The easy climate in Europe and the bee keeping practices created a docile honeybee that is now known as the European honey bee. Over in Africa it was a different story. The bees were forced to live in a much harsher environment and in order to survive they had to become more aggressive. Food was scarce, and the bees had to on constant alert to protect their honey from predators. So over time natural selection took place and only the fittest bees were able to survive. .
There are a couple reasons that have allowed to African bee to spread throughout South America, Africa, Europe, and the United States so quickly and they are the reproduction abilities. African queens are the only bees that can reproduce. In the reproduction process thousands of drones will lazily fly around in anticipation of the queen's arrival. Once she arrives the drones pursue her and the first one to successfully mount the queen will inject his semen into her, become paralyzed and die. The queen will mate with 10 to 17 males during a period of a few days, storing the sperm in her spermatheca. The queen will then go back into the hive and begin laying eggs. She will usually lay female worker eggs. Occasionally she will lay an unfertilized egg and a male will develop. Altogether a queen can lay up to 5,000 eggs a day which is almost twice as much as a European bee. In European colonies, drones are produced only until their numbers have reached a certain level. The queen then stops production and drones remain in the hive until the season is over. African bees continue to produce drones all year round, that's why their populations are so large. .
The African honey bee and the European honey bee appear to be the same at a close glance but further inspection reveals that African honey bees are smaller and a little darker than the common European honey bee. And a look at their characteristics reveals a great degree of differentiation.
