In order to evaluate and compare the important commercial races and hybrids of honey bee with the native Iranian race, queens of ‘Italian race (Apis mellifera ligustica), Caucasian (A.m. caucasica), Carniolans (A.m. carnica), and hybrids of Starline and Midnite were imported from reliabe and Confirmed sources from abroad. The native Iranian race (A.m.meda) was Collected from Poshtkooh Mogooi of Zagros mountains. During three years different behavioral studies were conducted on them.
The overall results showed that in the Iranian race the percentage of queen acceptance was significantly lower than the others. There was not any significant difference between the treatments from the stand point of winter survival. Iranian race showed higher tendency to swarm. Brood expansion and population increase of the Iranian race was faster in early season (April) than the Caucasian but same as Starline and lower than Carniolans, Italian and Midnite. But in the summer (September) brood expansion and population increase of the Iranian race was lower than the others. Yearly honey production of Iranian and caucasian races were the same and lower than the others. Activity of the Iranian race for pollen gathering was lower than Italian but higher than the others. Overall behavior and aggressiveness of Iranian race were significantly different from the others and more stings were got by this race.
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