“Which honey bee species should I get?”
This is one of the things we get asked the most from new beekeepers. Unfortunately, there is no one clear answer to this question.
For most beekeepers, this comes down to a choice between Italian and Carniolan honey bees.
Both honey bee species have pros and cons that may sway your decision. The best thing you can do is learn the differences between these two species and make your decision from there.
In this blog post, you’ll learn these differences as well as our recommendation for our favorite species.
Brief Disclaimer
Before we get into the details, I want to make sure you know that we try to be as objective as possible when doing reviews. We base our reviews off of our experiences with different products and we’re not afraid to go against the grain when needed.
Our ultimate goal is to provide the best possible recommendations for backyard beekeepers.
In these reviews, you might find things that many others won’t agree with and that’s ok. We encourage all beekeepers to do their due diligence and make sure to select products that best fit their beekeeping goals.
With that out of the way, let’s jump into the review.
Italian Honey Bees
Let’s start by taking a look at Italian Honey Bees
Italian bees are one of the greatest honey bee species in our opinion because they generally exhibit the best combination of good traits found in other species.
Specifically, Italian honey bees are known to do the following:
- Produce a large supply of honey
- Create strong colonies that grow rapidly
- Exhibit more mild temperaments than aggressive species such as Russian or Africanized bees
- Survive the winter better than more docile species
Our experience has shown that Italians are the most balanced of any honey bee specie.
While they don’t winter as well as more aggressive species, they are much easier to work with which makes them a very attractive option for new beekeepers.
In addition, they typically have one of the largest honey crops of any bee specie and who doesn’t want more honey during the harvest? This is another big benefit of using Italians.
Over all, Italians are one of the best options for your bees. Here’s our score:
4.5 stars out of 5
Carniolan Honey Bees
Now let’s jump over to Carniolan Honey Bees
Carniolans (often nicknamed “Carnies”) are known for being a very gentle honey bee species which make them a good choice for beekeepers who want to minimize their chances of getting stung.
Important Note
If you have severe aversion to getting stung, beekeeping may not be the activity for you. Even though Carniolan bees are gentle, it’s very likely that you will get stung at some point.
Carniolan honey bees generally exhibit the following traits:
- Start foraging earlier than most other species in early spring
- Produce large quantities of beeswax
- Exhibit very gentle temperaments
- Survive the winter relatively well
Because Carniolans begin foraging earlier, they are a good choice if your winter sets in early and you need to give your bees as much time as possible to forage. Just also know that you’ll most likely need to feed them longer in the spring than Italians because they begin foraging sooner.
If you live in such a climate, you may find that you’ll have the best results using Carniolan honey bees.
At Bear Country Bees, the trade-off we’ve experienced with Carniolans is that they don’t seem to winter as well as other species despite various resources suggesting that they are better at it.
Important Note
You don’t have to look very hard to find resources that state that Carniolans winter better than Italians do. it is simply our observation, some queens are just better than the queen next door simply just like one human may be more athletic than the other, but general traits of the Carnie show they have better over wintering ability by forming a much tighter brood nest going into winter allowing for better preparedness going into winter. dependent on where you are you may find your winters are harsh and choose carnies compared to another beekeeper who is in a warmer climate hence they might choose Italians. we at brood brothers have both and like to have a range to suit our customers.
That said, most of the time you can’t go wrong using Carniolan bees. They are quite gentle and get a nice early start in the spring. Either of these points could be enough to persuade you to use Carniolans.
This is our score for Carniolan:
4 stars out of 5
Our Recommendation
When comparing these two species based on the above criteria, our recommendation for most beekeepers is to use Italian bees.
In our experience, Italian bees have an edge over Carniolans in both their ability to successfully winter and produce more honey. The fact that Italians tend to build stronger colonies than Carniolans is also a plus.
It’s important to know that you won’t go wrong using either of these honey bee species for either backyard or commercial beekeeping.
Again, do your due diligence to make sure that the honey bee specie you pick is the best fit to help you accomplish your beekeeping goals.
