Anyone into Italian Bees?

Looking to start with couple of boxes and see how it goes.

Used to have Indian bees before and but had issues with swarming, But with Italian bees I hear they are less prone to swarming.

Any suggestions or things to look out for and any good resource in Tamilnadu area to acquire good colony?

Thanks!

Hi Senthil
I am in UK and do keep Italian bees…
Swarming always goes with any kind of bees… You can control swarming by taking some preventive measures but never Stop it… I am keeping bees for 4 yrs and have collected almost 6 swarms all frm my hives…
And European bees have lot of diseases which the native Indian bees are immune to… Ex Varrora etc…
And people here in UK are moving towards rearing native Black bees as they are native to UK…
Seeing all this would better suggest you to go with the Indian bees and employ swarm control strategies… Which might reduce swarming but NOT stop it…
Swarming is a way the bee colony (An organism as a whole) grows… U can’t stop it…

Regards
Sundeep

Thanks for clearing that up. Didn’t realize Indian bees are immune to mites.

Is the increased yield in honey worth the effort to try Italian bees?

Dear Sri Senthil,

Pleese see a : Topic: Honey bee keeping - pics and resources (Read 20097 times) started on 26.02.2012 : in our farmnest.

In general , in any variety of Honey bee swarm, a queen bee with support of male bees, service bees will live together. Rarely queen bees also born but after maturity it never try/accept to share with another queen bee. Hence one queen bee goes out with some male bees and service bees and open a new swarm .

Apis Mellifera , an Italian variety Honey bee, which is well grown in bee hives by our indian bee farmers. It is doing well in our north/south indian conditions.

You can have full details either in KVIC, Vijayarai,Andhrapradesh or TNAU,Periyakulam, Tamilnadu.

with best wishes, g.p.rao, farmer