[7] It was domesticated in Europe and hives were brought to North America in the colonial era in 1622 where they were referred to as the English Fly by the Native Americans.

[8] The A. m. mellifera can be broadly distinguished from other subspecies by their stocky body, abundant thoracal and sparse abdominal hair which is brown, and overall dark coloration.

[9] Their common name (dark or black bee) is derived from their brown-black color, with only a few lighter yellow spots on the abdomen.

[18] This characteristic is one that has been traditionally associated with A. m. mellifera going back to the now extinct Old British Black bee before the early 1900s:[19][20] To quote Brother Adam who was the only beekeeper with first hand experience that committed his findings to paper:[21] In 2014-2017 a European wide survey was conducted with 621 colonies, which included the various subspecies kept by beekeepers, it found that the A. m. mellifera was the most aggressive, had the highest swarming tendency and the lowest hygienic behaviour - a trait closely linked with Varroa sensitive hygiene.

[23] In 2013 research was carried out in Poland which confirmed anecdotal evidence that A. m. mellifera virgin Queens do not readily mate with non-A.

[45] Many promoters of the A. m. mellifera claim that the sub-species is endangered and under threat from imports, even though DNA analysis has been able to show that the amount of non-A.

[48] In 1937 the Third Reich implemented nativist policies to protect and promote the A. m. mellifera, as an extension of their ideology of "Blood and Soil" (Blut und Boden - a Nazi slogan expressing a racially defined group pertaining to a geographic area),[49] by banning imports of Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) and regulating the breeding of bees, in which only registered breeders at designated locations were permitted to rear queens to supply German beekeepers; however a limited dispensation was made for a minority of A. m. carnica beekeepers in southern Germany constituting only 13% overall.

In 1939 actions were taken to reduce the numbers (by approximately 95%) of A. m. carnica being bred in Germany, resulting in the Native German Dark bee being promoted fore-mostly.

Beekeeping literature at the time used the racial ideological vocabulary of the National Socialists (only in concentrated form), such as: "What is not race is chaff!"

However starting in the winter of 1940 to 1942, beekeeping was devastated throughout Germany by huge colony deaths, later identified by Karl Von Frisch as a virulent strain of Nosema apis, through his work with the Nosema Council to try and tackle the problem; ironically it was this epidemic that saved Von Frisch from the Nazis' antisemitic policies, as his maternal Grandmother was Jewish, making him "25% Jewish" ("75% German").

They work closely with the BIBBA with the stated goal of eliminating "foreign strains" from the island through regular inspections of hives.

[61] The Environment and Climate Change Minister said at the time, "The Bee Keeping Order illustrates how our non-native species legislation can be used to protect our native wildlife.

[81] In 2016 Dorian Pritchard,[82] a prominent member of the BIBBA and SICAMM,[83] published an article in The Journal of Apicultural Research, entitled "Grooming by honey bees as a component of varroa resistant behavior",[82] in which he reviewed much of the existing research into the "assumed links" between the grooming behavior of honey bees and varroa resistance stating "one of the most effective recognized means of defense is body grooming", even though varroa mite resistance had already been achieved in 2008 through the breeding of bees with VSH.

[87] A subsequent paper published by Kruitwagen et al. (2017)[88] concluded that the grooming behavior itself did not lead to Varroa resistance and on average led to higher mite levels.