Western honey bee and Africa", making conservation of wild-bee diversity important. They further argue that the difficulty of controlling drones for mating is a serious handicap and a sign that domestication is not complete, in particular as "extensive gene flow usually occurs between wild/feral and managed honeybee populations". The honey bee is a colonial insect which is housed, transported by and sometimes fed by beekeepers. Honey bees do not survive and reproduce individually, but as part of the colony (a superorganism). Honey bees collect flower nectar and convert it to honey, which is stored in the hive. The nectar, transported in the bees'
Maltese honey bee the loss of native colonies. In 1997 it was identified as a sub-species. It breeds well with the Italian sub-species making a strain that defends well against "Varroa", having a good honey yield and is less aggressive, although this is somewhat endangering the Maltese sub-species as a genetically distinct entity; however after some generations it reverts back to it's natural aggressive state. Maltese honey bee The Maltese honey bee, "Apis mellifera ruttneri", is a sub-species of the Western honey bee. It originates from Malta, where it is native. The bee is a sub-species of the Western honey bee that has