> As a former member of that club, > the Backwards Beekeepers... > Feral bees in Los Angeles are so > healthy and plentiful that the group > grew beyond the small little > neighborhood club... So the group is no longer meeting at all because it became too large and popular? Most "too large" groups work out a way to split into more manageable pieces. > there are also those who > will learn to be successful beekeepers. > Especially in Los Angeles, where we > have tons of thriving feral survivor stock, > which, with some careful attention and > intelligent oversight, seem to take > extremely well to being put into hive boxes. Yeah, AHB swarms are often said to be "deceptively docile" until they are given a nice home to defend. :) Given that LA County has been described for some time as "completely Africanized" by multiple responsible authorities, what happens when a swarm of "feral" bees is captured, and given or sold to a novice or a beekeeper with limited experience? What sort of liability insurance coverage does one need to hand out bee swarms without something definite to establish their pedigree, like DNA testing of the sort Jerry Hayes used to do in Florida? The Backwards Beekeepers' Official Position Statement (circa 2010): http://www.backwardsbeekeepers.com/2010/05/on-africanized-bees.html http://tinyurl.com/omkg98y Here is what the LA Times said this summer (2013) about AHB: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/07/nation/la-na-nn-killer-bee-season-ho uston-20130807 http://tinyurl.com/oozqwog The Orange County Reporter Aug 2013: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bees-370119-africanized-bee.html http://tinyurl.com/9o7xzzd They went to see how "docile" LA's bees were, and compared known EHB with known AHB in the same yard. They did not escape unscathed, even in full protective gear. With apt comments from Eric Mussen, the acknowledged authority in that area. The LA County Beekeepers position circa 4/13/2013: http://lacba.squarespace.com/home/2013/4/13/killer-bees-where-are-they-in-ca lifornia.html http://tinyurl.com/oeq2vle Here in NYC, we requeen anything that intimidates the owner, as life is just too short to work bad-tempered defensive bees when there are so many reliable producers of queens whose progeny I can smoke a little, and work in a tee shirt. Why is Sam Comfort (right) wearing a tee shirt, shorts, and sandals to work bees, while Kirk Anderson (left) wearing a full beesuit, holding heavy-duty gloves, and wearing velcro-closure sneakers with no ventilation panels? http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=131223366971431&set=a.131220210305080 .28871.125433804217054&type=3&theater http://tinyurl.com/nw9jcod Perhaps because Sam works bees in upstate NY, while Kirk comes from LA, and has no experience with bees that can be worked without full protective gear! *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html