Garth writes about the gentleness which has become part of the capensis
bee's characteristics, often wondered about the Cape bee, and have these
questions:

1) Laying workers can produce normal queens, and I suppose other workers
as well.  Have these workers therefore mated with drones, or are the
fertile eggs haploid?  If haploid, what determines if an egg develops
into a queen/worker or a drone?

2) All I have read about this bee suggests that it is a scourge upon the
beekeeping world, and steps must be taken to prevent its spread
elsewhere.  What is so bad about it - does it swarm excessively, produce
little honey, too much propolis, get diseases or parasites more readily
than others - or what?  (Maybe the queen breeders just don't want to
have self-requeening colonies around.)

Ted Fischer
Dexter, Michigan USA