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Keeping brown bees

128 bytes added, 08:58, 23 June 2016
The Nordic brown bee was the first honey bee subspecies to colonize northern Europe, which is why it has adapted to northern environments in many ways. The Nordic brown bee was also the first subspecies to be farmed for honey production in these areas. Now, this unique bee’s existence is threatened in its native habitat. The remaining populations of this unique bee can only be conserved with successful practical beekeeping. This is why we need more beekeepers who are interested in and able to keep ''Apis mellifera mellifera'' bees.
Because of long-term adaptation to the Nordic environment, the Nordic brown bee has some special features in its physiology, behavior, and in its responses to the environment. All this must be taken into account during the set up of the [[Hive construction and bee yard|bee yard and it's hives]] as well as the management and [[Opening and handling the bee colony|handling ]] of the bee colony. This wiki is designed to help you find practical and suitable management techniques for keeping Nordic brown bees.
If you’re considering keeping Nordic (''A. m. mellifera'') bees, you don’t have to start with them. You can, by all means, learn the basic skills of beekeeping with other subspecies, like Italian (''A. m. ligustica'') or Craniolan (''A. m. carnica'') bees, and change your bees to ''A. m. mellifera'' bees later. Please keep in mind though, that this wiki contains information specifically tailored to Brown bees.