> One reason you see beekeepers in Brazil able to handle bees with
> AHB genetics is because most have a strict schedule of requeening
> with European queens. 

Bob, I'm sorry, but it's absolutely not true. First, the absolute
majority of beekeepers in Brazil simply *do not requeen*. They catch
new swarms with bait hives (which is extremely easy here), make
splits at the end of the season and let the queenless hives produce
their own queens. Commercial beekeepers tend to requeen more, but
most produce their queens from the best colonies. Only a minor part
buy mated queens from breeders. Second, european stocks in Brazil are
as rare as rhinoceros in Florida (surely you can find some in
zoos...).

What exists here is a couple of queen raisers who "bring" (don't
legally import, AFAIK) mated italian queens from southern Argentina
and use them as breeders. Then sell their open-mated daughters to a
handful of beekeepers, and make a lot of noise in Brazilian
discussion groups. Just to put it in perspective, discussions about
africanized x europeans bees here have the same intensity of the
dance language controversy, being "europeanists" proportionally as
numerous as DL challengers.

Specifically about propolis productivity, important Brazilian
breeders (and some commercial beekeepers as well) have worked hard to
select better africanized bees, because of the increasing interest in
green propolis in Asia. Some have thought of importing caucasian
bees, because of their great propolis use, but with the success in
this particular AHB selection, the idea soon faded out.

I'm not sure if you talked to another Brazilian beekeeper, or it was
just my poor English that bewildered you when I said in BeeSource
that I'm thinking of requeening twice a year. My intention is to get
more control over *swarming*, which, as I said there, is the trait
that bothers me the most. I would really like to work with a more
gentle bee, but that's not a top priority for me. As I have said
before, I'm not interested in trading aggressiveness for
diseases/pests vulnerability, so it's unlikely that I will work with
an European bee in the near future, unless a new resistant European
race shows up. And I can assure you that almost 100% of the BKs I
talk with share this opinion.

Regards from the far south.

João Campos
Porto Alegre - Brazil



		
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