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In this blog I will certainly talk about many types of bees. There are about 20,000 different species of bee out there that's a freaking ass load of bees to talk about and many of them are very cool and very specialized for survival. of that ass load of bees It is likely that we will mainly focus on the members of the genus of Apis. This my friends is the family of honey bees. At the moment there are only 7 recognized members of this genus and there are 44 subspecies at other times there were as many as 11 recognized honey bees but you know shit happens and you get reclassified just ask Pluto. “Dwarfed Planet” that's some B.S. You will always be #9 to me Blue. you're my boy Blue you're my boy…. But enough of that I'm not here to talk about planets I’m here to talk about bees. Generally when talking about honey bees they will be referred to like this Italian, German, Carniolan, Buckfast, Caucasian, and Russian. Each type has been bred for specific traits that make them better suited for different situations or needs of the beekeeper. I found this great trait chart at http://www.beesource.com/resources/usda/the-different-types-of-honey-bees/
The two most common bees kept by beekeepers in the US are the Italian and the Russian. The Italian generally being the best overall producer and the Russian having better natural defenses against things like the Varroa Mite. ( the scourge of honey bees now the world over).
In a healthy honey bee hive you will have 3 types of adult bees
( in order of population density descending )
Workers - (females that do all the tasking in the hive)
Drones - ( males that try to pass on genetic material to a mating queen )
Queens - usually just one. If there is more than one that gets sorted out in an epic fight to the death but that is for another post
Working together a healthy hive can produce as much as 150 lbs. of honey in a single year. Of course that's on the high end but usually even a modest hive can produce 30-60 pounds of the sweet stuff every year.
Originally I had a lot more stuff crammed into this blog entry, but It just went on and on. Its blog about freaking bees. All I have to talk about is bees, and without question the Honey bee is the star. I realized that i have to break this all up or noone will ever read it but I have alot of stuff for the next couple of posts. including a blog entry for each role in the hive, talk about CCD Bee anatomy. and a lot more. So I hope you will keep checking out this blog.
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