The view from 2000+ miles away of the bees in Moab, UT:
>> Presumably, most of the bees of southern Utah are pretty much Africanized.
The view of the county bee inspector for Moab UT:
> We have had NO "full scale assaults without provocation" or any "following for hundreds of yards" in SE Utah.
> The Utah attacks that have made the news happened in SW Utah, 200 miles away.
The accusation that Moab UT ferals are "pretty much" Africanized can be evaluated with a look at average winter low temperatures:
Moab UT NOAA Data
Average low °F
=============
Jan 19.8
Feb 26.1
March 34.5
April 41.9
May 49.7
June 57.8
July 64.5
Aug 63.1
Sep 53.1
Oct 40.7
Nov 29.6
Dec 21.3
Can anything more than slightly hybridized bees survive a Moab winter, given the low winter temps?
Further, will the extent of hybridization, if any, result in overtly overly defensive feral bees?
David De Jong has said multiple times that the higher the elevation, the less defensive AHB become. He mentions a beeyard on their campus (Ribeirao Preto Campus) that is within a hundred feet of an well-traveled sidewalk... no one getting stung.
Moab UT has an elevation of 4,025 ft
The University of São Paulo Ribeirao Preto Campus elevation is 1791 ft
And there are higher peaks between Moab and the Africanized-infested zones, look at a topo of the area.
So, if I were visiting Moab, I'd be more worried about the possible dust and water contamination from the 10 million tons of uranium tailings at the Moab tailings pile than being stung by the bees.
From a regulatory standpoint, if a county wants to prohibit traveling carnivals, revival-tent preachers, bands of gypsies, and holding yards for migratory beekeepers, it is because the reputations of these "undesirable activities" precede them, and the county has the duty to regulate business activities within their borders.
There is no inherent right for any of these businesses to arrive in the dead of night and set up to do business where they please, even if a landowner has agreed to their arrival. A county may grant or refuse business licenses to any type of business, or regulate them as they please.
Note that the migratory beekeeper is unique in his potential to create a "nuisance" with a much wider reach beyond the property rented than the other "fly-by-night" operations listed, so the argument against the migratory beekeeper is more certain than against the gypsies. This should settle for all time the argument over beekeeping being more or less humble than herding sheep. We are even less desirable neighbors than bands of roving gypsies.
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