Stan Schneider:

We examined nest usurpation in an apiary of European colonies maintained over a 2-year period in Tucson, AZ. The African bee arrived in Arizona in 1993 and has subsequently established large populations that contain few or no European matrilines. The study apiary therefore provided an excellent opportunity to examine the impact of nest usurpation on managed European colonies that are increasingly challenged by a growing feral African population.

Our apiary contained 76 five-frame nucleus hives, each with a “Golden Italian” European colony. The Golden Italian line expresses the light yellow coloration of cordovan bees. Each European queen was marked with a dot of point on her thorax. The coloration patterns and paint marks allowed us to visually discriminate European host queens and workers from the much darker colored African bees in the Tucson area.

We observed a total of 32 takeovers during our 2-year study period, for a mean annual usurpation rate of 21.1 + 9.3%.���

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