Let's get a few things straight first:

  1. There are many hundreds of species of bees that do produce honey, but many of those species produce just enough honey for their own consumption. Many of these species are also solitary, meaning they don't form hives / nests where any honey could be reasonably be collected.
  2. There are no wild / native bees in the United States that produce honey. All of our honey producing bees have been brought over from Europe. In fact, European honey bees often threaten native bee populations.

There are two main categories of bees that are kept by humans for their honey production. The overwhelming number of them are appropriately called Honey Bees.

Honey Bees

Any honey product you've ever consumed has almost certainly been thanks to apiculture, or the keeping of honey bees. More specifically, you probably have the Western Honey Bee to thank.

Honey bees consistent of 7 different species, approximately 50 subspecies, and a handful of hybrid or selectively bred bees. Below I've made a full list of honey bees and their native regions. It's interesting to see the areas of the world that have a native honey bee, and perhaps even more intriguing to note the areas that do not.

Group Common Name Location (Where it be)
Western (European) Honey Bee West African Honey Bee Nigeria, Burkina Faso
Cape Honey Bee South Africa
Tellian Honey Bee Tunisia, Libya, Morocco
Arabian Honey Bee Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Yemen
Egyptian Honey Bee Egypt, Sudan
East African Coastal Honey Bee East Africa
East African Mountain Honey Bee East Africa
Maltese Honey Bee Maltese Islands
Saharan Honey Bee NW Africa
East African Lowland Honey Bee Central & East Africa (Ancestor of Africanized Bee)
Ethiopian Honey Bee Ethiopia
Madagascar Honey Bee Madagascar
Anatolian Honey Bee Turkey
Caucasian Honey Bee Central Caucasus
Cyprus Honey Bee Cyprus
Median Honey Bee Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria
European Dark Honey Bee Central Asia to Europe (AKA German Black Bee)
Tian Shan Honey Bee Tian Shan Mountains
Armenian Honey Bee Armenia
Xinyuan Honey Bee Uygur AR
Syrian Honey Bee Between Turkey and Egypt
Cretan Honey Bee Crete
Russian Steppe Honey Bee Ukraine
Carniolan Honey Bee Slovenia
Greek Honey Bee Greece
Spanish Honey Bee Iberian Peninsula
Italian Honey Bee Italy
Macedonian Honey Bee Macedonia, Balkans
Sicilian Honey Bee Sicily
Ukrainian Honey Bee Ukraine
Crimean Honey Bee Crimea
Eastern Honey Bee Chinese Honey Bee China
Black Chinese Honey Bee China
Indian Honey Bee India
Japanese Honey Bee Japan
Javan Honey Bee Java
Sumatran Honey Bee Sumatra
Bornean Honey Bee Borneo
Himalayan Honey Bee Himalayas
Giant Honey Bee Indian Giant Honey Bee India
Indonesian Giant Honey Bee Indonesia
Philippine Giant Honey Bee Philippines
Himalayan Giant Honey Bee Himalayas
Other Distinct Species Red Dwarf Honey Bee Southeast Asia
Black Dwarf Honey Bee Southeast Asia
Koschevnikov's Honey Bee Malaysia, Indonesia
Philippine Honey Bee Philippines
Hybrid / Stock Bees Buckfast Bee Cultivated hybrid
Africanized Bee "Killer Bee" (Hybrid of Lowland African/European)
Saskatraz Bee Canadian-bred stock
Cordovan Bee Color morph of Italian/Carniolan
Minnesota Hygienic Stock Disease-resistant breeding line
Russian Bee Primorsky Krai (Distinct from Steppe Bee)

Stingless Bees

The second category of bee which is kept for its honey production is called the Stingless Bee. The keeping of stingless bees is known as meliponiculture. The body of knowledge regarding farming stingless bees for honey is far less distributed than that of the honey bee. I'm certain local peoples in regions where stingless bees are extremely knowledgeable on the matter.

To my understanding, there are no other categories of bees from which honey can be harvested, but I welcome input from any beekeeprs or melittologists out there!