Hi All

After a long absence I find myself posting again to Bee-L.

Tom: You answered a post about the natural selection of bees in old
skep hives in the UK where beekeepers would have taken the heaviest
hives etc.

In my part of the worl we have a unique and extremely peaceful
african bee - A.m.capensis - which is a bit different to the other
african bees. Over the millenia, Khoi san (bushmen) people, and more
recently the Nguni people (black) have raided these bees - removing
the brood nest as well as honey. In the rest of africa this has
resulted in extremely aggressive bees  - who become exponentially
more aggressive the large their honey reserve is. In our area the
opposite is true. Repeated raiding has selected strongly for bees who
can requeen from a worker laid egg.

Due to the selfish gene effect these bees are not actually compelled
to defend their hive always - it is in the interests of a clone who
is not related to the queen to have the queen killed - as one of the
clones eggs may be the one that becomes the new queen.

So here we see an example of human predation on bees selecting for a
gentle bee - but by a different method!!

Keep well

Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139 South Africa

Time = Honey