Quote
Apis mellifera has a natural instinct to brood their eggs.
They know that they must keep the eggs a certain temperature
in order for them to hatch.  This natural tendency is awful close to
clustering up when it gets cold.  I don't think they will have much
trouble moving North.

Reply

It certainly is far more complicated than that. One of the characteristics of African bees is to raise a lot of bees, and not store as much honey as European bees. They are hard wired to migrate in times of dearth, whereas European bees tend to hoard lots of honey so they can hunker down for six months or more. Another factor in wintering over is the longer lifespan of winter bees. African bees have a shorter lifespan generally and may not be able to extend it enough to survive a real northern winter. 

But the issue of hybridization comes in. In Beltsville this February there was a lot of talk of the lack of reliable testing for Africanization. Evidently the wing vein ID is no longer considered reliable. So, the issue was how do you decide if the bees are African or not? I suggest that it didn't make any difference if the bees have African genes, or wings, or whatever. 

The problem is the behavior and that can be identified easy enough. For example, it doesn't matter if the bees are African if they aren't vicious. And it doesn't matter if they are not African if they are vicious. It is the behavior that is a problem, so taking out vicious colonies is the best plan, never mind the DNA testing and all that. If you don't and they sting somebody, you are negligent and could be held liable. 

PLB

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