Pete> African bees seem to be orders of magnitude more defensive than any sort of European bees.

Doesn't seem to be true of all scutellata and like most other aspects of bee behavior, unknown variables must be at work. With these Botswana Okavango River Delta hives, there was high predation from humans also minor predation from honey badger and ants. It seems curious that African bees in this area didn't develop the same defensive behavior. The overall predation rate during this study was 48%. 



> In contrast to the extreme aggression often reported for scutellata in
South America and many areas of Africa, Delta colonies
exhibited little nest defense. Unlike scutellata in other regions, which must
be smoked heavily and continuously to reduce stinging, 
Delta colonies required only 2-3 moderate applications
of smoke, even during excavation. If workers began stinging, this involved
only a small number of bees (20-30) and never erupted into the massive defense
response often observed for scutellata in other areas. Likewise, whereas attacking
scutellata workers in South America have been reported to follow victims
for hundreds of meters, attacking workers from Delta colonies never followed for more than 10-20 m.
Disturbed colonies in the Delta tended to flee rather than attack. During
excavation, the queen and workers in all 22 thriving colonies abandoned the
combs and usually hid within the nest cavity. In six of the colonies (27 %),
the queen and workers absconded during excavation.


>The habitat and nesting biology of the African honey bee Apis mellifera scutellata in the Okavango River Delta, Botswana, Africa
S Schneider, R Blyther - Insectes Sociaux, 1988 


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

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