Richard Drutchas <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>Hi Ted interesting story Ive never had a swarm move into a live hive are
you in the africanized zone. I hear they will move in on a weak hive.<<
 
I live very close to Dallas in north central Texas.  We've had no reports 
of africanized bees here.  They're all in south Texas in the valley(Rio
Grande).  For some reason they've stopped dead in their tracks as far as
northward movement is concerned.  No, these bees came from one  of my other
hives that swarmed. These hives were started with packages from a producer
in Alabama.  They are very aggressive and the coloring of the bees in the 
upper half of the 2 queener hive match those of the Alabama bees.  To my
knowledge, AHB hasn't hit Alabama yet.
 
As I understand it, AHB don't move in and coexist with the other hive.  
They move in and take over, killing the old queen and using her workers.  
They're kind of like the Borg for you Star Trek fans out there.  Resistance
is futile.  They pose some challenges to us southern beekeepers but, you
know, when I look at a bottle of Burleson honey it says they have honey
from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other AHB infested countries.  Someone 
is working those hives and not getting stung too much.  We have to change 
the way we do things but we can still be beekeepers.
 
It is unusual for them to move in like this.  It forces me to take a look 
at my practice of of putting entrances in supers above the excluder.  I did
put three supers on at once when we had a real heavy mesquite honey flow in
progress.  I travel with my real job and was going to be away for awhile.  
I didn't want the original occupants to become honey bound while I was
gone.  Maybe having all that free drawn comb was too irresistable to them.  
Whenever I add a new super I just look at the top super on the hive.  When
they start working it, it's time to add another.  During the flow, I
disturb the hive as little as possible and top super only as I don't want 
to disrupt honey production.  Maybe I have to become more intrusive with my
supering practices as well.
 
Ted Wout
Red Oak, TX, USA