Glen Wrote:

> Are you sure you do not have A.m. capensis laying workers in your A.m.
> scutellata Hives? AKA: Cape bee problem.
>

Dear Glen,
Great to hear from a South African beekeeper!  I am in Grahamstown which is
in the hybrid zone.  I have both capensis and scutellata.  My scut colonies
are in an isolated area, all other colonies were exterminated by a recent
fire.  I have performed ovariole counts on the bees personally and know for
sure that they are scut.  In addition, I have checked extensively for
laying-worker activity (which I know well from my capensis hives)  and there
is no sign at all.  When queenless, the bees go drone laying.  A sure sign
of scutellata.
Where are you situated?  I am interested to know because I have decided that
capensis is a perfectly adequate bee, and there is no use in trying to fight
them off in my area.  I hence have only one scut apiary, used only for
research.  If I catch wild swarms, I always try to requeen with capensis to
avoid the laying-worker problem.  The problem is with egg acceptance.  I
struggle to get scut bees to accept capensis queen eggs.
Do you, or does anyone else have answers to this?

Many thanks
Paul Collett
Rhodes University Department of Entomology/ Makana Meadery
Grahamstown
South Africa
A.m. capensis
A.m. scutellata

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