Hi Pete,

I'm freshly returned from the "20th Congreso International de Actualizacion
Apicola" in Mexico, at which I was able to spend considerable time
discussing this issue with Dr David De Jong of Brazil, which is fully
Africanized.  He also has extensive experience with Africanized bees in
Central America.

After the initial wave, the bees tend to settle down a bit, and new
beekeepers learn to adapt to them.  The main methods are:

To keep apiaries away from homes and dark-colored livestock.
On separate stands apart from each other.
To always smoke the entrance before you touch a hive.

But the main thing is to learn to handle bees gently and to recognize if
you are initiating defensive behavior.  He strongly suggests that
beekeepers learn to work Africanized bees barehanded, so as to be more
aware should the beekeeper initiate defensive behavior--exactly the same
advice I give in my beginners classes for European bees : )

Those beekeepers who learn how to perform hive manipulations without
"getting the bees going" work them similarly to the way in which we work
Europeans.

When I speak to U.S. beekeepers in Africanized areas, I hear much the same
message.  And in my extremely limited personal experience, I observed the
same.  But make a mistake, and the reaction can be surprisingly quick, with
hundreds of bees quickly launching out the entrance!

At one meeting that I had with the veterinarians involved with
Africanization, the focus of their questions was much more upon nutrition,
varroa management, pesticides, and GMO's.  Very much the same questions
that U.S. beekeepers have (there is also internet in Mexico).  Nutrition is
becoming a big issue to Mexican beekeepers, as farming practices and
climate changes.  We barely discussed Africanization.  I will see what I
can find out.
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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