Hello Ben,
   I was watching a program last night (Friday) on the (Discovery
Channel)about the AHB They said that in South America about 40 people a
year are killed by the AHB. The same number of people that die each year
in the United States due to stings from our honey bees.
   The difference being that the AHB does not give up when it attacks.
Where you may get 8 or 10 stings from the bees we work. The AHB will
stay "mad" for hours if not days, and once one bee stings it could bring
on as many as 1000 or more stinging bees.
   The program also said that when an AHB hive is bothered almost 60% of
the bees will leave the hive to defend it, many thousands. Normally our
bees will send out a few hundred maximum usually less.
   This is the second time I have seen this program very interesting. If
I see that it is going to be re-broadcast I will post the info to this
list. It is well worth watching. I however ind a problem with the number
of stings they say we get from our bees. My wife was stung over 30 times
while working a very nasty hive we had a number of years ago. She was in
a full suit by the way. I was stung 15 times on one occasion and 12 on
another. Not a nice hive at all.
 
Gary C. Lewis
Duke Center, Pa.