Hi all
We frequently hear stories of African bees invading European hives, as if this happens all the time. Jamie Ellis actually looked into it and found:

> Usurpation, or colony take over, of European-derived, western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies by African-derived honey bee, A.m. scutellata, swarms is poorly understood in the Americas. The frequency and impact of such usurpation events are not known, and some believe usurpation behavior is an important contributor to the predominance of African mitochondrial DNA as the African-derived population has expanded through South, Central, and North America. 

> In our study, we monitored 288 European-derived honey bee colonies at the front of the feral African-derived bee population in the southeastern United States. During the 12 month study period, the European derived colonies were managed commercially and sampled quarterly. Morphometric and mitochondrial analyses were combined and used to detect usurpation of European-derived colonies by African matriline swarms. 

> No definitive African matriline usurpations occurred. Our finding suggests that usurpation is not likely to be a primary contributor to the preservation of the African matriline during the African-derived population’s expansion into new territory.

Mortensen, A. N., & Ellis, J. D. (2014). The frequency of African (Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier) matrilineal usurpation of managed European-derived honey bee (A. mellifera L.) colonies in the southeastern United States. Insectes Sociaux, 1-5.

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