Commercial honey bee queens are produced in two geographically distinct areas, the southeastern and western United States. These two regions differ in their queen breeding techniques and strategies. Over a decade ago mitochondrial DNA and allozyme variation was used to determine and characterize breeder queen colonies from these two queen producing areas. The results revealed low heterogeneity within the southeastern and western commercial honey bee populations. However, the southeastern and western populations were genetically different from each other. The United States' honey bee populations once consisted of feral and commercial honey bee populations. With the arrival of Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite, feral and commercial honey bee populations have been greatly reduced. Allozyme analysis from previous studies show differences between the feral populations compared to the commercial stocks. The feral populations were once an important contributor of genetic variation to the commercial populations. Commercial honey bee populations from the western United States were recollected and analyzed using mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite DNA. These analyses will provide information about the genetic variation in honey bee populations of today in comparison to those sampled in the early 1990's.