Hello Mark and All,
I am going to try and walk you through the issue. You are close to understanding the root of the issue.

Mark wrote:
 when I read the traits of these capensis bees I find they are on the
gentle side.
You are exactly right! The problem for commercial beekeeping with these bees is the fact as Dr. Hoffman pointed out in her talk that the intercaste capensis workers enter hives of ALL other races and take over the hive eliminating the other race. A problem talked about on Bee-L by Barry Seargent in great detail. Please do not kill the messenger. I only bring recent data from the Tucson Bee lab of the current problem with bees in Arizona.

Mark wrote:
 Now if you believe all that is said about the vicious AHBs in
the southwest, one has to wonder about where the truth really is. 

Most beekeepers in Texas laugh at all the aggressive AHB talk. They live in areas of Aficanization with only a few problems. They are always on the lookout for aggressive AHB but consider AHB a way of life. We can not stop the AHB spread. We can eliminate aggressive AHB when found. I believe the truth is like Dr. Hoffman says and we are looking at the gentle cpaensis strain of AHB instead of (IN most cases) the aggressive scutellata race. 

Give us
just one study that has been done to prove any of this capensis idea.

Let us try to force the release of all data about the subject which the Tucson Bee lab is sitting on.

 We   hear one person suggest this idea and you talk as if it is fact. i feel the
usda labs will be in for a rough road if they think the scare tatic will
work again on this african bee story.

This is the place you are missing the point. Dr. Hoffman IS the head of the USDA Tucson Bee Lab in charge of the Africanized bee research. Her statement represents the labs views. I admit I raised the capensis issue on Bee-L two years ago without a response from anyone. Those which remember the post in which I said Scut is yellow and Capensis is black and all beekeepers In Arizona are claiming the AHB they see are black,. What gives!
I said years ago about AHB aggressive hives. Eliminate the AHB aggressive hives when found and quit spending precious research dollars on a lost cause.
Capensis however needs to be looked at differently. Aggressive behavior is not the big issue Capensis can be aggressive at times but generally they are considered gentile. The problem with capensis is destruction of our existing lines of bees SMR, Italian, Carniolans Russians and caucs to name a few.
In the worse case scenario the Cape bee could be the only bee in parts of the Southwest and California. Selective breeding of capensis is impossible because of the intercaste laying worker. Hope I have explained what the cape bee could mean to U.S. beekeeping.  Thanks for the post Mark.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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