> Bill thought CCD, aka Disappearing Disease, might be a genetic  defect.
Simply stated, these bees had AHB genes, and he suspected that  they
couldn't
survive the cold winters.

Or it could have been due to some other problem with the hybrid.

" Our goal was to determine if the frequency of asymmetrical individuals in
workers that were offspring from the crosses was greater than in pure
African or European workers. ... The higher frequency of asymmetric
individuals suggests that European bees and their hybrids may be less fit
relative to African bees. We also found that workers from crosses between
European and African queens and drones differ in overall wing size and shape
that could affect wing aerodynamics and flight ability."

Schneider, S. S., Leamy, L. J., Lewis, L. A., DeGrandi-Hoffman, G. The
influence of hybridization between African and European honeybees, Apis
mellifera, on asymmetries in wing size and shape. 2003. Evolution 57(10).
pp. 2350-2364.

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