There are 3 species of bees now living in the Solomon Islands that make honey. Only one of these belongs (is native) to the Solomon Islands. The other two have been brought to the Solomon Islands.

1. Trigona: This is the native bush bee. It is a small black bee that can’t sting. It may try to protect its colony by flying into people’s ears. It is found in hollow logs in the bush, and sometimes inside the concrete walls or steps of houses. It is hard to keep. People in the Solomon Islands have hunted these bees and collected their honey for thousands of years. Some people still do this today. The honey from this native bee is very special.

1. Apis mellifera mellifera: This is the European black bee. It was first brought to the Solomon Islands in the 1950s from England. This was the first kind of bee that was kept in boxes. Some of these bees ran away to the bush and now live wild all over the Solomon Islands. Another type or strain of this mellifera species is the Italian yellow bee or Apis mellifera ligustica. This bee was brought to the Solomon Islands from New Zealand and Australia in the 1980s. The Italian yellow bee (ligustica) is the one that most beekeepers now keep in the Solomon Islands. It is thought to be less cross (defensive) than the black mellifera bee. Because these 2 kinds of mellifera bee are the same species, they can mate and reproduce. If you see darker coloured bees in your hive, this may mean that your yellow ligustica queen has mated with some black mellifera drone bees.
2. Apis cerana: This is the Asiatic Hive Bee. People think it came to Guadalcanal around the year 2000. No one knows for sure how it came here. The closest place where it lives is Papua New Guinea. Guadalcanal is too far away from PNG for it to fly. It may have come by ship as a wild colony that flew to shore when the ship came to Honiara. Apis cerana is spreading and has been found in Guadalcanal, Savo, Nggela, New Georgia; in August 2005 it was found on Makira. It is likely that this Asiatic bee brought with it another pest, the varroa mite. You will learn more about this bee and pest in lesson 11. The Ministry of Agriculture has started a quarantine to keep this bee and mite from spreading to the rest of the Solomon Islands. This bee is native to most of Asia. It lives wild in the bush. It is also kept by beekeepers in many Asian countries. It is hard to keep the kind of Apis cerana found in the Solomon Islands because it is more defensive or cross than European (mellifera) honeybees. Also, it does not produce as much honey as European (mellifera) bees. It looks like the mellifera and ligustica honeybee but is a little bit smaller. Its stripes are a little bit more yellow.

Keep your eyes open for this bee. If you see one of these cerana bees, try and catch it and take it to your Agriculture office.