Hello All,

> It is of more than
passing interest that Africanized honey bees in Arizona have in fact been
determined to have a higher degree of thelytoky than their European sisters.

Thelytoky simply means :
the origin of females from unfertilized eggs.

What is being observed in Arizona is best described as *parthenogenesis*
which is the ability of workers to parthenogenetically produce diploid
workers and QUEENS as well as haploid drones.

Only one race of bee on the planet is famous for *parthenogenesis* and it is
NOT A.m. scutellata. scutellata can not survive "take overs" by
A.m.capensis.

Dr. Hoffman ( Tucson Bee Lab) and Myself in public (and others in private)
are deeply concerned about bees in Arizona with *capensis like traits* (
thelytoky / parthenogenesis).

Five years ago Dr. Hoffman expressed concern that if bees with "capensis
like traits" were to enter the large commercial migratory operations doing
almond pollination the industry could be in trouble.

As usual the data being presented fell on (for the most part) deaf industry
ears.

Dr. Hoffman came back the next year with a similar warning but still not
much interest from the industry.

To those which do not see those docile little BLACK bees with capensis like
traits as  industry future problems just phone Robin Mountain to learn how
capensis put Robin and his father out of the bee business in South Africa.

Robin & I  were speakers at the same beekeepers meeting a few years ago and
we spoke on the subject of those bees in Arizona with *capensis like traits*
privately.

Robin said :
If the USDA-ARS thought those bees were truly capensis I would have been
given a call to go and look"

I disagree.

Dr. Hoffman presented her findings and gave her opinion. If no response from
the industry she simply moves on to other research.

The beekeeping industry is in dire straits right now. Beekeepers can not
keep healthy hives. Beekeepers when told by the USDA-ARS what they think
will help the problem ignore their advice and simply look for some new
chemical or drug to solve the problem.

Five years ago efforts to stop bees with capensis like traits in Arizona
could have been controlled. Beekeepers could have been educated on
depopulating  and a plan could have been implemented. Instead the Arizona
inspection service was disbanded.

To me all this talk of disappearing disease is hogwash.
Jeff Pettis (USDA-ARS) has given talk after talk on replacing contaminated
comb!

Jeff Pettis said all the large Migratory beekeepers which reported the
problem had European Foulbrood in their hives. Duh!
The answer is simple. They all quit using terramycin and went to using
tylan. TYLAN does not control EFB.

Most thought EFB was PMS. Why wouldn't they as they had not seen EFB in
years as they had been using an antibiotic for years which prevented EFB.

Back when the question of disappearing disease raised its head decades ago
no solution was found. Many things were pointed at by Wilson and Rothenbuler
but the mystery remains today and the mystery will not be solved this time.

The problem is to put it simply more than one problem. Those of us which
choose to drive old trucks realize when those trucks start running poorly we
do an overhaul.

The beekeeping industry needs an overhaul. A new direction off the chemical
treadmill , with new comb and sound solutions for our beekeeping problems.

This year is the year for problems to hit the largest operations. Losses are
high and huge problems are going on in almonds as we speak.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison


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