On Tue, 3 Jan 2006 19:47:55 -0500, Dan&jan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I have heard that AHB queens will kill EHB queens. I hope this is not true.
>Any comments?

That's exactly what these people have been talking about. Nest usurpation
means African bees come in, kill the queen and take over. That is just one
of the ways that African bees become the prevailing bee where ever they go.
This is fully documented in the papers that were cited.* see below

Southern California beekeeper Tom Glenn gave up a lucrative queen business
for this very reason. He said that he that he could not in good conscience
continue to sell open mated queens. So, he switched over to selling
inseminated queens. Of course, he has to sell them for much more, and the
demand is small.

So, if Africans come into your area, you cannot allow your hives to
supersede, because the queens will surely mate with African drones. You
can't raise your own queens, same reason. You won't want to collect swarms
any more.

Or else, do like some people do and just let the hives all go African. Dave
de Jong has been suggesting this for years. Mexico is all African and it is
still one of the world's major honey producers. Evidently there are
beekeepers in Arizona who have done this as well.

Dee writes:

> As for the fear factor to AHB doing normal requeening like other races
seen by the likes of CC Miller and others early on.

reply: Queens sneaking into hives and taking over is NOT NORMAL requeening
in North American or European hives. This is a characteristic of African
bees and is fully documented in the papers cited. If it was a normal
occurrence the researchers would not have cited it as a key pathway for
African takeover.

*THE AFRICAN HONEY BEE: Factors Contributing
to a Successful Biological Invasion
Stanley Scott Schneider, and others

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