Treatment free bees, will they cross breed?

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Will Apis mellifera (common Italian) breed successfully with Apis cerana (Asian)???

From what I have studied the two species will not cross breed.  I just acquired A. Cerana, naturally mite resistant smaller the Italian honey bee.  Cerana are no treat bees.  Ya reading M. Bush, your, my kinda of honey bee, tf, treatment free honey bee.
Any experience, advice, or knowledge of this A. Cerana honey bee would be appreciated.
Blessings

[little john]

Hello Van - this is something I looked into a while back - I failed to find any evidence of successful cross-breeding - which is a pity ...
LJ

[Oldbeavo]

They are an unwelcome species in Australia. They came into northern Queensland and bee keepers have been trying to eradicate them since.
From what I know they are invasive and will take over mellifera hives in the environment.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Thanks Lj, Bill, I use the name {cerana} very loosely, these are a small bee like Cerana.  However these are just a small bred, treatment free bees, or just little mutts that resemble cerana.

I have simple guides for bees:  Black/yellow I call Italian
Black I call Carniolan
Grey/black I call Caucasian
Small bee with 4 yellow bands I call cerana.
Yellow and brown, no black at all, I call Cordovans, queens are reddish head and chest.

I am not exactly a zoologist, very obvious.
Blessings

[beepro]

Van, don't you mean an entomologist?  I thought the grey/black band is the canis bees here.  But again, canis and Russians do look alike judging by their color.  I can only guess of what they are.

So the 4 bands are all solid yellow?  It might be another specie of honeybees not the real cerana bees.  If we have these then they will begin to take over the honeybees' habitats.  Nobody want to deal with bees that don't make much honey.    I'm sure your I.I. process can cross breed them.

[BeeMaster2]

Van,
I suspect your Cerana bees are just mutts that were raised, after a few generations of bees building comb, and they are reverting back to their normal size. We have been raising bees on large cell foundation for almost 100 years.
Jim

[Michael Bush]

>Will Apis mellifera (common Italian) breed successfully with Apis cerana (Asian)???

They do not crossbreed.  Unfortunately they do share pests e.g. Varroa, Nosema cerana etc.  It is illegal to bring them into the US and probably most places they don't already exist.  They also keep small nests, abscond easily and are not very productive.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Beepro {Van, don't you mean an entomologist?}

Yes a better word, entomologist  I referenced zoology for nomenclature purposes only.
Blessings

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Van,
I suspect your Cerana bees are just mutts that were raised, after a few generations of bees building comb, and they are reverting back to their normal size. We have been raising bees on large cell foundation for almost 100 years.
Jim

Agreed 100%, thanks Jim.  They, these cerana size mutts are real Honey makers, the flow is just beginning here and these lil mutts have good stores of Honey and are very calm bees.
Blessings

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

>Will Apis mellifera (common Italian) breed successfully with Apis cerana (Asian)???

They do not crossbreed.  Unfortunately they do share pests e.g. Varroa, Nosema cerana etc.  It is illegal to bring them into the US and probably most places they don't already exist.  They also keep small nests, abscond easily and are not very productive.

ILLEGAL, good to know, in the future I think I will call these lil bees, LIL MUTTS, to distinguish from the average size honey bee and I will avoid using the term cerana, although they look like XXXXX from pics on google.  Thanks MB.

This particular bee has genetics that are traceable to early 1900 and bred to LSU hygienic in the 1990(s) by 3rd generation beekeeper.

Yes I use II process on Cordovans, but never on these lil mutts.  The lil mutts are naturally mite resistant, I cannot improve this trait.
Blessings

[Michael Bush]

I'm talking about Apis cerana when I said they were illegal to import, though I think any bee is illegal to import into the US at present... The feral bees are 75% of the size of the upsized domestic bees.

[beepro]

What if you I.I. back to the Cordovan queen?  Then you will select for both the color and mite
resistance.   I'll bet this will speed up your Cordovan bees mite fighting ability.    Have you ever thought about
cross-breeding species to obtain this result?  Interesting though to see what the worker bees will look like.