We hear about "locally adapted" bees often, but few people have gone to the trouble to determine if these are real or imagined.  Here is an example of a real local adaptation:

Louveaux et al. (1966) described behavioral differences in several A. mellifera populations in France, designated as ecotypes of the sub- species A. m. mellifera. One of the ecotypes, in the Landes of southwest France, inhabited a coastal plain stretching from Bordeaux south and east from the Atlantic to the city of Mont de Marsan.

Specific behavioral and phenological adaptations to local environmental conditions are known for some populations throughout the range of the honey bee (Ruttner, 1988; Ruttner et al., 1990). These locally adapted populations or ecotypes have evolved traits that confer selective advantage to the population within an ecologically distinct area, although outside the range of the ecotype these traits may be detrimental. 

While local adaptations can occur, human mediated movement of honey bee colonies for honey production and agricultural pollination dispersed A. mellifera subspecies that may be more generally adapted to a wide variety of ecological settings (Ruttner et al., 1990). 

Strange, 2007. Persistence of the Landes ecotype of Apis mellifera mellifera in southwest France

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