Hi All
 
I have really enjoyed all the replies on bees and race.
 
As to the aftershave thing, most of the people I have seen being
stung don't use any aftershave (Xhosa people don't usually need to
shave much).
 
I know other people from Zimbabwe and other areas who are also stuung
regularily for no reason. I have seen bees not even near a beehive
that bump into my girlfriends hair and sting her. The bees would just
ignore me.
 
An interesting thing here wouuld be to ask some of the Australian
contributors how the bees down next door react to people of aborignal
descent there? Curly hair? That would rule out a skin scent.
 
Also on this topic, Walter you are from Louisiana, where a umber of
people I would gather are of African descent. I am interested to know
if anyone on this list is of such descent, and also if there are any
unusual beekeepinng practises in the south. I know that here, often
black people manipulate bees at night, with few to no stings and no
gear. I usully use no gear other than a smoker and a screwdriver
(loose my hihve tools all the time so don't bother with them
anymore) but that is by day. Night time is bad as the bees crawl and
I still cannot work out how people mannage to do this without
gettinng even a few stings.
 
On the colour thing, bees cannnot see black I would think. If they
can see hair it will have the same UV spectra as fingernails and
any hair.
 
Feathers: bees kill birds more than anything else in my experience.
This is becauuse their main predators are birds. I shot a fork tailed
dronga the other day in fronnt of one of my hives were it was
intimidatig the bees and before I could even get there it was
covered in bees stinging it repetitively. I know of a farmer who had
his whole chicken hutch (500 chickens) and a lot of duucks stung to
death on a hot day when his dog accidentally ran into a beehive when
they were playing a game. Also try using a feather as a bee brush!
(ostritch feather drives them mad)
 
I often work my hives wearig shorts and have noticed that if it is
not a hot day I pick up three or four stings per hive on my legs.
Evetually this means lonng pants muust be donned. But if it is hot
and one is sweaty the hairs of ones leggs are not fluffy and the bees
don't sting one.
 
So my conclusionn is that bees are not really racist, they just don't
like curly hair.
 
Just my two cents. (Maybe will boost sales of dark and lovely hair
straightener?)
 
Garth
 
PS any beekeepers from the america's who are of africann descet
please drop me a mail message. I would be iterested to swop a few
notes.
---
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
In general, generalisations are bad.
Interests: Flii's and Bees.