Hi all

On a slightly separate tack, wherever the Africanised genes come from, 
it should be possible to reduce them by judicial re-queening, of course 
you have to establish the non-African nature of the stocks used for 
re-queening, but that is not difficult.

When Apis Mellifera bees were introduced to the American continent, the 
vast majority were AMM types (Western European mtDNA). The selection 
that has gone on during the last 100 or so years has changed that 
drastically, with only 3% [Beltsville 1995] representation of AMM, most 
of the rest being Eastern European mtDNA types and a percentage of 
African types (I do not know these percentages).

Surely it follows that by using the same methods, the African genes can 
be also be reduced.

 > The notion that marked queens are liable to be superseded
 > is plain nonsense. I know this from 30 years of experience.
 > The primary cause of supersedure is junk queens.

I would like to change the emphasis of Peter's statement away from the 
'junk' aspect which has connotations of poor quality, it may be that the 
quality is good, but not appropriate (according to the bees).

I reckon that the cause of the supersedure of many introduced queens, is 
to do with the difference in genetic make-up between the bees in the 
colony and the introduced queen. I also think that the degree of 
difference in genes has a bearing on the likelihood of supersedure 
taking place.

I use the term 'supersedure' in the American sense, whereby replacement 
is implied.

The answer to this dilution of AHB lies in the recent thread about 
producing queens locally to suit the conditions that pertain locally and 
in doing the necessary morphomeric and DNA work to establish the 
credibility and suitability of the gene pool being utilised. (once again 
things that have been discussed recently)


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
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