Gentlest variety of bees?

[bwallace23350]

This is not really a question for me per say but for knowledge when talking to other people. I have Italians and I can't imagine any bees being more gentle than them. But it is a question that might come up so I was just curious.

[herbhome]

I have heard that Caucasian strain is very docile.

[BeeMaster2]

Most the common species can be very docile or very mean depending on how they are handled, there genetic variations and their environment. In one day I can make a docile hive so mean that you cannot get within 100' of it and there are Beekeepers that have rather docile African bees.
Jim

[bwallace23350]

After buying my first two hives I am going to do a split on my remaining hive hopefully. If that does not work I plan on trying to catch a wild swarm. I would like to have very docile bees but more than anythign I want bees that thrive. I can always suit up.

[Blacksheep]

I would at least wear a veil as you never know when a guard  bee  will be ready to commit to sting you!I have 14 hives and most of the time they are really nice but I was almost stung in the eye just walking along behind the hives>

[bwallace23350]

A few stings just comes with the turf

[GSF]

I don't want to have to get a stinger removed from my eyeball.

[sc-bee]

A few stings just comes with the turf

But avoid the face.... that turf is far too pretty on this MUG  Wear a veil... it is not worth that one in how ever many.... but you might be an odds man.....
I got out of the truck day before yester and one errant bee meet me at the truck just below the eye brow on the upper lid. Just one bee.... but that is all it takes...your call..

[Acebird]

Italians should be the most gentle because it is the bee most commercially bred for that trait.  Once the offspring become mutts it can change.  So if you become the breeder you have to eliminate the defensive bees if you want gentle bees.

[little john]

The Italian bee is gentle, but if it's gentle you're after - then nothing beats the Carniolan.

The Carnie is less prone to robbing than the Italian, drifts far less, and doesn't require the amount of winter stores that the Italian requires.

On the downside, it's honey yield is less, and it can be prone to swarming - although with proper management (large hives with plenty of room for expansion), swarming need not be a problem.

Inspections with Carnies are weird - if you're used to working through a cloud of bees.  They stick to the comb like Velcro, and just get on with doing what bees do best.  It's almost as if they're completely unaware of the beekeeper.
Personal protection isn't really necessary when working with Carnies, but I always keep a veil handy just in case.  Certainly no need for full jump suits or gloves.

More info at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apis_mellifera_subspecies

LJ

[bwallace23350]

I have thought about getting some carniolians but that is because they are just different than Italians and I like the darker look on a bee. But I think after this split I am just going to catch wild swarms. They are survivors and are adapted to our weather.

[220]

The cut out I did the other week is very docile, queen is almost black so thinking maybe cauc.
I haven't even been using the smoker to work them.

[Joe D]

I had a Cordovan Queen, that was a very easy  hive.  When she died, didn't lay a queen cell, I got a Russian to replace her, she was gentle also.  I have had two hives over the years that weren't gentle at all.  They were in different places, but you could get within 20 yards from them and you would get buzzed.  At one of them I have had them follow me for 70 yards before they went back to hive, I was in a golf cart.

Good luck to you and your bees,

Joe  D

[Michael Bush]

Bees vary more from colony to colony than from race to race...

[bwallace23350]

Do more aggressive varieties of bees survive better?

[BeeMaster2]

Do more aggressive varieties of bees survive better?

A lot of old time beekeepers think so.
When I got my first nuc there was a old beekeeper that opened each nuc, looked in and went to the next one. When he opened one that the bees came out and stung him on the face, he bought it. He wanted a good honey producer.
My father-in-law took a swarm from my dads house that we had to hose down because it landed in a tree right in front of the front door just a a very large party started. He wanted it and my dad kept warning him it would be very hot. He took it and 10 years later it was still the most aggressive hive he ever had but it was always the best producer. Every time I saw it it was as tall as I am.
Jim

[bwallace23350]

Why was that swarm hot? Why would being aggressive help them out though?

[little john]

Why would being aggressive help them out though?

You've got cause and effect back to front ... 

The most prolific, the most hardy bees, tend to be mongrels - just think of mongrel dogs, tough as old boots with never a day's sickness in their lives.

It's the same with bees.  Even producers of pure-bred lines acknowledge that it will be a later cross with another bee which will then produce a really good honey-getter - unfortunately by then, with unknown behavioural characteristics. 
That's really the story behind the legendary hybrid Buckfast bee - a hybrid being nothing more than a mongrel with known parental lines.

And so it's mongrelisation which CAN (but not always) cause over-defensiveness/aggression - so - if you discover an aggressive bee, that's pretty-much a sure sign of it being a mongrel. And if it's a mongrel, that's pretty-much a sure sign of it being as tough as old boots and a good honey-getter.
LJ

[BeeMaster2]

Why was that swarm hot? Why would being aggressive help them out though?

The hive became aggressive because we hosed them down to get them to ball up tight so that we could put them in a large plastic trash can. Both my dad and I were in suit and jacket.

Aggressive bees tend to store more honey and defend it better than calm ones.
Jim

[bwallace23350]

Interesting.