> As to hostile and or excessively defensive bees.... in my very early years of keeping bees (via my original mentor in West Virgina) these were US reared apis m.m.  A smallish black bee that came up slowly in the spring of the year.  Quite hostile to the extreme and later on I would come to conclude the hostility level of these bees was much about inbreeding.

Our native A.m.m. are described as having a broad body and the description 'a burly bee' has been used.  This my experience, with the workers being far larger than, say, Italians.

The queens however are usually smaller than those of other races; again the difference is particularly noticeable when compared with Italians.  This can make them less popular with some folks as they can be more difficult to find - although I find them quite easily.  We mark all our queens - usually when they are in nucs and easy to find, but we also find every queen on first inspections in the spring so that we can clip and mark any supersedure queens from the previous autumn.

Reasonably pure A.m.m. here are normally extremely docile and many of our colonies could be handled without a veil - although that is not a risk that I personally would take.

Best wishes

Peter 
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

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