I understand that you may see some good traits in your bees Joseph, but I think even you will agree that you would not risk working your bees without a suit. Your bees may or may not contain AHB genes, but at any time a colony of yours could be superseded by a queen mated to AHB drones, and that hive could explode like a ticking time bomb when you least expect it.
Phoenix,
Sure, I risk it all the time. I work my bees with just long pants (w/leg straps), long-sleeved shirt, smoker, and veil.
My bees may have started out as Africanized (they had established their colony with the combs suspended beneath a mobile home). After the point where I migrated them into modern Langstroth equipment, they have been propagated by splitting and letting each split raise their own queens. This process has been in effect for more than
8 years now. I'm not claiming my colonies aren't Africanized, perhaps they are. What I am saying is that I have a strong inclination to believe that most of the "killer" AHB hype is propaganda. If AHBs are "hyper-defensive", and this tendency is a dominant genetic trait, as it would be, why then would anyone need a microscopic examination to determine if they are AHB's? Wouldn't their "hyper-defensiveness" give them away? And besides if any colony exhibits "hyper-defensiveness" under conditions where EHB would be calm and manageable, wouldn't it be a candidate for requeening or destroying regardless if it were AHB or not.
What businessman/beekeeper is going to sell "hyper-defensive" bees, AHB or not, and expect to stay in business? I’ve read many threads, even on this forum, where many strains of honeybees (Buckfast) being one in particular, have turned out to produce “HOT†colonies from time to time.
What I’m trying to say is:
1) If AHB have dominant genetics for "hyper-defensiveness", then
2) AHB will not be able to hide this "hyper-defensiveness", then
3) Colonies exhibiting this "hyper-defensiveness" will be requeened or destroyed as most “HOT†colonies usually are – doesn’t matter if they are in AHB territory or not.
Otherwise:
1) The reported "hyper-defensiveness" is recessive like the cordovan color trait and AHB’s will be able to insidiously infiltrate all of our bees and then engage their "hyper-defensiveness" gene so they can, “take overâ€, or
2) An EHB queen has mated with EHB and AHB drones and her workers will, perhaps have a temperament change over time, as the sperm source changes.
Scenario: One or more of my colonies becomes "hyper-defensiveâ€. What to do? I either accept this or requeen. What would any beekeeper do when a colony exhibits a strong "hyper-defensiveness"? I think that would be requeen or destroy. What’s the difference? A hot colony is a hot colony – why does it matter why they are hot? Other than the normal seasonal issues that are expected to cause a colony to get somewhat grumpy.
Between flows my colonies can get a little grumpy, but if I'm careful when I work them, or refrain from working them at that time, then they remain as calm as ever.
-----------------
One thing I appreciate from my bees is that I have
never needed to use anything to help them to stay healthy and survive the mites.