Hi Martin and All
 
 
Martin wrote:
> Could you please let me know if you are certain who in Europe is
> keeping Cape bees? This bees shouldn't be kept for research purposes
> outside of their native environment at all!!! If they spread outside
> South Africa I guess their effect on commercial beekeeping as we
> know it would be devastating. If you can confirm this we must move
 
I believe the hives have been killed a few years back. I think the
figures were 6 hives in one of the bigger continental research
facilities. I believe they may have been kept in flight rooms, but we
know how bees are.
 
 
> real fast to convince the people that keeps them to KILL THEM AT
> ONCE. We already have many problems with Varroa and Africanized bees
 
I think there is a commo link here. The varroa problem occurred
because people moved bees to asia and from asia to europe without
apppreciating thhe results. Now as a result two species of bees have
been nudged to the brink of extinction. (Apis cerana is in manny
cases out competed by A.m and V.jacobsonii from A.cerana kills A.m so
both species zap each other.
 
Likewise before the truue magitude of the cape bee problem was
realised a few colonies may have been kept in central europe and in
the interests of the bee species it is probably worthwile for people
to look for signs of the cape bee, as it will muultiply slowly in the
popuulationn as a sort of parasite.
 
I remember a while back that some people mentioned they had colonies
that were hopelessly queenless annd came back and the colonies were
roaring ahead. This is a phenomenon I have seen hapen twelve times
this year with my bees alone. A handful of cape bees will lay a few
eggs for about three weeks and then raise a new queen who is
extremely vigorous and somehow they manage to raise a whole stack of
brood without foraging too much.
 
My only reason for mentioning this is that I am a strong
conservationist and believe that it is of importance for people to
beware of the dangers of moving species into new environnments where
they could not naturally have migrated. (EG the South African barbel
Clarius garipinus that was introduced into the amazon river and will
wipe out more than 200 species of fish in the next 10 years)
 
 
Keep well
 
Garth
---
Garth Cambray       Kamdini Apiaries
15 Park Road        Apis melifera capensis
Grahamstown         800mm annual precipitation
6139
Eastern Cape
South Africa               Phone 27-0461-311663
 
3rd year Biochemistry/Microbiology    Rhodes University
 
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post in no way
reflect those of Rhodes University.