Mario Pittori wrote:
> African bees have never been domesticated, so yes, if you put them in a
> hive, they are still every bit as wild as African bees. As I have said
> before, there is a difference between the European and the African races
> - the Europeans have been domesticated.
>   
Actually, if you look in Africa, Brazil and even Mexico and Texas, AHB 
are being managed just like EHB. AHB are not uniform in their 
aggressively habits any more than EHB. You get the good and the bad.

And if you really think EHB are all sweet and loving, you never met the 
colony of Italians sold to me by a local bee supplier. Some of Brother 
Adams nice bees lost their pleasant disposition within a few 
generations. There are and always will be hot bees no matter the race.

Nice program on the Discovery Channel on AHB about "Killer Bees" that 
was actually on target. Mark Winston was an adviser. Showed AHB colonies 
in Arizona and Mexico being tended by beekeepers with little problem. 
Aggressive colonies were selected out. Also showed a nice lady beekeeper 
in South Africa tending her AHB colonies and the monkeys nearby being 
stung when they ventured too close. So AHB are not of a uniform 
disposition any more than posters on the BeeL. Much more temperate than 
that.

Again, we are confusing domestication with the kind of bees we are 
keeping. Just because they are less aggressive does not mean they are 
domesticated. Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy would not call the tiger 
that mauled him domesticated, even though it was less aggressive than 
one found in the wild.

Bees started in the wild. Men figured out how to keep them in containers 
so they could get to their product, honey. Bees in the wild (except in 
the Americas) were there before man. Bees that escape from man's 
containers are the same as those in the wild as long as there are bees 
locally. The only reason we call bees feral in the Americas is because 
they were never here in the first place.

I do agree that my bees are domesticated only to the extent that they 
like their plasma TVs and lazy boys I provide them during football season.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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