Sicilian Bee

The Sicilian bee (Apis mellifera siciliana, also written A. m. sicula) is a dark honey bee subspecies unique to the Italian island of Sicily and belonging to the African (A) lineage; it is also known as the Sicilian black bee. It is known for its gentleness, its ability to work at temperatures above 40 °C and its early brood rearing in winter. It almost disappeared in the 1970s as the Italian bee spread, and was saved by a conservation effort that began in the late 1980s.

What is the Sicilian bee, and where does it come from?

The Sicilian bee lives geographically in Europe but is genetically close to North African bees. Its mitochondrial DNA points to the African (A) lineage; the same is true of the Maltese bee (A. m. ruttneri). Scientists interpret this as the trace of an ancient flow of bees between Africa and the islands in this part of the Mediterranean.

The island has been the home of this bee for thousands of years. It differs clearly, in both colour and behaviour, from the yellow Italian bee (A. m. ligustica) of the rest of Italy.

How do you recognise a Sicilian bee?

• Colour: a dark, almost black abdomen with a yellowish, light-coloured coat of hair.
• Wings: relatively small wings.
• Build: medium to small; looks smaller and darker than the Italian bee.

Descriptions in older texts of it as "dark yellow and black" are wrong; yellow-banded bees on the island are mostly Italian bees or their hybrids. Reliable identification requires wing morphometrics and DNA analysis.

Behaviour and productivity traits

• Gentleness: known as a very calm bee; local beekeepers say they can work without a veil even during the harvest. Still, protective equipment is recommended for every hive.
• Heat tolerance: it can keep foraging in summer heat above 40 °C, when other bees stop; it adapts to sudden temperature changes.
• Winter brood: starts rearing brood in December–January, making use of plants that bloom in the mild, rainy Mediterranean winter.
• Thrift: reported to consume less honey than other bees.
• Many queen cups: builds a large number of queen cups before swarming or supersedure; two queens may be seen in a colony at the same time. For this reason, queen rearing and splitting require careful monitoring.

Differences between the Sicilian bee and the Italian bee

Because the two bees occur side by side on the island, beekeepers often compare them. The general tendencies are as follows (there can be differences between lines and hybrids):

This table is not an answer to the question "which is better". The Sicilian bee's advantage comes from its adaptation to the island's hot, dry summers and mild winters; the same results should not be expected in another climate.

How did the Sicilian bee come close to extinction?

Traditional beekeeping on the island was carried out with rectangular hives made from the dried stalks of the ferula (giant fennel) plant. In the 1970s most beekeepers abandoned these hives and began bringing in Italian bee queens from northern Italy. The local bee soon hybridised and declined.

The arrival of the varroa mite on the island in the early 1980s made things even worse. In 1987 a beekeeper found three local colonies that had survived among hives left untended for years near Palermo. The conservation effort, carried out together with a beekeeping professor from the University of Palermo, started from these colonies.

Conservation on islands: a way to control mating

The hardest part of conserving a honey bee subspecies is that the queen mates in the air, without control. If there are drones of other subspecies nearby, a pure line is lost within a few generations. For this reason the Sicilian bee was moved to small volcanic islands north of Sicily (Ustica, Filicudi, Alicudi, Vulcano); these islands serve as natural mating stations.

A genetic study published in 2014 found gene admixture from European lineages in a significant share of the bees on the main island, but detected no admixture in the conservation colonies on the islands of Vulcano and Filicudi. In other words, the island method works. The Sicilian black bee has also been added to the protection list of an international food movement that safeguards local products, and there are beekeepers producing honey with this bee in several provinces of the island.

Lessons for beekeepers in Türkiye

Sicily's story is very similar to what many areas of Türkiye have experienced: queens that look productive, whether imported or brought from another region, can hybridise the local bee within a few decades. The practical conclusions from the Sicilian example:

1. Don't underestimate the local bee: adaptation to the climate can be more valuable than short-term yield.
2. Control mating: if you want a pure line, an isolated mating area or cooperation with nearby beekeepers is essential.
3. Genetic checks: when choosing breeders, verify purity with wing morphometrics and, if possible, DNA.
4. Conservation and production can go together: in Sicily, the local bee is used in commercial honey production while under protection.