Hi Chuck and Keith,

Actually they are here, been here since about 1621, they are mean and
nasty and sometimes either so small or so determined that they will come
through the louvers in a plastic helmet buzzing like a saw mill. After
liberally smoking the entrance and waiting a pregnant pause then taking
off a top cover and smoking the entrance to the inner cover at the same
time will produce hoards of angry German blacks right in your face!  I
wrote about an experience with these critters in the May 2004 Bee Culture.
I have had two yards twenty miles apart which had hives that took on the
German Black traits in a hive that had swarmed.  In both cases those hives
turned into super producers; I just could not stand working with them. In
one case, I moved a mating yard because there were so many German blacks
in the area. Yes, there are some folks that think that these are the best
bees in the world and they propagate them and even sell queens, queen
cells, and frames with eggs. Even now with queen yards having 25 to 30
drone mother colonies I still see a few German Blacks mixed in with my
drone stock returning to my hives after mating flights. How the feral
colonies survive Varroa is beyond me.

Cheers,

Chuck Norton

Norton’s Nut & Honey Farm
330 Irvin Street
Reidsville, NC 27320 USA

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