Spring and early summer is when you should graft honey bee queens.
mate with the new queens
They are not native to anywhere, they are the result of a cross between Tanzanian honey bee queens that escaped from a research establishment in Brazil and local drones.
The size of a honey bee is determined by the species. They are pretty much going to be the same size, with the drones and queens being slightly larger.
'Killer bees' are more properly called Africanized honey bees. They are the result of a cross between Tanzanian honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) queens and Western honey bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) drones.
The Africanized honey bee is a descendant from one of 26 Tanzanian honey bee queens (apis mellifera scutellata) that escaped from a research station in Brazil and mated with local European honey bee drones (apis mellifera mellifera).
The queens role is to reproduce because it is the only female bee in the hive.
A queen honey bee will stay in the hive. Honey bees do not hibernate, but will cluster together in the hive to keep warm. Bumble bee workers and drones, and the older queens die when the cold weather arrives, and the young queens find a sheltered place and hibernate through the winter.
Honey bee queens have been known to live for up to five years although three years is more usual.
It was hoped the much greater numbers of the European honey bee would swamp out the Africanized honey bee as they naturally cross-bred. The problem has turned out to be that the Africanized honey bee queen has a very slightly shorter pupation period than the European honey bee queen, so she tends to emerge first. A newly-emerged queen will try to kill all the other developing queens before they emerge. This slight imbalance means the Africanized bee has a slight advantage and this is why hives can become Africanized as the queens are replaced.
Not normally. Within the hive there is not enough loose honey for this to happen. Should a bee get covered with honey, the bees around it will quickly clean the honey off.
the honey bee
a normal honey bee a bee