95 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 P. Chantawannakul et al. (eds.), Asian Beekeeping in the 21st Century, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8222-1_4 Chapter 4 Apiculture in Israel Victoria Soroker, Slabezki Yossi, and Nor Chejanovsky Abstract Honey bee (Apis mellifera) has a thousand years of history in this part of Asia. The native honey bee race is considered to be A. mellifera syriaca. This subspe- cies was generally replaced by a more docile subspecies A. mellifera ligustica, but members of other subspecies are also occasionally introduced. Only about parts of the country area are suitable for honey bees due to very limited vegetation arid conditions in the southern part of the country. The majority of the colonies are concentrated at the center and north of the country reaching density of more than 14 colonies per square kilometers. To supplement bee forage, Eucalyptus trees are planted intensively around the country. Local beekeepers practice modern methods of beekeeping using Langstroth hive boxes. All professional beekeepers usually treat their colonies pre- ventively against Varroa destructor mites and foulbrood diseases. Many beekeepers also treat preventively against Nosema disease. Despite regular management, Varroa and viruses remain a major obstacle for successful beekeeping. Keywords European honey bee · Apis mellifera · Pests · Bee diseases 4.1 Diversity of Honey bee Races What are the native bees in the land of Israel is hard to tell. Until recently, it was believed that the native honey bee race is Apis mellifera syriaca; however, identif- cation of honey bee remains according to morphometric data revealed that those were not to the local syriaca race but A. m. anatolica (Mazar and Panitz-Chohen 2007). Could it be that people in the iron age not only cultivated local bees but also imported swarms from at least 500 km from Anatolia that had well-established bee- keeping in those times? The historians still do not have answer to this question. V. Soroker (*) · N. Chejanovsky Department of Entomology, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Rishon LeZion, Israel e-mail: sorokerv@volcani.agri.gov.il; ninar@volcani.agri.gov.il S. Yossi Extension Service, Ministry of Agriculture, Rishon LeZion, Israel