Hello to All,

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, João Campos of Porto Alegre, Brazil wrote in response 
to Bob Harrison’s earlier post which stated, “One reason you see 
beekeepers in Brazil able to handle bees with AHB genetics is because most 
have a strict schedule of requeening
with European queens” 

Mr. Campos responded,  “...it's absolutely not true. First, the absolute 
majority of beekeepers in Brazil simply *do not requeen*. They catch new 
swarms with bait hives ... make splits at the end of the season and let 
the queenless hives produce their own queens.” 

My response: Dr. Tom Rinderer who has spent about 15 years working with 
Africanized honey bees, A. m. scutellata, spoke in Asheville, North 
Carolina this past Monday advised that the practice of scheduled 
requeening with European stock is imperative to the handling of honeybees 
in South and Central America and that the practice of requeening in these 
countries with gentle European stock is widely accepted and desirable. 

In my opinion those beekeepers in any land who make splits at the end of 
the season and let the queenless hives produce their own queens are 
practicing a Russian roulette style of beekeeping. Requeening with 
superior queens having highly desirable traits has long been recognized as 
not only more profitable and enjoyable beekeeping, it is far superior to 
the primitive practice of being broodless for with as long as 27 days 
without assurance that a mated queen that was raised by the queenless 
colony will return to begin laying. Even those beekeepers who have just a 
few colonies can graft from their most desirable hives by using the Smith 
or Alley methods to raise their own queens.

Mr. Campos continues, “Brazilian breeders (and some commercial beekeepers 
as well) have worked hard to select better africanized bees, because of 
the increasing interest in
green propolis in Asia. Some have thought of importing Caucasian bees, 
because of their great propolis use, but with the success in this 
particular AHB selection, the idea soon faded out.”

My comments: The production of Brazilian propolis is a rapidly growing 
industry due to the common practice in Asia of purchasing Brazilian 
propolis, which has long been recognized for its medicinal properties and 
now there is great talk about its use for fighting different types of 
cancer. It is my understanding that the Scutellata is not a very 
productive propolis gatherer due to its very nature of being a 
semitropical subspecies of A. mellifera and its tendency to abscond. I 
certainly would want to hear more about “this particular AHB selection”.  
Propolis collection especially in Brazil may just become a steady and 
desirable profit producing operation for the beekeeper.  There are many 
undiscovered types of propolis each with its own unique and varying 
medicinal properties. The bee pastures of the World may just contain many 
new and magical formulations of propolis that just may provide income for 
many in Third World countries. Just as there are many medicinal plants 
there must be many medicinal types of propolis.  It opens a whole new era 
of discovery.

Cheers,

Chuck Norton 
Norton's Nut & Honey Farm
330 Irvin Street
Reidsville, NC 27320

Tel: 336 342 4490
http://www.mybeebusiness.com

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