February 1, 2017 longer than for Italians or Carniolans. They will across through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas build queen cells “just in case” or maybe “for to western Louisiana) and Florida (mostly in the fun”, without actually finishing them, which central and southern half). In addition to being leaves beekeepers unsure of whether the bees extremely mean tempered, these bees tend to truly intend to swarm or not. Their thriftiness in swarm constantly and are poorly suited for dearths with respect to brood-rearing may be productive management in our area. Apologists desirable but they also refuse to construct will say that they can be worked if certain comb in the absence of a strong nectar flow, important management changes are made, and even when fed. Also, my early-generation that’s true. However anyone in North Carolina Russians were a bit “spicy”, much less docile who has the choice between owning European than Italians, but I’ve been told that bad colonies and African colonies would be an dispositions have largely been bred out of them absolute fool to choose African colonies. I’ve since then. handled African bees in the Caribbean and their One point about Russians that their cousins, Apis mellifera adonsonii, in west Africa, breeders emphasize is that for best results with so I have an informed opinion on this subject. respect to achieving lower Varroa mite These bees may be possible to work but they infestations, the entire bee yard must be are no fun whatsoever. Want to bring the local comprised of Russian bees. Actually this kindergarten class to visit your bees? Forget it. recommendation should extend to the whole Like to work in your hives wearing nothing but a bee community surrounding Russian colonies. t-shirt and shorts? Never again. Want to keep The reason for this is that while Russians may them in your suburban backyard? I can almost be able to help keep Varroa mite numbers from hear the anti-bee legislation being typed up getting out of control as quickly as they do in now. non-Russian colonies, they can only do that if It is against the law to sell African bees in the infestation rates are at reasonably low North Carolina but that doesn’t mean they can’t levels to begin with. Think of a rowboat with a be acquired. Bee suppliers in Texas ship them leak in the bottom: we may be able to all over the US. Please, please, please do not somewhat control the water level by bailing buy Texas bees! Their potential for undesirable water out with a teacup, but only if the starting qualities far outweighs any desirable traits they water level isn’t very high and only if somebody may have. else isn’t dumping water into the boat by the You may notice that I refer to these as bucket-load behind our back. When a few “African bees” and not “Africanized bees”. Russian colonies are surrounded by “dirty” When they first started heading toward the US colonies, they cannot maintain their fight after their introduction into Brazil in the late against the mites for long, because mites keep 1950s, everyone hoped that they would flooding in from the surrounding colonies as hybridize as they moved north, eventually Varroa overtakes them. ending up as a mild-mannered genetic melting pot. However what actually has happened is The unmentionables that while they do hybridize in the overlap with When discussing US honey bee races we established bee populations (e.g. Italians) in the must be honest and mention the red-headed leading edge of their migration, the hybrids stepchild, so-called African bees (Apis mellifera aren’t as “fit” as the pure Africans and they scutellata). There are many bee races in Africa don’t persist in the population. We end up with but scutellata are the ones we got, so they get pure-race Africans back-filling the population as the name “African”. the migratory wave moves forward. So once They crossed the Mexican-US border in they are well established in an area, the bees 1990 and are definitely a part of our American are genetically African, not Africanized hybrids. mix in the Southwest (southern California

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Races of honey bees February 1, 2017

Strains and variations Unfortunately, selecting queens that In addition to the high-level races of bees produce hygienic progeny is only part of the we have in the US, we also have specially-bred equation. Spivac and Reuter go on to explain, strains. The old beekeeping books talk about “Now here is the catch: A queen raised from a Midnites, Starlines and others, which were hygienic colony must mate with drones from hybrids and no longer commercially available. other hygienic colonies for the colony to Today all the talk is about strains that have express the trait (the hygienic trait is recessive). been developed to enhance hygiene, thereby If the queen mates with 20 drones, over half of providing above-average protection against them should carry the hygienic genes. This way disease and Varroa mites. over 50% of the worker bees in the colony will be genetically predisposed to detect and Minnesota Hygienics remove diseased and mite parasitized brood Marla Spivac and Gary Reuter, both at the quickly and this is a high enough percentage for University of Minnesota, used selective the colony to show resistance to diseases and breeding to develop a strain of Italian bees that mites.” exhibits highly hygienic behavior. Hygienic bees This means is that if we have Minnesota will remove larvae or pupae that they sense Hygienic queens and they swarm or are may be ill or distressed. Hygienic colonies have superseded, and the new virgins mate with any less and chalkbrood, and ol’ traveling salesmen in the neighborhood, the fewer Varroa mites, than non-hygienic ones. recessive trait will be lost in the next As they explained in an article in American generation. So we’ll either need 1) a Bee Journal (December 2008), Spivac and sophisticated breeding program with lots of Reuter did not intend to develop a hygienic -mother colonies in an isolated commercially-sold line of honey bees. Instead area, 2) skills and equipment to do Instrumental they wanted to demonstrate a proof-of-concept Insemination so we can control the genetics than anyone can select for hygienic bees in any without any doubt, or 3) never raise our own bee population, because, they said, “the hygienic queens, always purchasing one from a hygienic trait is found in all races and stocks of certified Minnesota Hygienic breeder when the bees. It just needs to be enhanced through situation warrants. some simple selective breeding.” They proved their point, but people haven’t (VSH) followed up with their own widespread The Minnesota Hygienic trait is general selective breeding programs. So Minnesota against any brood malady. Jeff Harris, John Hygienics remain a unique, commercially- Harbo and their colleagues at the USDA available strain. Research Station in Louisiana have selectively How can we tell if bees are exceptionally bred bees that specifically reduce the hygienic? Spivac and Reuter said, “There is a reproductive rate of varroa mites. Bees with the relatively easy field test for the hygienic trait. A trait remove pupae that are infested with virile portion of sealed worker brood within a colony mites, leaving non-reproductive mites alone. is freeze killed [using liquid nitrogen], and the This trait was originally called Suppressed Mite amount of dead brood that is uncapped and Reproduction (SMR); this term has been removed is recorded. If a colony removes >95% replaced with Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH). of the freeze-killed brood within 24 hours over The trait can be selectively bred in any race. two repetitions, it is considered hygienic. The The VSH trait doesn’t depend on a single rapid removal of freeze-killed brood is gene. It is genetically “additive”, neither correlated with the removal of diseased and recessive nor dominant. So the progeny of pure mite-parasitized brood. It is then easy to raise VSH virgins and run-of-the-mill drones should queens from colonies that are hygienic.” still have some level of VSH behavior, although

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Races of honey bees February 1, 2017 it will inevitably be diluted after descending beautiful pale yellow color. The color is more or several generations from the pure stock. less consistent over the whole body, not in distinct stripes. This color trait can be used as a Important caveat breeding marker when experimenting with Minnesota Hygienics and VSH bees are not other traits, but mostly it is just a very magic and they don’t solve our Varroa problem. interesting quirk, a way to have bees that are Instead they can help. If we can keep bees that unique among your bee buddies. Cordovan reduce Varroa mite levels, then hopefully we Italians are not inherently any different than may only need to apply treatments once a year non-Cordovan Italians. in the fall, instead of two or three times per year. That’s the realistic goal for the Buckfasts foreseeable future. Lastly I’ll briefly mention Buckfasts, since I encourage everyone to experiment with they continue to generate discussion and mite-resistant stocks, purchasing them from interest. Buckfasts are a hybridized strain of certified, reliable sources. But if we do that we leather-colored Italians originally developed by must periodically test Varroa mite levels to Brother Adam at England’s Buckfast Abbey. monitor how well the bees are performing. If Brother Adam travelled all over Europe, the they are not living up to expectations, apply an Mediterranean and Africa in search of the best effective, legal miticide to the colony – don’t let strains of bees (he published a fascinating book the poor bees suffer and die a miserable death, with that title describing his journeys). He spreading mites around your neighborhood as maintained a “base stock” of bees and the colony collapses and is robbed out. After interbred them with all sorts of races in order to cleaning up the colony with respect to Varroa create high-production hybrids. These did well mites, replace the queen with a new one from a in his part of England. The hybrids rarely “bred reliable hygienic supplier. This way we can still true” (producing offspring with the same pursue our goals while not harming other characteristics as the parents); that’s why his beekeepers with “mite bombs” from failing system of maintaining a base stock was so colonies. Without this level of oversight and important to his success with hybrids. active management, a well-intentioned Brother Adam died in 1996 at the age of 99. beekeeper will become a big part of the The Abbey no longer breeds Buckfast bees, but problem instead of a part of the solution. they are very popular in several Scandinavian Also know that the limitation I mentioned countries where their breeders follow strict for Russians with respect to having all bees in protocols to ensure purity. the area having the same genetics also applies Buckfast sperm was brought to Texas by to any Varroa-resisting trait: if neighboring special permit in the 1960s. From that, Texas beekeepers ignore or don’t effectively control bee producers claim to have a Buckfast strain. Varroa mites, our high-priced, good-intentioned However, after nearly 60 years these are quite Varroa-fighting bees will be overwhelmed by far removed from their “Buckfast” linage, their collapsing disease- and pest-ridden ones. especially since they are bred in African bee See “I Don’t See Any Mites” for related territory. I cannot believe that they bear a close information. relationship to Brother Adam’s bees… in fact I doubt that the bees at Buckfast Abbey itself still Cordovan Italian retain a very close relation to his famous bees Cordovan is a recessive color variation in without Brother Adam’s vigilant oversight. Italians. The cordovan color can exist in other So in my opinion, as far as US bees are races as well, but is most often specifically bred concerned, Buckfasts are an interesting for in Italians. historical sidenote along with Midnites and Cordovan bees, especially the queen, are a Starlines. Don’t bother trying to acquire them;

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Races of honey bees February 1, 2017 they don’t actually exist here. If you are looking complex. Is that possible? I don’t know of any for a bee race different than what everybody breeds of dogs that have inherent resistance to else has and with an interesting back-story, try fleas, ticks and the diseases they vector, or Russians. horses that are naturally immune to equine encephalitis, but there is academic evidence Recommendation for the brand-new that some honey bees in some situations are beekeeper able to coexist with some varroa mites, at least If someone is starting out as a brand-new for a reasonable amount of time. Notice that beekeeper and asks what race of bee to buy, there are three variables in that equation: the my advice is simple. Do what Langstroth, bees, the situation and the mites. Separating Quinby, Root and almost everybody in North the effect of those three in reports of positive Carolina have done: buy Italians. There is a results is a difficult task. What we desire is a reason they have done so. Italians are quick to super-bee that wins over Varroa mites in all build up their population, they eagerly situations and with all mite populations. And we construct comb and they are gentle. They are really want the super-bee trait to persist in the readily and cheaply available from lots of bee population, reliably passed on from mama sources early in the year. bee to her offspring, generation after Once the colony is well established, either generation. As of today, this super-bee in the first fall or the second season, the queen definitely hasn’t arrived. can easily be replaced with a Russian, Hygienic What we can do is look for a bee strain with or VSH variety if desired. Within two months, verifiable evidence that it may do better (don’t the entire colony will be the progeny of the new take Billy Bob Beekeeper’s word for it), and queen. This strategy results in a win-win: we then try it in our bee yard. Test it out; don’t quickly get a large, self-sustainable colony and assume that it is better. All we can hope for is then transition to a colony with the genetics we colonies that do better… and better… and desire long-term. better over time. While all this testing and It’s also important to note that the traits improving is going on, control mites with legal that are important to us, such as gentleness, miticides, following the label directions to the productivity, overwintering ability, varroa letter. Remember that the goal isn’t to pollute tolerance, etc., can vary much more between your neighborhood with mites; it is to have two different colonies of the same race than better (and living) colonies -- ones that may, they do between the races themselves. So while perhaps, require fewer annual treatments or purported race characteristics can give us a more benign treatments. general expectation, that expectation can prove Does that sound like a reasonable to be completely wrong for any particular approach? colony.

A final word on Varroa resistance Randall Austin is a NC Master Beekeeper keeps The Holy Grail of modern beekeeping is to a few honey bee hives in northern Orange develop a honey bee that is resistant to the County. He can be reached at debilitating damage caused by Varroa mites and [email protected]. the deadly viruses that go along with them. Just as we have developed tomato plants that don’t Copyright 2017, no reproduction in whole or in succumb to common diseases, we’d like honey part without permission of the author, except bees that are able to laugh off the Varroa mite for noncommercial, educational purposes.

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