Well, hello Robert

Mr Harrison wrote:
Dee has  asked me to explain my concerns. The first concern
is any threat of bees with capensis pseudo queen behavior
getting into the U.S. bee population. If your bees are
caucs Dee your bees would be at risk also wouldn't they?

Reply:
First of all Robert, the closest our bees have been
identified for being something is by DNA which compared
both our small black bees and the small black bees in feral
colonies back in the 1980s in San Diego county Calif, as
being similar to caucasian. So why don't you go find the
paper and pull it up and see if I am reading it right? The
next closest was Dr Koeniger who said our bees were
carniolan and italian with caucasian if I remember right in
morphometrics back around 1988. Dr Houck said in a size
discriminate report she gave in 1990 that our bees were not
africanized and fell out as caucasian. Dr Rinderer in a
blind test Dr Loper shipped on him, said our bees yellow
and balck were africanized in a size loaded FABIS Testing
that got Dr Daly working to correct the problem. Along the
way Dr Roy-Keith Smith got envolved with testing also.
Lastly, it was Dr Houck through the University of Arizona
that did the wing vein measurements on our bees and found
the special veining that she considered a pedigree, and
told me in grafting to never lose sight of the vein in the
modiefied out-of-breeding season methodology I use.

So Robert, to answer you question if our bees are
caucasian, you tell me, for actually I do not fully know!

Are you any better then the above scientists for being able
to tell me what they actually are? You have any ideas as to
why they cannot be specifically identified?

Then Robert, you want to know if our bees would be at risk?
But my question is risk from what? The bees are doing what
they have always done IMPOV. If they have never changed,
how can they be at risk? I love the bees and how they
handle. You would love them too if you actually saw them.

Mr. Harrison next wrote:
From scutellata to caucs capensis like pseudo queens take
no
prisoners

Reply:
How do you mean this Robert? I use our small blacks to give
winter carry over to the italian in our bees that Dr
Koeniger identified back in the 1980s. I also use our small
blacks for selection of better non-swarming bees, which I
know now you are trying to be at odds with, but
understandable. Also the small blacks help to give better
disease fighting capabilities to the bees we keep, and they
take care of the parasitic mites better also.(Note: Robert,
now don't confuse this paragraph here with thelytoky traits
in Capenis bees in S. Africa for the transition
circumstances are different IMPOV concerning breeding.)

Mr. Harrison then wrote:
About 20 years ago I recreated Mackensens research. I got
the same results as CD and CP bees did in your testing.

Reply:
Yes, Robert, I have read here on BEE-L where you have
seemed to have done a lot of things.


Mr. Harrison additionally wrote:
Further down pg. 5 (report printed out)we see a documented
case of absconding."thus causing the LUS laying workers to
abandon the hive"

Reply:
This Robert I would say would depend upon what your
definitioin ov absconding is and how it is initiated. I
myself did not consider it that way back then if I remember
right, but technically, the circumstances would fit the
description.

Mr. Harrison also posted:
of  the nine queens produced from laying workers brood ,
eight  did not return to the hive after a mating flight
, OR WERE CRITICALLY INJURED DURING INSTRUMENTAL
INSEMINATION.

Reply:
I have talked with others concerning this, and for your
informaiton, it is the very reason that Harry Laidlaw was
brought in to teach insemination to a couple over at the
lab, so it wouldn't happen again.

Mr. Harrison also wrote:
What kind of experiment was going on here and why wasn't
the instrumental insemination process  outlined in the
objectives part of the abstract?

Reply:
Please see reply given above. It was a learning process and
UC Davis tried to help the Tucson Lab in my recollection.

Lastly Mr Harrison wrote:
Ps. I still feel like I am putting a puzzle together and a
couple of the key pieces are missing.

Reply:
Yes, trade secrets are sometimes hard to get out of us
commercial beekeepers. There is a time and a place based on
the way the cards are dealt! and what is at stake!

Sincerely,

Dee A. Lusby







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