>  Was the supplier of this package contacted with a report about the 
package?

I assume this will or has come up in discussions with the supplier, but 
there is no proof packages were responsible, as this happened a year 
after the introduction of the packages, with no problems noticed the 
first year.    Supersedure may have happened in  the intervening year or 
more, too.   Also, this was from a swarm, as I understand it, so who 
knows who the daddy(s) was.

 > Was the supplier located in an AHB area of Florida?

No.

 > If outside known areas of AHB habitation

You mean outside the contiguous US states, all of which -- or almost all 
of which -- receive packages and/or have migratory activity?

Anyone who does not understand that the entire continental US is now AHB 
country to extents varying from near zero to near 100% -- is not paying 
attention, or has a job that depends on denying or ignoring that fact it 
--  IMO.

The fact that defining AHB has proven difficult, or perhaps impossible, 
seems to be ignored routinely and has not stopped people from believing 
in "AHB free" zones.  There are none.  AHB has even been brought to 
Canada and also swarmed over the border, but we pretend otherwise.  
Seven of our ten provinces share land borders with US states with 
migratory activity, so...

As Pete says, and I concur, a mean hive is a mean hive is a mean hive 
and wasting time speculating on on genealogy is a waste of time when the 
solution is obvious.

 >  I would hate to have purchased a package from the producer and 
inadvertently introduce
 >  AHB genetics into my AHB free area through the negligence of the 
package producer.

 > All of the above, IMHO, are things that need to be considered and 
acted on yesterday, if not the day before.  We need to be proactive here 
and not reactive, although that might be too late already.

Quick, close the barn door.  The horse has run away -- again.

Anyhow, this is about aggressive colonies, generally, not necessarily 
AHB.  For that matter, there are documented regions where AHB is 
generally as well-behaved as EHB.

FWIW, I have seen EHB that is far nastier than the few AHB I have had 
the pleasure of working.  Some came from New Zealand of all places.  
Some came into Canada  as packages from Mexico before AHB came to 
Mexico.  One particularly memorable hive came from California package 
stock -- before AHB reached the States by migration, but after the first 
USDA importation and distribution in the seventies.

So a mean hive is a mean hive is a mean hive.  What is the best way to 
de-fang it and make use of its resources?

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