Types of Honey Bees: The 8 Species, Common Breeds and the Bee Behind Mad Honey
Quick answer: There are 8 species of honey bee, all in the genus Apis. Only two, the Western honey bee and the Eastern honey bee, are commonly kept by beekeepers. The rest are wild, including the giant honey bees of Asia. Inside every colony there are also three types of bee: the queen, the workers and the drones.
If you ask a beekeeper about types of honey bees, they'll probably talk about Italian or Carniolan bees. If you ask a biologist, you'll hear about eight different species spread across Europe, Africa and Asia. They are both right. They're just answering different questions.
When most people picture a honey bee, they're picturing one bee: the Western honey bee, kept in white boxes all over the world. It is only one of eight. Some of the others are smaller than a fingernail, and one is almost twice its size and builds its nest on Himalayan cliffs.
In this guide you'll learn all eight honey bee species, the three types of bee in every hive, the breeds beekeepers use most, why honey bees matter, the threats they face, and which honey bee makes mad honey.
How Many Types of Honey Bees Are There?
There are 8 honey bee species recognised by most scientists, and every one of them belongs to the genus Apis.
It gets confusing because people use "types" in three ways:
- Species: the eight kinds of Apis bee found in nature.
- Breeds (also called races or stocks): different kinds of the Western honey bee, such as Italian or Russian bees, bred by beekeepers.
- Castes: the three roles inside one colony: queen, worker and drone.
If you're curious about bees in the wild, species is the answer you want. If you're starting a hive, breeds matter more. This guide covers all three.
What Are the 8 Honey Bee Species?
They fall into three simple groups: cavity-nesting bees that live inside hollows, dwarf bees that build small combs on branches, and giant bees that build huge open combs on cliffs and trees.
Here is each species, one by one.
1. Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
It is the most common honey bee in the world and the one most people know.
- Size: about 1.2 to 1.5 cm long
- Where it lives: native to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, now kept on every continent except Antarctica
- Nest: many combs inside a cavity, such as a hollow tree or a beehive box
- Kept by people: yes, almost all commercial honey comes from this bee
They are calm, easy to manage and make large amounts of honey, which is why beekeepers carried them all over the world. It is also the bee that makes Turkish mad honey along the Black Sea coast.
2. Eastern Honey Bee (Apis cerana)
It is the Western honey bee's Asian cousin, a little smaller and very good at defending itself.
- Size: about 1 to 1.2 cm long
- Where it lives: South, Southeast and East Asia, including Nepal, India, China and Japan
- Nest: several combs inside a cavity
- Kept by people: yes, in log hives and wall hives across Asia
When a hornet attacks the nest, they surround it in a tight ball and vibrate until the heat kills it. They are also naturally better at living with varroa mites than Western honey bees. In Nepal, many village families keep this bee in hollow logs or clay pots built into the walls of their homes.
3. Giant Honey Bee or Rock Bee (Apis dorsata)
It is a large, fiery bee from the lowland forests of South and Southeast Asia, often called the rock bee.
- Size: about 1.7 to 2 cm long
- Where it lives: India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and southern China, mostly below 1,000 metres
- Nest: one huge open comb hanging from tall trees, cliffs or even buildings
- Kept by people: no, but people harvest its wild honey
They are known for "shimmering", where hundreds of bees flip their bodies in a fast wave across the comb to scare off birds and wasps. If you disturb a nest, they can sting in very large numbers.
4. Himalayan Giant Honey Bee (Apis laboriosa)
Himalayan giant honey bee is the largest honey bee in the world, and the one behind Himalayan mad honey.
- Size: up to about 3 cm long, nearly twice the size of a Western honey bee
- Where it lives: the Himalayas, in Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, Tibet and nearby mountains, usually between 2,500 and 4,000 metres
- Nest: one huge open comb under a cliff overhang, often more than a metre wide
- Kept by people: no, its honey is collected by hand from the cliffs
When you see one up close, you notice the almost black body and thick hair that keep it warm in cold mountain air. Some scientists once treated it as a mountain form of Apis dorsata, but most now count it as its own species.
5. Red Dwarf Honey Bee (Apis florea)
It is one of the smallest honey bees, with a reddish-orange body.
- Size: about 0.7 to 1 cm long
- Where it lives: from Oman and Iran across India to Southeast Asia
- Nest: a single small comb, about the size of a hand, wrapped around a thin branch
- Kept by people: no, but its small combs are sometimes collected
They are gentle and rarely sting. It makes only a small amount of honey, so it isn't kept for honey production.
6. Black Dwarf Honey Bee (Apis andreniformis)
It is the darker, even smaller sister of the red dwarf bee.
- Size: about 0.6 to 0.8 cm long
- Where it lives: Southeast Asia and southern China
- Nest: a single small comb hidden deep in bushes or thick branches
- Kept by people: no
They are hard to spot because they build in dense plants. It is one of the least studied honey bees.
7. Koschevnikov's Honey Bee (Apis koschevnikovi)
It is a rare, reddish cavity-nesting bee found only in Borneo and nearby parts of Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Size: similar to the Eastern honey bee
- Where it lives: tropical rainforest in Borneo
- Nest: combs inside tree hollows
- Kept by people: no
They look a lot like the Eastern honey bee, so it was only recognised as a separate species in the 1980s.
8. Philippine Honey Bee (Apis nigrocincta)
It is another rare cavity-nesting bee, found in the Philippines and parts of Indonesia.
- Size: similar to the Eastern honey bee
- Where it lives: Mindanao and Sulawesi
- Nest: combs inside cavities
- Kept by people: rarely
They are closely related to the Eastern honey bee and were also separated as a species only in recent decades.
How Do the 8 Honey Bee Species Compare?
It is easier to see the differences side by side.
| Species | Common Name | Size | Where It Lives | Nest | Kept by People? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apis mellifera | Western honey bee | 1.2–1.5 cm | Worldwide (native to Europe and Africa) | Cavity, many combs | Yes |
| Apis cerana | Eastern honey bee | 1–1.2 cm | South and East Asia | Cavity, many combs | Yes |
| Apis dorsata | Giant honey bee (rock bee) | 1.7–2 cm | Lowland South and Southeast Asia | Open, one comb | No, wild honey collected |
| Apis laboriosa | Himalayan giant honey bee | Up to 3 cm | Himalayas, 2,500–4,000 m | Open, one comb on cliffs | No, wild honey collected |
| Apis florea | Red dwarf honey bee | 0.7–1 cm | Middle East to Southeast Asia | Open, one small comb | No |
| Apis andreniformis | Black dwarf honey bee | 0.6–0.8 cm | Southeast Asia | Open, one small comb | No |
| Apis koschevnikovi | Koschevnikov's honey bee | About 1 cm | Borneo | Cavity | No |
| Apis nigrocincta | Philippine honey bee | About 1 cm | Philippines, Sulawesi | Cavity | Rarely |
What Are the Three Types of Bees in a Hive?
They are the queen, the workers and the drones. Every honey bee colony, wild or kept, has all three.
The Queen
It is the only bee in the colony that lays eggs, up to around 2,000 a day in a strong Western colony. There is usually just one queen, and she can live for several years.
When a colony needs a new queen, the workers choose a few very young larvae and feed them only royal jelly, a rich food made in their glands. That diet is what turns an ordinary female larva into a queen. A few days after she comes out of her cell, she flies out on mating flights, mates with many drones in the air, and then stores enough sperm to lay eggs for the rest of her life. She also gives off scents that keep the whole colony calm and working together.
Worker Bees
They are all female and do almost every job in the colony. Their work changes as they get older:
- First days: cleaning cells and keeping the brood warm
- About one to two weeks old: feeding larvae, making wax and building comb
- About two to three weeks old: storing nectar, fanning honey and guarding the entrance
- Last weeks of life: flying out to collect nectar, pollen and water
In summer, a worker lives only about five to six weeks, mostly because foraging wears out her wings. Workers born in autumn can live through the whole winter.
Drones
They are the males. Their only job is to mate with a queen from another colony, and they die soon after mating. They have no sting, don't collect food, and are pushed out of the nest when food runs short in autumn.
When you see a bee on a flower, it is almost always a worker.
What Are the Most Common Honey Bee Breeds?
They are all types of the Western honey bee, bred over many years for calm behaviour, honey production or cold-weather survival.
If you're keeping bees in the US or Europe, these are the breeds you'll hear about most:
- Italian bee: It is the most popular bee in the US. They are gentle, light in colour and build up big colonies quickly in spring.
- Carniolan bee: It is dark grey, very calm and good at surviving cold winters. They build up fast once spring flowers open.
- Russian bee: It comes from far eastern Russia and is known for resisting varroa mites, a major pest.
- Buckfast bee: It is a hybrid first bred at Buckfast Abbey in England, chosen for gentleness and disease resistance.
- Caucasian bee: It is very gentle, with a long tongue, but uses a lot of sticky propolis in the hive.
If you want the details, NC State Extension has a helpful comparison of honey bee stocks for beekeepers.
Which Honey Bee Makes Mad Honey?
It depends on where the honey comes from. In Nepal, mad honey is made by the Apis laboriosa. In Turkey, it is made by the ordinary Western honey bee.
They make it the same way: by feeding on rhododendron flowers that contain natural compounds called grayanotoxins. It isn't the bee that makes the honey "mad". It is the nectar.
When the rhododendrons bloom in spring, the giant bees of Nepal feed heavily on them and store that nectar in their cliff combs. It is then collected by Gurung honey hunters, who climb down the cliffs on rope ladders twice a year.
Which Honey Bees Are Wild and Which Are Kept by Beekeepers?
Only two species are kept in large numbers: the Western honey bee and the Eastern honey bee. Both nest inside cavities, so they're happy living in a hive box.
They can't keep the open-nesting bees the same way. Giant and dwarf honey bees build a single exposed comb and simply fly away if moved into a box. Their honey is collected from the wild instead.
It is why Himalayan cliff honey is so rare. No one can farm the giant honey bee, so every jar depends on wild colonies, healthy rhododendron forests in Nepal, and hunters willing to climb.
Why Are Honey Bees Important?
They pollinate a huge share of the plants we eat, and they make honey, wax and other products people have used for thousands of years.
When a bee moves from flower to flower, it carries pollen that helps plants make fruit and seeds. About three-quarters of the world's main food crops benefit at least partly from animal pollination, and honey bees are among the most important of those pollinators, alongside wild bees, flies, butterflies, birds and bats. Apples, almonds, blueberries, melons and many vegetables all yield more when bees visit.
It isn't only farms that need them. In the Himalayas, wild giant honey bees pollinate rhododendron forests, wild fruit trees and high meadows where few other insects can fly. If those bees disappear, the forests change too.
What Threats Do Honey Bees Face?
They face pests, diseases, pesticides, habitat loss and a changing climate, and wild Asian bees face some extra problems of their own.
- Varroa mites: It is the biggest single problem for kept Western honey bees. These tiny mites feed on bees and spread viruses through the colony.
- Pesticides: When bees forage on sprayed crops, some chemicals can weaken or kill them, or confuse their ability to find their way home.
- Loss of flowers and nesting sites: They need a steady supply of flowers through the season. Large single-crop farms and cleared forests leave long gaps with nothing to eat.
- Climate change: If flowers bloom earlier or later than usual, bees can miss their main food supply.
It is a little different for the wild giant bees of the Himalayas. They lose food when rhododendron forests are cleared, and colonies can struggle when cliffs are harvested too often. Many Gurung hunters follow old rules about leaving part of each comb, and some colonies untouched, so the bees can come back next season.
Final Thoughts on the Types of Honey Bees
It is easy to think of honey bees as one kind of insect, but there are eight species, each suited to its own corner of the world. They range from the tiny red dwarf bee on a single branch to the Himalayan giant on a cliff face.
If you've ever tasted Himalayan mad honey, you've tasted the work of the largest of them all, a wild bee that has never lived in a box.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Is the Most Common Type of Honey Bee?
It is the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera. It is kept on every continent except Antarctica and makes almost all the honey sold in shops.
2. What Kind of Honey Bees Are in the US?
They are almost all Western honey bees, mostly Italian, Carniolan, Russian and Buckfast breeds, plus Africanized honey bees in some southern states. No honey bee is native to the Americas.
3. Do All Honey Bees Make Honey?
Yes. All eight honey bee species make and store honey, but the amount varies a lot. Dwarf honey bees store only a little, while giant honey bees can store a lot in one comb.
4. What Is the Largest Honey Bee in the World?
It is the Himalayan giant honey bee, Apis laboriosa, at up to about 3 cm long. Wallace's giant bee is bigger, but it is not a honey bee.
5. Are Giant Honey Bees Dangerous?
They aren't aggressive if left alone, but they defend their nest fiercely. If a nest is disturbed, they can sting in large numbers, so it's best to keep your distance.
About the author: Sanjay Kafle runs Best Mad Honey from Kathmandu, Nepal, and works directly with Gurung honey-hunting teams in Lamjung and Kaski who collect wild honey from Himalayan giant honey bee colonies.
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