If I have one hive of American Honey Bees, would it be a bad idea, if the hive next it is an Italian breed of the bees? Should I keep them away from each other?
An interesting question Tim. I would suspect that in good times there would be no problems but it may be a different matter in a dearth when robbing might happen.
In Australia the primary bee is of the Italian strain but apiaries can have other strains and exist together well.
Cheers
I think it wold be fine- I have had dark bees live alongside light yellow bees with no issue. I even requeened a dark hive with a yellow Italian queen and they accepted her straight away. For a time the hive was half and half.
Oh ok sounds good, that is what I will do.
What strain are American honey bees? Do you mean Native American bees? Or imported European honey bees?
We have Italian, subspecies Ligurians, Caucasian and Carniolan bees in our apiaries. They are fine together.
Still wonder what American honey bees are though. Could you explain?
Native North American Honey Bees? – Native Beeology
Jan 26, 2018 - The European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) arrived in the Americas aboard European ships around 1622. … It has always been assumed that honey bees are not native to North America until a recent discovery found a single fossil of a native North American honey bee in the Stewart Valley basin in west-central Nevada.
It seems that Apis Mellifera is your “American Honey Bee” so you will have no problems with other species of honey bee. More important than the species is the temperament of the queen and her progeny.
I know one person that says ‘his bees are mutts and probably from the Italian strain and he selects for temperament for his queens.’
Cheers
I had two hives of American Honey Bees, one died on me this fall. I was thinking of trying another breed for the second hive. I was thinking of getting Italian Honey Bees.
Italian strain of honey bee is a good choice, the plus for them is that they work hard and can be very calm bees to work with. The minus is that some folks claim that they consume more honey than some other strains but the colonies tend to build up strong and fast… In Australia most commercial bee keepers try to use the Italian genes but here what we end up with is a bit of a mixed bag of a gene pool. Mine are ‘basically’ Italian but some of mine are darker than others hinting they are what we term ‘mutt bees’ of unknown genetics but as they are acclimatized to this location they produce very well.
Regards
Regards