The cape honey bee.

[Joelel]

I wonder what breed the cape honey bee is ? We need them here ?

African bee
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African honey bee
 
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
 
Phylum: Arthropoda
 
Class: Insecta
 
Order: Hymenoptera
 
Family: Apidae
 
Genus: Apis
 
Species: a. mellifera
 
Subspecies: a. m. scutellata
 
Trinomial name
Apis mellifera scutellata
Lepeletier, 1836
The African honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) is a subspecies of the Western honey bee. It is native to central and southern Africa, though at the southern extreme it is replaced by the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis.

This subspecies has been determined to constitute one part of the ancestry of the Africanized bees (AKA "killer bees") spreading through the Americas.

The African bee is being threatened by the introduction of the Cape honey bee into northern South Africa. If a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an African bee nest, they are not attacked, partly due to their resemblance to the African bee queen. Now independent from her own colony, she may begin laying eggs, and since a.m. capensis workers are capable of parthenogenetic reproduction, they will hatch as "clones" of herself, which will also lay eggs. As a result the parasitic a. m. capensis workers increase in number within a host colony. This leads to the death of the host colony on which they depend. An important factor causing the death of a colony seems to be the dwindling numbers of a. m. scutellata workers that perform foraging duties (a. m. capensis workers are greatly under-represented in the foraging force of an infected colony) owing to death of the queen, and, before queen death, competition for egg laying between a. m. capensis workers and the queen. When the colony dies, the capensis females will seek out a new host colony.[1]

a single African bee sting is no more venomous than a single European bee sting, though African honeybees respond more quickly when disturbed than do EHBs. They send out three to four times as many workers in response to a threat. They will also pursue an intruder for a greater distance from the hive. Although people have died as a result of 100-300 stings, it has been estimated that the average lethal dose for an adult is 500-1,100 bee stings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apis_mellifera_scutellata

[indypartridge]

I wonder what breed the cape honey bee is ? We need them here.

I hope you're joking.

[Bee-Bop]

Looks like it's going to be a long,hard winter, with nothing to do but play on the computer !

 :jail:

Bee-Bop

[lenape13]

Surely, you jest.  If they were to arrive here, they would decimate our bees, as well.  They wouldn't distinguish between Africanized and non-Africanized hives.  We would have an even bigger mess on our hands.

[Grid]

"...If a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an African bee nest, they are not attacked, partly due to their resemblance to the African bee queen..."

Given the above description, it may be that the Cape honey bee would be attacked by our non-africanized bees.  So it is possible that they would not harm the desirable bees while helping to control the AHB.

Now, as a general principal I think it is a "Bad Idea (tm)", :evil: but it seems to me that as an exercise for discussion, the idea has some merit.  We don't know enough, really, to say what they would do one way or the other.

Grid.

[rdy-b]

    As a result the parasitic a. m. capensis workers increase in number within a host colony. This leads to the death of the host colony on which they depend.

they will do the same thing to a EHB colony and you cant stop them -they would be the worst thing that
could happen to beekeeping as we know it-RDY-B

[Michael Bush]

Having cape bees would not only be a disaster, it would also be illegal.  Every state I know of has a law against them plus the USDA has a law against importing them.  You are under the misimpression that AHB are actually different than EHB.  Other than the aggression issue, they are identical.

[Grid]

I hope history has taught us that introducing a foreign species willy-nilly (bee or other) is pretty much always a bad idea, whether it is legal in your province/state or not.  Oh well - I was hoping for an interesting debate that would help me learn about bees, but this thread got shut down pretty hard.  :)

Our beloved honey bees are also invaders to this part of the world, brought in by the European settlers back when, so perhaps it isn't _always_ a bad idea to introduce a foreign species.  ;)  Mind you, those same settlers also brought the dandelion over...  Perhaps they knew the bees would like them.

Cheers.
Grid.

[Michael Bush]

Dandelions have always been appreciated as greens for people, medicine for people and food for bees.  While most of the ones we have are invasive, there were also several native species of dandelions.

[Grid]

Ha!  Well, I did not know that.  So, an interesting discussion that taught me something about dandelions.  That'll do.  :)

Grid.