Abstract:
The study was undertaken in Amhara National Regional State, northeastern zones of Ethiopia in 2013/2014. The objectives of
the study were to identify the existing local honeybees and their productive characteristics and behavior and generate baseline
information for further research and development. Out of two zones, three potential districts have been purposively selected
based on their potential. A total of 260 beekeepers personal interviewees were administered using structured and semi-structured
questionnaires.The study was designed to address behavioral characteristics and productivities of different local honeybees. About
98.8% of interviewees were male and about 73.9% were at stages of literacy ranging from read and write to diploma level. Nearly
73.4% of beekeepers have more than 5 years of beekeeping experience.The average honeybee colony holding was 4.6 in highlands,
2.8 in mid altitude, and 2.7 in lowlands. About 34% of respondents harvest honey more than two times a year. Based on the
honeybees individual color appearance, aggressiveness, and honey productivity, about 36.7% of the respondents have identified
three local honeybee types, namely, brown red, black, and mixed. Brown red colored honeybee ecotype has been selected as best
due to their better honey production, low aggressiveness, and relatively high reproductive swarming tendency.
