> I forgot who presented this at ABF in San Diego, but her
> credentials are believable.  Perhaps Allen will remember her name.

Gloria DeGrandi-Hofman.  We were expecting Erickson in that time slot, but she
came in his place. and gave a very fascinating talk.

As it happens I wrote the following speculative piece last night in response to
an ongoing thread between John and Barry on a somewhat related topic on
sci.agriculture.beekeeping,  Some of these ideas have appeared here before:
---
Newsgroups: sci.agriculture.beekeeping
Subject: Re: swarm lures (and ahb)
From: [log in to unmask] (Allen Dick)

It was written on sci.agriculture.beekeeping:

>> More that was written:
>> "The truth is that killer, or Africanized, bees have been living
>> quietly in the United States for at least 30 years.
>> They are descendants of the same group that's been flying north from
>> South America, but these killer bees arrived a tad sooner, compliments
>> of the mail and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
<snip>
>> In fact, Africanized bees were mixing with common bees in the United
>> States as early as the mid-1800s, according to a 1973 article in Bee
>> World, citing bee breeders who brought them over from Africa to mix
>> with domestic hives."

As long as I have kept bees, it has been common knowledge that bees from
African sources were brought to the USA and used in open breeding in the
mid twentieth century -- long before the familiar and dreaded South
American (AHB) hybrid migrated north thru Mexico.

When wintering bees in Alberta became necessary in the mid-1980s after
decades of dependency on disposable US package bees, the wintering success
rate was much lower than historical records for this country indicated
should be the case.  At that time, and periodically since, some of us have
speculated that there must be an African component in US bees that reduces
clustering and wintering ability compared to the bees used in Canada before
the mid-twentieth century when package bees became the fashion.

As for the US importations, it is unthinkable that imported African bee
stock kept in hives outdoors could have been reliably prevented from
getting into local bee populations -- if anyone even thought of it.  After
all, I assume that the breeders felt the stock was superior and there would
have been little concern about preventing escape.  Moreover, it *may* be
possible to keep the queens clipped and confined, but any practicing
beekeeper knows that drones will *always* get out somehow and the effect
will be similar, although more diluted.

As for the South American importation, I am always astounded that it was
not foreseen by Dr. Kerr, a wise and experienced beekeeper, that -- even if
queens were never accidentally released -- that drones would be at large
and that they carried the same genes.  I can only assume that the concern
about the escape of the queens was initially over loss of the precious
queens, rather than the eventual impact on beekeeping throughout the
Americas.  I doubt that anyone even foresaw this adverse effect at the
time, or the importation would never have happened the way it did.

Why other repeated importations, both deliberate & accidental, of African
bees into the USA did not produce a dominant, vicious, non-hoarding and
swarmy hybrid like the one that developed in Brazil and recently migrated
up from South America is a question that deserves some thought.  Perhaps
there was, somewhere in the import group in Brazil, an unusual individual
from some sub-variety that is not commonly encountered.  Perhaps one of the
South African readers of this group could indicate if there are subgroups
or local varieties of the African bee with very different
and aggressive characteristics.

Perhaps also, the bees on the vanguard of the invasion are naturally a
self-selecting, exaggerated version of the AHB -- those which are most
swarmy and most restless.  Once the bees colonize and fill an area, perhaps
less wild, more settled and productive characteristics dominate the
population more and more over time as they adapt.

After all, it makes sense that those that spread out the most quickly would
be the swarmiest and most adventurous ones, but the others would eventually
catch up, especially if their characteristics are already intermingled with
the genes of the vanguard and thus carried with the vanguard.  Eventually
the more settled and productive characteristics may even out-compete the
original traits.  As the migration slows, the bees may adapt and become
less troublesome and more like the bees we know and love.  After all, the
wild characteristics do not work in the bees' favour in the USA.  Those
that can fit in and co-operate with humans are not sought out and killed,
but fed and coddled and moved from state to state.

My understanding is that over time these bees have become less of a problem
in South America and that huge amounts of honey are produced there.  I know
little more than that...

allen

My (boring) diary can be found at:
http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/Diary/