Have just returned from a two week visit to Mexico, a holiday was needed
(and an escape from an English mild wet winter) but I also wanted to
experience the Africanised Honey Bee.

My beekeeping host, Luis Rommel Beutelspacher, a friendship made with the
benefits of this list, went to a great deal of trouble to allow me to gain
that experience - and my findings???????

Well I don't know what all the hype is about as I have worked several dozen
UK colonies (not mine I hasten to add) that are worse tempered than any of
those in Central America. Agreed the AHB is a touchy creature as painfully
discovered one day when walking into an apiary dressed in shorts and a short
sleeved shirt. I was just following the practice of topping up troughs
containing water to prevent access to the hives by ants. Obviously my
approach was discernible to the bees for they quickly sent me to get better
clothed. But seconds later the Maya Honey (the company operated by Rommel)
apiarist was handling them with bare hands. Hopefully I will have
photographs of my bare hand resting on a thickly covered comb and even
scooping a handful of AHB from the bottom of the frame with a bare hand to
dump them back into the box, and all without a single sting. They all
appeared to form great clusters at the bottom of the frame during
manipulations.

The worse part for a puny Englishman who scuttles for shade if the
temperature rises above 17 degrees C is when sweat runs so profusely at 40
degrees C from the forehead that it flows straight into the eyes, the
eyebrows apparently being no protection.

In my opinion the AHB may have made a few thousand bucks for the American
film industry, but in doing so has brought the honey bee of any race into
disrepute with their scare stories, this is my simple attempt to redress
that balance.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not volunteering for some sadistic sting therapy but
can anyone tell me that there are worse examples of AHB than I have
currently experienced, if so I will be scrapping the bottom of the "honey
piggy bank" to find the fare to come and see them.

Ken Hoare
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