> At the 2011 Spring Meeting of the Missouri State Beekeepers, Dennis Van Englesdorp stated that hot hives do, in fact, produce more honey.  His theory was beekeepers tend to leave hot hives alone, and unmolested hives produce more honey.

I have a ton of respect for Dennis, but I certainly disagree with this. I have seen plenty of highly productive hives and plenty of mean ones, too. No connection. Further, I think that _properly managed_ hives produce much more than "unmolested hives". 

Next, it is a myth that African bees produce more honey per colony than Europeans. The tend to survive better than European hives in the tropics, but behaviorally they tend to raise too much brood and swarm too much to be "productive". 

Overall, honey production may go up in areas where African bees are kept, but this is due to there being more hives, and a higher survival rate, not a per colony production gain. 

Finally, I am not sure what is involved in "hive molestation" but it has a bad ring to it ...

PLB

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