Bob St. John wrote:
>
> >I've met a few people from the Transvaal (South Africa) who work on a
> >day to day basis with these bees (A.m.scutellata - the fearsome
> >Killer bee of the Americas) and do very well from them.
> >
> No, they are not the same. I have talked to beekeepers from South Africa and
> their bees are not the Brazilian "killer bees"
> I have worked with a lot of bees all over Ethiopia and while there are some bees
> who are easily offended there are many swarms there that are quite tractable.
> When we talk ogf the Africanized Honey Bee (AHB bred in Brazil) we are not
> taliking about the African Honey Bee.
 
I'd like to add a few things on this subject.
 
There are many different races of bees in Africa. One race, the most
common,
is A. M. Scutellata. That's the race that were brought to Brazil in the
50's
and crossed with European bees there to investigate if the cross would
be
any good in a similar climate to Africa. We all know the result of that.
The Scutellata is not that bad, even if some colonies have a well
developed
defence behaviour. For thousands of years people have been hunting bees
for
the honey. The honey has been robbed from the feral colonies, leaving
only
those with the most will to defend themselves.
 
--
Regards
 
P-O Gustafsson, Sweden
[log in to unmask]    http://www.kuai.se/~beeman/