>Mark writes:
It is my understanding that one characteristic of AHB is it
absconds.

AHB as always been known to abscond but mostly due to lack of nectar &
pollen or even to escape pests.

When doing the ABJ article on AHB in Florida ( March or April 2006) what the
Florida Apiary inspection saw (besides hot bees) was AHB  sending out a huge
number of very small swarms. Up to 16 I was told in a season.

The beekeeper at the root of the Florida problem had yards of small AHB
hives from swarms he had mostly caught. His bees had stung to death an
animal next door.I think a horse from memory.

 His situation from my understanding involved mostly AHB because he was
collecting every swarm he could and AHB  small swarms were in great numbers
that season .The Florida apiary people I interviewed said they worked to
requeen his hives with EU queens but about as fast as they got his hives EU
queens he had got other AHB swarms. I do not know what the situation is
today as my article was done over a year ago but at that time the Florida
apiary dept. did not have a hard time finding AHB swarms. A wall in the lab
was lined with AHB sample jars either already tested or waiting for testing.
As I said in the article the bees which tested positive for AHB looked like
our regular Italian bee and to me seemed no smaller from looking at the
sample in solution in a jar.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison


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