Thanks for the post Andon! Nice to hear observations from an area with
highly-defensive stock.
>The openmated queens are generally almost as docile as the pure mated
queens, despite
roughly half of the progeny being bastards.
I hope that others with experience in Africanized (or other) areas will
chime in. My limited experience when I visit friends in Africanized
Southern
California is that F1's (gentle Italians mated to wild-type Africanized)
are noticeably "touchier" on the combs (jittery wings, more warning bumps,
a bit more smoke required), but still easily workable. By the F2
generation, the increased defensiveness is much more noticeable. But there
is great variation in the defensiveness of the established SoCal
Africanized population.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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