I began keeping bees in 1973 and bought my first 2 colonies from Mr. A. A.
Miln of Henderson, NC.  Mr. Miln was a rural mail carrier and kept bees on
the side.  In those days the bees pretty much took care of themselves and
the 2 colonies I bought were fierce.  The bees were prone to run off the
combs and pile into the lower corners of the hive and were prolific
stingers of any unprotected flesh.  I bought quite a few hives from local
farmers in my first few years of beekeeping and few had ever had the brood
combs removed.  Management consisted of stacking on honey supers and
catching swarms.

Requeening was a particular challenge as the queens were small and black,
like the bees.  We called them German bees, and even if they were requeened
with Italians the woods were full of these bees and the colonies would
revert. I do recall putting sodium nitrate fertilizer (the farmers called
it 'Bull Dog' soda and used it on tobacco) in a hot smoker to produce
nitrous oxide to 'gas' the bees so they would slow down enough that the
queen could be found.  I sifted many a colony's bees through queen
excluders nailed to a shallow super in an attempt to find elusive black
queens.

 We bought our 1820 house in NC in 1982 in part because there were 8 or so
active colonies of A. m.m. living in the walls and the person who had put
an option on the house was overwhelmed by the prospect of ridding the house
of bees.  Once we bought the house I began noticing wild colonies nesting
in the open air on the 200 year old oak trees in the yard.  I saw 3 or 4
such colonies.  Later in that decade tracheal mites hit and that was the
beginning of the end of A.m.m. in my part of North Carolina.  I don't see
any of these bees now and can successfully maintain my own line of mongrel
Russian bees with little interference.

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC

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