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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Ken Hoare <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 11 May 1999 15:33:00 +0100
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Can anyone help me find a half dozen or so of the 'horror' newspaper headlines that I understand have appeared in American newspapers highlighting the aggressive (??) AHB . Apart from www.lawestvector.org/toc.htm I have come up with nothing despite searching some of your newspaper sites. I need to find someone who has kept a scrapbook of such cuttings, who could copy a few and either e.mail or snail mail them across to the UK. (Postage refunded.)

The reason. Frankly, recent contact with this species has convinced me that many of our UK colonies are much more aggressive than the AHB (painful experience gained whilst examining 3000 colonies a year looking for notifiable bee diseases for our Ministry of Agriculture). With only two weeks experience of working AHB's, and nearly 200 slides taken, I am trying to put together a talk for local associations, NOT elaborating on the aggressive AHB but suggesting ours may be worse and maybe we should do something about it, even a simple action such as culling aggressive queens and ridding ourselves of the genes from their drones.

As a dramatic 'start up' to that presentation a friend who works for the BBC is trying to acquire from their Sound Library a one or two minute tape of a very angry colony (tried to record it from my own colonies but even in poor weather and after a couple of kickings they still 'hum' at me - so culling does work). Whilst running the tape I would like to whiz through slides of those headlines.

Who keeps a scrapbook of AHB headlines?


Why are SOME of our bees in the UK so aggressive, I would say because we have imported various strains of bees from around the world, cross-bred them, the offspring again cross-breeding and inter-breeding. And I cannot remember the number of times I have heard something like, "I will leave them for today, they can be a bit touchy". Trouble is they will be just the same next week, and the one after that, all the time their drones spreading the aggressive gene, and we continue to aggravate the situation by importing Apis mellifera ligustica, a strain completely unsuitable for our climate, which before it runs out of food or  succumbs to the tracheal mite, adds to the problem. Why don't we try for a Pure Bred Honey Bee, after all the Germans did - and succeeded with Apis mellifera carnica.

Both your help and response to my comments welcomed, on-line preferably, if I am riding the wrong hobby-horse the back is broad enough to take it.

Ken Hoare
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