THE DILEMMA OF FOREIGN OR ALIEN BEES

Everybody believes that bees are insects but they are really invertebrate animals that belong to the hymenoptera group, an enormous group of insects that include ants, bees, wasps and bumblebees.
When we speak about bees everybody thinks that they are social insects, that form swarms, gather and store honey......... Yes, our bees are social insects and they are formed by three types of individuals: a queen, thousands of workers and hundreds of drone bees but the majority of the species are loners, they don't form swarms nor produce honey. These solitary bees are very very important pollinators.
If you want to know more about these solitary bees we recommend that you read the post by Emma O'Brien, Biologist.
Why has this post been titled "The Dilemma of Foreign bees"?
It is really a topic that starts heated debates amongst beekeepers and I, personally, have still not decided in which group to be in because I understand the two points of view (arguments) but I wonder if in the reasoning behind these they have taken into account the actual needs that our bees have............
I will try to simplify this dilemma.
There are two different opinions those who believe that you must only work with local or native bees from your zone and those who think that as beekeepers we must choose the breed of bees most appropriate to making beekeeping profitable. As I explained above there are many species of bees but only a few produce honey and are used by us. Various species are of the Apis type and in each one there are different breeds and subspecies that are generally associated with regions or countries.
We, the European apiarists, are working with the same breed of honey producing bees and is it the same in all the other regions of the world? The answer to the two questions is no. The types of bees are different because of their own adaptations to their ecosystems, some of their characteristics are distinct, for example docility, the resistance to certain climates, their productivity, etc. Being associated with different regions of the world these bees have different behavioural patterns and are confronted by illnesses and parasites , are genetically  close and can reproduce giving breeds of fertile hybrids.
when we bring in foreign bees because we are looking for certain characteristics we run the risk of introducing illnesses and parasites from other latitudes to which the local or native bees can't or don't know how to defend themselves and besides we run the risk of hybridization. Because of these things the two sides in the apicultural dispute are at loggerheads.

One of my beehives is hybrid and their behaviour is aggressive , it is true that it produces a lot of honey, pollen and propolis but I am more interested in passive behaviour amongst the bees. This, in my humble opinion, does not affect productivity just like some breeds show and are much appreciated for these two characteristics. This type of hive as you can imagine presents a serious problem for me, but how do you annul that aggressive characteristic? There are techniques that I use in these cases and I combine the introduction  of queen bees from tame beehives but this means an enormous effort because the hybrids don't easily accept a new queen, it is very complicated to introduce a new mother and that she will be accepted.  The images that I give you correspond to a passive queen that I introduced one Sunday and the beehive didn't accept, killing her......It will have to be tried again......
This post generates a lot more questions consequently I will try to do others and in them I will expand this delicate theme.
                     Greetings to everyone!

 

Ubicación: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain