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Author Topic: Recent article about AHB  (Read 1561 times)

Offline Joseph Clemens

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Recent article about AHB
« on: April 10, 2006, 03:42:41 am »
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/119280.php

Check out this article I stumbled upon recently, talk about misinformation:

Quote
"Normally, in January and early March, there will be lots of flowers from early rains in the desert — mesquite, mustard and mistletoe — that provide good food for them," he said.


Mesquite blooms from mid-late April through June, every year, no matter what the weather. It seems to always produce the same major honey flow every year, without fail. Best one of the area. Mistletoe's main host is Mesquite, my bees didn't have any trouble harvesting Mistletoe this past March.

Quote
Still, some pest control company officials and a just-retired University of Arizona bee expert say the drought has increased the bees' aggressiveness and toughness and made them harder to kill.


Question: how are dying/starving bees, "harder to kill"?

Quote
The bee colonies that survive and come into the city have stored more honey and developed a genetic propensity to have more bees, Martin said. They will make more lethal attacks and must be sprayed with a calming agent before being killed, he said.


The survivors are genetically predisposed to maintain larger populations, even during a nectar famine? And this makes sense, how?

Quote
Schmidt, however, said that because the fall was so dry, most bees have probably already bolted from the desert into the city. One would also expect bees to get less aggressive over time, he said, because people will call exterminators to kill off the ones who sting them. That leaves behind more docile ones that would then produce more, he said.


And the bees have come to the city, why?
Hoping to make it big in the movies?
Because everyone leaves a bowl of sugar water on their windowsill?

The city is as much as 10 degrees hotter when the sun is out. A few people have lawns, but flowering plants that produce nectar are usually even rarer than flowering desert plants. Since March my bees (out in the desert) have been busily working Creosote bush for orange colored pollen and enough nectar to keep them going, even a fairly good build-up. The Mesquite is just beginning to form buds, but they progress quickly and will be blooming soon. As soon as the Mesquite starts their will be so much nectar --- that flow is amazing.

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Joseph Clemens
Beekeeping since 1964
10+ years in Tucson, Arizona
12+ hives and 15+ nucs
No chemicals -- no treatments of any kind, EVER.

Offline Finsky

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Recent article about AHB
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2006, 05:35:52 am »
Beekeeping has huge amount of stories .....

My opinion is that bee attach only when it defends it's hive. Otherwise it escapes when it is disturbed.