Hello Dee & All,

Dee asked:
> So tell me more.......how is the Florida AHB and TUcson
> system the same?

Same computer program & slides to use as sample for AHB as Tucson uses. 
Tucson bee lab produced the slides sent Jerry. The AHB slides sent were 
sloppily done *in my opinion* as the clear was too heavy and  had a line or 
two but I am only a beekeeper .


especially since bees and animals break
> out by latitude and longitude and both zones are different.

The system must be fairly accurate because I was told  wing venation samples 
done on the computer almost always matched DNA findings.

Have you ever seen a nasty hive of AHB? They are small for the most part and 
usually around 5000 bees. However they all come at you at once.

 I dealt with a couple large AHB hives once (trying to follow the advice of 
some researchers about requeening those gals) but learned killing the hive 
is the best method. I had never in all my years seen such nasty hives.

It was a challenge to just get the lid off. Smoke only made the bees upset. 
The thing I notice about upset AHB is the fact you get so many in your face 
at once and because they are quick to sting the alarm pheromone only 
increases their fury.

 In Texas the beekeepers when they visit a yard they have not been to in 
awhile the first thing they do is go through and lightly push each hive.  If 
the hive has been taken over by AHB the bees will boil out.

If you have never seen a real hive of nasty AHB I will explain further some 
of their traits. When strong (30-40,000 bees) any type of quick movement, 
noise or even smoke can set the bees off. Researchers are not sure exactly 
why some colonies are aggressive when other AHB are not but the large 
aggressive colonies are a hand full. Maybe one of these days you will come 
across one of these type AHB and will be able to tell the list your 
observations. I can't remember you ever talking about such a colony.

bob
 


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