This is in answer to some of Bob Harrison’s questions.

CAPENSIS WORKER LAYING “FEMALE” EGGS

How does a capensis worker lay eggs that can be grown into workers
or queens? To quote (from random examples) Harry H Laidlaw, Jnr. in
“Contemporary Queen Rearing:”

“As we now know, worker bees of a race of honey bees in South Africa,
Apis Mellifera Capensis, can lay unfertilised eggs that develop into
females (Onions 1912), and that rarely, virgin queens of our bees may
lay eggs that develop into females (Mackensen 1943). Tucker (1958)
has suggested an explanation for this.”

My personal guess is that capensis workers have this (ready) ability
as an extreme (and effective) survival tactic. Their natural range, the
Western Cape, comprises a “unique” floral kingdom, the fynbos.
Flows are fairly frequent, but never very strong. Along with winter rains,
winter conditions, especially the winds, can be quite nasty; seriously
miserable.

There can be days and days on end when the bees cannot fly.
Perhaps the bee developed this technique to deal with disasters
where (at minimum) the queen and all eggs and young brood were
lost.

Today, outside their natural range, they may sense impending
disaster (how right could they be?), triggering laying behaviour. Put
another way, perhaps RELATIVE weakening levels of scent from the
scut queen (following an expanded brood nest, for example) trigger
the capensis worker into believing some disaster is pending. The
capensis worker would change gear into survival mode and start
laying eggs.

CAPENSIS IN BRAZIL

The Americas can thank their lucky stars capensis taken to Brazil by
Dr. Kerr did not survive in their pure state.  If I had to guess why, I
would say it’s because capensis is downright lazy outside its natural
range.

COLOURS

The ApiCrown queens are golden, particularly on the sides and
underside of the abdomen. The top of the abdomen comprises
alternate stripes of golden yellow and a very dark grey. They have
luminescent golden hairs. We do have a line of bees which is
strikingly yellow; it is the largest of all the lines, but it did not qualify for
breeder status.

Like the ApiCrown workers, the ApiCrown queens are a lot “closer” to
(pure) scuts in colour. A pure capensis queen is very, very dark;
indeed black in some parts. The hybrid wild bee is predominantly scut
in coloration. The difference in colour certainly helps when looking for
early capensis infestation.

Capensis are “black,” and quite distinctive on the comb, and such a
hive may well contain (darker) hybrids closer to pure capensis. But
possibly the surest way to confirm capensis infestation is multiple
eggs in worker cells. As noted, in the advanced stage, there may be a
dozen or more eggs in a single cell: an abominable mess.

QUEEN SCENT

When a scut queen “loses control” of her colony in the face of
capensis, it normally follows stress. The two classic triggers are
long-distance migration and a heavy flow (where the brood nest
suddenly becomes very enlarged). This is when one or more
capensis workers start laying, and damnation of the colony ensues.

On that basis, the capensis worker, or several of them, produce more
scent that the scut queen, who is balled and killed. Logically, one
would then conclude that a capensis queen probably has stronger
scent than a scut queen. The latter may be academic, given that the
capensis workers are the real problem.

But the simple point is that once capensis worker laying activity starts
in a scut hive, the damage is irreversible.

AM LITTORA

The other race said to be found in north-east South Africa near
Mozambique is AM littora. But there is no known scientific backing for
what remains anecdotal.

My best regards to all of you,

Barry