Livestock

Western Honey Bee

Also Known As European honey bee

Minor and Specialty Livestock Species

The one insect humanity farms at global scale. Kept for honey and wax since ancient Egypt, the western honey bee's real agricultural weight today is pollination: managed hives are trucked between orchards and fields to set fruit, nuts and seed for dozens of crops, which is why colony collapse disorder was an agricultural alarm and not just a beekeeping one. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts

Scientific Name

Apis mellifera 1

Domestication Region

Managed since antiquity in Egypt and the Near East; never fully domesticated in the genetic sense 1

Domesticated When (Circa)

hive beekeeping attested in Egypt by circa 2600 BC 1

Primary Uses

Crop pollination, honey, beeswax 1

Era

Era (category)

Bronze Age 1

Connections

Associated With

Agricultural Biodiversity

As the managed pollinator behind a large share of insect-pollinated food crops, the western honey bee is a direct stake in agricultural biodiversity.

Source Western Honey Bee (Wikipedia)

American Foulbrood

American foulbrood (Paenibacillus larvae) is the most destructive bacterial brood disease of honey bee colonies.

Apiculture

Source Beekeeping (Wikipedia)

Beekeeping

European Foulbrood

European foulbrood (Melissococcus plutonius) is a widespread bacterial brood disease of honey bee colonies.

Nosema Disease

Nosema disease, caused by microsporidian parasites, is a widespread gut disease of adult honey bees.

Small Hive Beetle

The small hive beetle is an invasive pest that damages honey bee comb, brood, and stored honey.

Varroa Mite

The Varroa mite is the single most damaging parasite of western honey bee colonies worldwide.

Open Questions

What caused colony collapse disorder, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from managed hives reported at scale from 2006?

Source Colony Collapse Disorder (Wikipedia)

In the Other Atlases

Also in Geography Atlas: North Africa, found in there.
Also in History Atlas: The Ancient Near East and Bronze Age World, era of origin there.

Sources

1. Western Honey Bee (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia Foundation

Lead section
The western honey bee was one of the first domesticated insects, and it is the primary species maintained by beekeepers to this day for both its honey production and pollination activities.
History section
Bees were likely first domesticated in ancient Egypt, where tomb paintings depict beekeeping, before 2600 BC.
Associated With: Agricultural Biodiversity

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Beekeeping (Wikipedia)

WikipediaAssociated With: Apiculture, Lead section

Quote, Associated With: Apiculture, Lead section

Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives.

View the Source

Open Questions (1 open question)

What caused colony collapse disorder, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from managed hives reported at scale from 2006?

No single cause has been established despite nearly two decades of investigation. The leading candidates, Varroa mites and the viruses they carry, neonicotinoid and other pesticide exposures, poor nutrition from monoculture forage, pathogens such as Nosema, and interactions among all of these, each explain some collapses and fail to explain others, and the syndrome's defining sign, workers vanishing while brood and stores remain, resists a clean single-agent account.

What would resolve this Controlled studies able to reproduce the specific abandonment syndrome under defined combinations of stressors, or field epidemiology strong enough to assign relative weights to the candidate factors rather than merely listing them.

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Western Honey Bee

Associated With

Open Questions