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Italian bee
The Italian bee or Italian honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) is a subspecies of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera).
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.[citation needed] 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 (A. m. mellifera).
Brother Adam, a bee breeder and developer of the Buckfast bee, characterized the Italian bee in his book Breeding the Honeybee:
From the commercial and breeding point of view the value of the Ligustica lies in a happy synthesis of a great number of good characteristics. Among these we must mention industry, gentleness, fertility, reluctance to swarm, zeal for building comb, white honey-cappings, a willingness to enter supers, cleanliness, resistance to disease, and the tendency to collect flower honey rather than honey dew. The last-named trait is of value only in countries where the colour of the honey determines the price. The Ligustica has shown that she is able to produce good crops from the red clover. In one other characteristic has the Ligustica proved exceptional and that is in her resistance to Acarine. This is especially true of the dark, leather-coloured variety, whereas the golden strains are highly susceptible to Acarine.
— Brother Adam, "Breeding the Honeybee" (Northern Bee Books: Mytholmroyd, 1987), pp. 96–98.
While the Italian bee has many strong points, among the A.m. ligustica it has a large number of weak points:
The Ligustica has her drawbacks, and these are serious. She lacks vitality and is inclined to excessive brood rearing. These two faults are the root cause of her other disadvantages. She has too a tendency to drift which is caused by a poor sense of orientation and this can prove a drawback where colonies are set out in rows facing in one direction as is the common practice in apiaries almost world-wide ...
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Italian bee
The Italian bee or Italian honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) is a subspecies of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera).
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.[citation needed] 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 (A. m. mellifera).
Brother Adam, a bee breeder and developer of the Buckfast bee, characterized the Italian bee in his book Breeding the Honeybee:
From the commercial and breeding point of view the value of the Ligustica lies in a happy synthesis of a great number of good characteristics. Among these we must mention industry, gentleness, fertility, reluctance to swarm, zeal for building comb, white honey-cappings, a willingness to enter supers, cleanliness, resistance to disease, and the tendency to collect flower honey rather than honey dew. The last-named trait is of value only in countries where the colour of the honey determines the price. The Ligustica has shown that she is able to produce good crops from the red clover. In one other characteristic has the Ligustica proved exceptional and that is in her resistance to Acarine. This is especially true of the dark, leather-coloured variety, whereas the golden strains are highly susceptible to Acarine.
— Brother Adam, "Breeding the Honeybee" (Northern Bee Books: Mytholmroyd, 1987), pp. 96–98.
While the Italian bee has many strong points, among the A.m. ligustica it has a large number of weak points:
The Ligustica has her drawbacks, and these are serious. She lacks vitality and is inclined to excessive brood rearing. These two faults are the root cause of her other disadvantages. She has too a tendency to drift which is caused by a poor sense of orientation and this can prove a drawback where colonies are set out in rows facing in one direction as is the common practice in apiaries almost world-wide ...