On Jan 1, 2006, at 12:51 PM, Tim Vaughan responded to Peter Borst's
comments:

> Great heads up from Peter. I'd also love to hear from anyone with
> first hand
> experience of AHB invading other hives. I've certainly never seen it
> and
> wonder how it's even possible without huge casualties on both sides. A
> weak
> hive, say with a couple empty supers getting invaded from an unguarded
> entrance, sure, but a take over deal?

   Orley (Skip) Taylor at the University of Kansas had extensive
firsthand experience watching takeovers of EHB hives by AHB swarms.  He
described, at a meeting I attended, what he said was a common practice.
  A small AHB swarm would alight at one end of a landing board and stay
there a few days before moving into the EHB colony.  By doing so, the
AHB swarm presumably gained the odor of the EHB colony.

    Gard Otis summarized and provided several references (including
those by Taylor, Michener, Danka & Rinderer, Vergara, and Fletcher) on
p. 221 and 222 in his chapter, "Population Biology of the Africanized
Honey Bee" in a 1991 volume edited by Marla Spivak, David Fletcher, and
Michael Breed (THE "AFRICAN" HONEY BEE).

                                                                                        Adrian



Adrian M. Wenner                (805) 963-8508 (home office phone)
967 Garcia Road                 [log in to unmask]
Santa Barbara, CA  93103        www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm

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