In message "La Reine de la Cite' des Phoques (Liz Day)" writes:
> Feral honeybees exist quite far north, I think, but somehow I
> thougth the killer bees were less resistant to cold or for some
> reason wouldn't make it this far (Chicago).  Any good info?
> Liz Day
 
There is no set, simple answer to this question.  If you speak of "pure" African
bees (ie, the DNA and morphology is similar to Apis mellifera scutellata from
South Africa), they are not as adpated to prolonged cold temperatures as are
bees derived from Europe.  They can thermoregulate in a cluster, but whether
they could make it through a winter in Chicago or Minnesota is anybody's guess
(especially in a winter like this one).  Jose Villa from the USDA Bee Lab in
Baton Rouge has nice data on the overwintering ability of African honey bees.  I
can lead you to references if you're interested.
 
On their own, meaning without assistance from beekeepers, African bees probably
will not swarm and establish feral populations very far north. We assume this
because of the distribution of African bees in Argentina.  In northern
Argentina, African bees thrive quite well.  Further south, there is a permanent
hybrid zone between African and European bees, and even further south, only
European bees are found.  This situation probably will occur in the US, only in
reverse.  If so, "pure" African bees will only be found in the most southern
states.
 
However, the above predictions don't take into consideration the beekeeping
industry, particularly the queen rearing and package bee industry which is
located primarily in the southern US and along the east and west coasts.
Thousands of queens and packages are shipped yearly all over the US.  How will
this affect the distribution of African bees and their hybrids?  It can
potentially distribute them everywhere.  There is a plan in the works to help
ensure that all queens and bees that are shipped or transported out of areas
where African bees thrive are reared from "certified" European stock.  So we
will get European queens in the mail, but we may not be able to certify that
these queens mated with all European drones.  In the long run, we will probably
be dealing with mostly European queens hybridized with some African drones, and
they will survive everywhere we take them and take care of them. Some will be
perfectly manageable and gentle and others will not be so manageable.  It will
be up to every beekeeper to consistently cull out irascible colonies and
propagate gentle colonies.
 
Do African bees get varroa and tracheal mites?  Yes.  Are they more resistant to
these mites?  We don't know.  In Brazil, African bees don't seem to be as
affected by varroa mites as are European bees.  Will this trend hold in more
temperate regions?  We don't know (or I don't know).
 
 
 
Marla Spivak
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University of Minnesota