Hello and Happy New Year,

Aaron wrote:
	 "I was left wondering what will be done if the day comes when
there are only hot bees left, but if that's what the future holds I
suspect the bigger problem will be finding locations, not finding bees."

Thank you Aaron, I was beginning to feel like Chicken Little.  Losing
good locations is my biggest fear.  No one wants to associate with
Killer Bees!  It has been suggested, "just go African" as in Mexico.  I
don't live there and neither do my bees.  We live and work around other
folks who, if there was even a THREAT of Africanized bees, would vote to
get rid of them and buy their honey from Mexico and really don't see any
other value in bees.  Just because I don't like that fact, doesn't make
it go away.

Mike Stoops suggested using only AI queens.  I am not the expert here,
and I am sure if I am incorrect it will be quickly pointed out, but I
thought AI queens were only used to raise other queens and preserve the
genetics.  They do not work well in the environment of a production
colony and are also cost prohibitive for that purpose.

If you read back through the archives the topic of Africanized bees
comes every so often.  There was some concern when they finally made it
to California, but by in large not too many folks got really excited,
yet a large number of queens are raised and shipped from both TX and CA.
Now that they are in Florida a lot of folks are sitting up and taking
notice.  For some of the newer beekeepers this may appear puzzling.  But
to the rest of us it is, or should be, quite obvious.  Florida is a
window into the future with respect to beekeeping.  Even if a problem
started somewhere else, once it hits Florida it explodes.  Mites, hive
beetle, resistant AFB all seem to use FL as their spring board to the
rest of the country.  All of these aforementioned problems only affected
the beekeeper and were of little concern to the general public.
Africanized bees are a completely different story.  I am of the firm
belief that we must do everything in our power to limit or prevent the
spread of these bees.  I stand by my original statement: If we don't
stop the spread many reading this will no longer be keeping bees and a
few will wish they never started.

Ron Bogansky 
	a.k.a. Chicken Little (I hope)
Kutztown, PA

P.S.  I don't want to sound like I am picking on Florida, especially
after last night's game (Orange Bowl).  Although the scoreboard
reflected otherwise, every kid on that field was a winner in Penn State
Fan's eyes.  

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