WESTERN HONEY BEE
The most important bee on the island, due to its prolific pollination of flowers and the production of the best honey in the world. The pollination of flowers allows us to have fruit and vegetables every year. Our honeybees are Western honeybees, also called European honeybees, and they have black and tan-yellow stripes on their slender bodies. They have smooth abdomens and fuzzy black legs. The females have pouches on their back legs for transporting pollen back to the hive.
There are only 8 species of honeybee in the world, with most of them being docile and harmless. Unfortunately, the only dangerous honeybee, the Africanised honeybee, looks exactly like other honeybees and can attack without being provoked. Honeybees live in colonies of tens of thousands, with one fertile female (the queen), thousands of unfertile females (the workers), and a small proportion of fertile males or drones. They communicate with each other using pheromones and dance language. The Kefalonian beekeeper uses very colourful hives compared to the hives in Britain. The honey produced is dark, thick and delicious.
