19.05.2018 Italian Bee | Beespoke Ifo
Beespoke Info
BEE BASICS, BEE BREEDING, QUEEN REARING
ITALIAN BEE
JANUARY 20, 2014 | GIMLET | LEAVE A COMMENT.
The Italian bee - also known as Apis mellifera ligustica or A.m.ligustica for short ~ is perfectly adapted to
the Italian climate and flora and a very glamorous bee altogether.
As you can see from this photo, borrowed from http://beeinformed.org, itis mainly light brown in colour
and strikingly striped with dark brown on the abdomen,
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Italian Queen with retinue
‘As you would expect, it has its origins in Italy and is well adapted to the warm Mediterranean climate but
it can also do well further north. The great beekeeper Johann Dzierzon - he of beespace fame imported
them to Poland and worked them there for many years. They were also much imported to England and
Ireland for a time as they do have many admirable qualities:
+ Inagood year they will bring in enormous crops of honey.
+ They are very placid and easy to handle.
+ They have a low swarming instinct,
+ They also have a long proboscis which means they can take full advantage of the red clover which is a
flower witha very deep throat.
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They fare less well when the weather gets shitty though, and for a number of reasons:
+ They are smaller, slimmer bees so less able to maintain body temperature.
+ They bring in less propolis which makes them easier to work but in a cold, windy winter they might
feel the draughts whistling round their ankles.
+ They continue to breed very late in the year and as a result go into the winter with a large colonies
and many mouths to feed. Then they start to build up again very early ~ another drain on precious
stores in the chilly north. They are renowned for the amount of stores they will go through in the
winter.
«They drift and they rob;
+ Small Hive Beetle has been found in Italy so before you go importing Italian bees or buying bees from
someone who imports Italian bees - think about what else you might be importing. Click here for
more on Small Hive Beetle;
« Also bear in mind - you will only have Italian bees for one year ~ after that you will have mongrel bees
because they will interbreed with your neighbour's native bees and you will have to consider re-
queening with more imported queens every year.
+ And you will mess up your neighbour's breeding programmes.
Cordovan Italians are a paler variant and as you can see from the picture below, again
from beeinformed.org they are very beautiful and almost yellow.
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Cordovan Italian Queen with workers
I saw these once, they were working the blackberry, along with a number of their dark brown
Amumellifera cousins, in south east England. | could hardly believe my eyes - they really are this pale.
Click here for more about the Native Irish Bee
Click here for updated list of Irish Native Honey Bee suppliers
Click here for the Grey bee - Apis mellifera carnica
Click here for the hybrid Buckfast bee
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