I have gone out this last week and taken two feral hives (one from a house
and one that moved into an old hive).  The feral bees are larger and quite a
bit more agressive than the honeybees that I am use to keeping.    The feral
bees are large enough that the stinger will go through my canvas gloves and
I have to revert to leather gloves.
 
Is it common for feral bees to be more agressive and does nature make these
bees larger or are beekeepers breeding for smaller bees?
 
The bees that moved into the old hive, (it was a mess) didn't have any
visible mites either tracial or varrora.  I was wondering if anyone can tell
me how to ID the africanized bees?  This might explain the agressivness and
I have heard that the africanized bees are less tolerant to the mites.  I
live in south central Oklahoma and we havn't had any reports of the
africanized bees in this area yet.  I hope I'm not the first.
 
Any help is appreciated.
 
Richard Barnes
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