Hello All,
I enjoyed meeting Blane White, Jim Fischer, Lloyd Spear, Hamilton and the
gal from the North Carolina beekeepers from Bee-L. Putting a face with a
name on a Bee-L post helps. People always seem to look different than you
picture.
The most startling new information I heard came from Dr. Gloria Hoffman of
the Tucson Bee Lab. Dr. Hoffman said she considers Arizona now 100%
Africanized.
The black Africanized bees of Arizona have been showing capensis traits
with intercasts with laying worker queens.In short they are showing all the
Capensis traits of taking over European hives.  Dr. Hoffman went into great
detail about the labs observations. At the end of the talk I asked if she
was saying the AHB in Arizona are showing capensis traits. her answer
was "You are exactly right". Capensis were brought into Brazil by Dr. Kerr
and she believes the capensis strain is alive and well in Arizona. To those
Bee-L followers which followed Barry Seargeant and my posts on the subject
last year you can see what a dire effect  capensis would have on U.S.
beekeeping.
For those thinking the above  is not true contact the bee lab, ask a fellow
beekeeper which was at the ABF convention and attended the talk or purchase
the tape of the lecture from the ABF office.
Dr. Hoffman carefully avoided using the word capensis throughout her talk
but  openly talked about capensis when I questioned her. I thank Dr.
Hoffman for her lecture and her observations. Finding capensis in Arizona
is not good news but if capensis is in Arizona and our bee lab knows this
is true then they need to inform us as they work for our interests. I again
thank Dr. Hoffman for her honesty and have to wonder why Dr. Erickson did
not enlighten us to the labs  capensis findings.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa,  Missouri