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Breeding the AHB in the US.
 
Since no beekeeper in the US can be sure or even tell he has the dreaded
Afrikaner bee genes in his bees and the costs and more important the
reliability of such tests precludes even the biggest commercial operation
from having them done more then once you have a situation that does not
lend itself to change by man other then by the good old standard
bee breeding/beekeeping practice of T&E, (or Trial and tError).
 
Lucky for us most bee breeders do select breeders for temperament,
slow movement of bees on the comb, and its very important to a bee
breeder not to have runny queens or bees, all of these are said to be
much glorified in the AHB. The Good News is that none have stopped
working because of the much heralded arrival of the AHB.
 
As for what commercial beekeepers are doing that have AHB, first they
are not advertising the fact the may have them but are quietly doing what
we all do and that is replacing poor queens with new ones, and any hive
that fly's up into your face is considered by most to be a poor one.
Today they may be using stock other then that what is considered
contaminated with AHB, but in time this will change if it has not done
so already.
 
In the areas of the desert SW, Texas to the Imperial Valley of
California, 25 or 50 years ago before any so called AHB were reported in
the US if you were to replace all the so called aggressive hives it would
have been 100% of all the hives as they by any standards are and were
more aggressive then what most would tolerate in the rest of the US. This
is a fact and the first question is how do they now decide if they have
AHB? Most can not tell the difference, but for sure those who can
describe a beehive that fly's faster in and out of the hive then its
neighbor, one that builds up faster, and swarms earlier. Some use these
hives to make increase and keep the queen busy laying eggs, some do
report that if managed the suspected AHB hives are besides being
prolific are very productive and produce bigger surplus's of honey.
 
I don't pretend to be a student of genetics, and for sure do not believe
in the NAZI method of sizing bees to determine their background and
disposition, or the final solution of the dead bee quarantiner. But I
can assure all who read this AHB in the US is not the end of the world
or even the beginning of the end and every years tens of thousands hives
of bees that do not measure up to European standards are part of very
productive beekeeping business that not only produce millions of pounds
of honey but also help produce billions of dollars worth of agricultural
wealth.
 
The question about "breeding work being done" the answer is yes and has
been on going for years even before the first AHB swarm was detected
making it's illegal migration into the US in violation of federal and
many state laws. Sperm was used from AHB shipped direct for the source
in Brazil and shared with several bee breeders and no problems were
reported but then we did not have the super DNA tests in use today, that
failed in the OJ trial to convince the 12 people that counted. But bee
breeding work is and has been done and will continue as long as there
are beekeepers who are all pro temp bee breeders since today any queen
has a short life matter not who produces them or what flavor they are.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
 
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
111797
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