Hello Keith and All,

> Although these traits have earned Africanized honey  bees the >nickname
"killer bees", in the twelve years since their arrival in  the >United
States via Texas, AHB has only been responsible for about >twelve  human
deaths, mostly in Texas and Arizona.

These deaths are from multiple stings . In one case over a thousand stings.

>The average number of deaths per  year caused by the common >European Honey
bee in the US is around 40."

These are from anaphylaxis in almost (if not all) cases.


> Something tells me that AHB's are getting a bad rap and are not as >much
of a  threat as some people and the media would like them to be.

I am sure the media plays up the threat.  However the aggressive AHb can
send even the trained professional running for cover. A few hobby beekeepers
have said they would keep and work AHb. I never had a commercial beekeeper
say (in the U.S.) that  AHB would be anything but trouble.

Given a choice I would never keep and work the AHB.

Dr. Kerr believed that the Africanized bee would make record honey crops.
Beekeepers which keep bees for a living work on averages. In my opinion even
if the AHB produced a greater production per hive in some cases the total
average for the yard would still be below EHB unless a way was  found to
breed out the constant swarming and absconding of AHB. All beekeepers
including myself figure the yearly average production per hive by dividing
the production pounds by the total number of hives. Hives which die,
abscound or swarm during the season are still counted. . A large amount of
swarming can drop greatly the yearly production figure per hive.

Bob