Hello Mike and All,

 Mike wrote:
 Interesting theory,Bob.But WHAT IS the pseudo queen problem in Arizona? Who
is reporting this?

 The story was reported by Dr.Gloria DeGrandi- Hoffman (head researcher at
the  Tucson bee lab)at a talk she gave at the ABF convention in Savannah on
Thursday  January 17th. at 9:30 am.2002 about  the USDA-ARS Tucson bee labs
recent  pollination research that bees with * capensis LIKE *  traits were
in Arizona in the feral colonies

 (the Lusbys operation was never mentioned).

 The talk was called "POLLINATION RESEARCH AT TUCSON".

 Slides were shown of the pseudo queen activity of those bees.

 Four different beekeepers on BEE-L were at the talk

 In fact I was so *shocked* at the *thought* of the cape bee problem
*possibly* being in the U.S. that I asked the first question.

 "Are you talking about capensis like traits?" I asked?

 Dr. Hoffman said *YES*  and went on to the next  question.

 Dr. Hoffman never said capensis during the talk.  For clarification to see
 if Dr. Hoffman was referring  to capensis (the infamous cape bee) I asked
the question.


 As far as the reference to the 1990 *Lus bee* project on which Dr. Hoffman
worked

 The  research was being done on  number of colonies  to FORCE  thelytoky
using methods similar to Mackensen did in 1943.

 Could pseudoqueens been caused by the research?

  I believe the possibility exists.

 AT LEAST ONE QUEEN WAS RAISED AND MATED ACCORDING TO THE ABSTRACT.

 The *Lus bees* abstract prints  to 8 pages ,is in-depth and well written.
 Please read and draw your own conclusions.

 http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/bsmay1991.htm

 If bees   exist with *capensis like* traits  in Arizona (which I and others
 saw slides of) and   those  bees  * DID NOT * come in with the introduction
of AHb into Arizona   then in my opinion those pseudo queens *could* have
came  from the *lus bee* project.

 The cape bee  is talked about all through the article and compared to the
"Lus bees".

 Sincerely,
 Bob