Hello Everyone,

I certainly do not know enough to comment on the whose gene's are where
or what gene's are whose. I have talked with those in Africanized areas
who claim AHB's are mostly sensationalized feral bees. It could be true,
but things have changed for a vast number of beekeepers in Central and
South America. Most of the smaller beekeepers quit beekeeping and the
larger commercial guys had to change their operations to stay in
business. It was the occasional aggressiveness and swarming/absconding
that caused these changes as compared to the type of bees they were
keeping before. They got their bees away from people and changed how they
managed them.

I have had to work some large yards of very vicious bees at the worst
times every bit as mean as anything I have experienced or seen with bees
with AHB characteristics. But it always took some time to get to the
point where they were that angry.

Some of my Russian bees could get just as mean. But they always gave some
warning like head butting or hair pulling even before opening the hive.
And then again it would have take awhile in the worst conditions for
those bees to get up to that temper.

I gently removed a cover and in much less than a minute I had tickle me
elmo socks. The birds were fleeing for their lives and everything black
on my truck was being attacked. Now that was very uncomfortable for me a
beekeeper, but just image your neighbor with tickle me elmo socks or a
child riding his bike down the country road with a new kind of hat. I
would burn every beehive I own before knowingly placing another human
being into that situation.

We as beekeepers can get rather casual about threats real and perceived
about our bees. A reaction which only elicits a puff of smoke from us
would send most fleeing for safety.  But let's stand in our neighbors
shoes for a moment. How about a neighbor who raises black widow spiders
or rattlesnakes or wolves or gators or ??? . And just image they
frequently crossed the pasture or got over the fence and into your
backyard where you would meet them in the garden, patio or pool. What if
you were deathly allergic to gators? :>)

Anyway, bees are not domesticated pets. There is an element of
uncertainty to their behavior and it's usually greater with those bees
migrating up from the south as witnessed by the changed beekeeping
practices in those southern areas.

Dennis