I've always read your posts with great interest and have
gained great insight as a result.  One question keeps
coming back to me.  Arizona, where your operation is
located, has had Africanized honeybees for some time now.
AFB take over EHB colonies.  What is your experience
with AFB taking over your colonies and how do you maintain
your stock 'purity'?  [I put purity in quotes since it's
not possible to control it completely in open mating.]
Have you seen more defensive behavior in your colonies in
recent years?


Waldemar
AFB take over EHB colonies you write, but I think you are
tring to type AHB. But either way, AFB does take over EHB
colonies, and AHB supposed/may/might/could take over EHB
colonies depending upon how one looks at what is actually
happening.

AFB cannot take over races/strains that are real
races/strains in a harmonious occurring setting in
real-life Nature; while it can take over enlarged/overly
hybridized mongrel EHBs that by name are blended together
and to me rightly called just EHBs for by any other name,
they are just enlarged bees, Nature with AFB, is
controlling.

AHB being smaller and in a harmonious occurring setting in
real-life Nature, can take over EHB colonies for smaller
fly faster and therefore get to mate first in the race to
the queen. For while smaller can get into a bigger flower,
the bigger cannot get into a smaller so good.

As you know we are into small natural sized comb and have
been for a long time. Besides better, diet, and better
health with our honeybees, we also get smaller bees in the
same size zone as the so-called AHB for flight
compatiablity, which then means if races/strains then
breakout by latitude and altitude and climatic zone on
Earth, then over time they naturally break themselves out.
On top of that we help, by time of year mating and never
keeping overly aggressive bees like beekeepers have been
doing for centuries. Again following the old ways. But in
following the old ways our bees have never gotten hot to
handle and many coming here say our bees are gentlier then
theirs back home. As for genetics testing, well they still
run all the colors together for race/strain and cannot seem
to break them out except for sizing IMPOV. So what really
is AHB and EHB or any other bee then if still workable for
production, and you have never had a problem? Just depends
upon your point of view.......For bees without man's names
are still yellow, and black, and big and small.

Sincerely,


Dee A. Lusby
Small Cell Commercial Beekeeper
Moyza, Arizona
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OrganicBeekeepers/





__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---