*Ripped off the sci.beekeeping.newsgroup for you that can't get it.. ---------------------------------------- BEEKEEPING IN THE NEWSPAPERS What others are saying about beekeeping The last few weeks several stories have popped up on the approach of the so called KILLER BEES. You and I know that if you are killed by a truck it really does not make much difference as to what breed it was, but with bees its those nasty African bees who are going to get you... I have already posted the story on the "killer" bees coming in to the California & Hawaii sugar dock's, from Hawaii, I guess, that has no history of African bees. Also how the spray job done on them was so bad that the queen may have escaped and a search was on to find her.(BS) Another "story" found in the San Diego, California UNION TRIBUNE, (you must be a member to read this, the good news is it is free). Try this: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Its a short one anyway and little detail is included but I know that the University of California, and the Calif. Dept. of Agriculture has been looking at all bees in the Coachella valley and this story is headlined, KILLER BEES COLONIZE VALLEY....based on two bees captured at random last April and DNA tests just confirmed they were AFRIKANER. I guess they were still working on the OJ tests or something that it takes four months to test two bees? Anyway the article goes on to say this evidence combined with bee "contingents" found near the Salton Sea in September 1995 "indicate the entire Coachella Valley has been colonized" according to his lordship, Cal Kaminskas, a county ass. agriculture commissar. I think this was the same guy who says these "killer" bees are traveling by train, but never explained why they got off half way to the end of the track at the Canadian boarder in Washington state. I translated all this activity in San Diego and Riverside County as being a way out from what has been a very expensive experiment in regulatory process and if continued would cost 100's of millions in state costs and more in lost agriculture production if a real quarantine was put in place as advertised. The science in all this Africian bees stuff is so poor that legally it can not support a real quarantine and all federal Afro bee efforts are soon to be stopped. I wonder just what it takes to wake these people up to the fact that honeybees do not respect political bounders like their keepers... The TEXAS story continues.. I don't know how many counties there are in this great state but now 89 have been quarantined for Africanized honey bees. This story can be found in the LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 7-19-97, and is on the web. Use NEWSWORKS and you will find it by searching for Africanized or Killer bees. The meat of this story is that the Africanized bees have moved farther north in Texas then was planned for. Some of the BS (bee science) is this story is way out, TEXAS tails I would guess, like "in the spring the Africanized species divided its hive into as many as 14 units and begins moving. That swarm is often no larger than a softball, Jackson said." or how that "swarms four feed or closer to the ground.....Jackson says, "because the swarm may be Africanized honey bees." Then he continues, "The bees, however, also can go in trees or into the ground as well as in water meters." It was a busy week for the "killer" bees and their tails. ttul, the OLd Drone (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ Vereniging tot Bevordering van de Bijenteelt --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ "Where there are fruits & nuts, there are beekeepers"