G>From: Garth <[log in to unmask]>
 >Date:         Thu, 14 Aug 1997 18:28:20 GMT+0200
 >Subject:      AHB thread
 >Organization: Rhodes University South Africa
 
G>Firstly, a reasonable amount of genetic evidence is cropping up to
 >show that the AHB's reaching and entering the US are probably not
 >crossed with the Euro Bees already there.
 
Not how I read it, in fact much time and US federal money has been spent
in an attempt to find such a bee in Texas with no such luck, but I am
not in the BS loupe so you may have some information the rest of us
missed.
 
G>My bets are as follows:
 
G>African bees are superior foragers and defenders and move about twice
 >as fast as euro bees. They are more evolved because they have more
 >generations per year.
 
Twice as fast? They do dart into and out of the hive, but no way they
are twice as fast here, and some are more aggressive then the local
bees, but many more are no different.
 
G>So, should an african hive swarm, it will scout about early in the
 >morning, after spending a night in a tree, and find a nice space full
 >of honey with no major defence up. This would be a weak euro hive.
 >Then it will invade the hive by swarming in and take out the queen
 >quite easily.
 
Not the experience reported by commercial beekeepers in the US with
several years of hands on (gloved hands on) experience with African bio
types, or the so called "killer" bees.
 
 (I have seen a strong swarm invade one of my own weak
 >african hives. A strong swarm can fly early when it is cold and a
 >weak swarm will be so cold it is no good at defence.)
 
This behaviour is not limited to bees in Africa and is not common here
but most who spend eight or more hours a day in bee yards have seen it
more then once.
 
IMHO, Andy-
Los Banos, Calif.
Almost 50 years of being stung.
---
 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ "Ihr habt alle keine Chancen  aber nutzt sie."