Bees

The dispute between Chinese bees and Italian bees has, at some unknown point, become a focal point of argument among beekeepers and honey eaters, fought over bitterly, yet it seems to be a battle that will never have a winner. A beekeeper with 40 years of beekeeping experience shares his own views.

Honey

First, let's talk about bee species.

Regarding bee species, the advantages of Chinese bees: ① they can gather scattered nectar sources; when nectar sources are scarce, Chinese bees have a stronger ability to collect honey; ② they have stronger disease resistance; as native bees, they have stronger adaptability to the environment and are less prone to illness. The disadvantages of Chinese bees: ① they cannot be kept in strong colonies, they tend to swarm, and they are not easy to manage; ② they produce less honey, and most are kept in fixed locations, so they can only harvest honey once or twice a year; ③ they do not produce secondary bee products such as royal jelly and beeswax, or if they do, very little;

The advantages of Italian bees: ① they are relatively gentle, making them easy to keep and manage; ② there are specialized bee species for collecting honey and specialized ones for producing royal jelly, which is more conducive to producing different bee products; ③ they follow the flowering season and migrate, and for large nectar sources they have a stronger collecting ability and produce large amounts of honey. The disadvantages of Italian bees: ① they eat a lot; when nectar sources are insufficient, they must be fed white sugar or honey; ② compared with Chinese bees, they do not have as strong resistance; ③ their ability to utilize scattered nectar sources is not strong enough.

Therefore, which kind of bee keepers choose still depends on their own actual circumstances.

Honey

Second, let's talk about honey

This is the topic most people care about. ① Price aspect: Chinese bee honey is more expensive than Italian bee honey, sometimes several times more expensive. Why is that? Because Chinese bee honey mostly comes from fixed-location beekeeping, the flowering season is relatively fixed, and honey is collected only once or twice a year, so the yield is relatively low; while Italian bees chase the flowering season and spend half the year collecting honey, so the yield is relatively large. Things are precious when they are scarce, which causes the price of Chinese bee honey to be higher; ② Quality aspect: under the same external environment, for example the same site and the same period, if both produce capped mature honey, then there is no difference in nutritional value between Chinese bee honey and Italian bee honey. There may be slight differences in taste, but most non-professionals cannot taste any difference.

Therefore, when choosing honey, everyone can choose according to their own preferences and economic strength. It is not that expensive honey is good; what suits you is what is good!

Bees

The above is Acheng's personal brief discussion of Chinese bees and Italian bees. It may not be entirely accurate, and everyone is welcome to leave comments and exchange views.