UPDATE ON WESTERN KILLER BEES According to one of many interesting reports and studies on the so called advance of the African Honey Bee in California and the west was a report that 98 confirmed AHB swarms have been identified in Arizona and "one was from the 7,000 ft elevation near Flagstaff, Arizona". On its way to winter in Colorado no doubt. If some of you don't know one popular route for travellers comes out of Colorado at Flagstaff, but not necessarily one I would want to truck bees on. The reports of new finds 90 miles east of San Diego reported in the press several times the last three weeks were actually found much earlier but only just confirmed as AHB. New DNA studies to determine if the AHB has moved out of the area they are know to have been found in earlier this year found not only AHB in the area but also found a large number of local swarms that passed the DNA tests for bees from Egypt (Apis mellifera lamarkii). Interesting to note that this is the Date growing area of California, not a good place to bee sitting under a tree eating your dates. Also some one should point out the DNA study did not sample any bees outside the know AHB area so it really is not honest to say the AHB has not spread out of this area based on this study when only bees inside the area were checked. So far as far as I can find out none of these bees have been reported as aggressive other then the one swarm that attacked two tree trimmers stinging one all of 25 times, (most beekeepers would not find out of the ordinary if they were up in a tree working with tools and came across a swarm of any kind of bees). Also interesting that wild bees from a well know site in SW Arizona also tested with the DNA test was found to have the DNA of bees from Egypt over a year ago. ttul OLd Drone 11796 (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ ... How doth the little busy bee