Hi Zachary & All,

> >    About 500 pounds of honey was discovered in the apartment walls,
> >Horner said.
>
> A record yield for an African bee colony?  That is pretty impressive, 500
lbs from one
> colony.
>

Which is why I questioned the testing method of determining the lineage of
the colony. Plus it was a large population which is also not normal for
honey bees with a lineage of African decent in the Americas. Before we
believe this colony is truly African we must find out the testing method for
determining its lineage. Some testing methods only look at worker comb
dimensions when only the truth can be determined through DNA testing. Using
worker comb dimensions it would be determined that I have all African bees
in my yards but this is far from the case, I have Russian bees on small
worker combs. This could have been a come back feral colony that was riled
up by these kids throwing rocks at it. For Christ sake even I would get
riled up if I was being pestered by stones. If it were a feral colony of
European decent that normally would have been well tempered, under
conditions where they were not pestered, then we have wasted genetics that
the whole industry is working to create by killing this colony. I think that
the honey bee, even African bees, are being horribly mistreated and molested
by well meaning officials and beekeepers just because the situation is being
misunderstood and not studied with bias. In my opinion, Beekeepers need to
wake up and start protecting our honey bees from bad science. Good or better
science needs to be employed in this matter.

There are isolated areas, and even some regions, that are experiencing a
comeback with feral honey bees and these bees are not working on the same
cell sizes as most beekeepers are using in the practice of keeping their
bees. I know many here may doubt me but some beekeepers are finding these
feral colonies and working with them with out the aid of treatments of
foreign substances. I am sure glad these feral colonies are being found
outside of the African zones or they would probably be identified as African
and be exterminated even though there not. The scientific community should
begin to study these feral colonies in their natural habitat to try and
understand why they are surviving so those who put all credence on
scientific research can begin to keep bees that don't die with out them.
Nature is working the problems out, so can we.

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

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