Sub-Saharan African Subspecies

Sub-Saharan African honey bees is the collective name for the Apis mellifera subspecies that live naturally south of the Sahara Desert; the best known are the savanna bee A. m. scutellata, the West African bee A. m. adansonii and the Cape bee A. m. capensis. They are not a single subspecies but a group of subspecies adapted to hot, dry seasons, heavy predator pressure and irregular forage. Defensive, frequent swarmers that abandon their nests when necessary, these bees also stand out for having developed resistance to varroa without treatment.

Which honey bee subspecies live in sub-Saharan Africa?

Older texts speak of a single "sub-Saharan African bee"; this is not correct. Many subspecies that differ morphologically and genetically live in the region. All belong to the African (A) lineage.

The boundaries between these subspecies are not sharp; hybrid populations occur in transition zones. The Nile valley bee, A. m. lamarckii, lives on the north-eastern edge of the Sahara and is usually treated separately.

Shared traits of African bees

Sub-Saharan bees follow a different life strategy from European bees: instead of storing up for winter, they multiply quickly while forage lasts and move on when it runs out.

• High defensiveness: a strong defence developed under pressure from honey badgers, monkeys, birds and human honey hunters.
• Frequent swarming: several swarms a year; small but numerous colonies.
• Migration and absconding: in the dry season or when frequently disturbed, the colony may leave its nest and migrate towards forage.
• Short development time and fast colony growth.
• Few stores, lots of brood: a tendency to invest in brood rather than honey during the forage season.
• Flexible nest choice: tree hollows, rock crevices, termite mounds and sometimes open branches.

Natural nests and open-air combs

African bees usually nest in cavities; but in hot climates, especially in West Africa, open combs hanging from tree branches are also common. With no cold winter, a colony built in the open can survive for years.

The Cape bee: a bee whose workers lay female eggs

The Cape bee (A. m. capensis) has a unique trait among honey bees. In other subspecies, laying workers in a queenless colony produce only drones. Cape bee workers, however, can lay female eggs without mating (thelytoky). This allows a colony that has lost its queen to raise a new queen from a worker-laid egg.

This trait has also created a problem. In 1990, when beekeepers moved Cape bee colonies north into the range of the savanna bee, Cape bee workers entered A. m. scutellata colonies and began laying there. Because these "parasitic" workers produced offspring that did not work and waited to be fed, the host colonies weakened and died out. This event, which led to the loss of tens of thousands of colonies in South Africa, is known as the "capensis calamity" and is an important example of the consequences of moving subspecies outside their natural range.

African bees and varroa

The varroa mite reached South Africa in 1997. At first, the mite reproduced in savanna bee brood as successfully as in European bees, and some colony losses were seen. However, even though beekeepers did not treat, the situation stabilised within a few years: studies report that the Cape bee acquired resistance to the mite within about 3–5 years and the savanna bee within 5–7 years. Today varroa is widespread in this region, but mite loads are generally low.

This experience shows how large wild populations allowed to undergo natural selection can reach a balance with varroa. However, it does not mean the same result can be achieved with bees of European origin, without treatment and without losses.

Traditional and modern beekeeping in Africa

• Honey hunting: taking honey from wild colonies is still widespread. In some regions the honeyguide bird (Indicator indicator) leads people to bee nests, and the bird feeds on the leftover beeswax and larvae; this is one of the best-known examples of mutualism between humans and a wild animal.
• Log and bark hives: hollowed-out logs or cylinders made of tree bark are hung in trees, waiting for swarms to move in on their own.
• Top-bar hive: the frameless Kenyan-type hive in which combs are built on bars; it is cheap and can be made from local materials.
• Framed hive: used in commercial operations, especially in South and East Africa.

When working with defensive bees, hives are placed away from settlements, often suspended or widely spaced; inspections are done in the cooler hours, with plenty of smoke, and kept short.

Can sub-Saharan bees be kept in other countries?

It is not recommended. The spread of the Africanized bee in the Americas and the problem the Cape bee caused within South Africa have shown that these bees can have unpredictable consequences outside their home regions. In countries with a rich local honey bee genetic resource such as Türkiye, the right path is to protect local subspecies and select within them.