Dave Cushman writes:
>All I can really say is that nobody yet "knows" because nobody has
>ever done any testing that is not based on false premises and
>assumptions.

Response:
What false premises and assumptions did Marla Spivak take to Costa
Rica? She went there with the idea that African bees were going to
move in (which they did) and to observe the state of honey bees
before, during and after their arrival. You read this passage and
then tell me what the premises and assumptions were:

>Before the arrival of Africanized bees, local families routinely
>captured a few European swarms and hived them in rustic boxes. They
>occasionally cut combs of honey out of the colonies, but basically
>the few colonies they kept were unmanaged. The lack of sophisticated
>beekeeping allowed me to observe a feral population closely. I
>inspected the apiary every three months from July 1984 to July 1986
>to determine if and when Africanized bees would move into the area,
>and what impact [they] might have...
>
>From July 1984 to May 1985 all nine colonies (hived from swarms) had
>cell sizes (built on naturally drawn comb) which measured 5.3, a
>cell size suggestive of European bees. In May 1985, combs from two
>newly captured swarms had mean cells of 5.05 and 5.10. From the
>irritable nature of these swarms, I suspected them to be slightly
>Africanized. In November 1985 the first strongly Africanized swarm
>entered an abandoned box. The cells of this swarm measured 4.9.
>
>From January to July of 1986 four swarms entered ... cells sizes
>were 4.8 to 5.1 ... The family who owned the colonies killed one of
>the more defensive colonies because it was stinging their livestock.
>[They] abandoned their practice of gathering swarms. By July 1986,
>the only colony alive was the one which had cell sizes of 4.8.

See "The 'African' Honey Bee, edited by Marla Spivak, 1991


--
Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>